Facts, Stats - Latest News from the SEO, Search & Marketing Industry [November, 2025]

Facts

 

AI Shopping Update in AI Mode & Gemini

Google introduced a major AI Shopping update ahead of the holidays. AI Mode now shows rich visuals, prices, reviews, and availability information directly in the answer, leveraging the Shopping Graph. This makes product discovery faster and more visual.[1]

Simplified Google Search Results Page

Google continues to “simplify” SERPs to reduce clutter and improve the readability of organic results. With the growing presence of AI-powered elements, the need for clear titles and helpful content becomes even more critical. [2]

Custom Annotations in Search Console

You can now add custom annotations directly to performance charts in Search Console. This allows you to note migrations, downtime, campaigns, or Google updates and easily connect performance spikes to real-world events. [3]

New Guidelines for Review Rich Results

Google updated the documentation for Review Snippet structured data, explaining how reviews and ratings should be declared so they appear correctly in rich results. Especially important for e-shops and marketplaces. [4]

 

Stats

 

AI Overviews Reduce CTR – Study by Seer Interactive

A study by Seer Interactive shows that when AI Overviews are triggered:

• organic CTR: –61%
• paid CTR: –68%
  Even without AI Overviews, the overall downward trend continues.[5]

 

AI Traffic = 1.08% of Total (87.4% from ChatGPT)

Overall AI-driven traffic remains low (1.08%), but 87.4% comes from ChatGPT, with the remaining tools contributing only marginally. [6]

 

CTR Drops 30–35% When AI Overviews Are Present – Research from Ahrefs, SEJ, and Semrush

A meta-analysis from Ahrefs, SEJ, and Semrush found:

• –34.5% CTR on the #1 organic result
• Drop from 28% → 19% (SEJ)
• AI Overviews appear on 13.14% of queries [7]

 

Other Reads from Marketing & Business

AI Is Changing Market Research - Harvard Business Review

HBR shows how AI is accelerating market research with faster surveys, synthetic personas, and automated data analysis-while still requiring human oversight. [8]

 

OpenAI Releases GPT-5.1

The new GPT-5.1 Instant and GPT-5.1 Thinking versions make ChatGPT more conversational and offer options for a custom tone of voice. The rollout has begun for paid users. [9]

 

Q5: A Major Opportunity for E-shops After the Holidays

Think with Google highlights that “Q5” (post-holiday) remains a period of high purchase intent-but many brands end their campaigns too early. A big opportunity for Greek e-shops in January. [10]

 

Sources: 

[1]

Source: https://blog.google/products/shopping/agentic-checkout-holiday-ai-shopping/

[2]

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/11/update-on-our-efforts

[3]

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/11/custom-chart-annotations

[4]

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/updates#november-12-2025

[5]

Source: https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-drive-drop-organic-paid-ctr-464212

[6]

Source: https://searchengineland.com/ai-1-traffic-mostly-chatgpt-464653

[7]

Source: https://capston.ai/ai-overviews-2025-ctr-impact/

[8]

Source: https://hbr.org/2025/11/the-ai-tools-that-are-transforming-market-research

[9]

Source: https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/

[10]

Source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-journey/q5-holiday-shopper-insights/