Google AI search
Google's AI Mode will show more links, and a slot for official websites. What B2B sites should do
By Arnav Mukherjee, founder of TofuBofu · October 17, 2026
TL;DR
- Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews carry more inline links, shown higher up more often. Our read: passages win them.
- It's testing a top-of-answer section for the one or two official pages that complete a task.
- For a B2B firm that slot means pricing, demo, sign-in and docs. Give each task one clear page.
- Preferred Sources use has grown more than 7x this year, Google says. Fresh publishers should ask for it.
- None of this touches ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity. Measure them on their own.
When we counted the sources in Google AI Mode answers this summer, the average answer cited 20 distinct sources. In a corpus drawn mostly from AI Mode and Bing Copilot, 48 of 882 sources were a homepage. That count covers 55 scans from 24 June to 24 August 2026, run for firms that mostly suspected they were missing from AI answers, so it's not a random sample, and four of those scans supply almost all of the sources. The direction was still plain: engines cited pages that answer a question far more often than homepages.
On 15 October Google announced five changes to how its AI answers link out. Two of them push further in that direction. A third is a test of a dedicated section for "official places on the web", which Google says expands what it already does when someone wants to go to a particular site. Below: each change, what's still a test, and what a B2B site should fix.
What did Google announce on 15 October?
The post is by Hema Budaraju, VP of Product Management, and it covers AI Mode and AI Overviews. Same three fields for each change, so you can see at a glance which ones are live.
Inline links
What changes: More links embedded in words and phrases of the answer, and shown higher up in responses more often.
Status: Google says it has made continued and substantial increases, and is launching the higher placement.
Our read: Each link backs one point in the answer. A section that answers one question on its own is what earns it.
Official websites section
What changes: A dedicated section at the top of a response for the one or two official places to complete a specific task, with context about why each link is useful.
Status: A test.
Our read: A prominent place at the top of the answer for task pages. See the next section.
News carousels
What changes: Prominent carousels for timely articles, rolling out to more locations and languages. They highlight the reader's Preferred Sources.
Status: Rolling out.
Our read: Matters if you publish news or timely analysis. A B2B site with no fresh content won't feature.
Related-article links
What changes: The links at the end of some responses get image thumbnails and a more clickable design.
Status: Announced, with no rollout detail.
Our read: A good image on each article page is now part of how it looks in an AI answer.
Creator profiles
What changes: Creator and publisher names on video results link to their Search profiles in AI Mode.
Status: Testing since the week of the post.
Our read: Google says eligible creators and publishers can set up a Search profile. If your team publishes video, check whether you qualify.
Which of your pages belong in the official websites section?
Google's wording is precise, so start there: "Sometimes, there are only one or two official places on the web to complete a specific task or get the exact info you need." It says the new display will surface those links at the top of a response and that this "expands on what we already do today to show links front and center when you're looking to go to a particular site."
Our read is that the section serves a buyer who already knows your name and wants to do something with you, such as see your pricing or sign in. On a B2B site, that's a short list, and this list is our read, since Google hasn't said which queries trigger the section:
- Pricing: "[your brand] pricing" is the most valuable task query you have.
- Book a demo or contact sales: the page a shortlisted buyer is trying to reach.
- Sign in: customers, every day.
- Documentation and API reference: the page an evaluating engineer checks.
- Security, compliance and status: the pages procurement asks for.
On these queries the risk comes from an AI answer that sends your buyer to a review site's summary of your pricing, an old pricing page you never redirected, or a reseller. "Official" is a judgement Google makes, and you make it easy by leaving nothing to decide.
- One canonical page per task. If two pricing pages exist, redirect one.
- A title that names the task and the brand, so "Pricing | Acme" can't be confused with a blog post about pricing.
- Organization markup stating your official URL. In the sites we crawled for an August study, 16 of 39 had no Organization schema at all, and those were sites selected on the problem, since most ran a scan because they suspected they were invisible.
- Say the useful thing on the page. Google says each link comes "with context about why each link is useful". Give it a sentence to work with: what this page lets the buyer do.
See which pages Google AI Mode cites for your buyers' questions
A free scan asks five AI engines your buyers' questions and shows each engine's answer in full.
Check your AI visibility freeWhat do more inline links mean for buying questions?
The official section serves buyers who know you. Inline links serve the ones who don't yet, and they're the bigger change for discovery. Google says it has made "continued and substantial increases" to inline links and will show them higher up more often.
An inline link sits on a phrase, so it backs one claim. The page that wins it is the one where a single section states that claim clearly, with the evidence next to it. That matches what our counts showed before this change: 20 distinct sources per AI Mode answer, and homepages a small minority of what got cited.
So the work is section-level. Take the five questions buyers ask most in your category and check whether each one has a section on your site that answers it without needing the rest of the page. We wrote up how to do that in our guide to self-contained sections.
Do Preferred Sources matter for a B2B site now?
More than they did. Google says the number of people using Preferred Sources "has grown by more than 7x since the start of the year", and the expanding news carousels highlight those sources. In May, Google said people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source. Google gave no denominator for either figure, so read them as direction, not size.
Two limits. Preferred Sources only reaches readers who already chose you, so it does nothing for a buyer who hasn't heard of you. And carousels are for timely articles. Our read: a B2B site that publishes a case study a quarter is unlikely to appear in them however many readers choose it. If you publish fresh analysis on a schedule, add the Preferred Sources button and ask your newsletter readers to use it. If you don't, this is the least important of the five changes for you. Our Preferred Sources guide for B2B covers the setup.
What does this update not change?
- Other engines. Every change is to Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity choose their sources their own way, and a gain on Google tells you nothing about them.
- Whether you're named. More links in an answer don't put your brand into an answer that didn't mention you. Being linked and being recommended are different results, and you should track both.
- The test status. The official websites section is a test. Google may change it or drop it, so fix the task pages because they're worth fixing anyway, not because of the slot.
Frequently asked questions
What did Google change in AI Mode on 15 October 2026?
Five things, announced by Hema Budaraju, VP of Product Management. More inline links in AI responses, shown higher up more often. A test of a dedicated section at the top of a response for official websites. Timely-article carousels rolling out to more locations and languages, highlighting Preferred Sources. More prominent related-article links with thumbnails. And a test of clickable creator and publisher names on video results that link to Search profiles in AI Mode.
What is the official websites section in Google AI Mode?
A display Google says it will test, which surfaces the one or two official places on the web to complete a specific task in a dedicated section at the top of an AI response, with context about why each link is useful. Google describes it as expanding what it already does to show links front and center when someone wants to go to a particular site. It is a test, not a launch.
Which pages on a B2B website could appear in the official websites section?
Our read: the pages where a buyer completes a task with you. Pricing, booking a demo, signing in, documentation, a status page, support, and security or compliance pages. Google has not published which queries trigger the section, so treat this as the set worth making unambiguous rather than a guarantee.
Do inline links in AI Mode change what content gets cited?
Google says it has made substantial increases to inline links and will show them higher up more often. An inline link is attached to a word or phrase in the answer, so it rewards a passage that supports one specific point. In our own citation counts this summer, drawn mostly from AI Mode and Copilot answers, homepages were a small minority of the sources cited.
How many people use Google Preferred Sources?
Google gives no absolute number in this announcement. It says the number of people using Preferred Sources has grown by more than 7x since the start of 2026. In May it said people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source.
Does this update affect ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity?
No. Every change in the announcement is to Google's own AI experiences, AI Mode and AI Overviews. Measure the other engines separately; a gain in Google's AI Mode says nothing about whether ChatGPT or Claude names you.
What should a B2B site do this week?
Give every task a buyer completes with you one canonical page whose title names the task and your brand. Remove duplicate pricing or demo pages that compete with each other. Make sure your Organization markup states your official URL. Rewrite key sections so each answers one question on its own. And if you publish fresh content, ask readers to add you as a Preferred Source.
Sources and further reading
- Google, More ways to connect with the web from Search, by Hema Budaraju, 15 October 2026: all five changes, the official websites test and the Preferred Sources growth figure. Read 17 October 2026
- Google, New ways to find your favorite sources and original content in AI Search, May 2026: the twice-as-likely click-through figure for Preferred Sources
- Google, A new profile to help publishers and creators highlight their work on Search, 4 June 2026: what a Search profile is
- Google Search Central, Help your readers find your site through preferred sources: the setup, and the rule that only domain and subdomain level sites are eligible, so a /blog subdirectory is not
- TofuBofu, Which websites do AI engines actually cite? We counted 882 of them.: the 55-scan citation count behind the AI Mode figures, with its limits