You, me and SGE: How to win page by page with Google’s new Search Generative Experience

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You, me and SGE: How to win page by page with Google’s new Search Generative Experience

The Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are changing rapidly, becoming more visual by the day and resembling our social feeds more closely. Our definition of ‘content’ continues to evolve as it becomes multi-channel and multi-format.  

In the past 18 months Google has introduced its Helpful Content Update and Page Experience update, emphasiszing the importance of quality content aligned to intent and a positive user experience. It feels like these updates have been paving the way for the newly introduced, industry-changing Search Generative Experience (SGE) that Google is rolling out globally.  

Although still part mystery, with the introduction of SGE we expect the SERPs to become much more varied in the formats and sources it’s ranking. We can expect to see less of the traditional 10 blue links, and more AI-generated answers, UGC and ultra-long-tail queries.

What does this mean? It means it’s more important than ever to ensure our websites provide the best answer on the Internet for that search query. Part of our solution to this is the Perfect Page, and we want to ensure that our clients know what this is and how we can implement it for them.

In its simplest form, the Perfect Page is designed to meet the needs of users, search engines and businesses across website pages. 

Too often we only measure the success of our onsite content through keyword rankings and traffic, and can neglect how our clients’ audiences are interacting with that page once it’s live. We have designed a clear process which identifies demand, tests user behaviour and implements recommendations for our clients. This robust approach follows 13 core steps to design and test our Perfect Page. 

This product highlights how combining the expertise of our dentsu digital Experience team and Total Search team together, supports our clients to deliver great performance. This approach is rooted in user experience while adhering to SEO best practice in order to meet the intent behind a query as best as we can. The combination of both allows the user to find the information or product they need as easily as possible while giving a premium website experience. It’s a concept that can be applied to editorial, commercial or navigational pages on a client’s site.   

Spotlight on Lloyds Pharmacy

We recently designed a Perfect Page template for Lloyds Pharmacy Online Doctor. We have already driven strong performance through our editorial content strategy, but we wanted to take that to the next level by combining SEO, UX, social & PR to optimise for Helpful Content and SGE and create the best page on the Internet for those terms. 

We recommended the above approach to fix the following issues highlighted in our analysis, our insights and recommendations based on our Perfect Page approach are outlined below:

'Lifestyle' imagery

Although contraception is a very personal purchase, the page had a clinical feel and lacked personalisation. Lack of imagery and symptom-specific information made the page feel overly transactional in intent rather than informational. 

Perfect Page Recommendation

We included more ‘lifestyle’ imagery to make the page feel more personal. To make the page more visual and engaging to the user, we added an icon key to the drop-down list to make it as easy as possible for the user to find the best option for them. 

Keyword Research

The reasons someone might start taking contraception or change their contraception can vary hugely. Through our performance analysis we could see there was a gap in our rankings for more specific long-tail queries. 

Perfect Page Recommendation

We conducted keyword research into the symptoms people are looking to relieve with contraception (for example, ‘contraception for acne’, ‘contraception for endometriosis’) and expanded the product filter list with icons based on the most-searched terms. 

Expert Commentary

Despite having a panel of internal experts, the clinic page lacked the Experience and Expertise users (and search engines) are looking for. This is particularly important for Your Money Your Life websites (finance and health). 

Perfect Page Recommendation

We threaded expert commentary into the page from their sexual health specialist and included an authorship review process to demonstrate those all-important Experience & Expertise pillars of EEAT. 

Digestible Information

The consultation and order process was unclear, which was shown by a lack of user engagement through our heat mapping.

Perfect Page Recommendation

Rewriting and redesigning the process component, with numbered bullet points, ad copy-style captions rather than statements, and clearer icons for each step. 

Results

We tested two designs with Lloyds Pharmacy, and V1 above was our winner. The new page design has resulted in a conclusive 44% uplift on progression to consultation across all devices. We also saw a 2% conclusive uplift on PDP load. 

What to consider when crafting the Perfect Page

User Intent: Consider the user intent behind the page. Is it more transactional, navigational or informational in nature? This should underpin your overall approach to the page.

Competitors: Look at who is ranking in positions 1-3 for your main target keyword. What formats are they using, how long is the page, how have they made the content unique?

SERP Features: What SERP features are your target keywords triggering? Whether they’re visual features such as image packs and videos or more informative featured snippets and “People Also Ask” questions, this should inform the components and formats used on the page.

 Page Structure: Is the structure of the page user-friendly? The page might need to be long-form in order to capture all the relevant queries and formats. What’s important is to make it as easy as possible for the user to find the information they’re looking for. This might mean displaying product comparisons in tables rather than in sentences, condensing long-tail queries into accordions, or implementing jump links on the page to ensure the user can find their answer as easily as possible – rather than bouncing off the page.

EEAT (Expertise – Experience – Authority – Trust) and Helpful Content: Is the page adhering to Google’s EEAT and Helpful Content guidelines? Start by asking yourself “is this page genuinely helpful for the user? What would make it even more useful?” You can then start examining the different pillars of EEAT to ensure that as well as meeting user intent, the page is sending strong quality signals.

Want to learn more? Contact Merkle team!

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