Google moves inline links higher in AI Mode and AI Overviews

Google is placing inline links higher and more often in AI Mode and AI Overviews, one of five link changes it announced on 15 October 2026. The others are a test of an official-site section at the top of some answers, a wider rollout of timely article carousels, a new design for the links at the end of responses, and a test of clickable creator and publisher names on video results.

The announcement came from Hema Budaraju, Google's VP of Product Management, in a blog post. Google's Nick Fox summarised the same five points in a post on X the same day.

What Google changed

Google says it has "made continued and substantial increases to the presence of inline links" in its AI answers, and that those links now sit higher in the response in more cases. It has not said how large the increase is or what share of answers are affected.

The second change is a test. For task-based searches where only one or two official pages are the right answer, Google will list those official pages at the very top of the response and add a line on why each one is a good resource. This format is limited to tasks with few authoritative sources.

Third, the carousels of timely articles that appear in AI answers for developing topics are rolling out to more locations and languages. Google has not named them. These carousels highlight a reader's Preferred Sources, the feature that lets a person pick the sites they want to see more of in Search.

Fourth, the related links at the end of some responses, which Google calls the Dive Deeper section, now get image thumbnails and what Google describes as a more clickable design. Google said in May that it would start suggesting articles on other facets of a topic at the end of answers, and this is the next step for that section.

Fifth, this week Google began testing clickable creator and publisher names on video results inside AI Mode. Tapping a name opens that creator's Search profile, a Google-hosted page that collects their articles, videos and social posts, rather than their own website.

Preferred Sources is the part that matters most

Google says the number of people who have used Preferred Sources has grown more than seven times since the start of the year. It gave no base figure, so seven times could describe a large or a modest number of people.

Even so, the carousel expansion makes the feature worth a look. When a reader adds a site as a Preferred Source, that site is highlighted in the timely article carousels, and those carousels are now appearing in more AI results.

Google's documentation says a site has to be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to be shown as a preferred source in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Only whole domains and subdomains qualify, not subfolders such as /blog. Google also provides a button and a deep link a site can place on its pages to ask readers to add it.

Search profiles are not open to Australian businesses yet

The profile links in AI Mode are the least relevant change for a local business. Google launched Search profiles in June. They are now open to creators and publishers in the United States, Canada and India with at least 10,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, X or TikTok, and the Google Account used must belong to someone aged 18 or over. As of the morning of 15 October, Google's help page listed knowledge panels and Discover as the places a profile can appear and did not mention AI Mode, which matches the feature's status as a test.

Still no click data

Here is the catch for anyone who wants to know whether any of this sends traffic. Search Console reports an AI Overview as a single result with a single position, and every link inside the overview inherits that position. Moving an inline link higher within an AI Overview therefore does not change its reported position.

Clicks from AI results are not broken out at all. Google's position, when asked, has been: "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." Clicks are the metric site owners keep asking for, and a core metric in Google Ads reporting.

So the practical position for an Australian business is this. The links are more prominent, Google says it wants people to click out and dive deeper, and there is no way in Search Console to see whether they do. Any extra visits will be hard to separate from ordinary organic traffic.

This sits alongside the other recent change to the same product. Google added Gemini 4 Argon to AI Mode for Pro and Ultra subscribers, and an early screenshot of that model's answers showed links in them. That is more links in more places, and still none of them measured in Search Console.

What is still unclear

• How much inline links have increased. Google gave no figures.
• Which locations and languages the carousel expansion covers, and whether Australia is among them.
• When, or whether, the official-site section and the profile links move beyond testing. Google gave no timeline for either.
• How many people use Preferred Sources. Google gave the growth rate, not the count.
• When click data for AI results will reach Search Console.

In the same post on X, Nick Fox said more than 400 publications worldwide are now in Google's News AI pilot licensing program, under which Google pays for the delivery and use of enhanced content to build AI features. That program is for news publishers. It says nothing about how an ordinary business site is compensated for appearing in AI answers, which is the question behind the argument that open web content is now free training data.

What to do this week

1. Open Search Console and confirm the site is included in Search generative AI features. Without that, it cannot be a Preferred Source in AI Mode or AI Overviews.
2. If the site publishes timely content, add Google's Preferred Sources button or deep link where regular readers will see it. Carousels only highlight a site for the readers who have chosen it.
3. Check AI Mode and AI Overviews for the queries that matter to the business over the next few weeks. The carousel rollout is starting now and Google has not said where.
4. Treat AI position data in Search Console with care. The performance report fell more than 64 hours behind after the spam update earlier this month, and even when current it gives one position for the whole overview rather than one per link.
5. Keep producing the pages that earn the links. The announcement says nothing about how Google chooses which sites it cites. It changes how visible those citations are.

The honest summary is that Google has made it easier to click out of its AI answers and has given no way to count who does. Until click data arrives, Preferred Sources eligibility is the one lever in this announcement a business can pull.