October reminded us that Generative AI isn’t an experiment anymore. From Google Search to Microsoft 365 Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, AI-first experiences are rewriting how users search, click, and convert.
For Indian SEOs, this month is about three things:
With platforms evolving rapidly, the surface area for SEO is no longer just web links — it’s structured answers, assistant memories, and embedded shopping.
Catch up on every algorithm tweak, AI rollout, and search experiment from October in our SEO News of the Month – October 2025 edition
A Weglot-backed study, covered by SEJ, analysed 1.3 million citations across Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT to understand how multilingual sites perform. Translated Spanish sites saw up to 327% more visibility in AI Overviews than monolingual sites, and around 24% more citations per query overall. Untranslated sites almost disappeared when users searched in another language, with many clicks going to Google Translate proxy URLs instead of the original domain. For Indian SEOs, this is a strong signal to treat translation, localisation, and hreflang as core AI-SEO levers when targeting English plus regional languages or NRI audiences.
Ahrefs published a large study compiling more than 90 AI-in-SEO statistics across content creation, bots, rankings, and AI search traffic. They report that about 74% of new web content now contains some level of AI involvement, and 86.5% of pages ranking in the top 20 are at least partially AI-generated. There is no clear negative correlation between AI usage and rankings. For Ahrefs itself, AI search traffic converts roughly 23x better than standard organic, even though it is still a small share of total visits. Indian SEO teams should focus on editing, fact-checking, and brand authority instead of avoiding AI entirely.
Semrush announced “Semrush One,” positioning it as a unified growth platform that also brings AI search visibility into the core toolkit. New metrics let marketers estimate visibility not only in classic Google Search but also in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Mode. The Traffic and Market tools now expose traffic estimates from AI channels, helping teams see how AI surfaces are affecting category demand and competitor reach. Semrush reports its own AI share of voice nearly tripled after using the system internally. For Indian agencies, this offers a practical way to benchmark GEO SEO and content strategy beyond blue-link rankings.
Surfer’s November 2025 product roundup doubles down on AI search visibility and brand consistency. AI Tracker now includes richer comparison views and easier exports, making it simpler to benchmark how often brands are cited across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, then share those insights with clients or leadership. Surfer is also expanding access to Brand Knowledge, which lets teams feed structured brand details so all AI-assisted writing stays on-message. Together, these updates shift Surfer from a pure on-page optimization tool toward an AI visibility and brand-safety platform, especially useful for Indian agencies managing multiple SaaS, D2C, and local business clients.
A new report shared via Digiday and summarised by Nieman Lab highlights how Google AI Overviews are hitting publisher traffic. According to the Daily Mail, when an AI Overview appears above its organic listing, click-through rate is now 80–90% lower than on comparable queries without AI Overviews, a sharp deterioration from the 56% loss it reported earlier in 2025. That level of cannibalisation is likely to accelerate moves toward paywalls, direct apps, push notifications, and newsletters. For Indian publishers and news portals, this is a clear warning to diversify traffic sources and build more resilient, owned-audience channels beyond Google’s SERP.
SEO forums and tracking tools reported a surge of Google search ranking volatility around November 7, 2025. Nicknamed the “Movember” update by the community, this unconfirmed algorithm tweak caused significant traffic swings – some sites saw 15–40% drops in organic traffic over a few days despite unchanged rankings. Google did not announce any official core update, suggesting this turbulence may be a quality or relevance adjustment. Indian SEO professionals should note these patterns, monitor their keyword positions and analytics, and be prepared to refine content quality and site authority if they experienced unusual ranking fluctuations.
After weeks of fake AI-generated stories infiltrating Google Discover, Google acknowledged the issue and is “actively working on a fix.” Scammers were reportedly buying expired high-authority domains to spread bogus AI-written news that amassed millions of views via Discover. Google’s fix will bolster Discover’s spam filters to maintain its high bar for quality. For publishers and SEO teams in India, this move means Discover traffic should become more reliable as low-quality AI spam gets purged. Websites focusing on authentic, user-centric content could regain visibility in Discover once Google implements these quality improvements.
Google rolled out new ways for e-commerce sites to showcase shipping speed, costs, and return policies directly in search results. Now all online merchants – not just those on Merchant Center – can configure shipping/return details in Google Search Console or implement a new organization-level ShippingPolicy structured data on their policy pages. These options, launching globally in coming weeks, let retailers highlight perks like fast delivery or easy returns on Google. For Indian SEO professionals working with e-commerce, adopting this markup or GSC setting can improve shoppers’ trust and potentially boost click-through rates by surfacing fulfillment info on SERPs.
Google clarified that structured data remains vital for SEO, despite plans to phase out a handful of rarely used rich result types by 2026. In response to publisher concerns (“is schema still worth it?”), Google’s John Mueller explained that search features (and their schema triggers) continually evolve, but core markup like Organization, FAQ, How-To, etc., still help Google understand and index content. Essentially, certain schema may be retired as products change, yet overall schema markup is here to stay. SEOs in India should continue implementing relevant structured data, knowing it can enhance visibility even as Google refines its rich results programs.
SEO platform Semrush rolled out an “AI vs SEO” comparison report in beta that lets marketers track a domain’s visibility in AI search results versus traditional Google search. This industry-first dashboard shows side-by-side share-of-voice trends and rankings for your site in AI assistants (like ChatGPT’s answers or Google’s SGE) compared to normal SERPs. By highlighting where competitors dominate in AI answers but not in web search (and vice versa), the tool helps SEOs spot content gaps. For Indian SEO agencies, this means a more holistic view of search presence, ensuring strategies cover emerging AI-driven search channels in addition to Google.
Google is deploying two new AI-driven assistants in its marketing suite – Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor – to streamline campaign management and insight discovery. Built on Google’s latest Gemini models, these advisors answer natural-language questions and automate tasks: Ads Advisor can suggest keyword or budget tweaks, troubleshoot policy disapprovals, and even apply optimizations in Google Ads. Analytics Advisor acts like a digital analyst in GA4, explaining traffic changes (“Why did visits drop?”) and recommending actions to improve engagement. Indian digital marketers can expect more conversational, time-saving workflows – less manual data crunching, more AI-suggested fixes – as these English-language AI advisors hit accounts in December.
Google is phasing out several underused search features and structured data types. In coming weeks, rich results tied to markups like Book, Course, ClaimReview, and SpecialAnnouncement will be deprecated. Google also confirmed it’s removing niche SERP elements – e.g. the “Today’s Doodle” box, nutrition facts panels, “nearby offers” snippets, local bike-share status, and practice problem results. The goal is to simplify results pages and speed up Search. SEOs should audit their schema (no need to purge it entirely – unsupported code will simply be ignored and be ready for minor traffic or CTR shifts as these features disappear.
Google’s experimental AI Mode just got more capable in Search Labs. As of early November, U.S. users opted-in can have Google’s AI find and book real-world services via chat. This includes snagging event tickets, restaurant reservations, and beauty or wellness appointments. The AI will scour multiple providers (e.g. Ticketmaster, OpenTable) and surface available slots with direct booking links. Notably, higher request limits are granted to paid Google AI Pro/Ultra subscribers. This “agentic search” evolution means SEOs must prepare for a future where search engines transact on behalf of users – ensure your booking integrations, local listings, and structured data are in order so you’re included in these AI-driven bookings.
Link building alone won’t cut it in the AI era – brand visibility is the new off-page signal. Analysis by Ahrefs finds that sites frequently mentioned (even without backlinks) are far likelier to be cited in AI-driven search answers. In practice, Large Language Models and AI search over-index on known entities, so a strong brand footprint is gold. For SEOs, this means doubling down on PR, online community engagement, and content that earns mentions on forums, social media, and news sites. Building brand buzz and trust signals across the web can improve your odds of surfacing in ChatGPT answers or Google’s AI overviews where traditional link equity might be bypassed.
Google Maps is rolling out a bundle of AI features powered by Google’s new Gemini model. Users will be able to point their phone’s camera at a restaurant or shop and ask conversational questions like “What is this place, and why is it popular?” – with Maps + Lens instantly returning AI-generated insights. Driving navigation is also getting an upgrade: directions will now mention landmarks (“turn right after the Mobile Gas Station”) instead of just distances, thanks to Gemini’s understanding of 250 million places and Street View data. Plus, proactive traffic alerts will warn of road disruptions before you start your route. For local SEOs in India, this is a sign to enrich your Google Business Profile and online reviews with the kind of detail AI can riff on. As Maps becomes an interactive, Q&A-driven experience, businesses with strong local content and clear, positive customer feedback stand to gain the most visibility.
New AI encyclopedia Grokipedia launched on October 27, 2025 with 885,279 AI-generated pages, and both Google and Bing began indexing it within a week. Google shows 400+ results via the site: command, with Bing surfacing a similar volume. Early SERP signals include limited search visibility, no favicon, and confusion with “Wikipedia” for brand queries. The rapid crawl and indexation spotlight how search engines handle scaled AI content amid Google’s “scaled content abuse” crackdown and manual actions. SEOs should watch crawling patterns, index growth, and quality signals as Grokipedia expands, because this test case may influence indexing, rankings, and content policies.
Google LLC reported that its AI Overviews and conversational Search Generative Experience (SGE) have driven an increase in search activity — particularly for commercial queries in 40+ languages.
For SEOs, this means optimizing content for structured data, entity-based SEO, and concise, sourced summaries. Google’s AI surfaces prefer clarity: well-defined entities, citations from authoritative sources, and coherent context. Expect expansion into mobile search and Google Discover in India.
Structured content using Schema.org/FAQPage, HowTo, and Organization markup will become key in earning presence in Overviews.
The new Pomelli by Google Labs, developed with Google DeepMind, lets businesses auto-generate brand-consistent content using their site’s design, tone, and visual identity.
This initiative ties into Google’s broader push to empower Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) through Performance Max campaigns and AI tooling. Pomelli may eventually integrate with Google Ads, Business Profile, and even YouTube Ads.
Indian marketers can use it to speed up ad creatives — but should ensure their brand voice remains distinct and relevant to their target audience.
OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT Go, a budget-friendly version of its AI assistant, now available in India and 97 other countries. It includes GPT-4-level access, image generation via DALL·E, and multimodal input — all for a lower price.
As usage increases, ChatGPT becomes a genuine alternative to traditional search engines for queries like product discovery, service comparisons, and knowledge lookup.
Brands need to manage their entity footprint across the web so that Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT retrieve accurate, brand-safe responses.
Microsoft Corporation expanded Microsoft 365 Copilot, enabling personalized retrieval across enterprise tools like Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Workspace, and more.
This shifts how employees interact with information — turning Copilot into an enterprise knowledge engine. For SEOs working on B2B content strategy, this means internal documentation must be optimized like public webpages.
Expect “search” to happen more within Copilot than in Google Workspace for corporate users.
ChatGPT Atlas, OpenAI’s AI-powered browser for macOS, introduces Agent Mode — where the AI can click, scroll, and navigate on users’ behalf. This behavior mimics humans in analytics tools, skewing engagement and User Behavior Metrics.
It also stores browser memories, raising privacy and data attribution concerns. SEOs need to monitor User-Agent strings, filter AI activity in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and harden sites against prompt injection attacks.
This is a major inflection in human–AI interaction via web browsing.
Google Ads will now appear inside AI Overviews for select English-speaking markets beyond the U.S. This includes Search Ads and Shopping Ads embedded directly in the answer box.
This fusion of paid and organic content requires tighter alignment between SEO and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategies. Even if your page is cited in the overview, a well-placed ad can intercept the click.
Indian marketers targeting product or service queries should test Search ad copy aligned with overview phrasing.
Google’s Search Relations team reiterated that canonical URLs, robots.txt, and sitemap entries are case-sensitive. Inconsistent casing between <link rel=canonical>, sitemaps, and internal links can fragment indexing signals.
Use tools like Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool and site crawlers to verify case consistency. Standardize to lowercase URLs and implement 301 redirects where needed.
This is core to crawl budget optimization, especially for large multilingual or ecommerce sites.
Between October 28–31, major rank tracking tools and communities like Search Engine Roundtable noted unconfirmed Google algorithm turbulence.
While no Core Update was announced, data points to a quality refresh — especially impacting thin content, aggressive affiliate clusters, and duplicate pages.
SEOs should annotate timelines, compare crawl logs via server access analysis, and triage impacted pages using Google’s Page Quality principles.
At its Made on YouTube 2025 event, YouTube LLC launched Ask Studio AI, a natural-language analytics assistant, and built-in A/B testing for video titles and thumbnails.
This elevates YouTube SEO by offering data-backed creative testing for titles — directly influencing CTR and watch time. Brands and creators in India now get direct access to tools previously limited to third-party suites.
Pair this with caption optimization and ensure your keywords appear in video scripts for maximum visibility.
AI-first interfaces are no longer coming — they’re here. From search assistants to enterprise browsers, the future of SEO depends on:
For Indian SEOs, the path forward means balancing brand control, security awareness, and multilingual entity clarity.
👉 Update: Newer editions available: Jump to Latest AI SEO News of the Month December 2025.
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