The story of Tik-Tok’s US owners begins to reach its conclusion this month, and Google has been in the courts for several reasons in September. Plus, they’ve rolled out another algorithm update to get your heads around. Some of this is positive for marketers, but much adds to the ever changing landscape. We’ll help you navigate those choppy waters.
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SEO
1. The “Perspective” Core Algorithm Update
Following the August 2025 Spam Algorithm Update, there are rumblings of a continued or additional core algorithm update, dubbed the Google “Perspective” update.
It appears that a major algorithm shift is underway that focuses on Intent Satisfaction Metrics (ISM), causing significant volatility for UK sites. This update focuses on three main areas:
- Expertise depth: Content must show genuine, proprietary knowledge and specific, locally relevant examples (e.g., UK case studies or data) to demonstrate authority.
- User journey completion: Content is rewarded if it fully addresses and resolves the user’s need.
- Fresh perspective value: Original research and unique insights are prioritised over recycled or generic information.
This will prove a delicate balance for SEOs trying to navigate performing in AEO whilst delivering unique, relevant insights for users.
Source: Network Scientific Sales
2. ChatGPT launches ‘In-Chat’ checkout experience for U.S. users
Following the introduction of in-chat shopping and product listings, OpenAI have launched Instant Checkout within ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free for users in the U.S.
Users will be able to search for specific products or product inspiration (for example, “gifts for wine lovers”), whereby ChatGPT will return product recommendations that are ordered by relevance, as opposed to price. If a product listed supports Instant Checkout, users can click “buy” to complete checkout within ChatGPT. Order any payment fulfilment will still run through the merchant’s existing systems, with ChatGPT simply passing over the user’s order & payment information securely. While merchants may need to pay a small transaction fee, users will face no additional costs when purchasing items through ChatGPT.
According to OpenAI, when Instant Checkout is enabled, all product listings will be ranked by their relevance to the user’s query, and not by any sponsored placements. With the growth of shopping with AI chats, we can expect this area of e-commerce to expand exponentially, with OpenAI already hinting at multi-item carts, expansion into Shopify’s million-plus merchants and introducing these features into more regions beyond the U.S.
Source: Search Engine Land
3. Google has released a ‘Startup Technical Guide’
This month, Google Cloud has launched a technical guide and whitepaper specifically for the startup and developer community. Its core purpose is to provide best practices, conceptual grounding, and practical steps for moving from a basic idea to a production-ready system utilising AI agents.
The guide provides an in-depth exploration of the entire AI agent lifecycle, covering core concepts, technical components of agent building within LLMs, how to use Google Cloud tools such as Vertex AI, and the importance of Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol implementation.
This guide will be particularly useful for developers as a technical blueprint and step-by-step framework for building complex, reliable AI systems, while SEOs will discover deeper insights into the technology that underpins the evolution of Google’s AI Overviews and the entire Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) landscape.
Source: Google
4. Stricter Google Business Profile (GBP) Link Policies
A major update for local UK businesses, Google announced stricter “Business links policies & guidelines” for GBPs, including automated link verification. The revised guidelines have introduced four policy areas that businesses must become familiar with:
- Dedicated landing pages for each location
- Direct action completion for links
- Restrictions on social media and indirect links
- Business links crawlability requirements
These updates require links to be directly functional, relevant, and trustworthy. Most importantly, it prohibits links to social media sites, messaging services, app stores, or the use of link shorteners within the GBP profile, forcing businesses to audit their local listings.
Failure to comply with the new policy guidelines could result in your business’s links being removed entirely from your GBP, negatively impacting your local search presence.
Source: Right Choice AI
5. Search Console no longer support deprecated Structured Data Types
Google continued its effort to clean up the SERPs by retiring support for several “outdated” or less-used structured data types. Back in June, Google officially removed support for seven markups in SERP listings, and as of September 9th stopped showing rich result reporting, the Rich Result Test, and the list of Search appearance filters in Google Search Console.
According to Google, these have been removed as they have been “phased out” from Search Results. While users will not be able to report on these markups with the Search Console platform, the Search Console API will continue to support these types through December 2025.
UK websites using deprecated schema types like Course info, Estimated salary, or Learning video were advised to update their structured data immediately, as these snippets would no longer generate enhanced visual results. This makes clean, modern schema more important than ever.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Digital PR
1. Fake expert scandal rocks red tops
Stories featuring a ‘royal cleaner’ who claimed to have worked for the Royal Family for more than a decade have been withdrawn from major newspaper publishers this year, including the Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Sun, New York Post and Daily Mirror, after questions were raised about their authenticity. The articles claimed to offer insights into everything from the items Prince Charles would not allow in Palace bathrooms to Kate Middleton’s morning routine, but there is minimal evidence that cleaner “Anne Simmons” actually exists.
Expert commentaries are a foundational element of digital PR. Media love sharing insights and tips from people in the know because the audience love reading them. It’s also great for brands, positioning them as an authoritative voice on a topic they are (usually) related to, while maybe even securing a lovely link. This story will have badly impacted journalists’ trust in these types of pitches and could lead to fewer of them being used. Reporters’ time is already tight, so if the choice is between making the effort to verify and double check an expert is real, or just not using the story, then the quicker option will be chosen.
There have already been instances of journalists requiring proof of identity when proactively asking for expert commentary, and brands should take steps to prove their own gurus are real when pitching their tips and insights.
Source: Press Gazette
2. Turn on, tune in, pitch out
As the nights draw in, some of Britain’s biggest TV shows have returned to our screens. Strictly, Big Brother and Great British Bake Off are all up and running, and will soon be joined by Celebrity Traitors. Plenty of content will be created around each show, from info-led articles trying to suck up the clicks of people searching when the show is on or who has been voted out, to speculation about future episodes and interviews with the stars.
Major TV shows can still capture the public imagination, which presents PR opportunities for brands that are willing to take it. Offering commentary on celebrity outfits, sharing data on a spike in searches for things or people in the show, or tracking rises and falls in contestants’ social following are just some of the ways brands can contribute to the conversation and earn links as well. Reactive pitches offer a rapid route to coverage and links – the key is to look for ways to add to the story, rather than just repeating it.
Source: BBC
3. Getting the synapses firing
Stories marketplace Synapse, which has partnerships with publishers including Reach PLC, announced more features that make it easier for PRs and journalists to use. PRs will now be able to email pitches and press releases to a Synapse email address which will upload it directly to the platform. In addition journalists will be able to integrate Synapse notifications into Slack to alert them when relevant releases come through.
Every press release is battling against hundreds of others for attention, so PRs are always on the lookout for ways to give their pitch an edge. Synapse claims that journalists want more pitches via the platform, so it’s a no brainer to include them on the distribution list. For PRs already using Synapse, this should save considerable time, while for those who aren’t using it, they can access the benefits of the platform without even needing to log in. Slack integration will make it even easier for journalists to “spike” stories (i.e. reject them). This feedback is hugely valuable for PRs, as it means they can avoid needless follow-ups to check whether the journalist had seen their press release on a client installing new hand driers in the men’s bathrooms.
Source: Synapse
4. Site visits stats? More like shite visit stats
Only one of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw their monthly visits grow in August compared to the same month in 2024. Substack was the only site to register a year on year increase, up 49% to 124 million visits in August 2025 compared to the previous year. Meanwhile Forbes saw the biggest drop, losing more than 50% of its monthly visits compared to 12 months ago.
The ultimate aim for digital PR is to secure coverage and links in online titles, so these continued falls in traffic for the world’s biggest are a concern. Fewer visits means less ad money, which means more sites disappearing, which means ever more competition for stories. It’s yet another reminder that PRs need to make sure their stories are high quality and perfectly positioned, as media outlets are under more pressure than ever to bring eyeballs to their sites.
Source: Press Gazette
PPC
1. Google raised price, and courts ordered more transparency
You may have already seen this: Google have quietly raised their ad prices 5-15%, making it look like normal auction fluctuations. They gave no announcement, but just gently increased their costs across ad placements. When cost increases like this are hidden in the noise, it’s hard to adjust strategy or budgets. Now, a federal court has ruled that Google need to be more transparent, saying: “When it made pricing changes, Google took care to avoid blowback from advertisers,” and it “endeavored to raise prices incrementally, so that advertisers would view price increases as within the ordinary price fluctuations, or ‘noise,’ generated by the auctions.”
This court order means Google will be required to disclose how it adjusts ad auction pricing. Once implemented, advertisers will receive regular updates about changes that might affect their costs.
Source: Search Engine Journal
2. OpenAI indicates a move towards ChatGPT ads
OpenAI recently listed a new role for its team, Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer , signaling that advertisers may soon be able to run campaigns directly within ChatGPT. With over 700 million weekly active users, this could become a massive new ad channel. Yes, the very same AI that people are already asking for homework help and relationship advice.
If this comes to life, it is a whole new playground for paid media, opening up options for conversational ad placements, direct in chat engagement, and audience targeting like never before. As fun as it sounds, it also raises questions about user experience and how brands will avoid feeling like spam inside your AI assistant. It’s speculation for now, but may indicate a new wave of AI ads.
Source: Search Engine Land
3. Google keeps Chrome, but must end some exclusive deals
In a landmark antitrust case that has been rumbling on for years, District Judge Amit Mehta has ruled Google will not have to sell its Chrome web browser or Android operating system. But it’s not all good news for the monolith, as it will be barred from having exclusive contracts and must share search data with rivals. Specifically this means Google cannot enter or maintain exclusive agreements that tie the distribution of Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or the Gemini app to other apps, licenses, or revenue-share arrangements.
Google losing exclusivity opens the floor for more competition. But don’t expect them to roll over quietly. The spotlight is on but the stage still belongs to Google.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Paid Social
1. Instagram reaches 3B users
Instagram has passed the milestone of 3 billion monthly users, the third Meta app to do so after Facebook and WhatsApp. To celebrate the milestone, Instagram is introducing UI updates including the ability for users to view and edit the topics the Reels algorithm associates with them, and relocating key icons like DM, home and Reels to a bottom navigation bar.
These updates indicate the growing importance of Reels within Instagram, with speculation that the app could eventually default to opening directly in Reels.
The prominence of Reels means advertisers will need to prioritise short-form video content and allocate more resources to Reels ad formats to remain competitive. Giving users control over the topics that shape their feed could impact targeting signals, which may have a knock on effect on how advertisers approach audience segmentation.
Source: Social Media Today
2. Pinterest announces new ad updates
Pinterest unveiled several new ad capabilities at its “Pinterest Presents 2025” event, including a “Top of Search” ad format. The “Top of Search” ads will appear within the first ten results of user searches and related Pins, giving brands prime visibility where discovery often begins. Pinterest is also expanding Local Inventory Ads (showing local availability, real-time pricing, pickup/shipping options) and introducing “Media Network Connect,” a feature to share first-party audiences, catalogues, and conversion data securely.
Because “Top of Search” ads are in highly visible slots, competition (and costs) for those placements will most likely increase. The move to emphasise search-driven ad formats, indicates the platform wants to compete more directly with Google and Amazon for product discovery budgets.
Source: Social Media Today
3. Report finds Facebook and TikTok are key news sources
A new Pew Research report shows that about 38% of U.S. adults get news regularly from Facebook, followed by 36% from YouTube, while TikTok and Instagram are rising as news sources at 20% each. Roughly 53% of U.S. adults say they receive at least some of their news via social media, a level that has remained steady in recent years.
Among regular users of each platform, TikTok and Instagram are becoming prominent news sources for younger audiences, while Facebook has regained strength as a news destination.
The rising role of social media in news consumption may lead to stricter scrutiny over ad placements alongside news content, potentially increasing compliance, brand safety, and reputation risks. Because younger audiences are turning to TikTok and Instagram for news, advertisers targeting these demographics may need to adopt more editorial or “news-style” content formats (e.g. brief, timely, informational) rather than purely promotional creative.
Source: Social Media Today
4. Updates on the US-China TikTok deal
In a long rumbling story, TikTok’s U.S. business is set to be taken over by American investors like Oracle, Silver Lake, and a16z, who would own about 80 percent of the company. The Chinese owners ByteDance would keep only a small stake, with not access to U.S. user data or control over the algorithm. It looks like the current TikTok app in the U.S. may be replaced with a new version run by the American group, though the details are still uncertain
We expect advertisers will have more confidence in TikTok staying available in the U.S., making it safer to plan campaigns. There may be changes to targeting options if data rules or the algorithm are adjusted, so advertisers may need to experiment with new ways of reaching audiences.
Source: Tech Crunch
Not sure what all this means for you? Our SEO, PPC and Paid Social units will help you sort the worrisome from the worthwhile. And our free digital audit can identify where you’re at risk of missing opportunities. Get on the blower.