SEO Tools and Resources

Google AI Mode is getting more visual by providing a more graphical response to some of your queries, including your shopping search queries. Google can do this by using its new visual version of the query fan-out technique it has used with AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google AI Mode, for certain queries, particularly those related to shopping, will respond with images and graphics. These are aimed at sparking inspiration, Robby Stein, VP of Product Management at Google Search, told Search Engine Land. AI Mode will be able to not just understand your query in a text-based manner, but also understand your query visually and respond with both textual and visual resp…

Google has added multimodal capabilities to its new AI Mode feature, letting you ask your questions with the assistance of uploading an image. Plus, Google announced it is rolling out AI Mode to millions of more Labs users in the U.S. AI mode with images. Google AI Mode now lets you upload an image via upload or your camera to ask AI Mode questions with images. Google calls this multimodal capabilities, which is launched years ago in other areas of Search. “With AI Mode’s new multimodal understanding, you can snap a photo or upload an image, ask a question about it and get a rich, comprehensive response with links to dive deeper,” Robby Stein, VP of Product, Googl…

Google is now rolling out access to AI Mode to its second batch of users. Google first allowed Google One AI Premium subscribers access to AI mode, when it first launched on March 5th. If you opted into AI Mode and are based in the United States, you may now have access. How to access AI Mode. Once you again access then you should be able to access AI Mode – here is how: Go to www.google.com, enter a question in the Search bar, and tap the “AI Mode” tab below the Search bar. Go directly to the AI Mode tab on Google Search at: google.com/aimode. In the Google app, tap the AI Mode icon below the Search bar on the home screen. The initial bug. When Goog…

The narrative in SEO right now is simple: Google’s AI Mode doesn’t send traffic. If it becomes the default Google Search experience, your website will starve for clicks. There’s one problem, though: the studies claiming “AI doesn’t send traffic” focus almost entirely on informational queries. Yes, if someone wants to know what a basal cell carcinoma looks like, AI will kill that click. But what happens when someone wants to find a dermatologist to check that mole? No one has shared a study like that yet. So we decided to fix that. We ran the first UX study focused specifically on transactional intent in AI mode. We watched 52 participants across the U.…

Google’s newly launched AI Mode in Search isn’t passing referral data. That means it’s impossible to know how many clicks you got from AI Mode in Google Search Console (GSC) or other analytics tools. Why we care. You have no way of knowing how much traffic you’re getting from AI Mode. Google continues to tell us its AI answers drive higher-quality clicks, without proof. We have no data to verify this. Frustratingly, Google continues to take away helpful data, making it impossible for us to make data-driven decisions. Driving the news: Tom Critchlow, EVP audience growth at Raptive, first raised the issue on LinkedIn. Testing from Patrick Stox, product advisor, tech…

Google is rolling out an update to AI Mode for recipe results that it hopes will make recipe bloggers happy. Google’s Robby Stein said on X, “We’ve heard feedback on recipe results in AI Mode, and we’re making updates to better connect people with recipe creators on the web.” The changes aim to make it easier to click over to recipe sites, though I am not 100% certain yet whether the recipe summaries turn recipes into AI slop. “Starting today, when you search for meal ideas like “easy dinners for two,” you can tap on the dish to see links to relevant recipe sites, plus a short overview of the dish to help with inspiration,” Stein added. What it looks like. Her…

AI Overviews are now less likely to cite pages that rank in Google’s top 10 organic positions, according to new BrightEdge data. This change was observed following Google’s March 2025 core update. By the numbers. The overlap between AI Overview citations and Google’s top 10 organic positions dropped from 16% to 15% following the March 2025 core update. Why we care. Tens of millions of searches per day now feature AI-generated summaries that don’t cite the highest-ranked results from organic search. The good news? Pages ranking outside Google’s top 10 positions now have a better shot at being cited in AI Overviews. But. This appears to be a major shift in how G…

Google shows AI Overviews in Search largely based on whether users engage with them — and removes them when they don’t. That’s according to Robby Stein, Google’s VP of product for Search. In a CNN interview, Stein explained how Google tunes AI-driven results as it expands ads, personalization, and visual search across its experiences. Engagement drives AI Overviews. Google tests AI Overviews on specific query types and keeps them only if users find them useful. If users don’t click, interact, or show value, the overview disappears. The system then applies that learning to similar queries, Stein said: “The system will learn — so it’ll try it — and then see if …

Google is testing placing special and very clickable links in its AI Overviwws, but not to publishers or your own website, but rather back to its own search results. You got that right, Google is testing linking the AI Overviews back to new search queries on Google.com. What it looks like. I posted a screenshot and video from Sachin Patel who spotted this change on the Search Engine Roundtable – here they are: Clicking on those underlined links in the text of the AI Overview, both at the top and in the middle section, will take you back to a new Google Search. The smaller link icons take you to the side panel links, those go to publishers and external website…

Most of the health advice summarized in Google’s AI Overviews relies on non-medical sources, a new analysis shows. This follows fresh concerns about users receiving misleading or unsafe guidance on sensitive health topics. What’s happening. The Guardian recently reported that Google’s AI Overviews sometimes surface incorrect or dangerous health advice. The reporting drew on reviews by medical charities and experts. Examples included flawed guidance on pancreatic cancer diets and misleading explanations of liver blood test results. Google disputed the findings. The company said the examples were taken out of context and argued that most AI Overviews are accurat…

Google’s AI Overviews may be reducing traditional search clicks, but publishers still have meaningful growth opportunities in breaking news and Google Discover, according to new data from Define Media Group. Organic search clicks have fallen 42% since AI Overviews began expanding in Google Search, according to Define Media Group’s analysis of Google Search Console data across its portfolio of 64 sites. Why we care. AI-generated answers are reshaping search traffic. Evergreen content is losing clicks, while real-time news coverage and Discover distribution are emerging as stronger traffic channels for publishers. By the numbers. Across Google Search, Discover,…

Organic click-through rates (CTR) for informational queries featuring Google AI Overviews fell 61% since mid-2024, while paid CTRs on those same queries plunged 68%, according to the latest study by marketing agency Seer Interactive. Even on queries without AI Overviews, organic CTRs fell 41%. This suggests users are simply clicking less, everywhere. Why we care. Even when AI Overviews aren’t visible, clicks are falling, likely due to ChatGPT/AI platforms and social search. That lost traffic isn’t coming back. This is why, as Seer pointed out, success metrics are shifting from clicks and traffic to visibility and share of voice. (This aligns with what Aja Frost …

Google AI Overviews are now available in more countries and regions and in more languages. Google announced today at Google I/O that AI Overviews are now available in over 200 countries and territories and more than 40 different languages. AI Overviews for more Google searchers. Google said they have expanded access to AI Overviews within Google Search to more searchers. In October, Google released them in over 100 countries and regions, now they are available in over 200 countries and regions. Google added more support for languages including support for for Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Urdu and more. You can see the full list of countries and territories that Go…

Google will now jump you directly into AI Mode when you do a follow-up question from AI Overviews within Google Search. This makes the “transition to a conversation even more seamless,” Robby Stein, VP of Product, Google Search wrote. Plus, Google AI Overviews are powered by Gemini 3 by default, globally. AI Overviews jumping to AI Mode. We covered when Google was officially testing this back in December and also before Google confirmed the test in October 2025. The ask a follow-up question within the Google Search AI Overviews will jump you into a conversation directly in AI Mode. Google said this is about “making the transition to a conversation even more se…

Google’s AI Overviews are for research, not buying. A new BrightEdge analysis of thousands of ecommerce keywords (Sept. 1-Oct. 15) found that AI results appear for research and evaluation, while bottom-funnel queries still belong to traditional search. Why we care. Google’s AI Overviews appear to shape discovery, while traditional search continues to drive sales. So ecommerce brands can set themselves up for success by being visible, helping users learn, and guiding them to buy during these key moments. By the numbers. AI Overview coverage spiked to 26% in September before retreating to 9% in October. 30% of keywords were retained after the pullback. Ther…

Google AI Overview rankings – the webpages cited in the AI-generated answers – are more volatile than Google’s “classic” organic search rankings. Also, within two to three months, 70% of AI Overview rankings changed, according to a new analysis by Authoritas, an ecommerce SEO platform. Ranking volatility. Google’s organic search is volatile and has been for a while. However, AI Overviews appear to be even more volatile, based on this research. AI Overview ranking volatility score: 0.68 (8 weeks), 0.73 (13 weeks) Google Search organic ranking volatility score: 0.49 (8 weeks), 0.55 (13 weeks) Dig deeper. How volatile have Google rankings really been? AI…

Google’s AI Overviews appeared in 13.14% of all U.S. desktop searches in March, up from 6.49% in January. That’s a 102% surge in just two months, according to a new analysis of more than 10 million keywords by Semrush and Datos. Why we care. Google’s introduction of AI Overviews was the biggest shift since the arrival of featured snippets a decade ago. Google is forever changed and is becoming more of an answer engine than a search engine. That’s because AI Overviews generate answers rather than pointing searchers to websites, which studies have shown is impacting traffic and CTRs for many types of websites. Triggers. AI Overviews tend to appear for low-risk, fact…

Google announced it is expanding AI Overviews to show on more Google Lens results, including more novel or unique images. This is still only showing on a subset of searches, but now more than when Google first added AI Overviews to Google Lens in May of 2024. Plus, Google is also adding to its Chrome app and Google app for iOS a new Lens feature that lets you select and search whatever’s on your screen with just a simple gesture. AI Overviews and Lens. Google wrote, “now, with help from our advanced AI models, Lens can go much further and provide information on the contents of more novel or unique images. For those kinds of queries, AI Overviews will begin to appe…

Google Search is now offering detailed shopping for product queries in the AI Overviews. Google will first give you a summary answer, which you can then expand, which will provide a super long and detailed breakdown comparison between the two products. What it looks like. If you search for [iphone 15 vs iphone 15 pro] Google will first give you this summary box: When you click on “see full comparison,” Google will then break down the very specific details (click to enlarge the image): More examples. I spotted this via Blair MacGregor who shared this example of Google comparing two bike models: Another example of an AI Overview Google's experimen…

Google’s AI Overviews expanded greatly in three sectors – entertainment, restaurants, and travel – during the March 2025 core update. By the numbers. Between March 13 and 27, according to data shared with Search Engine Land by enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge, the presence of AI Overviews grew by: 528% for entertainment queries (e.g., [Julia Roberts movies], [Movies filmed in Chicago]). 387% for restaurant queries (e.g., [date night restaurants], [Thai restaurant near me], [downtown restaurants]). 381% for travel queries (e.g., [things to do in Santa Fe], [things to do in Hawaii], [things to do in Las Vegas]). But. Part of the reason for these high…

Google rapidly expanded AI Overviews in search during 2025, then pulled back as they moved into commercial and navigational queries. These findings are based on a new Semrush analysis of more than 10 million keywords from January to November. AI Overviews surged, then retreated. Google didn’t roll out AI Overviews in a straight line in 2025. A mid-year spike gave way to a pullback, suggesting Google moved fast to test the feature, then eased off based on user data: January: 6.5% of queries triggered an AI Overview July: AI Overview visibility peaked, appearing in just under 25% of queries. November: Coverage fell back to less than 16% of queries. Zero-c…

By now, we’re all familiar with Google AI Overviews. Many queries you search on Google now surface responses through this quick and prominent search feature. But AI Overview results aren’t always reliable or accurate. Google’s algorithms can promote negative or misleading content, making online reputation management (ORM) difficult. Here’s how to stay on top of AI Overviews and your ORM – by removing, mitigating, or addressing negative content. How AI Overviews source information AI Overviews relies on a mix of data sources across Google and the open web, including: Google’s Knowledge Graph: The Knowledge Graph is Google’s structured database of …

Google has a number of announcements around Al Mode, including dropping the waitlist, adding products and place cards to the answers, a new history panel, and that they are doing a limited test without having to opt in to Al Mode within Search Labs. Testing Al Mode in the wild. Google is now testing Al Mode within Google Search without you having to opt in to Al Mode within Search Labs. That means that you might see the tab for Al Mode without specifically opting into the feature. Soufi Esmailzadeh, Director, Product Management, at Google Search wrote, “Because our power users are finding it so helpful, we’re starting a limited test outside of Labs. In the coming …

UK news site the Sun ended 2024 by losing half of its audience, due in part to “algorithm changes at certain platforms,” according to the latest earnings report from parent company News Corp. On the earnings call, News Corp Chief Financial Officer Lavanya Chandrashekar was more specific, blaming “industry headwinds on search algorithms.” Yes, that means Google search algorithm updates. The drop. Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive, shared a screenshot showing the massive visibility drop on X: Why we care. Not all websites are losing Google traffic, but many are and have been over the past couple of years following multiple helpful content …

Google launched four official and confirmed algorithmic updates in 2025, three core updates and one spam update. This is in comparison to last year, in 2024, where we had seven confirmed updates, then in 2023, when we had nine confirmed updates and in 2022 and 2021, Google had 10 confirmed algorithmic updates. Fewer updates. Google appears to be confirming fewer updates, even though Google said a year ago, that we should expect more core updates, more often. But that doesn’t mean there were fewer updates. Google did reaffirm that it does not announce all core updates, that the search company only confirms the larger, broader core updates. Plus, I covered dozens o…