Short answer: September 2026 brought six changes worth knowing about if you want to appear in Google AI Overviews. People Also Ask is now almost entirely AI Overviews, a Gemini 3.8 update briefly stripped links from AI Mode, Google signalled that Search Console's AI reporting will change, searches kept getting longer, and both Business Profiles and shopping moved further into AI answers. The response is the same for most of them: answer specific questions directly, keep your Google data complete, and measure your citations yourself.
This is a monthly roundup. For the evergreen explanation of how AI Overviews are measured, see our guide to AI Overview tracking. Everything below is as of late September 2026, and we flag which items Google has confirmed and which come from third-party observation.
September at a glance
| Change | Reported | Confirmed by Google? | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| About 97% of People Also Ask answers are AI Overviews | 9 Sep, Search Engine Roundtable | No (third-party tool data) | PAA is now an AI citation slot, not a snippet slot |
| AI Mode on Gemini 3.8 Flash barely showed links | 3 Sep, Search Engine Roundtable | Yes, Google called it a bug | Link visibility in AI Mode can swing with model updates |
| Search Console AI reporting will "evolve" | 16 Sep, Search Engine Roundtable | Yes (John Mueller comment) | Don't rely on Search Console alone for AI visibility |
| Short queries losing impression share | 11 Sep, Search Engine Land | No (Google Ads data analysis) | Content needs to answer longer, specific questions |
| Business Profile panel shown as an AI Overview | 17 Sep, Search Engine Roundtable | No (observed and replicated) | Your profile may be summarised before it is read |
| Merchant Center AI performance insights and Shopify auto-enrolment | 16 and 22 Sep | Yes (Google announcement; SEL report) | Retailers get AI share of voice data for Google surfaces |
People Also Ask is now almost all AI Overviews
Search Engine Roundtable reported on 9 September 2026 that around 97% of People Also Ask answers are now AI Overviews, up from around 12% fourteen months earlier (source). The figures come from third-party tool data, not from Google.
If that holds, the expandable questions under many results are no longer a place where one page's paragraph gets lifted as a snippet. They are small AI answers that may cite several sources. For anyone asking how to appear in Google AI Overviews, PAA questions are now a useful map of exactly which questions Google wants answered.
What to do: collect the PAA questions for your main topics, check which ones already show your site as a source, and make sure each important question has a clear, direct answer in the first lines of a relevant section on your site.
The Gemini 3.8 citation bug
On 3 September 2026, Search Engine Roundtable reported that AI Mode running on Gemini 3.8 Flash was barely showing links to sources. Google responded: "This isn't working as intended… we'll roll out a fix." Links later returned (source).
The fix was quick, but the lesson is lasting. How many citations an AI answer shows can change with a model update, overnight and without notice. A drop in AI referral traffic may have nothing to do with your content.
What to do: when AI traffic moves sharply, check whether the answers still cite anyone before you rewrite pages. Keep a record of your citations over time so you can tell a platform change from a real loss.
Search Console AI reporting
Search Engine Roundtable reported on 16 September 2026 that Google's John Mueller said the way Search Console tracks AI Mode and AI Overviews positions will "evolve over time" (source).
That is a sensible warning. Search Console gives you some data on how your pages perform in Google's AI features, but it doesn't show the answer text, whether you were recommended or just cited, or which competitors were named instead. Its definitions may also shift.
What to do: keep using Search Console, and annotate your reports when Google changes how it counts. Pair it with a record of the actual answers for your priority questions.
The query-length shift
Search Engine Land published Google Ads data on 11 September 2026 showing that the impression share of one- and two-word queries fell from 42% to 24%, while the conversion share of three- and four-word queries rose from 20% to 46% (source). This is one analysis of advertising data, not an official Google statistic, but the direction matches what the AI Mode interface encourages: people type full questions.
What to do: stop writing only for head terms. Build pages and sections around the longer questions buyers ask, with constraints included ("for a small team", "under a certain budget", "near a specific area"). Those are the questions AI answers are built to handle, and, on this data, the ones that convert.
Business Profile and shopping changes
Business Profiles. Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz reported on 17 September 2026 that Google is showing the local knowledge panel (the Business Profile) as an AI Overview, with a "Show more" button that leads into an AI Mode style chat. He replicated it himself after it was first spotted by Ben Fisher; Google has not confirmed it (source). Google's own Search Central guidance already says Business Profiles and Merchant Center "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses" (source). We cover what local businesses should do in Google Business Profile optimization for AI Mode.
Merchant Center. Google announced on 16 September 2026 that Merchant Center now has "AI performance insights", showing share of voice across AI Mode and AI Overviews, live in the US, Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand. Google also said that in lululemon tests, conversational attributes were used 50% of the time in AI Mode recommendations (source).
Shopify checkout. Search Engine Land reported on 22 September 2026 that eligible US Shopify stores are being auto-enrolled in native checkout inside Google AI Mode and Gemini (source). Our Shopify agentic checkout guide explains what is switched on and how to opt out, and UCP vs ACP vs AP2 covers the protocols behind it.
What to do: local businesses should finish every relevant Business Profile field and work on detailed reviews. Retailers should open the new Merchant Center insights and fill in the product attributes shoppers actually ask about.
What to do this month
A short checklist for October:
- Pull your PAA questions for your top five topics and check whether you are cited in each AI answer.
- Rewrite the opening lines of key sections so each one answers a specific question in one or two sentences.
- Add longer-question content: comparisons, constraints, "which is best for" pages.
- Complete your Google data: Business Profile for local businesses, Merchant Center attributes for retailers.
- Annotate Search Console with this month's changes so future drops are easier to explain.
- Record your AI citations on the same questions every month.
Google's own reporting only covers Google. Citedify tracks Google AI Overviews alongside ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity: it asks 20 buyer-intent questions for your brand, records every answer, scores mention, position, sentiment and recommendation strength, and shows the competitors and sources cited instead of you. It tests AI Overviews, not AI Mode separately. For the broader strategy across engines, see AI search optimization.
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