October SEO Industry Updates

Through the month of October, there were a handful of big changes to SERPs, namely with updates and changes to how AI appears in a search. We saw AI Mode expansion in the form of ads and the combination of paid and organic items in product carousels, as well as increases to the amount of AI Overviews on eCommerce keywords and increased revenue for AI visits. There was also the roll-out of the Universal Cart on Google in the US, and a notable bug with ChatGPT regarding how clicks through it were displayed.

These changes are following a trend of ongoing increases to AI presence on Google, with continued experimentation on Google’s end in the form of the combination of paid and organic products in carousels and the ongoing tweaks being made to keep the distinction clear between the two types of products. With these frequent changes, businesses need to continue to adapt their strategies, and brand visibility will remain as being dependant on the accessibility of content and how informative it is.

Google Launches Universal Cart in the US

On the 15th October, Google launched Universal Cart in US search pages and in Gemini. This feature allows shoppers to save products across multiple retailers into a singular basket and check out via Google Pay or via the retailer’s site. This runs on Universal Commerce Protocol, which is an open standard designed to enable agentic commerce, and merchants will remain the seller on record.

The implementation of Universal Cart means that Merchant Centre feeds need to remain as fresh as possible, due to price and stock alerts using them. With Shopify stores being switched on in September, it is highly recommended to review settings within accounts.

There is currently no rollout in the UK, nor are there any estimations of timings or potential fees for this feature.

AI Mode Ads Due in the UK in Q4 2026

As of the 28th October, Google revealed that ads being featured in AI Mode are being rolled out into ten more countries, with the UK, Brazil and Mexico being planned for Q4. Along with this, multiturn ads are also launching in the US, which allows ads to appear in responses to follow-up queries in AI Mode. All ads within AI Mode will be clearly labelled as “Sponsored”, says Google.

Moving forward, expect to see paid placements beside organic results in AI Mode in the UK this winter. It is also highly recommended to review Shopping and Performance Max coverage with your paid teams.

AI Mode Mixes Paid and Organic Products

Keeping in line with the previous point, another change arrived to AI Mode in the form of an experiment by Google. Around 29th October, Google was seen testing product carousels in AI Mode that feature a mix of sponsored and organic items under “Sponsored” and “All products” labels. This was confirmed to be part of a series of ongoing ad experiments being done by Google, and that all sponsored listings will be clearly labelled as such, with improved clearer definition between the two product types.

With these changes in mind, it may become more difficult to win organic product visibility in AI Mode as the presence of paid items increases. As a measure, keeping product data complete will allow qualification for both.

More Links in AI Answers, Still No Click Data

As of the 15th October, Google added more inline links to AI Mode and AI Overview, a task-focused link section, bigger news carousels and clickable “Dive Deeper” thumbnails. At present, there’s no click data for AI results in Search Console, but Google has said that it will “introduce additional metrics over time”.

With the introduction of more links, there may be more referral chances, but unfortunately these are currently unable to be measured. However, it is still highly recommended to track cited pages and branded clicks across each retail client.

Ecommerce Keywords with AI Overviews: 33% to 85%

A Semrush study published on the 21st October found AI Overviews on 88% of 400 tracked US commercial keywords in August 2026, which is a significant increase from approximately 46% in September 2025.

Notably, eCommerce rose from 32.62% to 85.11%. The bad news is that these results are US desktop only and have no click data, on which there has been no further comments from Google. It is also important to keep in mind that Semrush sells AI tracking.

Moving forward, businesses should assume that “best”, “review” and “price” terms now trigger AI Overviews, which suggests that buying guides and comparison pages are vital. Checking these for brand and product pages would be a great place to start in order to increase the likelihood of these terms appearing with an AI Overview.

Adobe: AI Visits Earn 83% More Revenue Per Visit

On the 29th October, Adobe reported AI traffic for US retail earned 83% more revenue per visit than other traffic in September 2026, growing by 71% YoY.

These statistics are based on over one trillion US retail visits, however the UK was not included. Adobe anticipates that this gap will approximately double over the holidays. While AI referrals are small, they are increasingly more valuable with the ongoing shift of SERPs being more AI-driven. Segmenting these in GA4 will prove to be beneficial, as opposed to leaving them in direct.

ChatGPT Clicks Briefly Showed as Direct Traffic

Around the 9th October, links from ChatGPT stopped carrying UTM tags with the GPT-6 rollout, meaning that visits via the LLM were appearing as direct. Adobe’s Cedric Huesler later referred to this as a bug.

Off the back of this, Adobe saw approximately 31K fewer daily ChatGPT visits and 26K more direct visits on 500 pages. By 15th October, tagging had reportedly returned to normal.

When reviewing traffic for October, keep in mind that the period between the 9th and 15th October, the data showing may not be entirely accurate and annotating accordingly is highly recommended. Direct traffic may be hiding AI visits, meaning ChatGPT traffic data may appear to have dipped.

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