Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
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Daily Search Forum Recap: October 1, 2025
Oct 25
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Backlinks still matter in AI search, but quality, diversity, and even nofollow links now shift visibility more than raw volume. The post How AI Really Weighs Your Links (Analysis Of 35,000 Datapoints) appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
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How AI Really Weighs Your Links (Analysis Of 35,000 Datapoints) via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig
This is just a programming note that I will be 100% offline starting Wednesday night (October 1st) through Thursday night (October 2nd) for Yom Kippur. I am not scheduling any stories on Yom Kippur…
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Programming Note: Offline Thursday For Yom Kippur 5786
Google’s spam update completed after almost a month rollout, it was pretty wild and got even more wild after the rollout completed. Google AI Mode rolled out to more languages, is more visual, is testing agentic experiences and much more. Google dropped the num parameter causing a huge mess for so many of us.
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October 2025 Google Webmaster Report
Google announced new message assets requirements for Google Ads. These new requirements aim “to ensure a good user experience” and go into effect on October 30, 2025.
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New Google Ads Message Assets Requirements
Google is testing having the citations stick to the top (of the AI Overview section only) as you scroll down past the AI Overview. This keeps those citations more in view, as you scroll over the AI Overview.
The rest is here:
Google AI Overviews With Sticky Citations As You Scroll
Google announced that AI Mode had been updated to handle and respond more visually. So AI Mode responses both understand your queries in a more visual way and respond with more visual responses. Google said the responses aim at sparking inspiration, amongst other things.
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Google AI Mode With More Visual Responses & Visual Fan-Out Technique
Google Ads has announced several new features, including segmentation in asset reporting and enhancements to channel performance reporting. Google told me that this continues to provide advertisers with the visibility they are seeking.
Link:
Google Ads PMax Segmentation In Asset Reporting & Channel Reporting Features
Here is a new interview published yesterday by The Economic Times Podcasts with Elizabeth Reid, VP of Google Search. She spoke about Google’s progression of AI in Search, content quality, SEO, blue links, traffic, the ecosystem, agentic features and more.
Continued here:
Google’s Elizabeth Reid Interviewed On AI, Search, Blue Links, SEO & More
In June, Google began testing showing a new answer box for emoji related queries.
See the article here:
Google Search Rolls Out Emoji Answer Box