Short answer: Between October 17 and October 27, 2026, Semrush reported that Google’s AI Overviews appeared on 88 percent of 400 tracked buying-type keywords (about 97 percent when weighted by search volume), Cloudflare and OpenAI said a pilot helped ChatGPT find and index hundreds of millions of new pages, Google explained that robots.txt is a request and not a lock, Ahrefs said 5 to 20 percent of rank tracking results were affected by bad Google data, and DeepSeek opened its own search engine to developers. Businesses should keep comparison pages current, confirm that the right crawlers are allowed, and verify ranking data before reacting.
How often do AI Overviews appear on buyer searches now?
In a Semrush study published October 21, 2026, AI Overviews appeared on 88 percent of 400 tracked commercial keywords in August 2026, up from 45.75 percent in September 2025. Weighted by estimated search volume, the figure was 97.08 percent. Keywords containing “reviews” rose from 30.14 percent to 89.04 percent. The panel covered banking, software and ecommerce, and the data is U.S. desktop only. The study measures whether an AI Overview appeared, not clicks or conversions, and Semrush sells AI visibility tracking. PPC Land · Semrush
What should I do about AI Overviews on comparison and review searches?
Semrush’s recommendations include tracking AI Overview visibility alongside rankings, mapping which sources the summaries cite, keeping comparison and pricing pages current, and earning reviews on the platforms the summaries cite. PPC Land
How is ChatGPT finding new web pages?
On October 15, 2026, Cloudflare and OpenAI shared early results from a research pilot. Cloudflare sent OpenAI’s crawler signals about how recently pages were updated, the quality of traffic to a site, and what changed on a page. According to the report, OpenAI discovered and indexed hundreds of millions of new web pages. The pilot covered about 1 percent of Cloudflare’s network. The announcements did not say how often the new pages were cited or how many visits they drove, and OpenAI ranks pages independently. Cloudflare plans broader access later in 2026. Search Engine Journal · Cloudflare
How do I stay in ChatGPT search without letting my content be used for training?
According to Search Engine Journal’s summary of OpenAI’s guidance, the crawler OAI-SearchBot controls inclusion in ChatGPT search, while GPTBot controls content collection for training. Allowing OAI-SearchBot and blocking GPTBot keeps a site in ChatGPT search while opting out of training. Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control, available on every plan, shows which AI services access a site. Search Engine Journal
What can robots.txt actually do about AI crawlers?
In an October 21, 2026 Search Central video, Google’s Gary Illyes described robots.txt as a protocol for expressing access preferences. It governs crawling, but it does not control what happens to content afterward, and blocking a specific AI crawler requires naming its user-agent token. Google’s Google-Extended token blocks Gemini training without affecting Google Search. Google also refreshed its documentation on controlling what you share with Google Search. This summary relies on secondary reports of the video. DesignRush · Optimixed · Google crawler documentation
Is my rank tracking data reliable right now?
Not entirely. On October 22, 2026, Ahrefs said Google has been showing different results to suspected data providers, affecting between 5 and 20 percent of results depending on the provider. Nozzle measured 8.7 percent of first pages affected from September 13 to October 21, compared with 0.17 percent from August 20 to September 9. Google has not publicly commented, and these are vendor statements rather than independent tests. PPC Land · Search Engine Journal
What should I do if my rankings dropped in September or October?
Check your tool provider’s incident notes for those dates, compare against Google Search Console, ask whether stored data was revised, and hold off on client or management reports built on the affected window. Search Engine Journal
What is the DeepSeek search API?
On October 17, 2026, DeepSeek opened its in-house search engine to developers through a Search API and a Fetch API. DeepSeek says it indexes hundreds of billions of pages and charges $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests. Each result carries an authority tier from 0 to 4 and a rerank score from 0 to 3 that combines relevance, authority and freshness. DeepSeek says it filters spam, low-quality AI-generated content and “GEO manipulation,” but it does not define the term or explain how scores are assigned, and it has not named the crawler behind the index. Search Engine Journal · PPC Land
What should I do this week to be found and recommended by AI search?
Open your robots.txt file and confirm you are not blocking OAI-SearchBot or other crawlers that power the AI search tools you want to appear in.
Update the pricing, comparison and “alternatives” pages on your site, since those are the searches where AI Overviews now appear most often.
Earn and respond to reviews on the platforms AI summaries pull from.
Before acting on a September or October ranking drop, verify it against Search Console and your tool provider’s notes.
Read what AI says about your business today and correct anything inaccurate on your website and profiles.
Sources: Search Engine Journal: Cloudflare and OpenAI · Cloudflare · PPC Land: Semrush · Semrush · DesignRush · Optimixed · Google crawler documentation · PPC Land: Ahrefs · Search Engine Journal: rank trackers · Ahrefs · Search Engine Journal: DeepSeek · PPC Land: DeepSeek