Google Spam Guide, Restaurant Ordering Controls and AI Mode Revenue

Google updated its spam guide on Oct. 26 to recommend that platforms apply noindex or crawl-blocks to shareable pages by default — one of five developments this week that marketers and SEO teams need to act on.

What changed in the spam guide?

A new section titled "Only index content meant for Search" targets webpages built "for direct sharing, collaboration or utility rather than public search discovery." Google now recommends platforms keep those pages out of the index by default.

Two options exist:

• A noindex rule, set via a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header
• A crawl-block added to the robots.txt file

Google also now advises site owners to verify their website in Search Console to receive notifications of manual actions and security issues, and to check Page Indexing and Search performance reports for "unexpected spikes."

Neither the guide nor the changelog mentions any change in how Google will enforce the guidelines.

The distinction between the two options matters. Google's own robots.txt introduction states the file "is not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of Google." A disallowed URL can still appear in results if another site links to it. A noindex rule works only if Googlebot can crawl and read the page.

In short: noindex removes pages from results; robots.txt merely stops the crawling.

How can restaurants control ordering links?

Restaurants can now turn off specific third-party ordering providers directly from their Google Business Profile dashboard, Google's Lisa Landsman announced on LinkedIn on Oct. 28.

Her post included a screenshot of individual pickup and delivery buttons under "Show provider to customers." Asked which countries support the feature, Google product manager Michael G. said all of them do.

The change removes a bottleneck. Previously, restaurants submitted a removal request through their Business Profile, but the provider had to complete the action — and Google's help page gave providers up to 5 business days to do so.

Google's policy page for ordering providers states that "All partner integrations are enabled by default." Agencies managing restaurant profiles should audit each one for providers the restaurant does not use.

The takeaway: defaults now shift control to the restaurant, but only if someone checks the list.

Why did John Mueller point to report dates?

A Reddit user reported on Oct. 29 that their Page Indexing report had not updated since Oct. 16 and asked whether the data pipeline had stalled. Google's John Mueller replied: "I don't think it makes sense for me / us to comment on the data freshness for all reports all the time, this is why we put dates in there."

Mueller said the site appeared recent with steady numbers and added: "Indexing doesn't change quickly, and when it does, you see that reflected in the performance reports first." He told the user to "save your energy" and said Google prioritizes faster updates "where we think it's actually useful for folks." He did not say whether the report was late.

Search Engine Journal checked its own property that day; the page indexing report showed the most recent data update as Oct. 22.

Before reading a rise or drop in indexed pages as real, check the report's last-update date. The chart may lag the site.

Do AI-cited pages answer questions faster?

TJ Robertson analyzed 193,507 AI answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, using two rounds of blind ratings on questions tracked for clients of his agency, TJ Digital, which sells both SEO and generative engine optimization services.

The numbers point one way:

• Cited pages opened with a direct answer in 23% of cases, versus 14% for uncited pages that surfaced for the same answers
• Against Google's top 10 results the AI never cited, the split was 20% versus 5% across all 195 rated pairs

Robertson states the analysis shows association, not causation — no proof that a page feature causes citation. The gap narrowed when non-cited pages also appeared in the AI's search.

A fast audit: check whether key pages answer the target question in their first line.

What did Alphabet's earnings reveal about AI Mode?

Alphabet's Q3 results show Google Search & other revenue up 12% year over year to $63.35 billion, after growth of 19% in Q1 and 17% in Q2.

Asked on the earnings call whether fewer ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode explained the slowdown, Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler named currency as the biggest factor versus Q2, followed by retail and media. He then said: "the strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact because of the lower monetization we were seeing in AI Mode," adding, "To be clear, we feel very good about our trajectory here."

The same day, Google expanded ads in AI Mode to 10 more countries and launched multiturn ads in the U.S.

Schindler did not say what AI Mode monetization was lower than, or by how much. Unlike Q2, neither Pichai's published remarks nor the call included a figure for clicks sent to websites.

Marketers now have more detail on AI Mode revenue mechanics — and none on the traffic it sends.

The week's theme: defaults, date stamps and caveats define what each source tells you. What happened on your own sites is the check left to run.

By Tom Whitfield