What did Google change in AI Overviews and AI Mode on 15 October 2026?
Five things, announced in one post. Hema Budaraju, Google's Vice President of Product Management, published More ways to connect with the web from Search on the Google blog on 15 October 2026. It covers AI Mode and AI Overviews, and each change carries a different status:
| Change | Status in Google's post | What it could mean for a B2B site (our view) |
|---|---|---|
| Inline links, which Google defines as links embedded in words or phrases in an AI response | Already increased; Google is now launching updates to show them higher up in responses more often | A page can be linked in the middle of an answer, next to the claim it supports |
| A dedicated section at the top of a response for official pages | Will be tested; no start date given | If it reaches B2B queries, your pricing or sign-in page could sit above every other link |
| Carousels of timely articles, highlighting each person's Preferred Sources | Starting to roll out to more locations and languages | Mainly matters to news publishers |
| Links at the end of some responses, with image thumbnails and a more clickable design | Google says it is making them more prominent; no test or rollout detail given | Google has not said where thumbnails come from; its guidance already recommends good images on pages |
| Clickable creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode, linking to Search profiles | Testing started the week of the post | Relevant only if you publish video |
The post opens with one figure: the number of people using Google's Preferred Sources feature has grown more than 7x since the start of the year. Google gave no starting number, and none of the five changes comes with click data. PPC Land, which covered the post on 18 October 2026, made the same point: the October post does not include a single click-through figure.
What is the official-site section Google is testing?
It is a planned test of a section at the top of an AI response for the pages that complete a task. Google's post says there are sometimes "only one or two official places on the web to complete a specific task", and that it will test a display that surfaces those links prominently at the top of a response, with context about why each link is useful. Google says this builds on what it already does to show links front and centre when someone is looking for a particular site.
What the post leaves out matters as much. It gives no example tasks, no countries, no test size, no start date and no rule for deciding which pages count as official. PPC Land reads the test as going beyond searches for a site's name toward task-based queries, while noting that the post gives no examples. Treat any claim about how pages get picked as a guess until Google says more.
For a B2B software company, the tasks where your site is the only official place are easy to list:
- Checking your current prices
- Signing in to the product
- Reading your documentation or API reference
- Cancelling or changing a plan
- Contacting sales or support
- Checking your security, privacy or compliance details
If the test reaches queries like these, the pages that answer them are your candidates. Make sure each one exists at a clear URL, is indexable and has a title that names the task.
Why does link position inside AI answers matter?
Because, in independent data from 2025, people rarely clicked links inside AI summaries. Pew Research Center analysed the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025 and published the results on 22 July 2025. On Google searches that showed an AI summary, users clicked a link inside the summary on 1% of visits. They clicked a traditional search result on 8% of those visits, against 15% on searches without a summary.
Two limits apply. Pew counted only up to three links cited in each summary, and its data predates every 2026 change. Google's 15 October post is, in part, a change to where links sit: higher in the answer and more prominent at the end. Google's post gives no numbers on whether that sends more visits.
For planning, treat a link in an AI answer as worth having, and expect few clicks from it, as in Pew's data. That makes the page it points to more important: the few people who do click should land on a page that answers their question at once.
What does Google say you need to do to get cited?
Nothing beyond normal SEO, according to Google's own documentation. Its AI features and your website page, last updated 10 December 2025, says: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode". To be eligible as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.
The same page lists the fundamentals Google still considers worthwhile:
- Crawling allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting setup
- Content easy to find through internal links
- A good page experience
- Important content available in text form
- High-quality images and videos that support the text, where relevant
- Structured data that matches the visible text
- Up-to-date Merchant Center and Business Profile information
It adds that you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org structured data. Google's Search Central blog (21 May 2025) says the preview controls nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex apply to its AI formats, and that more restrictive settings will limit how your content is featured there. Everything in the three checklists below is our advice built on those rules, except where we name Google as the source.
How to prepare product pages for AI answers
Make each product page say what it is, who it is for and what it does, in text that can be quoted. Our checklist:
- One page per product or use case. Give it a title that names the product and the job, not a slogan. Google's title link guidance asks for descriptive, concise titles and warns against boilerplate.
- The answer in the first paragraph. Category, buyer and outcome in two sentences, as text. Google lists important content in text form among its fundamentals.
- Facts in lists and tables. Integrations, channels, limits, setup steps and supported regions, each stated once and plainly. A specific, checkable fact gives an answer something to link to; a slogan does not.
- Links from the homepage and menu. Google names internal links as a way to make content findable.
- Organization and WebSite structured data on the homepage. Google says Organization markup can help it better understand your organisation's administrative details and disambiguate it in search results, and that WebSite markup is the most important way to state your preferred site name. Neither is required for AI features, and Google has not linked either to the official-site test.
How to prepare pricing pages for AI answers
Put prices in plain text that Google can see, and date them. Our checklist:
- Prices in the page text. If prices sit in an image or load only after a script runs, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to see the HTML Googlebot received. Google's AI features page points to that tool, in its troubleshooting steps, to see the HTML Googlebot received.
- No snippet blocks on the price table. A nosnippet or data-nosnippet setting on pricing limits how Google can feature it in AI answers. Use them only where you mean it.
- Every plan in one table. Plan name, price, billing period, what is included and the main limits, in the same rows for every plan.
- A visible date. Show the date the prices were last updated, next to the table, so anyone quoting the page can see how current it is.
- Plain answers to the usual questions. Is there a free trial, can you cancel monthly, is tax included, is there a setup fee. One sentence each, on the page.
- A title that names the task. A title such as your product name followed by the word pricing names the task plainly.
How to prepare comparison pages for AI answers
Compare fairly, date the page and show sources. Google's AI features documentation says AI Mode is particularly helpful for queries that need further exploration, reasoning or complex comparisons, so we think these pages are where a small site has the most to gain. Our checklist:
- The same rows for every tool. Price, main features, channels, limits and who it suits, in one table.
- A checked date and a source for every competitor fact. Link the competitor's own pricing or help page. Competitor prices and features change, and a dated source shows readers how current your claim is.
- Say when the other tool is the better choice. A page that only praises you reads like an ad. A fair one gives an answer something to quote for both sides.
- Pages only for real comparisons. Build head-to-head and alternatives pages for the names buyers actually compare you with. Our own comparison hub links each of ours from one table.
- Track who else gets cited. Run your main comparison questions in AI Mode once a month and note which sites are linked. Siela's Competitor Watch checks competitors' AI-assistant visibility, backlinks and ads as part of its weekly briefing.
Then measure. Google's documentation says clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in the Search Console Performance report, under the Web search type, together with your other Google traffic. Check impressions and clicks for your product, pricing and comparison pages there each month.
Frequently asked questions
What is the official site section in Google AI Mode?
It is a display Google said on 15 October 2026 that it will test: a dedicated section at the top of an AI response that surfaces the one or two official places on the web to complete a task or get specific information, with context about why each link is useful. Google gave no example tasks, countries, start date or selection rules.
What are inline links in Google AI Overviews?
Google defines inline links as links embedded in words or phrases in an AI response. In its 15 October 2026 post it said it has made continued and substantial increases to inline links in its AI experiences, and is launching updates to show them higher up in responses more frequently. It gave no figures for either change.
Can I stop Google from using my pricing page in AI Overviews?
You can limit it. Google's documentation says nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex limit what is shown from your pages in Search, including AI features, and robots.txt rules for Googlebot control crawling. The trade-off is that a page must be eligible to be shown with a snippet to appear as a supporting link, so blocking it also removes it as a possible citation.
How often do people click links inside Google's AI summaries?
Rarely, in Pew Research Center's 2025 data. Pew tracked 900 US adults in March 2025 and found they clicked a link inside an AI summary on 1% of visits to search pages that had one. They clicked a traditional result on 8% of those visits, against 15% on pages without a summary. The data predates Google's 2026 link changes.
When will Google start testing the official site section?
Google has not said. Its 15 October 2026 post says it will be testing the new display, in the future tense, and names no start date, countries or test size. The same post says a separate test of clickable creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode had already started that week.
Sources
- Google: More ways to connect with the web from Search (Hema Budaraju) (published 15 Oct 2026)
- PPC Land: Google pushes links higher in AI answers as Preferred Sources use rises 7x (published 18 Oct 2026)
- Pew Research Center: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (published 22 Jul 2025)
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website (last updated 10 Dec 2025, checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Central blog: Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search (published 21 May 2025)
- Google Search Central: Influencing your title links in search results (last updated 10 Dec 2025, checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Central: Organization structured data (last updated 8 Sep 2026, checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Central: Provide a site name to Google Search (last updated 10 Dec 2025, checked 20 Oct 2026)