On October 15, Google announced several changes to how AI Overviews and AI Mode link to websites, including more links in answers and a test showing official pages for completing tasks at the top.
What was announced
According to Google's official blog post dated October 15, AI Overviews, which answer questions at the top of search results, and AI Mode, a conversational way to search, will include more links embedded within the answer text (inline links) and will show them higher up in the answer more often.
Google is also testing a dedicated area at the top of an answer that shows one or two official pages needed to complete a task, each with a note explaining why it is useful.
In addition, Google said it will bring its news article carousel for timely topics to more regions and languages, highlighting outlets that users have added as 'preferred sources'. Links to related articles at the end of an answer will get image thumbnails, and Google has begun testing clickable creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode.
Background and analysis
As AI increasingly answers questions directly in search results, site owners have continued to worry that clicks to their websites will decline. Google describes the announcement as aimed at making it easier to move from AI answers to websites.
However, the search industry publication Search Engine Roundtable notes that no data has been published showing that more links actually lead to more clicks. According to the publication, Google does not let site owners see clicks from AI Overviews and similar features separately in Search Console, and says it will continue to consider what information would be useful to site owners.
Google's blog describes the official pages for tasks and the clickable creator names as tests, and apart from the news carousel, it does not specify which countries or languages are covered. It is not yet known when, or to what extent, these changes will appear in any given market.
TAKEAWAY
What this means for your project
Check that each task users come to your site for, such as booking, contacting you, pricing, or account actions, has one clear, current page whose heading states its purpose. That gives AI answers an obvious official page to point to. Remove outdated details, and track clicks in the Search Console performance report over time, keeping in mind that AI feature clicks are not reported separately.