During Google IO on May 14, 2024, Google presented the main evolutions of its search engine: Google AI Overviews with Gemini. This new interface, launched after the Beta test of SGE we previously mentioned, is already available in the USA but not yet in Europe. The 2024 edition of the Google IO conference highlighted major updates to Gemini and a radical transformation of the Google search engine and SEO. As usual, such announcements worry website owners and creators, who wonder if these new rules will penalise them or not.
Google AI Overviews: A New Era of AI-Powered Online Search
The grand event of Google IO 2024 announced a global overhaul of the world’s most used search engine. After a year of testing, Google is finally extending the AI Overviews feature, formerly known as SGE, powered by Gemini AI, to all American users. This technology revolutionises the presentation of search results by summarising them in clickable text or boxes. By integrating this technology, Google fundamentally transforms its search engine, offering smart and organised summaries. These include interactive maps, suggestions, and selections of relevant elements related to the search, such as Google Maps or YouTube.
What Does AI Overviews Offer?
Going beyond simple information search, Google aims to push the boundaries of what a search engine can traditionally offer. Thanks to Gemini, Google Search can now perform complex tasks such as meal and travel planning. Users can request detailed recommendations, and then easily customise and export these plans. By using generative AI, Google dynamically reorganises search result pages. Content is now grouped under unique titles based on the relevance (and nature) of the information. Based on user habits, the search engine facilitates exploration, with suggestions for new restaurants, movies, or travel destinations.
Additionally, Google integrates visual search through videos, allowing users to show a technical problem to solve and get detailed instructions for fixing it. For now, the search engine overhaul is only available in the United States. During Google IO 2024, Google announced that its global rollout is imminent. The American company expects more than a billion users by the end of the year.
The Impact of Google GEMINI on SEO – 5 Key Points:
To effectively integrate the Google Gemini algorithm into your brand content strategy, here are the 5 essential points:
1. Answering a question on the SERP by summarising results
Like ChatGPT, Google’s AI will aggregate useful information to answer user questions.
Technical & semantic SEO impact: Help Google interpret the informational content published on your website. Nothing new:
- Have a clean website, follow best technical practices in the code, especially structured data.
- Provide quality content on the topic: be recognised in the field, provide data if necessary, cite quality sources, create author profiles, and get links from trusted websites to enhance credibility.
2. Gemini will be able to answer complex questions, including those with a commercial impact.
The idea is to answer questions by integrating commercial offers from a point of sale: for example, a car dealership.
SEO impact for sales pages + Google My Business: Google will seek the necessary information to answer user queries. The two levers you control are your website pages and GMB profiles. Be generous with these two levers and provide clear and interesting information to promote your services. Example Google USA for an informational query:
Example same query on Google.co.uk (not deployed):
Example Google USA for a transactional query: no change from current SERPs:
3. Planning capabilities
Meal and travel planning: Users can ask Google to create detailed plans for meals or vacations, with customisation options. These plans can be easily exported to Google Docs or Gmail. Future extensions: Planning will extend to other categories like parties, dates, and fitness sessions.
SEO impact for related pages on the website + Google My Business: Google will seek the necessary information to answer user queries. The two lead generation levers you control are your website pages and GMB profiles. If you are affected, you need to have well-written and clear pages with structured data to help Google understand your content.
4. AI-organised result pages
Search for inspiration: Google Search can organise results under AI-generated titles, grouping various perspectives and types of content. This feature will start with food and recipe searches, before expanding to other areas like movies, music, books, hotels, and shopping.
SEO impact: Google confirms a trend known for several years, that of diversifying SERP results. The era of the top 10 showing the same type of page 10 times is over.
5. Search with videos
Video understanding: Thanks to Google’s advances in video format understanding, it will be possible to ask questions based on videos. For example, you film yourself tying a tie, and Google will provide a tutorial to help you tie the perfect knot.
SEO impact: Video is becoming increasingly important to Google, and YouTube is the main lever used. Therefore, you should incorporate this medium into your editorial strategy and provide video content to help users.
Summary of Google update impact
From a Search perspective, the rules remain the same:
1. Have a clean website, easily understandable by Google crawlers.
2. Provide high-value text content incorporating rich formats: infographics, videos, tutorials, etc. All the levers of content marketing.
3. Develop your website’s notoriety: by showcasing your expertise (author profiles, lots of content on a specific theme) and receiving citations from websites considered reliable by Google (e.g. media websites).
Initial Results from the US
Since the beta version of AI Overviews (SGE) was launched on a test panel, experts have been making predictions to anticipate SEO impacts. Will the mere relevance of content or website structure still be current when embedded AI generates the first results offered by the search engine? Tests conducted in the United States currently suggest an audience loss ranging from 18% to 65%, depending on the scenarios. Note that this statistic comes from a study by Search Engine Land, focusing on a limited selection of keywords and exclusively examining CTR (click-through rates).
Finally, remember that US and UK SERPs (search engine results) are very different, particularly regarding e-commerce websites. We will have to wait for the global rollout to draw all SEO conclusions and adapt strategies. We can also expect Google’s version deployed in Europe to differ to comply with regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), ePrivacy, DMA (Digital Markets Act), and AI Act.
Project Astra: The Future of AI Assistants by DeepMind
How to respond to OpenAI and its impressive ChatGPT-4o, the latest renowned and versatile LLM? During Google IO, Google unveiled an ambitious project named ‘Astra,’ presented as ‘the future of AI assistants’. This is the major announcement of the tech giant’s grand event. Developed by Google DeepMind (a company specialising in AI), Astra is an intelligent and multimodal audio assistant, similar to ChatGPT’s Voice Mode. It can quickly understand a live video via an integrated app directly on the phone. With reduced latency, Astra answers questions quickly and accurately, demonstrating a deep understanding of the world around it.
DeepMind designed Astra as a universal intelligent assistant. Although no official release date has been announced, Google plans to gradually deploy Astra features in its Gemini assistant on Android. Simultaneously, a test is underway for the potential integration of Astra in the latest versions of Google Glass.
The Gemini Versions That Will Revolutionise Online Search
During the Google IO 2024 event, Mountain View highlighted Gemini and its revolutionary evolutions. No less than three new versions of Gemini AI were unveiled, promising to transform our interaction with technology.
Gemini 1.5 Flash: A Lighter and Faster Version
Google unveiled Gemini 1.5 Flash, a lighter and faster version of its AI tool. Announced last December, this new iteration offers a lighter alternative to the Pro version, while being more efficient in areas such as document synthesis or data extraction. Mainly intended for businesses, which can use it as an interface, this version aims to offer a more cost-effective solution while maintaining optimal performance.
Gemini 1.5 Pro: A Powerful and More Efficient Model
Google’s flagship reaches a new level of efficiency. ‘The 1.5 Pro version is now capable of following increasingly complex and nuanced instructions,’ says Google, which has enhanced its capabilities with audio and image understanding. This evolution brings Gemini 1.5 Pro closer to the latest versions of ChatGPT, although it is still a bit early to determine the leader. As an example, Google mentions the tool’s ability to analyse contracts, allowing users to ask the machine questions for a deeper understanding through machine learning.
Gemini Nano: Powerful on Smartphones, Privacy-Respecting
Optimised for smartphone use, Gemini Nano embodies privacy respect. This version will be integrated into the brand-new Android 15 operating system. Offering many features, it allows, among other things, image generation as well as video and PDF synthesis. A striking example of Gemini Nano’s efficiency is its ability to analyse calls and warn users of potential scams.
Veo: Google’s new video generation tool
Veo, Google’s new model, positions itself as a direct response to OpenAI’s Sora. Capable of generating 1080P HD videos from a simple prompt, Veo stands out for its fine understanding of natural language, producing very precise elements, ideal for film production. Currently being tested by some videographers, Veo should see some of its features integrated into YouTube Shorts.
Simultaneously, Google also announced new versions of its other creative generators: Imagen for images and Lyria for music. These tools promise to further expand the possibilities offered by AI in digital creation.
Android 15: Google’s New Update Revealed
You may have noticed, artificial intelligence took centre stage at the event, even overshadowing the highly anticipated Android 15 update. Officially unveiled on May 15 during Google IO, Android 15 will be rolled out on the first compatible smartphones this summer and pre-installed on all new devices starting this fall. Available in beta for compatible smartphones, Android 15 brings innovative features. Among them, Private Space for a secret life, the ability to link two apps to open simultaneously, and enhanced protection against theft and scams.
Conclusion: Google IO 2024
As expected, Google is betting big on AI, and the numerous announcements and innovations proposed during the Google IO conference confirm this. While the more cautious in terms of artificial intelligence may fear an ‘all-AI’ approach aimed solely at keeping the Californian company in the race, only time will tell if the upcoming features are worth it. In any case, so many new features are certainly not unwelcome and only present new challenges for the coming months and years that we will eagerly take on! Stay tuned!
