Welcome back! I’ve just returned from the States where we’ve been busy building our new Miami office, and yes, jet-lagged as I am, I’m catching you up on everything that’s been going on in the world of search across September.
Because while I was setting up the new U.S. HQ, a number of big developments quietly landed — and if you’re a brand or marketer, these shifts matter. I’ll walk you through the key updates, explain what they mean for your site or brand, and show you what we at SEO Sherpa are doing about them. Let’s dive in.
Article Summary
- The U.S. ruling in Google LLC v. United States signals a major shift in how search visibility works.
- Google’s Preferred Sources feature introduces a visibility lever based on actual user trust, not just algorithms.
- Google quietly removed the &num=100 parameter — meaning some of your reporting may look weird even if nothing changed.
- Video and social content are now legitimate source material in search/AI ecosystems.
- Civic and election-related content now fall under YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) scrutiny — so credibility + transparency really matter.
- Big picture: Search is no longer just about Google blue links. Your brand must be visible everywhere people search.
U.S. Antitrust Ruling: Search Competition Just Changed
In early September, the landmark case United States v. Google LLC concluded that Google’s dominance in general search services breached U.S. antitrust laws. While Google remains the market-leader, the remedy phase forces changes in default search deals, data access and index sharing.
Why this matters for your brand:
- Search visibility is no longer just “rank well in Google organic”. The ecosystem is opening up, which means alternative engines, assistants, and surfaces may play a bigger role.
- If your traffic model has heavy reliance on Google desktop organic, now is the time to diversify.
- At SEO Sherpa we’re already auditing client footprints across different search surfaces and modelling what “Search Everywhere” looks like.
Preferred Sources: Trust Becomes Visibility
Google introduced Preferred Sources, giving users power to select the publishers they trust—those publishers then appear more often in Top Stories and “From Your Sources” sections.
This isn’t just a feature—it’s a signal: user choice now affects visibility. For brands and publishers this means building loyalty and recognisability is becoming just as important as chasing keywords.
Actionable for your brand:
- Make it easy for your audience to “star” or follow you as a source.
- Add a banner or email mention: “Want our insights? Add us as a preferred source in Google.”
- Monitor any changes in referral traffic or Top Stories appearances after launching this prompt.
The Death of &num=100: When Measurement Changes, Not Performance
Around mid-September, many SEO tools and dashboards started showing drops in impressions and weird jumps in average position.
The reason?
Google deprecated the &num=100 parameter, which many tracking tools used to pull extended SERP data.
What this means for your reporting:
- Less data beyond position 20 means many tools will show less visibility in the “deep SERP” zone—even if user traffic is unaffected.
- For your stakeholders: be ready to explain that a metric shift doesn’t always equal performance drop.
- The real signal of performance is traffic, engagement and conversions—not just impression volume or ranking position.
Video & Social Content = Search Asset
One of the bigger structural shifts: video content and social posts are now treated as source material by Google (and generative AI). Search engines are pulling from clips, Reels, Shorts and social posts to generate responses and to surface content in Discover feeds.
How your brand should respond:
- Treat your social/video content as search assets. Make sure you have clear titles, transcripts, metadata and that your brand/site is linked.
- Ensure your social profiles are properly branded, linked to your domain and signalling content ownership.
- Think distribution + discoverability. The video you post isn’t just for social engagement—it has to play for search too.
Civic & Election Content: The New YMYL Frontier
Google now treats civic, election-related, and government content under the same “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) guidelines as finance and health. That means if your brand publishes content in these areas (even tangentially) the bar is higher for trust, transparenc,y and authoritativeness.
What to do if this applies to you:
- Author bylines, credible credentials and transparent sourcing become non-negotiables.
- Framing should be balanced, allow for user trust, and avoid sensationalism.
- If you’re not in this space, this is still a reminder: search visibility today increasingly depends on how trustworthy your brand appears—across all content.
What This Means For Your Brand’s Search Strategy
Here’s the truth: these aren’t minor tweaks—they are structural shifts. The search landscape continues to evolve into an ecosystem where:
- Multiple engines and assistants matter
- User-selected trusted sources influence visibility
- Video and social content are part of the search equation
- High-stakes topics require greater proof of credibility
- Measurement methods (and the meaning of your metrics) are changing
If your previous model was “rank #1 on Google organic”—that’s now incomplete. The real challenge is: be visible, trustworthy and discoverable wherever your audience searches.
Your Next Steps
- Audit your traffic mix and reporting: Did September or October show unexplained drops? Determine if measurement shifts—not performance issues—are the culprit.
- Prompt your audience to follow or star your brand as a trusted source (via Google’s Preferred Sources model). Embed the prompt, track uptake.
- Review your video and social content library: Titles, transcripts, metadata, site links—all need review.
- If you publish civic or election-adjacent content: strengthen author bylines, sourcing, brand trust-signals.
- Expand your KPI model beyond “rank #1”: include “appear in assistant/AI summary”, “show in social search”, “be a trusted source”.
In Closing
We may be a bit late this month (or two months behind) thanks to the Miami move—but that gives us a vantage point. Because these changes aren’t just tweaks. They’re signals that the rules of search are evolving faster than ever.
If you’d like help building a strategy tailored to this new ecosystem, we’re the team you talk to. Book a free discovery call with SEO Sherpa.
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