The SEO Update by Yoast – September 2026
Topics and sources
SEO & AI news
- Reddit citations in ChatGPT raise platform risks
- Google details who can license its Search data in Europe
- Google says ChatGPT sends a new audience to Search
- OpenAI expands ChatGPT ads globally
- Google can lose faith in sites with low-value programmatic SEO
- Google tests PPA in AI Overviews
- What Wikipedia reveals about AI Overviews and web traffic
- Anthropic calls for a slowdown in AI development:
- Google tests paying publishers for AI answers via Search Console
- Cloudflare lets sites block AI training without blocking Googlebot
- I made my website charge AI agents a penny per page. Then I watched Claude pay it.
- Google blocking scrapers and tracking tools
- Google Discover: Dive deeper
- Google Lighthouse AI agent resource discovery audit
- Research shows Google AI Mode sends less clicks and is a poor user experience
- Claude Opus 5.5
- Google tests native checkout emails
- UK CMA considers changes to Android, Chrome, and Search
- Google rolls out the September 2026 spam update
- Google Search traffic to publishers continues to decline
- Google deploys a new AI spam detector called SAFE
- Google updates guidance on using generative AI content
Also in the news…
- Meta launches AI agent that can access apps, send emails and make payments
- Google AI ranking factors: what we know about how AI search ranks content
- Google fined $463 million for breaching EU location data rules
- Meta Muse partners with Shopify and gets blocked by Amazon
- Shopify opens checkout to browser-based AI agents
- Emdash 1.0 challenges WordPress freedom with Cloudflare lock-in
- Google AI Mode monitoring capabilities now live for all
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