Does Google Hate When You Discuss Politics on Your Website?

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.

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.”

Based on the keywords tracked, here’s what SE Ranking discovered about political content and AI Overviews:

• Political keywords triggered 16.67% of YMYL AI Overviews, which is the lowest trigger rate out of all the niches mentioned
• 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
• No AI Overviews were triggered for words directly related to the presidential election – such as “presidential,” “president,” “electoral” or “election”
• 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
• 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. 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.

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. If content could be viewed as heavily opinionated, speculative, or biassed, it likely won’t trigger an AI Overview, which allows Google to maintain a neutral approach to the topic. 

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. 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. 

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.

Because Google is more likely to showcase AI Overviews for informative queries, ensure that any political claims you make are backed by accurate information. 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.

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. 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.

Of course, you may still have a burning desire to create more opinionated content regarding your political standings. 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.