Yesterday, Monday, February 6, Google shared a message on behalf of CEO Sundar Pichai himself. The news? Google will soon begin rolling out their own chatbot: Google Bard. This comes just a day after screenshots were leaked of a ChatGPT integration in Microsoft’s search engine Bing. The AI battle between the two tech giants means a major change in our way of searching for information and thus also SEO. In the coming period, our SEO specialists will keep you informed of all the ins and outs.
What do we already know about Google Bard?
Google Bard is based on Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) software. LaMDA supports more types of conversations than other chatbots because the bot is not tied to a specific database of answers. This allows the bot to continue following the user if a conversation takes a different turn.
A bit of background on LaMDA
LaMDA is trained and developed with real dialogues as examples, so the bot not only looks for an answer that keeps the conversation going but also takes into account various nuances that occur in a real conversation. The main factors in forming an answer are as follows:
- Sensible – Does the answer match the input?
- Specific – Is the answer tailored to the input?
- Factual – Is the answer correct?
- Interesting – Is the answer interesting?
In their earlier post about LaMDA, Google already indicated that they like to release factually correct and unbiased information. They also point out how difficult it is to ensure that an AI does not adopt hateful traits from the input it receives and that they are doing everything they can to prevent this.
“Google seems to mainly want Bard to remain factual and impartial.”
This is an interesting standpoint, given that OpenAI clearly states when opening a new chat in ChatGPT that a pitfall of the bot is that it can generate misleading, harmful, and biased output. It is also clearly stated in ChatGPT that the information the bot provides may be incorrect.
Another pitfall of ChatGPT is that this chatbot has no information about the world after September 2021. However, Google Bard is connected to the internet and therefore has information about the world in real-time. This gives Google a significant advantage over ChatGPT, as you get the most recent information in your search.
How is Google Bard used in the search engine?
As far as we can see now, Google Bard will provide a summary answer to specific user questions. Bard takes multiple sources into account to provide the user with an answer that highlights multiple perspectives.
An answer from Bard is built from different sources, which the user can then directly consult. This shows a significant difference from ChatGPT, where the sources of the answers cannot be traced.
What Google Bard removes with this is the need to browse through various sources to come to a well-founded conclusion. As a result, less time will need to be spent browsing, and you can then immediately search more specifically. This aligns with the trend that Google has been continuing for some time, where more and more answers are made available directly on the SERP (the zero-click results).
What does Google Bard mean for SEO?
Google Bard will most likely result in less traffic to informational pages on your website. After all, Bard already provides that information directly to the user.
However, this does not mean that these pages will no longer be important for your visibility. If Google Bard uses your pages for its answers and users can see this in the citation, you will position yourself as a reliable specialist in your field.
After the informational search query, the user can then immediately search for the product or service they want. They can then immediately include your brand name: after all, you provided them with the answer they were looking for via Bard.
What Google Bard’s introduction will further do to the search landscape is too early to say. Google is holding a livestream from Paris on February 8, where they will hopefully share more information about Search and AI. We will, of course, keep you informed of the official announcements after this livestream.
Do you have questions about what this means for your business or do you want to brainstorm with an SEO consultant now?
Feel free to contact us!
What’s Next?
More news will follow on February 8. You can watch the update live during the YouTube livestream.
