Links in Google's AI answers: Oeuvria builds your site to be the one that gets cited — here's why

What Google announced

• More inline links inside AI answers, shown more often near the top of the response.
• A test: a section at the top of the answer for the one or two official sites where a specific task gets done, with context on why each is useful.
• News carousels expanding to more countries and languages, highlighting the user's "preferred sources".
• More prominent links to related articles, with thumbnails.
• A test of clickable creator names on video results.

Google says use of its Preferred Sources feature has grown more than 7x since the start of the year. It did not, however, publish any figures on how these changes affect clicks to websites — so be wary of any traffic promise. Source: Google's post "More ways to connect with the web from Search", October 15, 2026.

What it means for a small business

An AI answer is no longer a dead end: it sends more people to websites. But it sends them to sites the engine clearly understands — who does what, where, and which page answers which question. When someone wants to book, request a quote or reach a specific business, Google tries to show the official site. If your site is vague, it may cite a directory or a competitor instead.

How Oeuvria builds your site to be the one that gets cited

• A machine-readable business identity: structured data (JSON-LD) describing your business, services, service area and official profiles (Google Business, LinkedIn) — what we already apply on oeuvria.com.
• Answer-first pages: one page per service and per key question, the answer in the first lines, and marked-up FAQs (FAQPage) so they can be picked as the answer.
• An llms.txt file that summarizes the site for AI assistants.
• A bilingual French/English site, to be the cited source in both languages.
• SEO, GEO and AEO delivered together, not as three separate bills.

Why Oeuvria? Because we continuously track what's new at Google and in AI — like this announcement — and we apply to our clients' sites what we first put in place on our own. No ranking promise, no made-up traffic figure: an up-to-date method, applied.

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FAQ

What did Google change in its AI answers in October 2026?

Google shows more links to source websites in AI Mode and AI Overviews, higher up in the response, and is testing a section that highlights the official site when a task can only be done in one or two places.

Will it bring me more visits?

Google hasn't published any traffic figures. What's certain: AI answers show more links; yours still has to be the one the engine finds clear and reliable.

What should I actually do so my site gets cited?

Make your business clear to machines (structured data, linked official profiles), answer your customers' questions directly on dedicated pages, and keep your information consistent everywhere (website, Google Business Profile).