It looks like Google’s SGE is here to stay as the company is testing new ways how this artificial intelligence or AI-powered search engine looks. Spotted by X user Glenn Gabe, SGE now looks lighter, with fewer colors and with a show more button.

“SGE doesn’t trigger a large block by default anymore… it’s now much smaller with a large ‘Show more’ button,” said Gabe in his post.

This minimalist design starkly contrasts with Google’s updates in previous months, which seek to add more features. Here are some SGE updates that we’ve previously covered in SEOBlog:

• Business Profile Data: Google added business videos and photos from its vast 200 million-sized database to add more flair to its AI-generated results instead of just a block of text.
• Local Stores With Stock: This feature will show you nearby stores with the product you searched for in their inventory.
• Citation Links: Google SGE’s summaries now display clickable source links to increase web publishers’ traffic.
• SGE for Learning: This update allows you to digest more information as you browse the web to research and learn how to code.

But this lighter design doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on these features. They’re still there, but with a new look – if ever it gets out of the testing phase.

Whichever looks better is a matter of preference, though. The “SGE Lite,” as Gabe calls it, blends well with the rest of the search engine results page (SERP). On the other hand, the much more colorful original version stands out, giving life to the otherwise dull page of 10 blue links we’re all accustomed to.

Despite these cosmetic and technical enhancements, we’re yet to see a solid plan to monetize SGE from Google – how will ads look with SGE taking up a bulk of space in the SERPs? Will ranking systems reward publishers with great content through SGE as well? How exactly will ranking work in this new chapter of Google?

We’re yet to see concrete answers to these questions as Google tests out and identifies the funk and nitty-gritty of SGE.

Here’s the link to the full discussion on X.

More SEO News You Can Use

Keyword Forecasting is Now Gone From Google Keyword Planner: You’ll have to say goodbye to individual and ad group keyword forecasting, according to an X thread with Google Ads Liaison and X user Ben Goldman. Goldman asked if “something changed with the keyword planner” and if this was just a bug. However, the Ads Liaison revealed that they no longer maintain the individual and ad group forecast systems. The reason behind this is the low usage of these features. But if you’re using “campaign-level forecasts & historical keyword-level data,” you should still see them on your Keyword Planner. For more information about how Keyword Planner works, read this article from Google. You can also read the whole X discussion here.

SGE Gets VIP Treatment for Robots.txt: We recently covered the release of Google-Extended and how it gives web publishers more control over how their content is scraped by Google’s AI-powered service, Bard and Vertex AI. But if you’re wondering if this stops Google’s SGE from accessing your content, the answer is no. In an X thread discussion, user Glenn Gabe pointed out that websites that blocked Google-Extended in their robots.txt file still appear in SGE’s summaries. This was confirmed by Search Engine Land in its article, citing a Google spokesperson who explained that SGE “is built into Search, not bolted on, and integral to how Search functions.” This means that Google can still access your content, not to train their AI ****** but to serve relevant search results to users. It’s important to note that Google did not include SGE in its list of services that would use Google-Extended to crawl content – it only listed “Bard and Vertex AI generative APIs, including future generations of ****** that power those products.” If you want to block SGE from accessing your content, then Google recommends you block Googlebot and use the NOINDEX meta tag. Dive deeper into this story with Search Engine Land.

Study Reveals Google Search FAQ-Rich Results Went Down Badly: It’s getting harder to earn a spot in Google’s FAQ-rich results, according to a recently published study by Portent. “The number of FAQs shown in SERPs has also decreased from 53.94 percent to 17.04 percent,” said Portent. They also revealed that 82.96% of websites no longer land on FAQ-rich search results. So, should you continue doing FAQ schema? Portent says yes. “While it’s significantly less likely that you’ll earn an FAQ result, it’s still possible to receive them,” said Portent. They also pointed out that Google could change its mind a few months from now, so it won’t hurt if you still have an FAQ schema markup across your website. You can read the full report from Portent here.

Another AI-Powered Meta Advertising Tool Launched: To help ease creative fatigue, Meta launched three new AI-powered tools to help advertisers produce more content that is customizable to their brand on October 4, 2023. The tools include the following: (1) Background generation: create multiple background variations for your product images that you can use in multiple types of audiences; (2) Image expansion: Adjust the ratios of your images to fit “multiple surfaces, like Feed or Reels,” easing repurposed content production and (3) Text variations: Create several text versions for your ad copy so you have more options to “better reach [your] audience.” Meta received positive feedback from its advertisers on the use of generative AI. The two primary responses were that it saves time and reduces creative fatigue. This is why Meta has begun rolling out these features for mainstream advertising use. Read the full story from Meta here.

Reddit Boosts Its Learning Hub With New Courses: It’s not only Meta who’s upping its advertising game this week – micro-blogging platform Reddit has upgraded its advertiser enablement with its new “Boost 2.0 Certification Program.” Injected into its existing Reddit Ads Formula program, Boost 2.0 introduces several new modules to help advertisers “elevate their campaigns to be more strategic and impactful,” said Harold Kaje, Reddit’s Chief Revenue Officer. These new modules focus on measurement on Reddit, Auction fundamentals, performance optimization, creative techniques, finding relevant audiences and winning strategies for “creatives and messaging.” Read the full announcement from Reddit’s blog post.

Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop-shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.