Another Interview With Google’s Search Liaison

Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, has been interviewed again – this time by Alyeda Solis. It is pretty similar to my interview with Google’s Search Liason, but this one is recorded and available for everyone to watch.

It is about 45 minutes long, but I know one of the things people really wanted from my interview was it to be recorded. It was not, I wanted it to be, but it was not. So now you have this one, recorded, so you can see it all.

Here is the video of the interview:

Here are my sloppy notes:

• Big brands aren’t getting a boost
• But there is a sense that this is happening
• Google doesn’t want only big brands to rank well and Google is doing things for smaller sites
• The core is about having the most useful, helpful and relevant information
• Overall, things are going well but there are cases where Google can improve on
• Sullivan recommended small businesses that do not have a recognized brand, to work on that. But not because Google has a brand ranking signal but because it might help indirectly.
• Scaled content abuse and how it applies to large and small sites
• Google’s ranking changes can take time, so for Google to improve stuff, it will take time.
• Google needs to make sure the search results are good because if they don’t, people will use Google less.
• UGC; Reddit, Quora, etc and what is up with the visibility Google is giving these players.
• Sullivan gave an example of where UGC content can be amazing and there is value there.
• Google wants to show UGC only when it is relevant and helpful
• But, yes, there are examples of when Google shows UGC content and it is not the best experience.
• Generic content marketing is stuff most people do not want, and content marketers know what that is.
• But yes, there are content creators that are doing great stuff and Google needs to do better with that.
• I am sorry it is taking us longer to get there, Sullivan said.
• Google AI Overviews discussion
• Sullivan doesn’t have a good answer on why AI Overviews don’t show in Search Console outside of it being new and it may change.
• He brings up how SEOs want featured snippets and they will want AI Overviews
• Internally Google calls them AIOs
• Future of Search? He has no idea outside of everything will change and is always changing.
• SEO is not dying. SEO is about helping users access the information you have, no matter what platform.
• Having constructive feedback is useful and he can use it to bring back to the team. But he hears all the feedback and calls out the sites hit by HCU.

Aleyda wrote on X, I had the great opportunity to interview Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan to learn how he sees the Big Brand and UGC Challenges from the latest updates and what Google is doing about them, the state of AI Overviews, how they’re being tested and their future; what to expect next in Search and SEO, and much more! Thanks so much to Danny for his time and openness for the laid back interview! It was a great conversation that gave a more in-depth look at how he and Google see many of the key current SEO challenges, trends and future.”

What are your takes?

Forum discussion at X.