The launch of Search Generative Experience (SGE) will change Google’s SERPs, that’s pretty much indisputable. Whether AI will dominate the SERPs entirely is up for debate.
If you’ve been reading some of Google’s strategic advice, you know that there’s an alternative that makes it clear that Google will still respect its own perspectives and EEAT-rich content. I’m talking about “hidden gems”.
This article examines what hidden gems are, how we know Google is committed to them as part of their future SERP strategy, and your options for populating the SERPs with hidden gems that generate positive exposure for your brand.
First of all, what are hidden gems?
As Barry Schwartz explained on this site last November, hidden gems are when people share their first-hand knowledge and their own personal insights and experiences with others on the public web.
As Schwartz mentioned:
“This update is not part of the useful content system. It is part of Google’s core ranking system,” Brad Kellett, senior director of product and engineering at Google Search, told us.
Platforms that offer hidden gems include forums like Quora, Reddit, and others (more on those “others” in a bit) and social media platforms. And Google isn’t kidding about using hidden gems to rank. Check out this SERP example:
Can we trust Google’s commitment to hidden gems?
If hidden gems aren’t something Google will focus on long-term, they’re putting a lot of resources into a red herring. Consider:
Debates and forums
Launched in September 2022, this feature was one of Google’s first statements that it is focusing on first-hand accounts and insights. When it launched, it was a search feature (like a featured snippet) meant to promote external content.
The Perspectives filter
Launched in May 2023, Perspectives was explicitly launched by Google as a counterpoint to AI. Directly from Google:
“[A]As we transform search with new AI-powered capabilities, we’re not only continuing to focus on providing fast insights, but also connecting you with the people and perspectives that will help you understand what’s best for you.
November 2023 updates
This round of algorithm updates aimed at hidden gems promised “even more first-hand knowledge on the hunt.” Another thing to note about these updates: they include ways to mark up your content with an author profile, structured data, etc., which seem to be geared toward helping you rank for hidden gems.
If you want real, numerical proof that Google takes first-hand insights seriously, take a look this report from Detailedwhich shows that:
“In an analysis of 10,000 key phrases for which product reviews rank well, Google’s increasingly prominent ‘Discussions and Forums’ SERP feature was present in 7,702 of them.”
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So how do you take advantage of the hidden gems?
I think a hidden gem ranking strategy has two options: own content and third party content.
Own content for hidden gems
There are a few ways to optimize your website for hidden gems. The first and certainly the most common is a blog.
Blog posts can qualify as hidden gems if you focus on content with first-person experience and make sure the voices delivering that experience are well-developed, with strong structured data that establishes their identity and expertise.
You can even write collective blog posts with tons of voices, which is a breeze if you’ve already built an avid community ready and willing to contribute to your platform.
Another less frequently used strategy: Create a forum or Q&A community for your site.
One of the darlings of the San Francisco tech community, Sentry, has built one Community questions and answers which achieves this purpose. Another platform, Webflow, created one popular developer forum.
Third party content for hidden gems
Writing content on Quora or Reddit to build brand awareness is a bit tricky – being too markety won’t work on these platforms, but there are ways to work more authentically to make your business stand out.
One way is to generate questions or provide answers that highlight your business, but again, not in a marketing-heavy way. One option I’ve seen work is getting community voices connected to your brand to participate.
For example, ask a question on LinkedIn and let your network weigh in. (If you’re a web development platform, a question about the challenges emerging for developers in 2024 might get some insightful answers.)
Another way is to bet on personal branding: enter your favorite forum and be an expert in your area of expertise. This is a long-term work where the first steps are:
Find your audience. Then build credibility and influence by staying active, helpful, and insightful.
It’s also important to remember that it’s not your own traffic and won’t show up in your metrics (beyond clicks generated by referrals, leads, etc.). Finally, there will be ways to mention your company and/or ask questions that can reflect well on your company.
Both personal branding and proprietary approaches have one thing in common (beyond being long-term strategies): done well, they build highly effective moats that can be nearly impossible for competitors to break through.
Using hidden gems for SEO is a long-term strategy
While quick wins are possible (perhaps you write a great answer on Quora that immediately gets picked up in relevant queries; maybe a first-person blog gets immediate traction), hidden gems should be an important part of your marketing strategy. Long-term SEO. .
While we’re all watching the rollout of SGE and its impact on SERPs, any groundwork you can do now to create a hidden gem strategy will pay off in the long run, at least if you believe what Google has been telling us. . .
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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