No major Google updates, but Gemini 3 and Local Ranking Factors landed – SEO News November 2025

While we were expecting Google to launch a Core Update in November, it communicated on what feels like an unsignificant update to search results and new features in Search Console. Some say that volatility spotted to search results in November could mean that Google did launch a Core Update but kept it secret. Maybe Google was too busy with the release of Gemini 3, a new and significant advancement in AI that is challenging OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Gemini 3 launched on November 18^th and is already integrated into Google AI Mode and is coming shortly to AI Overviews. Is that good news? Data shows that when AI is used in search results, click through rates drop.

In other news this month we look at local search ranking factors and Google’s advice on technical site audits.

5^th November – Google “update” is just about structured data

On November 5^th, John Mueller published an article on Google Search Central entitled “Here’s an update on our efforts to simplify the search results page”. Readers jumped at the “Here’s an update” part, but this is just a minor change to the appearance of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and not an update to ranking. John is very vague about what is new and says that we aren’t likely to notice any difference in search results because features now removed were rarely used. He does however reference an article from June about simplifying the search experience that deals with structured data features in Google Search. This article announced that certain types of structured data would no longer be supported by Google.

• Book Actions
• Course Info
• Claim Review
• Estimated Salary
• Learning Video
• Special Announcement
• Vehicle Listing

Many types listed above were already removed on September 9^th so this change can only be related to Book Actions or Claim Review (linked to fact checking) which are still listed in Google’s structured data markup gallery. It seems strange to dedicate a blog post to the subject (especially as news from the Google Search Central blog has been rare recently).

Structured data – usually written with Schema.org protocol – is a useful way to help search engines and AI tools understand content. The Schema.org protocol contains over 800 types of data that can be used to describe content like companies, recipes, events, software, articles, FAQ, etc.

Google has developed search features for some structured data, like the Recipe Carousel. Only sites using Schema.org Recipe markup to describe recipes can feature in the carousel. You can use SEOPress to add structured data to WordPress automatically or manually.

This news item may give the impression that Google now considers structured data as less important. This is unlikely to be the case. To optimize a WordPress site for Google, Yahoo, Bing and AI tools like ChatGPT, it is still strongly recommended that you markup content with structured data.

18^th November – Google launch Gemini 3 in AI Mode

On November 18^th, Google launched Gemini 3 – a major new version of its AI model. The Gemini model is used in a variety of AI tools provided by Google including the Gemini App (a ChatGPT competitor previously called Bard) and Google Search features AI Mode and AI Overviews. The announcement of the new model by Google CEO Sundar Pinchai contains the interesting figures that the Gemini App has 650 million users but AI Overviews, thanks to its integration in Google search results, has over 2 billion monthly users. We think that this is in reaction to OpenAI’s recent announcement that ChatGPT had surpassed 800 million users.

A follow up article by Vice President Elizabeth Reed, revealed that Gemini 3 is already being used by AI Mode (the first time that a model was made available in search on the day of its launch). It is suspected that Gemini 3 will also roll out to AI Overviews although Google will continue to use quicker, previous models for search results where appropriate.

If you are tracking citations in AI Overviews and AI Mode, you may want to check data from November 18^th onwards to see if there has been any impact to results – Gemini 3 may change results significantly. Although Google Search Console provides data about impressions and clicks for websites from Google Search results, it does not allow site owners to filter visibility and traffic from AI features specifically. It is not possible to distinguish between clicks from AI Mode, AI Overviews or standard search results in Google Analytics either.

In general, though, independent data is showing that the increasing use of AI Mode and AI Overviews is leading to lower click through rates from Google for both organic and paid search. The latest study released by Seer Interactive in November shows that click through rates drop 61% when AI Overviews are displayed in search results.

There is also potentially a higher click rate for Google Ads and less for organic results since Google changed the layout of sponsored results in October. Cori Shirk from Seer published analysis on LinkedIn that shows that their accounts had seen a rise of Click Thru Rates from 11.41% to 13.07%.

Google ranking volatility but no Core Update

The month of November has passed without any official announcement by Google about ranking updates. The ever attentive Barry Schwartz, however, reported on volatility in Google search results on November 7^th, 12^th, 20th (possibly linked to Gemini 3) and 26^th. Chatter from forums noted in the articles suggest that some people think that a Core Update was released, but it was never confirmed by Google.

An interesting article by the French agency Brioude (in French only) analyzes the previous two Core Updates and speculates on what the next Core Update could focus on. They highlight the importance of User Experience in ranking and stress the importance of passing Google’s Core Web Vitals assessment. This assessment is based on real visits to your website using the Chrome browser. Real page speed times are measured, and the average speeds over the past 28 days are used to calculate results. Not passing Core Web Vitals can cause your site to drop in Google rankings and this signal may be made more important with the next Core Update.

You can see the Core Web Vital reports for your site in Google Search Console or by using the Google Page Speed Insights tool. SEOPress allows you to integrate data from these tools into WordPress making it much easier to track. Obviously, tracking is not enough, you must try and correct problems with page speed when you encounter them. Download our eBook Optimizing WordPress for Speed and read our recent article How to pass the Core Web Vitals (without a WordPress caching plugin) to find ways to improve your page speed and solve Core Web Vitals problems.

Local Ranking Factors 2026

If you use WordPress to promote a local business and want to more prominently in Google and AI results then you will be very interested in the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey published on November 6^th.

This report has been around since 2008 when David Mihn first sent a survey to Local SEO experts to try and answer the question “What influences ranking for local searches in Google”. He thought a consensus of expert opinion would help us understand how local ranking works. Useful particularly because Google gives very few clues about how it ranks businesses and sites in Google Maps and search results.

For the 2026 edition, Darren Shaw of Whitespark (who took over the survey in 2017), added questions about AI search results to the original questions.

Data you provide on your Google Business Profile is still very important for ranking in Google, but having a website that backs up this information is highly recommended. To make sure that your website and Google Business Profile use the same company name, address and phone number, use LocalBusiness structured data. Adding a page per service and publishing user testimonials on your site also appears to have a positive influence on local search results. Reviews are a ranking factor, but not as important as many people think. Having said that, the 2026 report is showing that reviews are considered more important than last year.

Darren is skeptical about the quality of local search results in AI tools like Google’s AI Mode and ChatGPT but imagines that these tools will be the future of local search. To optimize for AI, he suggests searching for curated “best of” and “similar” lists on the web and contacting their publishers to try and feature.

New features and new logo for Google Search Console

We have noticed that most of the news published by Google on the Search Central blog recently is about Google Search Console. Setting up an account for your website on Google Search Console is strongly recommended – it’s a free SEO tool that gives insights into how Google crawls, indexes and ranks sites. If you haven’t already created your account, see how you can do it with SEOPress – you don’t need a separate verification plugin! The blog posts were:

John Mueller goes over some of this news from Search Console in the latest Google Search News video. This episode one covers 2025 Q4.

Google’s advice on technical SEO audits

Another video released by Google in November 2025 concerns technical SEO audits. Google’s Martin Splitt goes through the steps of an audit. He says, “a technical audit aims to make sure that no technical issues prevent or interfere with crawling or indexing”.

His advice remains generic because he is addressing all technical stacks (not just WordPress) and all SEO auditing tools (not just SEOPress). But his advice not to follow auditing tool results blindly is a good point. Errors reported by a tool must be taken in relation to the site’s objectives and recent changes. He says, for example, finding lots of 404 errors may be normal. If you have recently deleted lots of pages, it is not an error. However, getting 404 errors when you haven’t knowingly deleted lots of pages may be a problem. A better knowledge of the site you are working on will help you evaluate results and prioritize tasks to correct problems that will impact SEO.

One of the things that we have introduced to the SEOPress Site Audit is Actions. When the audit detects a problem that can be fixed quickly, we add an action button that will perform the task. One good example is when ALT text is missing from images. Missing ALT text will trigger an issue in SEOPress audit, but it will also show an action button “Generate missing alt text with AI”. By clicking on the action button, ALT text will be added to the image … and the problem will be solved! We hope to add more features like this in the future. Subscribe to our SEO newsletter to keep up to date.

By Benjamin Denis

CEO of SEOPress. 15 years of experience with WordPress. Founder of WP Admin UI & WP Cloudy plugins. Co-organizer of WordCamp Biarritz 2023 & WP BootCamp. WordPress Core Contributor.