On October 15, 2026, Google said it has made substantial increases to inline links in AI Mode and AI Overviews, and is showing them higher in more responses. It is also testing a top section for official sites and clickable creator profiles. Cited pages get a better shot at the click, but only if they are eligible and easy to cite.
What Google announced
In a post from Hema Budaraju, VP of Product Management for Search, Google described five changes to how links appear in its AI experiences. First, it has made “continued and substantial increases” to inline links and is placing them higher in responses more often. Google did not share how large the increase is.
Second, Google is testing a section at the top of a response that lists official sites for task-based queries with only one or two official sources, with context on why each is useful. Third, related-article links at the end of some responses get image thumbnails and a more clickable design. Fourth, news carousels that highlight Preferred Sources are rolling out to more locations and languages. Fifth, Google began testing clickable creator and publisher names on AI Mode video results, linking to their Search profiles.
Preferred Sources is the number to watch
Google says usage of Preferred Sources has grown more than 7x since the start of the year. Search Engine Journal reports that, per Google’s documentation, a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to qualify as a Preferred Source in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google also offers a button and deep link you can use to ask readers to add your site.
Search profiles, which launched in June, are limited to creators with at least 10,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, X, or TikTok, so most small brands will not qualify yet. Creator links in AI Mode are still a test.
The measurement catch
Here is the part that trips up reporting. Search Console counts all links in an AI Overview as a single position, so moving your inline link higher will not show up as a better average position. If you only watch rank, you can miss a real gain, or a real loss. Clicks, impressions and landing-page traffic from AI features are the cleaner signals.
What it means for SEO, AEO and GEO
This update shows why SEO, AEO and GEO work as one system. SEO earns the indexing and rankings that put you in the pool of sources. AEO shapes pages so a direct answer can be lifted. GEO is the citation layer, and Google is now giving cited links more room and more visibility. It lines up with Google’s main content guidance: put the useful part first and make it easy to quote. If you publish PDFs, our note on how Google ranks PDFs covers the same citation logic.
What to do this week
- Confirm your eligibility. Check Search Console to make sure your site is included in Search generative AI features, since that is the stated requirement for Preferred Sources.
- Ask for the Preferred Source add. Use Google’s button or deep link on your newsletter, article footers and social bios.
- Lead every key page with a direct answer. Put a two or three sentence answer under the H1 so an AI response has a clean passage to cite and link.
- Track AI clicks, not just position. Pull a before-and-after report of clicks and impressions for pages that appear in AI Overviews, and annotate October 15.
- Claim your official-source pages. If you run a booking, refund, login or policy page that is the official answer, make that page clear, current and easy to find.
- Watch the tests, do not chase them. The official-sites section and creator profiles are testing with no timeline, so note them and revisit before changing your plan.
The bottom line
Google is giving AI answers more clickable exits to the web. The brands that benefit will be the ones that are indexed, eligible, easy to cite and measured by clicks, not by a position number that no longer tells the whole story.
If you want help checking whether your pages are earning AI citations and clicks, our SEO services cover search, answer and generative visibility together, and you can see how the framework fits at GCL Marketing. You can also browse more articles by topic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Google change about links in AI Mode and AI Overviews?
Google said it has made continued and substantial increases to inline links in its AI experiences and is showing them higher in responses more often. It is also testing a top section for official sites, adding thumbnails to related-article links, and expanding news carousels. Google announced the changes on October 15, 2026.
Will higher inline links increase my clicks from AI Overviews?
Possibly, but Google has not published figures for how much. Links placed higher are likely to get more attention, yet only cited pages benefit. Because Search Console counts all links in an AI Overview as one position, you cannot see the effect in position data, so compare clicks and impressions before and after instead.
What are Preferred Sources in Google AI Mode?
Preferred Sources lets users pick the publishers they want to see more of, and those sites can appear in news carousels in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google says usage has grown more than 7x since the start of the year. To qualify, a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console.
What is the official-sites section Google is testing?
For certain task-based queries that have only one or two official sources, Google is testing a section at the top of the response listing those sites, with context on why each is useful. The example Google shared involved airline refund links. There is no rollout timeline yet.
How should I optimize for links in AI Mode and AI Overviews?
Make your pages easy to cite: lead with a direct answer, keep facts specific, and confirm your pages are eligible for Search generative AI features in Search Console. Then ask readers to add you as a Preferred Source and track clicks, not just rankings, since AI Overview links share one reported position.