On October 15, 2026, Google announced changes to AI Mode and AI Overviews, its AI-generated responses in Search. Most of the changes add links to websites or make them easier to see. Some changes are rolling out now. Others are tests.
What Google changed
In a post on the Google blog, Hema Budaraju, VP of Product Management, listed five updates:
- More inline links, placed higher. Inline links are links on words or phrases inside an AI response. Google says it has made "continued and substantial increases" to them. It is also launching updates to show them higher up in responses more often. Google did not share numbers.
- A test for official sites. Sometimes only one or two official pages can complete a task. Google will test a section at the top of the response that shows these links, with a note on why each link is useful.
- More news carousels. Google is starting to roll out its carousels of timely articles to more locations and languages. The carousels also highlight a user's Preferred Sources. Google says the number of people who use Preferred Sources has grown more than 7x since the start of the year.
- More prominent related-article links. The links at the end of some AI responses get image thumbnails and what Google calls "a more clickable design."
- Clickable creator names. This week Google started to test creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode. The names link to their Search profiles.
What it means for your site
Google did not say how much traffic these changes send. Two of the five changes are tests, so they may change or stop.
In our view, the official-site test matters most for businesses whose site is the only place to do a task, such as to book, order or check an account. If Google shows those pages at the top of a response, your task pages must be clear and easy to crawl.
What to do
- Make your key task pages clear. Booking, pricing, contact and product pages need clear titles and plain descriptions. Make sure robots.txt, noindex tags or a login wall do not block them.
- Check your AI visibility in Search Console. Google announced the Search generative AI performance reports on June 3, 2026. Since August 31, 2026, they are available to all websites. They show how often your pages appear in features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.
- Ask regular readers to add you as a Preferred Source if you publish news or regular updates. Google's documentation says your site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to show as a preferred source in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Only a domain or subdomain qualifies. A subfolder such as example.com/blog does not.
- Fix the technical basics. Broken pages, blocked pages and slow pages are problems for every search result, AI or not.
Want to see which technical problems block your key pages? The sample SEOSFT report at seosft.com/demo shows what an audit checks.
Sources
- Google, More ways to connect with the web from Search (October 15, 2026): https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/updates-ai-mode-overviews-explore-web/
- Google Search Central, Preferred sources: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources
- Google Search Central blog, Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (June 3, 2026): https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports
- Search Engine Journal, Google Puts Inline Links Higher In More AI Search Responses (October 15, 2026): https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-inline-links-higher-ai-search-responses/593089/