SEO Pulse: Gemini 3 Arrives & Adobe Buys Semrush
Google debuts Gemini 3 with advanced multimodal AI as Adobe buys Semrush, alongside new Search Console updates for better reporting.
SEO Pulse: Gemini 3 Arrives & Adobe Buys Semrush
Google launched Gemini 3 directly into AI Mode in Search, Adobe announced a $1.9 billion acquisition of Semrush, and Google shipped two reporting updates in Search Console: custom annotations and a branded queries filter.
Gemini 3 is considered the best model in the world for multimodal understanding and our most powerful agentic and vibe coding model yet, delivering richer visualization and deeper interactivity, built on a foundation of state-of-the-art reasoning.
Google Brings Gemini 3 to AI mode on Launch Day
Releasing Gemini 3 Pro in preview and making it available today across a suite of Google products so you can use it in your daily life to learn, build and plan anything. Gemini 3 Pro is available now in AI Mode for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S. by choosing “Thinking” from the model dropdown. Google is planning to expand access to all U.S. users soon, with higher usage limits for paid subscribers.
Introducing Gemini 3 Deep Think, which is an enhanced reasoning mode that pushed Gemini 3 performance even further and gives access to safety testers before making it available to Google AI Ultra subscribers. The mode further delivers a step change in Gemini 3’s reasoning and multimodal understanding capabilities to help you solve even more complex problems.
Gemini was built from the start to seamlessly synthesizing information about any topic across multiple modalities, like text, images, video, audio and code.
Why SEOs should pay attention
For multi-location businesses, success in local SEO comes down to how well you scale relevant, location-specific content across your website and Google Business Profiles (GBP).
Gemini is built by Google and is deeply integrated into its ecosystem, offering a unique edge when creating content that aligns with how Google surfaces local search results. It understands how Google surfaces local content- from GBP listings and map pack rankings to localized landing pages and Q&A entries.
Gemini followed up with broader local SEO recommendations, including
- Content ideas for location pages
- Local link building
- Online reviews
Search Console Adds Custom Annotations to Performance Reports
The feature of custom annotations in Search Console performance reports lets you add contextual notes directly to traffic charts, marking specific dates with explanations for site changes or external events.
Annotations are a great way to remind yourself of what changes you've made on your website while reviewing these performance reports. As Google noted, ”Annotations in Search Console help you understand changes in your data by providing context on your charts.”
Additional reasons to add annotations include-
- Updating the template or a site migration
- Implementing a new plugin or hiring an agency
- Changing content to emphasize different user intents
- External events affecting business, like holidays
Steps for adding custom annotations in the performance reports:
- Open the Performance reports
- Right-click the chart on the specific date you want to annotate
- Select a date using the date picker
- Type your note in the text field
- Click Add
Annotations are visible to anyone who has access to those properties.
Adobe acquires Semrush in $1.9 Billion Cash Deal
Adobe would pay USD 12.00 per share, representing a premium of approximately 77% over Semrush’s prior closing price.
In November 2025, Adobe and Semrush Holdings, Inc. announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement for Adobe to acquire Semrush in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately USD1.9 billion.
Semrush is a Boston-based SaaS platform best known in search marketing for keyword research, site audits, competitive intelligence, and online visibility tracking.
By integrating Semrush’s 26.5 billion-keyword and 43-trillion-backlink corpus into Experience Cloud, Adobe can now translate search telemetry into GEO intelligence, visibility mapping for generative engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. This marks the end of keyword optimization and the rise of entity optimization, where the battleground is semantic authority inside AI cognition.
The Adobe–Semrush alliance crystallizes the rise of agentic AI, autonomous systems that perceive, reason, and act without human intervention, marking a shift from traditional automation to full autonomy in marketing and commerce.
How Semrush Fits Adobe’s AI Marketing Stack
Semrush designed and developed AI software that aids companies with search engine optimization, social media and digital advertising. The acquisition, expected to close in the first half of next year, would enable marketers to better understand how their brands are viewed by online consumers through searches on websites and generative AI bots like ChatGPT and Gemini
