Bard Opens for Early Access: First Look for SEOs

If you have been waiting to try Google’s chatbot, Google Bard early access is now open. On 21 March 2023, Google started letting people in the US and the UK join a waitlist at bard.google.com, with access rolling out in batches. The short answer for SEOs: Bard is a separate tool from Google Search, it rarely links to websites today, and it is not changing your rankings. But it is worth testing now, so you know how it talks about your topics and your brand.

Below I cover what Google actually opened, how to get in, what Bard can and can’t do, how it compares with the new Bing, and the simple tests I’m running as an SEO.

What Google Opened on 21 March

Google first announced Bard on 6 February 2023 and gave it only to a group of trusted testers. I covered that announcement in what an AI chatbot means for Search. Six weeks later, Google has opened a public waitlist.

Here are the main facts from Google’s announcement and the sign-up page:

• Who can join: people in the US and the UK. Google says more countries and languages will come over time.
• How access works: you join a waitlist and Google lets people in on a rolling basis. There is no date for full access.
• Account rules: you need a personal Google account and you must be 18 or older. Google Workspace accounts (work or school accounts, often on a custom domain) can’t use Bard or join the waitlist yet.
• The model: Bard runs on a lightweight, optimised version of LaMDA, Google’s conversation language model. Google says it will move Bard to newer, more capable models over time.
• Status: Google calls Bard an early experiment. The interface carries an “Experiment” label and a warning that answers can be wrong.

The phrase “early experiment” matters. Google is setting low expectations on purpose, and the main goal of this stage is feedback.

How to Get Google Bard Early Access

Joining takes a minute. This is what I did:

1. Sign in to a personal Google account (a normal Gmail account works). Don’t use a work account on Google Workspace.
2. Go to bard.google.com from the US or the UK.
3. Click the button to join the waitlist and accept the terms.
4. Choose whether you want an email when your access is ready.
5. Wait for the email, then go back to bard.google.com and sign in with the same account.

If the page says Bard is not supported in your country, you are outside the first rollout. I’d avoid trying to get around that with tricks. Google has said more countries are coming, and the version you test will match what people in your market see once it arrives there.

Why Your Work Account Doesn’t Work

This catches out a lot of marketers, because most of us live in our work Google account all day. If your email ends in your company domain and is managed by your company, it is almost certainly a Workspace account.

Use a personal account for now. Just keep in mind that what you type into Bard is tied to that account, so don’t paste client data or anything private into it.

What Bard Can Do Right Now

Bard is a chat box. You type a question or a task, it writes an answer, and you can follow up in the same conversation. Google’s own examples are everyday tasks: planning, ideas, outlines, simple explanations and short drafts.

A few features are worth knowing about:

• Drafts: Bard writes up to three versions of an answer. You can open “View other drafts” and pick the one you like. In my early tests the drafts are often quite similar.
• “Google it” button: under an answer, this shows suggested search queries. Clicking one opens Google Search in a new tab.
• Feedback: you can rate answers with a thumbs up or down and report problems. Google says this feedback is the main reason for opening access now.
• Follow-ups: Bard remembers what you said earlier in the same conversation, so you can ask it to shorten, change tone or add detail.

Google has also put a limit on how many exchanges you can have in one conversation. You can start a new chat as often as you like, but long back-and-forth sessions get cut off.

What It Can’t Do Yet

At this stage Bard has clear gaps:

• It only works in English.
• Google has said code generation is planned, but it is not part of this first release.
• It doesn’t take images or files. Google has only talked about multimodal features (working with images and other media) as a future plan.
• It can be wrong, sometimes with a lot of confidence.

That last point is the big one. Bard’s first promo in February included a factual mistake, and Google’s launch materials warn that Bard can give inaccurate or inappropriate answers. I treat every fact it gives me as a lead to check, not an answer to use.

Bard Is Not Google Search

This is the part SEOs should read twice. Google describes Bard as “a direct interface to an LLM” (a large language model, the type of AI that predicts and writes text) and says it thinks of Bard as “a complementary experience to Google Search.”

In plain words, Bard lives at its own address and is not part of the search results page. When someone uses Google Search today, they still see the normal results. Nothing in this launch changes how your pages rank.

Google also says Bard is designed so people can easily go to Search to check its answers. That is what the “Google it” button is for. So, right now, Bard tends to push people back toward Search rather than away from it.

Where Websites Show Up in Bard

Bard does not show a list of sources under each answer. Google says Bard shows citations only when it quotes at length from a web page. In normal use, you will see few links to websites.

That is a real difference from the new Bing chat, which adds numbered citations that link to the pages it used. I wrote about that in what the new Bing with AI chat changes for websites.

For now, I’d expect very little referral traffic from Bard. If it ever sends visits, they would show up in your analytics as referral traffic, so it’s worth knowing where to look.

Bard vs Bing Chat vs ChatGPT

Most marketers I talk to want to know how Bard stacks up against the tools they’ve already tried. Here is a simple comparison based on what each company has said publicly so far.

My honest take after a short time with Bard: it is quick and its writing is clean, but it feels more careful and more limited than Bing chat. For SEO work, Bing’s citations make it more useful right now, because you can see which pages it relies on.

If you want a refresher on why ChatGPT kicked all of this off, see my piece on what ChatGPT could mean for search and content.

What Google Bard Early Access Means for SEO

Let me be direct about what changes and what doesn’t.

What Doesn’t Change

• Your rankings in Google Search. Bard is a separate product.
• Search Console. There is no Bard report, and Bard conversations are not search queries in your Performance report.
• Google’s rules on content. Google’s stance on AI-written content stays the same, and I’ll cover it below.

What Is Worth Watching

• Brand accuracy: people will ask Bard about companies, products and services. If it gets your basics wrong, you want to know early.
• Which questions get a full answer: simple “what is” and “how to” questions are the ones a chatbot can answer without a click. Those are often the pages that bring easy, low-value traffic anyway.
• Future links to sources: if Google adds more citations later, the pages that get cited will matter. That is worth tracking over the coming months.
• Bard inside Google Search: Google has hinted at bringing AI features into Search, but it has not shown how. I’d wait for real details before changing any plans.

Can You Block Bard?

People ask me this often. Google has not announced any separate crawler or robots.txt setting for Bard. There is no specific opt-out control for site owners at this point.

Blocking Googlebot would also remove you from Google Search, so that is not a sensible option. My advice is to keep an eye on Google’s announcements and not take drastic action based on guesses.

Simple Tests I’m Running in Bard

I don’t think Bard needs a big strategy yet. But a short set of tests gives you a baseline you can come back to as Google updates it. This is my routine:

1. Ask about your brand. Try “What is [brand]?” and “Is [brand] good for [use]?” Note any wrong facts, old prices or mixed-up competitors.
2. Ask your top questions. Take five to ten questions your best pages answer. Compare Bard’s answer with your page. Is your page clearly more useful, or could Bard’s answer replace it?
3. Check all drafts. Open the other drafts. Mistakes often appear in one draft and not another.
4. Click “Google it”. See which queries Bard suggests. These are a small hint at how Google connects a chat question to a search.
5. Report bad answers. Use the thumbs down and feedback option when Bard is wrong about your brand or topic. That is what this stage is for.
6. Save your results. Keep a simple sheet with the date, prompt and answer. Bard will change, and you’ll want something to compare with.

In my experience, the brand test is the one that surprises people most. Chatbots often blend similar companies together, so check carefully if your brand name is common.

Using Bard for SEO and Content Work

Bard can help with the boring parts of content work. I’d use it for things like:

• Brainstorming related questions around a topic before keyword research.
• Getting a rough outline to react to, not to publish.
• Rewriting a clunky paragraph in simpler words.
• Suggesting title or meta description options that you then edit.

I’d skip it for facts, statistics, product specs and anything legal, medical or financial. Its error rate is too high, and those are the topics where mistakes hurt most.

What Google Says About AI-Written Content

In February 2023, Google published guidance about AI-generated content. The key points are simple:

• Google rewards helpful, original content, however it is made.
• Using AI mainly to manipulate rankings breaks Google’s spam policies.
• Content should show E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

So using Bard to help you write is not a problem in itself. Publishing pages of unchecked chatbot text is. If you want more on what Google means by experience, read my article on E-A-T becoming E-E-A-T.

My rule of thumb: if Bard could write your whole article, your article probably isn’t adding enough. Your own testing, examples and opinions are what a chatbot can’t copy.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating Bard answers as facts. Check everything against a primary source.
• Panicking about traffic. Bard is a separate experiment with a waitlist. It is not replacing Search results today.
• Pasting private data. Don’t put client details, passwords or internal documents into any chatbot.
• Rewriting your site for Bard. There is no “Bard SEO” yet. Good, clear, accurate pages are still the best bet.
• Judging it on one session. Google says it will update the model. Retest every few weeks.

Conclusion

Google Bard early access is a careful first step. It is limited to adults in the US and the UK, runs on a lightweight LaMDA model, rarely links to websites, and sits apart from Google Search. For now, it doesn’t change your rankings or your traffic.

Your next step is simple: join the waitlist with a personal account, run the brand and topic tests above, and save the answers. Then keep your focus on the work that still drives results, like making your most important pages the most helpful answer for their topic.