Google is Adding AI to its Search Tool. Is Your Real Estate Website Ready?
If it feels like the whole Artificial Intelligence (AI) thing is taking off without you, you’re not alone.
“Nobody is asking whether AI is moving fast enough, and …, it’s certainly not behind the times,” suggests Jon Arnold, Principal of J Arnold & Associates.
He goes on to say “If anything, the times are now trying to catch up with AI, as its recent evolution has happened faster than our ability to adapt.” (emphasis is mine)
But adapt, we must, especially if we hope to attract clients via our websites.
Google Search is incorporating AI Generative Search.
Let’s look at the Google Search changes and how real estate agents can adapt.
AI Generative Search
Google’s new search not only looks different but it will act differently as well.
The folks at Google say that the new search “… uses generative AI to give you more information and context to your searches.”
What is Generative AI? “Generative AI focuses on creating new and original content, chat responses, designs, synthetic data or even deepfakes,” according to George Lawton, a London journalist who has studied the topic.
For the general public, Generative AI search differs from a normal Google search in that it won’t give the user a list of links.
Instead, Search Generative Experience (or SGE, Google’s name for the service) “… uses AI to answer your questions right on the Google Search webpage,” says Imad Kahn at cnet.com.
“After entering a query in Google Search, a green or blue box will expand with a novel answer generated by Google’s large language model, like the one powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT,” he concludes.
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What Does the Average Real Estate Agent Need to Know?
One of the biggest impacts that SGE will have on agents is in regard to SEO for their websites.
While still in development, early users of Google’s SGE claim that it may obliterate SEO efforts by reducing “… visibility for organic search results.” (yoast.com)
How? By placing the “…. AI-generated overviews at the top of search results, users may find the need to click significantly reduced..”
Agents who depend on their websites to generate a significant number of leads will need to make appearing in the “…AI-generated snapshot” their priority.
Parthi Loganathan, CEO of Letterdrop and formerly with Google Search’s product management team suggests that we “… focus on providing new and valuable information, improve readability, and encourage others to cover your product.”
He goes on to claim that “Opinionated content with a clear perspective is becoming more important as AI-generated answers answer simple questions with factual answers.”
Again, SGE is still in development but it’s only a matter of time until it becomes the norm when using Google’s search engine.
Do the research to understand exactly how your content can be included in that soon-to-be coveted AI-generated snapshot box at the top of the search results.
We’ll keep you posted as to SGE’s progress.
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