Japanese search marketing expert Kenichi Suzuki has published key insights from the recently concluded Google Search Central Live Tokyo 2023. Joining him was Google Search Team Analyst Gary Illyes, and they answered questions on artificial intelligence (AI), upcoming Google features and the Search Generative Experience.
A highlight of Suzuki’s post was Gary’s answer to a question about how they treat fake experiences generated by AI to comply with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience-Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness).
Gary revealed that Google is having an internal discussion and is currently working on an AI policy to address this issue and, presumably, more.
Here’s the English translation from Suzuki’s post:
Question: What would Google do if an experience (which is important in E-E-A-T) is created by AI even though it is not actually experienced?
Gary: We are internally discussing how to respond. We will announce when we have a policy that can be made public.
Google’s current public stance on AI-generated content was also reiterated during the event.
He echoed that Google ranks your content based on quality rather than how it’s produced. He also said that publishers in Google’s ecosystem only need to explicitly label their content as AI-generated if this information is helpful for the readers.
However, the search analyst warns you should only publish content after vetting its quality through human review.
“Publishing AI-generated content as-is is discouraged. AI does not necessarily write only correct information. It should be published only after human review,” said Illyes.
The same is true with translated content. Even if your content is translated by machine learning, human experts should still vet them. Illyes cited Search Central as an example of this:
“The documents in Search Central are also machine-translated, but they are published after being checked by humans.”
There’s an ongoing debate on how AI should be regulated. In a previous article, we discussed OpenAI’s public stance on the issue: more government regulation and corporate transparency. On the other hand, Google is advocating for more autonomy and self-regulation in the name of innovation. (Read more: Google’s AI Policy Agenda)
Google and other big tech companies like Facebook are also facing stricter government scrutiny, as fears of fake news and disinformation (primarily fueled by geopolitical issues) are growing worldwide.
As AI continues to evolve, so too should our policies governing it. This means that publications and marketers must practice responsible AI use when crafting content, heavily emphasizing human review and quality assurance processes.
While generative AI streamlines content creation, this might come at the cost of quality and search rankings.
At this moment, when Google is yet to release its search policies on AI, it’s best to rely on human expertise, know-how and search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. This is the only risk-free and reliable method to maintain and reinforce your search visibility.
Here’s the full post from Kenichi Suzuki.
More SEO News You Can Use:
Business Profile Data Coming To Search Generative Experience (SGE): Google’s experimental SGE is getting another boost as the search giant brings reviews and photos from Google Business Profiles. In their blog, Google said they “added new capabilities to SGE for local and travel searches.” This means that whenever you search for a place or destination through SGE, the AI-powered Search can fetch videos and photos from its database of “200 million places in the real world.” A Twitter user posted a screenshot of this feature in action, where pictures of an author’s office accompanied her SGE-generated biography via Google Business Profile (GBP). Another user posted snapshots of this feature. This time, he searched for a restaurant called “La Hacienda.” The results included an SGE-generated restaurant description with pictures of their food posted via their GBP reviews. This new feature makes SGE much more useful and fun since you’re not just relying on a block of text when deciding whether you should go to a place. Dive deeper into this story with this Search Engine Roundtable article.
Google Files Lawsuit Against Fake GBP Reviews Marketer: Have you heard of GMBEye and Rafadigital? If you haven’t, Google certainly did. Identified by the search engine giant as one company, these rank and rent marketers are being sued by Google for unethical GBP practices: verification of fake business profiles, posting fake reviews and selling real businesses the leads they gathered from their scheme. Rank and rent is the practice of creating websites and profiles for non-existent companies and then selling the leads gained from these fake businesses to real ones. The scheme was uncovered because the privacy of the Facebook group they were operating from was naively set to “Public.” In their lawsuit statement, Google claims the “Defendants are connected to a network of over 350 fraudulent Business Profiles that involve at least 14,000 fake reviews,” completely bypassing Google’s verification processes. Dubbed by Google as a “consumer protection lawsuit,” this is just one of the many lawsuits that Google has filed against businesses who dare take their terms of service lightly. Check out this Search Engine Journal article for more information.
AdSense Integrates With Google Analytics 4 (GA4): As GA4 comes ever so close this year, Google announced they’re integrating AdSense data into GA4 properties. This means you can now generate reports that comprehensively view your website’s performance, including ad clicks, queries and impressions. To connect AdSense and GA4, you must click Account, head to Access and Authorization, Google Analytics integration and click New Link. From there, select a GA4 property you want to link with AdSense, and you’re good to go. However, you should watch for data discrepancies between your AdSense and Analytics accounts as Google transitions to this new integration. Read Search Engine Journal’s post for more of this update.
Custom <head> Elements Might Break Page Rendering – Expert: If you’re a developer, Google Search Advocate John Mueller discourages you from using custom elements in your document head. In a Twitter discussion, a user asked about the validity of using custom elements in a web page’s <head> section. Mueller replied, “Using custom elements in the <head> likely breaks page rendering in Google Search.” This is because “Google may not recognize them during rendering.” He further suggests that you move all “iffy” elements to the end of the <head> section so they won’t be affected when it gets closed. If you want to ensure the indexability and crawlability of your web page, then you must prioritize standard HTML tags. This helps Google easily understand the structure and content of your website. For more of this story, click this Search Engine Journal post.
Meta Introduces Ads, Tests AI Features for Instagram Reels: Instagram gets its own version of short-form video ads as Meta brings this and another AI-powered feature to the platform. Referred to as Reels Ads, these ads will feel natural and non-intrusive as you scroll through your feed. Think about the ads you experience on TikTok and Facebook. We’ve previously covered a study where Instagram closely trails behind TikTok in terms of audience engagement and views. Obviously, Meta sees revenue potential in their short-form video product, hence, the introduction of Reels Ads. The second feature is using Meta Sound Collection in an advertiser’s creative process. This Collection features high-quality music brands can use to spice up their single-image Reels ads. This is part of Meta’s effort to increase ad engagement within its platform. Dive deeper into this announcement with this article from Search Engine Land.
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.
