Google and SEO are not dead, OpenAI launch browser  – SEO News October 2025

October 2025 was a calmer month for SEO news by recent standards. AI tools continue to make progress, and we still hear the sirens sing about SEO being dead and new strategies being required to get traffic in the age of AI. Yet both SEO and Google seem to remain as relevant as they have been for years. Google earned record revenues in Q3 and says that searches in Google are increasing. Advice from Microsoft about optimizing for AI search insists on the importance of SEO basics such as the TITLE tag, H1 and Schema. Still challenging Google, OpenAI has launched a new browser to rival Chrome, but early reports indicate that it relies heavily on Google and introduces some frightening security risks.

Google Search Volatility, but not much

Google update expert, Barry Schwartz reported on movement in search results on October 7^th and 8^th, 15^th to 17^th and October 28^th. He remarked that these were the first spikes in ranking volatility that he has seen in a while. Even so, they were relatively feeble ones. The SimilarWeb SERP Seismometer (see below) showed volatility as “normal” (blue) for every day of the month in October.

Despite Barry’s attempt to label volatility from October 28^th as the “Halloween update”, these are not official updates by Google. In fact, Google has announced very few updates this year. Only 2 Core Updates (March and June) and one Spam Update (August). Maybe like last year we will see multiple updates released around Thanksgiving and Christmas. “Fasten your seatbelts” as Google’s former Search Liaison once said.

Record growth for Google thanks to AI

There is talk of Google losing importance with the emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Google’s earnings don’t seem to be following this storyline. Google’s official announcement of Q3 results showed a record $100 billion of revenue for the quarter. Doubling revenue compared to 5 years ago.

Although subscription fees for services like YouTube Premium and Google One bring in some money (around $300 million), the vast majority of Google’s revenue is from search and these revenues are up 15% compared to last year. In the Q3 results statement, Sundar Pichai said “AI is driving an expansionary moment in Search with IA experiences in search results increasing the usage of search and sending billions of clicks to sites every day. AI Mode has 75 million daily active users and is improving at a rapid rate”.

Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal earlier in the month, Google’s Vice President of Search Liz Reid also insisted on the fact that usage of Google is increasing thanks to the addition of AI features and that more searches compensates for lower click thru rates caused by AI Overviews and AI Mode.

AI Mode is now available in pretty much every country in the World except for France after the latest update on October 7^th announced 40 more new countries and territories.

Bing and Google give more advice for ranking in AI search

On October 8^th Bing’s Krishna Madhavan published an interesting article about Optimizing your content for inclusion in AI search answers (like Copilot but also ChatGPT or Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews).

He insists from the start that whatever you call it – GEO, AIO, or SEO – visibility starts with content that is “fresh, authoritative, structured, and semantically clear.”

He says that traditional SEO tags like TITLE, META Description and H1 are still important signals for AI. But he also says that formatting content into quotable or “snippable” pieces using clear H2 and H3 titles will also help with AI. The example he gives is “Instead of a vague heading like “Learn More,” use “What Makes This Dishwasher Quieter Than Most Models?”.

Other ways of formatting content are lists, tables and FAQs. Krishna says adding Schema structured data code helps search engines and AI understand content. This is a clear indication that you should use Schema, especially for FAQ sections!

Krishna goes on to give advice about writing, including punctuation best practice, and he gives important advice about not hiding text (like FAQ answers) in tabs or expandable menus. He also says that making information available only in PDF files or as text in images should be avoided.

You can follow Krishna on a webinar “Optimizing Content for Inclusion in the Era of AI” on November 6^th to get more useful tips.

Google’s Robby Stein also gave advice for small businesses wanting to feature in AI search in an interview with Silicon Valley Girl. He says an AI would find it useful to see a site mentioned in top business listings or in popular articles. In response Marina Mogilko retorts “So basically the same as SEO, right?”.

Like advice from Bing, this specialized AI strategy from Google is pretty much standard SEO (this time about local listings and backlinks). You will find this type of advice in our article about SEO Strategy for small businesses on WordPress for example.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas AI browser

Rumored since July 2025, OpenAI finally launched its own AI-browser on October 21^st.

The browser, named “ChatGPT Atlas”, comes after a similar product (Comet) was launched by Perplexity, and after both Microsoft and Google integrated AI to their browsers, Edge and Chrome.

The live product launch featured below was hosted by Sam Altman who says that Atlas was “A once in a decade innovation that rethinks the way people use browsers”. Chat, rather than search, is the central experience of this browser. Although it still lets users visit web pages, search the web and have multiple tabs open.

Writing on the day of the launch in Search Engine Land, Barry Schwartz points out that built in search features in Atlas are just Google Search. On his October 24^th Search Engine Roundtable roundup video he added that the browser itself was built on Google Chrome Kit and is identified on servers as the Chrome browser not Atlas. He remarks that it is a “Google-Fest”.

When visiting a site using Atlas, users can click on the “Ask ChatGPT” button to open a chat sidebar and this can include the invitation to use ChatGPT Agent Mode to take over navigation. This demo immediately led to early reviewers expressing doubts about the security of the new browser. The Conversation published a review entitled “OpenAI’s Atlas browser promises ultimate convenience. But the glossy marketing masks safety risks”, while Fortune reported “Cybersecurity experts warn OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas is vulnerable to attacks that could turn it against a user—revealing sensitive data, downloading malware, or worse”. These risks mean that you should not use the ChatGPT Atlas browser for WordPress Admin. If you can’t resist testing Atlas, only test it in a protected environment and don’t import login and passwords from your existing browser.

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.