Google adds more links to its AI answers, again
Nick Fox of Google laid out five changes to how AI answers link out, including a new section at the top for the one or two pages that finish the job.
Google is adding more links to AI Overviews (the AI written summary at the top of results) and AI Mode (the chat style search tab). Nick Fox of Google posted the list, which builds on the changes we covered earlier.
What is changing
Five things, according to Fox. More inline links sitting directly inside the answer text. A new section at the top of a response that highlights the one or two links you need to finish a task or find an exact fact. News carousels for timely topics, now available globally. A Dive Deeper section with image thumbnails and a more clickable design. And clickable publisher and creator names on video results, which lead to that creator's Search profile.
Marie Haynes added that official websites will be shown high up in AI answers when they are the place people usually go to complete a specific task. Glenn Gabe noted the creator name links go to a Google page, the Search profile, first rather than straight to the site.
The Preferred Sources number
Fox said the number of people who have used Preferred Sources, the setting where a reader picks sites they want to see more of, has grown by 7x since the beginning of the year. The new news carousels will highlight a reader's Preferred Sources. He also said over 400 publications worldwide are now in Google's News AI pilot licensing program, where Google pays for content used to build AI features.
You still cannot measure any of it
More links in AI answers should mean more chances for a visit. The problem is you cannot see whether you are getting them. Barry Schwartz made the point bluntly when the news broke.
Google has not said when every one of these changes lands, or in which countries beyond the news carousels going global. Treat the list as a direction rather than a dated rollout.
What to do
If you run a local business or a service site, the item that matters most is the one about official websites. Google says it wants to surface the page where the task actually gets done. So make sure the page that does the thing, your booking form, your price list, your contact page, loads fast, says plainly what it is for, and is not buried three clicks deep. That is the page Google would be linking to.
If you publish news or timely articles, tell your regular readers that Preferred Sources exists. A 7x jump in a year suggests enough people use it to be worth a line in your newsletter or a note on your site.
the number of people who’ve used Preferred Sources to select sites they want to hear has grown by 7x since the beginning of the year
Google continues to refuse to show us click data in Search Console
Be the person who already knew
One email a day. Under three minutes. You will hear about a Google change before it shows up in your traffic.