Google pushes more links into AI answers and tests a top slot for official pages

Google announced it on October 15, 2026, in a blog post titled "More ways to connect with the web from Search," written by Hema Budaraju, VP, Product Management. The post describes five changes to how links appear inside AI Mode and AI Overviews, the AI-written answers in Google Search. It matters to anyone who runs a business because when Google answers a question itself, the links inside that answer are the path from the customer's question to your website.

Google is putting more links inside AI answers, and higher up

According to Google's post, the company has "made continued and substantial increases to the presence of inline links" in its AI experiences. Inline links are links embedded in words or phrases inside an AI response. Google says it is also launching updates to show those links higher up in responses more frequently. Search Engine Journal noted that the post gives no figure for how large the increase is.

The links at the end of some AI responses, which point to related articles, are getting image thumbnails and what Google describes as "a more clickable design." Barry Schwartz, executive editor of Search Engine Roundtable, summed up the package bluntly: Google has updated how it shows links in AI Mode and AI Overviews "for the umpteenth time."

A new test puts the one or two official pages at the top

The change with the clearest business angle is a test. Google's post says that "sometimes, there are only one or two official places on the web to complete a specific task or get the exact info you need," and that it will test a new display that surfaces these links in a dedicated section at the top of a response, with context about why each link is useful. Google says this expands on what it already does to show links front and center when someone is looking to go to a particular site.

Google has not said which searches will qualify for this top section, and Search Engine Journal reported that the post gives no date for when the test might expand. Still, the direction is worth noticing. If a customer's task can only be completed in one official place, and that place is your website, Google's wording suggests it wants to send them straight there. That is our reading of the post, not a promise Google has made to any business.

News carousels and Preferred Sources are spreading to more places

Google says it is starting to roll out the carousels for timely articles in AI Search features to additional locations and languages globally, and that these carousels highlight a searcher's Preferred Sources. Search Engine Journal pointed out that the post does not name the new locations.

Preferred Sources is the Google feature that lets a searcher pick websites they want to see more of. Google's post says the number of people using it "has grown by more than 7x since the start of the year." Search Engine Journal noted that Google gave no user count and no explanation of how it measured the increase.

Google's own documentation for site owners explains how this works. A site that a searcher has selected as a preferred source can be highlighted with a "preferred" badge in AI Mode and AI Overviews, but only if the site is included in Search generative AI features in Search Console. The documentation describes a button that takes two lines of HTML, and a plain deeplink for sites that cannot run the button, so readers can add a site as a preferred source. Only whole domains and subdomains qualify; a subfolder such as a /blog section does not.

Creator links in AI Mode lead to Google pages first

Google says that this week it started testing clickable creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode that link to their Search profiles. Search profiles launched on June 4, 2026, according to a Google post by Ibrahim Badr, Product Manager, Search, as a central place for publishers and creators to show their latest articles, videos and social posts.

Barry Schwartz flagged the catch: these links go to Google pages, the Search profile page, first, not to the creator's own site. Google's help page says Search profiles are currently available in Canada, India and the United States, and require at least 10,000 subscribers or followers on YouTube, Instagram, X or TikTok, and the person creating one must be at least 18. The same help page says creating a profile does not directly affect ranking. Search Engine Journal reported that when it checked the help page on the morning of October 15, AI Mode was not listed as a place where profiles appear.

Google still will not show anyone the clicks

This is the part Barry Schwartz put in his headline. Google keeps saying these designs are meant to encourage clicks, but it still does not show site owners click data for AI search in its performance reports. Schwartz wrote that he commends Google for trying, but that "it feels as if those efforts to drive clicks from AI search continue to fail." When he asked about click data, Google told him: "We're continuing to work with website owners to understand what insights will be most helpful to inform their strategies, and we'll introduce additional metrics over time." Schwartz noted that clicks are the number one metric for Google Ads.

There is a second measurement wrinkle. Search Engine Journal explained that Search Console assigns every link inside an AI Overview that overview's single position, so moving your link higher inside an AI answer does not, by itself, change the position Search Console reports for it. Think of it like a mall that moves your store sign closer to the entrance but will not share the door counter: the placement may be better, and you have no official way to know.

The other side: Google has not published how much inline links increased, which searches will get the official-pages section, which new countries and languages get the carousels, how many people use Preferred Sources, or when either test might expand. Barry Schwartz's view that these efforts are failing is his assessment, not a figure Google has confirmed or denied. And in a post on X quoted by Search Engine Roundtable, Nick Fox wrote that over 400 publications worldwide are part of Google's News AI pilot licensing program, where Google pays for the delivery and use of enhanced content to develop new AI features. That program is for news publishers; nothing in the sources suggests a clinic, store or trades company is part of it.

Bottom line

Today's changes are real but incremental: more links, placed higher, a test that could favour the one official page for a task, and wider carousels for news. For most business owners, the honest summary is that Google is giving websites more chances to be linked from AI answers while still not telling them whether anyone clicks. Two small things are within reach. Check that your site is included in Search generative AI features in Search Console, and if you publish articles customers actually read, consider Google's preferred-sources button or deeplink. Beyond that, watch for the official-pages test and for click data in Search Console. If a customer asked Google the one question only your website can answer, would Google be right to send them to you?