Cloudflare starts blocking agents by default as Google tests paying publishers

Cloudflare blocks training and agent bots by default starting today

Why it matters for your score

Cloudflare said in July that from 15 September, training and agent bots would be blocked by default on pages that display ads, while search bots stay allowed. It applies to domains newly onboarding rather than established paid customers. If your site landed on Cloudflare recently, agents may now be shut out of your ad-serving pages without anyone choosing that, and the fix is a setting rather than a rewrite.

Google starts paying some publishers when AI answers use their content

Why it matters for your score

Google confirmed an early-stage AI contribution pilot that pays sites whose content contributes to Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode answers, with earnings shown in a Search Console widget. Publishers call the payout formula black box and the early amounts small. Being cited is starting to carry a number next to it, and the pilot suits small and mid-sized sites better than large ones.

Google Business Profiles get a Collected info tab you can edit

Why it matters for your score

Google now shows a Collected info section where you review details its automated assistant gathered by call, text or WhatsApp, see the source and date, and delete what is wrong. Those details feed what assistants say about your business, so an error you never approved is an error they will repeat.

Microsoft Advertising sets disclosure rules for AI generated ads

Why it matters for your score

Microsoft published guidance requiring advertisers to disclose AI created or materially altered ads and to preserve watermarks, metadata and provenance, with rejection for missing disclosures or prohibited deepfakes. The provenance data your tools attach is now load-bearing, so stripping it on export costs you the ad.

Google tests sponsored text links above AI Mode answers

Why it matters for your score

Google is testing plain text links marked Sponsored above the AI Mode response, styled to sit with the rest of the answer rather than in a separate ad block. Paid placement is moving into the part of the answer people actually read.

Access is the question this week, not content.

Two of these 5 stories are about who is allowed to read your site at all.

Payment for AI use is arriving before measurement of it.

Google pays on a formula publishers cannot see.

Machines call your business now, they do not only crawl it, and what they write down becomes what assistants repeat.

Ad inventory keeps moving inward.

First AI Overviews, now the AI Mode answer itself.