September closed with some major search updates across Google Search, ChatGPT, SEO and paid media, ranging from new AI-driven search features and stricter ad policies to new insights on local visibility. Here’s everything you need to know to stay ahead.
Updates are colour coded by importance:
🔴 Major developments likely to impact strategy
🟡 Worth watching or understanding
🟢 Informative - but lower impact for most
Google Search
🔴 Google’s August 2025 spam update is complete
Google’s latest spam update finished rolling out on September 22. Find out about its scope, scale, and impact in our in-depth coverage.
🟡 AI Mode option will be added to Chrome search bar
Google has announced plans to add an AI Mode option to the Chrome search bar, enabling AI-driven search directly within their browser. This means Chrome queries will likely become longer and more conversational.
Google’s Robby Stein posted the following to X:
“AI Mode - our most powerful AI search - is coming to the Chrome address bar. This means you can use AI Mode to ask complex, multi-part questions right from the same place you already search and browse the web from Chrome. And you can quickly ask follow-up questions and explore more content from across the web.”
The AI Mode button will sit on the right-hand side of the bar. To activate it, users type in their query as normal, then instead of pressing enter, click on the AI Mode icon.
This feature is going live in the US now, with broader rollout expected in the following weeks.
For site owners and marketers…
The new AI Mode feature in Chrome shortens the path between users and AI-driven search results, which may reduce traditional SERP visibility.
Rather than performing a search, viewing the SERP, and then choosing to use AI Mode, users can now access AI-generated results directly from the Chrome search bar before taking any further action.
For many websites, this is likely to accelerate the ongoing trend of lower impressions and clicks. However, the clicks that do occur—whether from an AI Mode output or the traditional SERP—are likely to be of higher quality.
Users who bypass AI Mode and engage with the traditional SERP are actively seeking to explore multiple sources and interact with the content. And when a user clicks on an AI Mode citation, it indicates a stronger intent, as AI wasn’t able to fully satisfy their query.
See our coverage of AI Mode’s UK launch to get up to speed with Google’s flagship AI search tool.
🟡 Google Search Live now available in English to all US users
Google’s Search Live functionality is now fully rolled out as a standard feature in the US, with no opt-in to Search Labs required.
Announced in May, Search Live enables users to have a free-flowing conversation with Google Search, while mobile users can also show Google what they’re looking at via their phone cameras.
For example, a user could point their phone at a plant in their garden and ask, “What kind of plant is this, and how do I care for it?” Google would not only identify the plant but also provide care instructions, related products, and links to trusted resources, all in a conversational interface that allows follow-up questions such as, “Can I grow this indoors?” or “What are common pests for this plant?”
There’s currently no timeline for a UK launch, but we expect it will hit our shores sooner rather than later.
For site owners & marketers…
Search Live will shift some queries from traditional text-based searches to interactive, multi-modal experiences. Content that is visually identifiable, structured for clear answers, and optimised for conversational queries will have a higher chance of being surfaced.
Marketers should consider how their products, services, and informational content can be discovered through both images and natural language questions. Additionally, follow-up interactions mean that providing deeper, authoritative content can capture users whose initial queries aren’t fully satisfied by AI-generated summaries, creating new opportunities for engagement and conversion.
Need help optimising your content for these new search experiences? TDMP is an expert SEO agency specialising in adaptable, forward-thinking strategies - explore SEO services.
🟡 Cloudflare helping site owners prevent content being used in AI Overviews
Cloudflare has introduced a new “Content Signals Policy” that builds upon the robots.txt directive, enabling site owners to submit preferences on how their content can be used once accessed.
This aim is to present clear signals to Google when content is not fair game for use in AI Overviews but should be indexed for placement on Google’s traditional SERPs. However, the new signal policy isn’t legally binding - for it to work, Google will have to accept it in good faith, which is yet to happen.
CEO of Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, mentioned back in March that he was confident Google would willingly comply, but also that there is clear legal recourse to force their hand should they resist.
For site owners…
For those who, out of principle, would rather Google didn’t have carte blanche to strip their content for parts without fair compensation, this is a step in the right direction.
Only time will tell how permanent and impactful it will be, but efforts to give content creators and publishers more control over their work are always a good thing.
However, from a digital marketing perspective, the more visible you are in AI-generated search results, the better, so it’s worth considering the potential trade-offs before signaling that your content is off-limits.
Ideally, Cloudflare’s “pay-per-crawl” feature (which allows AI crawlers to access your content for a fee) could offer the best of both worlds: compensating creators while still allowing their content to be cited in AI-generated outputs. However, this feature is still in the experimental stage. Until the broader search ecosystem responds and standards solidify, the impact of charging for access on your content’s visibility in AI results remains uncertain.
SEO
🟡 Study reveals which review signals matter most for GBP visibility
We all know that reviews are an essential part of GBP visibility, but an analysis of 3,000+ Google Business profiles has revealed two specific review-based signals that have the most impact.
While proximity remains the most important factor for local search visibility overall, when Google is ranking the top 10 nearby businesses relevant to a query, review count and service-based keywords within reviews become much more important value indicators, boosting position in the results.
In the top 10 positions, proximity has 36% influence (vs 55% across the top 21 positions), but review count and review keywords have a combined influence of 48%, reaching 26% and 22% respectively.
Although Search Atlas, who carried out the study, report that there appears to be some variation by sector.
For local-serving businesses…
Your business location is fixed, so, while it’s an essential aspect of your local visibility, there’s nothing you can do to leverage it for bolstered ranks. Reviews, on the other hand, while not completely within your control, can be guided to better serve your ranking; it’s all about well-crafted review requests.
Encourage specifics in both the review title and body. It’s best if a reviewer actually mention the service they used. For example, Instead of something generic like ‘highly recommend this plumber,’ a stronger review would be ‘fast emergency plumbing repair for a burst pipe.’
🟢 Google Business Profile suspensions spiking
Several SEOs have reported a spike in GBP suspensions. Although no clear pattern has emerged as to the types of profiles that are being suspended and why, it has been put forward that the root cause likely has to do with algorithm adjustments made by spam and quality teams at Google.
For business owners…
Until more is known about why accounts are being suspended, it’s best not to make any significant changes to your Business Profile. Proceed with routine maintenance and best practices.
Fortunately, for those who have already had accounts suspended, it looks like the reinstatement process isn’t too taxing, as it has been reported that Google has already re-approved several.
If you’re experiencing difficulties, it could be that there’s a real issue with your Business Profile. Contact TDMP today for support getting your profile reinstated.
🟢 Google says SEO tools and personal crawlers will require authentication
Google is moving toward authenticated access for personal crawlers and SEO tools. Traditional methods of scraping search results or using automated tools without verification are becoming less reliable due to Google’s dropping of the num=100 parameter and blocking bots.
Find out what’s important for SEO in 2025 - and what no longer matters.
Authentication will rely on signatures (not IP whitelisting), and standards are still evolving, particularly around AI-assisted browsing that acts on your behalf.
For site owners & marketers…
If you rely on automated audits, rank tracking, or AI-assisted SEO, this change is important to monitor to ensure your data remains complete and accurate.
On the other hand, if your SEO efforts are mostly manual, or you rely on Google Search Console and other official APIs, the immediate impact is smaller, and you can continue your workflows as usual. But it’s still worth keeping an eye on future updates to stay ahead of potential changes.
OpenAI
🟡 ChatGPT gets an instant checkout option
OpenAI recently released their agentic GPT, a chatbot that can browse and take action on websites on a user’s behalf. Now, the AI pioneers are introducing shades of agenticism to all tiers of standard ChatGPT in the US.
Where required, users will now be served with an in-ChatGPT checkout for making purchases without leaving the platform or even visiting the e-commerce site in question.
This new feature is powered by their Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with the online payment processing company Stripe.
Currently, users are limited to making purchases from Etsy merchants, but the feature will expand to include 1 million+ Shopify merchants, including Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori.
OpenAI notes, ‘Merchants may pay a small fee on successful purchases’, making this the first direct commerce-based monetisation of ChatGPT, and with no ads in sight - a forward-thinking move.
For e-commerce brands...
This feature will almost certainly arrive in the UK before too long. It’s unclear how willing UK users will be to shop directly in ChatGPT, but as merchants only incur a charge upon making a sale, it’s worth applying.
If the UK launch follows the same process as the US, you’ll be able to do so on OpenAI’s merchant page. The company says, ‘We’ll be accepting and onboarding merchants on a rolling basis.’
Importantly, though, simply adding Instant Checkout in ChatGPT won’t guarantee your store or products are visible in ChatGPT outputs. Merchants should combine their application with AI-focused page and content optimisations.
It will be interesting to see if this feature expands beyond e-commerce, but buying a product is a relatively simple, fixed transaction, which lends itself well to in-chat sales. Conversely, many service-based offerings involve more complex processes, such as quotes, scheduling, or ongoing commitments, that don’t lend themselves as easily to one-click purchasing.
🟢 ChatGPT gets a search update
ChatGPT’s search functionality has been upgraded to offer:
- Enhanced factuality - fewer hallucinations
- A better shopping experience - now better at detecting and meeting shopping intent
- Formatting - answers given in more digestible formats for quicker understanding without sacrificing response quality or detail
For brands…
The shopping experience upgrade is the one to focus on here. With ChatGPT knowing when to include products in an output, if your brand’s products are served, the chance of receiving quality clicks from the platform (and hopefully making more sales) rises substantially.
Brands should ensure product pages are optimised for discovery by ChatGPT to ensure maximum presence in exchanges with shopping intent.
Find out how to optimise your digital presence for visibility in AI search.
Paid media
🔴 Google gets strict on dishonest pricing practices in ads
Google is updating its Misrepresentation policy for Google Ads to crack down on dishonest pricing practices.
Starting October 28, 2025, advertisers must clearly disclose the full cost or payment model for a product or service, and avoid creating misleading impressions about pricing. Enforcement will ramp up over roughly four weeks, with prior warnings given before any account suspension.
What’s new:
- Advertisers must clearly disclose the payment model or full expense before and after purchase.
- Misleading pricing practices are prohibited, including:
- Bait-and-switch tactics: Advertising a low-priced product with no intention of selling it, to push a higher-cost alternative.
- Price exploitation: Taking advantage of vulnerable customers with inflated costs.
- Misleading “free” claims: Advertising an app as free when payment is required.
- Unclear free trials: Not clearly stating trial duration or automatic charges after the trial.
For advertisers…
Review all ads to ensure pricing is transparent and compliant. Remove or update non-compliant ads before October 28, 2025 to avoid warnings or potential account suspension, and consider auditing campaigns for any tactics that might create unexpected costs or mislead users.
You won’t just be meeting Google’s updated criteria by making these changes; clear, upfront costs reduce drop-offs and wasted spend, while building trust that drives stronger conversion rates over time.
Want expert support to optimise your campaigns and maximise ROI? TDMP is a Google Premier Partner PPC agency with an extensive track record of delivering compliant campaigns with outstanding results. Explore our PPC services.
Stay current with TDMP
With so many shifts across search and AI, it’s vital to stay proactive. If you’re unsure how these changes might affect your visibility or marketing strategy, get in touch with TDMP today; we’ll help you turn updates into opportunities.