Rank tracker Nozzle found that 8.0% of the Google results pages it monitored between Sept. 13 and Oct. 9 were missing most of each keyword's usual sites, before those sites returned on a later check. The figure compares with 0.17% from Aug. 20 to Sept. 9. Nozzle collected the data across 17.8 million pages through automated searches and attributes the pattern to Google's response to AI scraping, describing the affected pages as "poisoned." Google offered no statement in the report.

The share peaked at roughly a quarter of tracked pages from Sept. 27 to 29 and has run at 5% to 11% a day since Oct. 1. For keywords where a customer's site would normally rank, that site failed to appear in the top 10 on 58.6% of affected pages, against a 2.7% baseline. Takeaway: a one-day ranking drop in late September or October may be measurement noise, not lost visibility — check the keyword against pre-mid-September page 1 results and confirm with Search Console impressions and clicks.

What happened to ChatGPT referral traffic?

ChatGPT-attributed sessions in Google Analytics 4 fell sharply this month. Analysts tie the drop to inline links in ChatGPT answers that stopped carrying the utm_source=chatgpt.com tag after GPT-6 rolled out.

Graphite CEO Ethan Smith wrote on LinkedIn that sites tracked by Graphite with meaningful AI Assistant Channel traffic saw "an approximate 45% drop in ChatGPT sessions," with untagged visits potentially landing under the "Direct" label. Adobe's Cedric Huesler said OpenAI confirmed a known bug to him on October 14 and began deploying a fix on October 15. By around 9 a.m. PT on October 15, tagged ChatGPT clicks had returned to roughly 95-100% of the same hour the previous week across the thousands of websites Huesler tracks. SEO consultant Glenn Gabe said he had not yet seen the change, and OpenAI's release notes, updated October 15, made no mention of the bug or fix.

Huesler puts the affected window at Oct. 8 to 15 and recommends noting it in reports so no one mistakes the dip for lost traffic. Since most ChatGPT clicks still arrive without a referrer, he advises tracking them by UTM tag.

Where do links now sit in AI search results?

Google is moving inline links higher in more AI Mode and AI Overviews responses. It also plans to test a section at the top of some responses linking to official pages for specific tasks, and is rolling out carousels for timely articles — which highlight a user's Preferred Sources — to more locations and languages it did not name. This week Google began testing creator and publisher names on AI Mode video results that link to Search profiles.

One reporting quirk matters: Search Console assigns every link in an AI Overview the same position as the overview itself, so a higher inline link does not change its reported position. To qualify as a preferred source, a site must already appear in Search generative AI features in Search Console.

What does Bing's Topics Portfolio add?

Microsoft added a beta Topics Portfolio feature to the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It groups queries a site is cited for in AI answers into broader topics, with approximate figures for each topic's total citations across all sites, the number of sites cited and the number of queries. It also lists opportunity queries — where other sites appear and yours does not — with citation volumes shown as ranges. The view appears only when Bing has enough data for a site.

The opportunity list helps content teams spot coverage gaps, though it can include competitor brand terms that are irrelevant. Microsoft says to treat the metrics as directional rather than absolute, making them better for comparing topics than for tracking exact counts.

What is Google hiring for Discover?

Open Google job listings describe teams that generate and recommend AI content for Discover. A Staff ML Engineer listing says the Discover Feed Recommendation team "leads by recommending AI-generated content (AIGC) to fulfill user interests," and describes agentic flows generating content for "proactive surfaces" including Discover and Notifications. A director-level design listing describes turning Discover into a "proactive, hyper-personalized concierge experience," working with YouTube, Shopping, Chrome and Android teams. Neither listing gives a timeline or says how much of the feed AI content would fill.

The through-line

Every number this week carried a caveat rooted in how it was gathered. Nozzle's pages lost sites; ChatGPT visits lost their tag; inline links move in AI Overviews but not in Search Console's single-position reporting; Bing's opportunity figures are ranges; Discover's AI report counts only impressions. Cross-checking client reports now means pairing rank trackers with Search Console, and the ChatGPT line with Direct — a discipline that will only matter more as Google builds AI-generated content directly into Discover.