Build Helpful Hobby Websites Using AI and Real Human Experience
“First-hand experiments examining how Google AI Mode answers questions, uses citations, handles follow-up prompts and combines information from multiple sources.
These articles record the queries, results and evidence before exploring what they reveal for website owners, content creators and everyday search users.”
Website owners have traditionally tested Google’s understanding of their content by searching for keywords and seeing whether their pages appeared. If you published an article about choosing a domain name, you might search for: how to choose a domain name for a hobby website Finding your page would show that Google considered it relevant to … Read more
Seeing your website receive more impressions in Google Search Console usually feels like progress. An impression means that one of your pages has appeared somewhere in Google’s search results. Even if nobody clicks immediately, rising impressions can suggest that Google is discovering more of your content and beginning to test it for different searches. That … Read more
AI Mode can gather information from many webpages and combine it into a useful answer. But what happens when it moves beyond summarising those sources and begins diagnosing a problem, ranking possible causes or deciding what someone should do first? That question matters to hobby website builders. If AI can answer every hobby question by … Read more
I recently needed to have a double-bed mattress topper washed. It was too large for my domestic washing machine, so I searched online for a nearby launderette. I found one reasonably close to me and visited its website. At first, everything looked promising. The website said the launderette was open from 8am until 8pm, seven … Read more
Google AI Mode can do something traditional search results could not do nearly as well. It can take a complicated real-world problem, break it into smaller questions, gather information from several sources and assemble the pieces into what appears to be one complete solution. That is the clever part. But a series of experiments on … Read more
In an earlier experiment, Google AI Mode recommended a true-crime book as a birthday present, identified nearby Birmingham bookshops and confidently suggested that I could collect the perfect book. The problem was that it had not confirmed whether any recommended title was actually in stock. That raised a broader question: Was AI Mode mainly struggling … Read more
Google AI Mode can do far more than answer a simple factual question. It can interpret preferences, search across different topics, combine local information and present what appears to be a complete solution. But does it always verify the final detail that makes the solution usable? I ran a simple test involving a birthday present … Read more
I began with a simple question about very specific searches. If someone gives Google AI Mode an unusually detailed problem, will it find and cite a webpage that closely matches the whole situation? For example, imagine someone standing at Glasgow Central Station on a Saturday afternoon. They have a fresh chocolate stain on a cotton … Read more
Many searches are no longer simple questions with single answers. Someone planning a trip may need information about transport, accommodation, journey times, costs and activities. Their personal circumstances introduce further questions. A trip with a dog creates different information needs from a trip with young children. Travelling with an older relative who has limited mobility … Read more
I was watching an international cricket match on television when something caught my attention. Virat Kohli had VIRAT printed across the back of his India shirt. That led me to ask Google AI Mode about Indian naming conventions and why some cricketers appeared to use their first names while others used their surnames. What followed … Read more