Google & SEO

Global roll out of social and video performance in Search Console

What’s new: This week, Google Search Console has rolled out the ability to monitor the performance of social media and video posts on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube on Google Search, Discover, and Google News, worldwide. 

What’s the benefit: Using these new ‘platform properties’, you’re able to track which search terms lead people to your social or video content from Google search, and see how your audience is interacting with your posts, all within Google Search Console.

You’ll need to add each platform property to your account as soon as possible so it can start collecting data. For more information on how to set your platform properties up and the reports available, please follow Google’s guide.

Google adding tracking URLs to search results

Search users have noticed that Google have recently been adding tracking URLs to search results. The tracking added to the end of the URL is ‘/goto’, for example, our URL could look like this in the search results “https://embryo.com/goto”. Interestingly, when users click on these types of results, the tracking URL is acting as a passthrough URL used to gain information about the click before sending users to the actual page.

The main cause for concern is the impact this will have on tracking and reporting. Users have already noticed /goto URLs being picked up in popular third party SEO tools like Ahrefs.

Whilst this still looks to be slowly rolling out, it’s important users are aware of this when reviewing future performance metrics.

Google Search IO 2026

Google Search IO 2026 highlights a continued shift toward AI driven search, with Gemini powering a more interactive and agent based experience. Search is moving beyond traditional listings, allowing users to ask complex questions, use multimodal inputs, and complete tasks directly within the search interface.

Key updates include expanded AI Overviews, a stronger AI Mode, and new agent style features that can help users take actions such as planning or booking. This signals a move from search as a list of results to search as an AI assistant that helps complete tasks.

For SEO, the focus should shift toward topical authority rather than isolated keywords by building strong content clusters that fully cover a subject. Content should be clearly structured so AI systems can easily interpret and reuse it, supported by strong internal linking to reinforce relationships between pages. There is also increased importance on informational content that directly solves user problems, alongside consistent brand and entity signals to strengthen Google’s understanding of site authority. Overall, optimisation should prioritise intent completion rather than rankings alone, especially as more queries are handled through AI driven results.

Google’s linking improvements in AI search

What’s new: Google has recently announced an update to the way it links to sources and information within its AI overview and in AI Mode. 

It will now link directly within the AI response next to the relevant text, rather than linking a cluster of sources towards the end of the information provided. 

It’s also introduced a new feature, giving users the ability to preview a website when hovering over the inline link on desktop. 

What’s the benefit: The more relevant placement of links will help with further exploration on a subject, rather than AI responses being a ‘dead end’ to the search. 

The new preview feature will help a user decide whether to click through to a site, with Google saying “We’ve seen that people might hesitate to click a link if they’re not sure exactly where it leads — so this update will help people feel more confident about visiting helpful websites.”

AI search is splitting user behaviour

Google is not putting every AI experience in one place. Search, AI Mode and Gemini are being used in different ways, with Google’s VP of Search Liz Reid saying people often move between them depending on what they are trying to do.

Search and AI Mode are more likely to be used for informational queries, while Gemini leans more towards writing and creative tasks. AI Mode also appears to be where longer, more complex and conversational questions are happening.

For brands, that makes authority and clarity even more important. If people are asking different types of questions across different Google tools, brands need to be clearly associated with the topics they want to be found for. Digital PR can support this by building trusted coverage, expert commentary and consistent mentions across the wider web, helping search engines and AI tools understand who the brand is, what it knows and when it should be surfaced.