Google is piloting payments to publishers whose content feeds AI answers, while lowering the follower threshold for Search profiles to 10,000 — the third change in 15 weeks. Meanwhile, John Mueller admits Search Console cannot report AI positions usefully, and Cloudflare now lets sites block AI training without blocking search crawlers. Here is what marketing professionals need to know.

Mueller: AI Position Data Is Hard to Report Usefully

Google's John Mueller says search has moved beyond the traditional position one-to-ten model, and adapting that to AI results poses a real challenge.

Mueller responded to a Reddit discussion about the report, which rolled out worldwide on August 31. He noted that tracking position is "hard to do in a way that makes it useful." An impression is recorded when the feature appears on the page served, regardless of whether the user scrolls. Links behind "Show More" aren't counted until expanded. The report relies on existing Web search data rather than adding new information.

The generative AI report doesn't give positions at all. In the Search performance data underneath it, a link inherits where the AI Overview block itself was located — not the exact spot of the link inside it. Mueller asked the Reddit thread for suggestions on a useful way to measure position.

Google Is Testing Payments for AI Contributions

Google is piloting a program that pays participating sites when their content contributes to answers in the Gemini app, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

According to Digiday, Google confirmed the pilot as early stage and said at least dozens of publishers have been approached. Participants get paid when their content "contributes significantly" during answer creation. Content that only verifies facts, or is added afterward, does not qualify. Sites that accept receive a Search Console panel showing monthly earnings and some history, and can opt out from settings.

The contribution panel displays a payout but doesn't show what it's based on — something one executive with knowledge of the program described as "quite black box." Next to it sits a report that tracks impressions rather than clicks. Another publishing executive warned that accepting payouts might weaken a site's bargaining position when negotiating better terms, because Google could point to the pilot as compensation it already provides.

Cloudflare Separates AI Training From Search Crawling

Cloudflare added a "Disallow AI Training" setting that publishes a no-training preference in robots.txt while leaving Googlebot, Applebot, and Bingbot free to crawl for search.

Choosing "Block" now stops all three crawlers, search included, as Cloudflare explained in July for mixed-use crawlers. The new "Disallow AI Training" option lets search engines keep crawling. Existing training blocks will update automatically to match the new setting, and the older "Block AI Bots" and "Managed Robots.txt" are being deprecated.

At Google, the setting is managed through Google-Extended; at Apple, through Applebot-Extended. Cloudflare notes that Microsoft hasn't yet supported a robots.txt no-training preference but plans to work on it in early 2027.

Because Cloudflare changed what its Block setting does, current choices will update automatically — check which setting your zone uses. Note that this setting doesn't influence whether pages appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode; those are managed separately in Search Console.

Search Profiles Open Up at 10,000 Followers

Google lowered the follower bar for Search profiles to 10,000, counted per account on YouTube, Instagram, X, or TikTok. Ibrahim Badr, a product manager for Search, announced the change.

Profiles launched in June requiring 100,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, or X, or 300,000 on TikTok. By August, the threshold dropped to 35,000 across all four platforms. That makes three different thresholds within 15 weeks for YouTube, Instagram, and X. Media companies now get one login covering several brands. Article displays gain updated thumbnails and longer headlines; no sizes were given. The feature remains U.S. only.

Google's help page states a Search profile does not directly influence ranking. It appears in Discover, where followers may see more content from that source in their feed. A U.S. site with 12,000 YouTube subscribers that wasn't eligible in June can now claim a profile today.

Theme of the Week: The Number Without the Math

Two of this week's stories hand you a number while omitting the detail behind it. Google will pay sites in its pilot without breaking down contributions, and its AI report shows impressions but not positions. Cloudflare took the opposite approach with its Accountable label, requiring operators to provide — or commit to providing — URLs of pages made available for training. Cloudflare says Google plans additional URL-level transparency tools related to Google-Extended in the coming weeks. The exception is Search profiles, where the number shown is a follower count you already had on platforms that already display it.

Source: Search Engine Journal (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-pulse-google-ai-payment-pilot-search-profiles-at-10000/589849/) / Source: reddit.com (https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1wamz5g/comment/p8jutoo/)