With the constant media buzz leading up to the presidential election on November 5, you could be keen to join the conversation and delve into political topics on your website. You may be eager to get involved in the media hype leading up to the presidential elections on November 5. You could also want to explore political topics on your site. However, on top of sparking heated discussion among your audience or changing the way customers perceive your brand’s values, discussing politics on your website could impact your search rankings too.
Politics on your website can have a negative impact on your search ranking. It could spark heated debate among your audience, or change the way your customers perceive your brand. In particular, whether your content appears in Google’s AI Overviews or not. Google’s AI Overviews, in particular, will determine whether or not your content appears. With Google’s search volatility continuing to cause unstable rankings, bringing up political topics in your content, then, could be a risky move.
Google’s search volatility continues to cause rankings to be unstable. Bringing up political topics could therefore be a risky decision. This revelation stems from a recent study from SE Ranking. A recent study by SE Ranking revealed this. The SEO platform tracked 1,200 keywords for popular YMYL topics to see how they impacted Google’s AI Overview results – and politics was one of them. The SEO platform tracked 1200 keywords for popular YMYL subjects to see how they impacted Google AI Overview results – politics was one of them.
What Is YMYL Content?
What is YMYL content? Google introduced the YMYL (“Your Money or Your Life”) category in 2014, using it to refer to niches that could impact a person’s quality of life, like finance, health and fitness, or news and current events. Google introduced the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) category in 2014. It was used to refer to niches which could impact a person’s quality of living, such as finance, health and fitness or news and current affairs.
According to Google’s Search Quality Evaluator guidelines, the company has higher standards for YMYL content, with inaccurate or untrustworthy information having the potential to:
“[…] impact people’s health, financial stability, or safety, or the welfare or well-being of society.”
“[…] impact the health, financial stability or safety of people, or on the welfare or well-being or society.”
What Did SE Ranking’s Study Find?
What did SE Ranking’s study find? Based on the keywords tracked, here’s what SE Ranking discovered about political content and AI Overviews:
| Finding | Description |
|---|---|
| Trigger Rate | Political keywords triggered 16.67% of YMYL AI Overviews, which is the lowest trigger rate out of all the niches mentioned. |
| Sources Featured | 76% of political AI Overviews featured between six to nine sources from the top 20 organic search results. This tells us that the overviews tend to favor high-ranking pages. |
| Election-Related Words | No AI Overviews were triggered for words directly related to the presidential election – such as “presidential,” “president,” “electoral” or “election”. |
| Top Linked Websites | The top linked website for political AI Overviews was Wikipedia followed by official websites like state.gov and dhs.gov – all online resources that searchers often use to find specific information online. |
| Informative Queries | Most AI Overviews responses were triggered by informative queries that feature phrases like “what is,” “what are,” and “how does”. |
From these findings, it’s clear that Google is more likely to trigger an AI Overview for informative keywords used to find definitions or clear-cut answers to a question. These findings show that Google is more likely than not to display an AI Overview when you use informative keywords to find answers or definitions to a query. This might include queries like “how does the American government work?” or “what are my rights as an American citizen?” In this case, Google isn’t necessarily against political content on websites, so long as it is purely informative and backed by facts.
In this case, Google doesn’t necessarily oppose political content on websites as long as it is purely informative and backed up by facts. That said, with AI Overviews remaining untriggered for words like “election” or “presidential”, there is still a certain type of political content that Google’s algorithm might penalize on search. Google’s search algorithm may penalize certain types of political content, even though AI Overviews are not triggered by words like “election” and “presidential”. If content could be viewed as heavily opinionated, speculative, or biased, it likely won’t trigger an AI Overview, which allows Google to maintain a neutral approach to the topic.
If the content is viewed as biased, speculative or opinionated, it will not trigger an AI Overview. This allows Google to remain neutral. In fact, in a blog post concerning its actions in the lead up to the 2024 presidential election, Google stated:
“We’re also focused on taking a principled and responsible approach to introducing generative AI products – including Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Bard – where we’ve prioritized testing for safety risks ranging from cybersecurity vulnerabilities to misinformation and fairness.”
“We are also focused on taking an ethical and responsible approach when introducing generative AI – including Search Generative Experience and Bard. We have prioritized testing to identify safety risks, ranging from cyber vulnerabilities to misinformation. Beginning early next year, in preparation for the 2024 elections and out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we’ll restrict the types of election-related queries for which Bard and SGE will return responses.”
So, though Google doesn’t hate political content that’s related to informative queries, the company is wary of pages that could potentially mislead American voters or are solely created to sway public opinion towards a specific political party.
Can I Talk About Politics on My Website Then?
If you want to have political content on your website, you can, but there are some key considerations you need to keep in mind to protect your website’s reputation and performance in search rankings. You can have political content on a website. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind in order to protect the reputation of your website and its performance in search engine rankings.
Because Google is more likely to showcase AI Overviews for informative queries, ensure that any political claims you make are backed by accurate information. Google will more often display AI Overviews when you ask for informational queries. Therefore, make sure that any political claims are backed up by accurate data. You can boost your website’s authority by getting backlinks from reputable websites, while building and strengthening trust with your readers by citing credible sources. By obtaining backlinks from reputable sites, you can increase the authority of your website. You can also build trust with your readers through citing credible sources.
Additionally, if you want political content to rank, conduct keyword research beforehand and make sure that you’ve thought about the kinds of queries Google users will be looking for. If you want your political content to rank well, you should also do keyword research and think about the types of queries that Google users are likely to be searching for. Since we’ve learned that informative queries beginning with terms like “what is” were more visible in AI Overviews, this is a brilliant place to start. We’ve discovered that queries with terms such as “what is” are more visible in AI Overviews. This is a great place to start.
Of course, you may still have a burning desire to create more opinionated content regarding your political standings. You may still feel the need to express your political views in more detail. Though I can’t decide for you whether this is the right course of action for your website and its target audience, remember that your rankings (especially in AI Overviews) could be impacted due to Google’s approach to YMYL content. Although I can’t decide whether this is the best course of action for your site and its audience, keep in mind that Google’s approach towards YMYL could impact your rankings.