You probably think of your Facebook page as a place to post. Google’s AI treats it as a source.
New research this week put a number on it. Across a hundred thousand keywords, more than two thirds of Google’s AI Overviews pointed readers at a social platform. That is a far bigger share than most South African businesses give social media in their own plans. Here is what else moved today.
SEO and search
Two thirds of AI answers now link to a social profile
SE Ranking analysed a hundred thousand keywords across a spread of brand niches. It found 67.66 percent of Google AI Overviews responses included a link to a social platform. AI Mode cited social links in 32.39 percent of responses. ChatGPT trailed badly at 8.4 percent.
The platform mix matters as much as the headline number. YouTube is the most cited source inside AI Overviews. In AI Mode the leaders are Facebook, YouTube and Reddit. ChatGPT leans on Reddit and LinkedIn, though each appears in fewer than one percent of its answers. AI Mode also cites social more often on searches carrying no brand name, 48.58 percent, than on searches that name one, 39.34 percent.
Why this matters for your business: Your social profiles are not a side channel any more. Google reads and quotes them when somebody asks a question your business could answer. Fill in the About section properly. Keep the name, address and phone number identical to your Google Business Profile. Post answers to the questions customers actually ask rather than product shots. A short video explaining one service clearly is now among the most quotable assets you own.
Google put a WhatsApp button on local listings
Sachin Patel spotted a WhatsApp button in the local panel in Google Search on Tuesday, and Barry Schwartz confirmed he could reproduce it. It either replaces the existing chat button or sits alongside the usual call, directions, website and share options. Schwartz suggested it may already be fully rolled out.
Google asked businesses to add WhatsApp numbers to their profiles a couple of years ago, and began adding numbers itself in bulk for some listings earlier this year. This is the payoff for that groundwork, and it lands in the one market where WhatsApp is already the default way people talk to a business.
Why this matters for your business: Open your Google Business Profile today and check whether a WhatsApp number is attached, and whether it reaches somebody watching it. A button that opens a chat nobody answers is worse than no button. Decide who owns that inbox, agree a response time, and make sure whoever replies can answer a pricing question without escalating it.
Star ratings quietly vanished from one whole industry
Review snippets, the star ratings under a search result, appear to have stopped showing for healthcare pages. Schema App reported a drop in visibility from late May, with a second drop in early August for some organisations. Schwartz cannot see them on doctor or dentist searches outside the local results.
Schema App tried the obvious fixes, including different aggregateRating connections and alternative property paths. None of it brought the stars back, and Google has said nothing, which usually means the change was deliberate.
Why this matters for your business: Google is switching rich results off by industry, not by site. If your sector loses its stars tomorrow, your markup will still be perfect and your click-through rate will still fall. Check the Search Console appearance report monthly for a rich result type that has gone quiet. Then build reviews into the page itself, where visitors read them, instead of relying on the snippet.
Social
X will build a whole campaign from your website address
X announced a tool called X Lift at Advertising Week in New York. You give it a business web address. It generates ad options, images and copy included, you pick the ones you want, and it can set the targeting too. All you supply is a budget.
The target is new advertisers rather than agencies. X says advertisers buying directly through the platform grew 50 percent in the third quarter year on year. The system was trained on X ads, worth remembering when you look at what it hands you.
Why this matters for your business: A tool that turns a web address into a campaign is only as good as the page behind it. If your landing page is vague about what you sell and who you sell it to, the ads will be vague too. Read your own page the way a machine would first. One clear offer, one audience, one next step.
Content marketing
LinkedIn says your lead form is the wrong place to measure
LinkedIn published a campaign checklist this week built around one argument. Measuring only at lead capture misses most of what shapes a decision. Buyers research vendors long before they contact anybody, and increasingly ask AI tools to draw up a shortlist, so most of the evaluation happens where you cannot see it.
Why this matters for your business: If leads are your only marketing number, you will keep cutting the work that creates demand and keep funding the work that harvests it. Set up conversion tracking so you see what people do after they view an advert, not only after they click. Widen your targeting to everyone who influences the purchase, not only the person who signs.
Automotive
What a WhatsApp button does to a dealer’s enquiry flow
This one is a read across rather than news. No fresh automotive marketing story broke today, so here is what the WhatsApp change above means for a dealership.
There is already evidence from the local market. Cars.co.za launched a WhatsApp virtual car showroom in July 2025, built with rather.chat, which recommends vehicles from a buyer’s browsing history and shows a carousel of matching cars inside the chat. WhatsApp purchase enquiries rose by over 1000 percent within weeks. More usefully, 31.3 percent of people who engaged with that carousel handed over their details as buyers. Roughly one in three.
Why this matters for your dealership: A WhatsApp button on your Google listing puts that same behaviour on your own front door instead of a classifieds portal. Check the number on your profile reaches the sales floor and not a switchboard. Keep the sales number separate from the service booking number, so a test-drive enquiry does not sit behind a queue of service queries. And log those chats into your CRM, because an enquiry living only in one salesperson’s phone is a lead you cannot hand over or report on.
What to do this week
- Check whether your Google Business Profile has a WhatsApp number attached, and who is watching it
- Rewrite the About fields on your social profiles so they answer real customer questions
- Check the Search Console appearance report for a rich result type that has gone quiet
- Cut your best landing page back to one offer and one next step
- Set up conversion tracking to see the steps before the lead form
If you want a hand deciding which of these is worth your time, get in touch and we will take a look at your setup.
Sources
- Social Media Today on the SE Ranking study of social links in AI answers
- Search Engine Roundtable on the WhatsApp button in the Google local panel
- Search Engine Roundtable on review snippets dropping for healthcare pages
- Social Media Today on X Lift
- Social Media Today on the LinkedIn campaign checklist
- Retailing Africa on the Cars.co.za WhatsApp showroom results