As someone who eagerly follows Google’s updates, I was thrilled to learn about the latest developments in Google Search Console. Recently, Google has started to roll out new Search Generative AI performance reports. These reports, along with a feature to block your content in AI responses, are designed to give website owners more control.
Currently, these features are being introduced to a select group of website owners in the UK, but there are plans to expand access in the near future. This gradual rollout allows us to get accustomed to these changes before they become widely available.
Exploring the Search Generative AI Performance Report
The new AI performance report in Google Search Console is something I’ve been anticipating. Although it doesn’t cover everything, it does provide some important insights into how our content is performing within AI responses, AI Mode, and AI Overviews on Google Search. The report includes data on impressions, pages, countries, devices, and dates. However, a notable omission is click data, so we’re left guessing about the exact number of searchers clicking through to our sites from AI responses.
Google stated:
– We’re rolling out new insights for website owners regarding their pages’ appearances in generative AI Search features. These insights include impressions metrics and information on which pages appear in AI responses and in which countries. We’re working closely with website owners to determine what insights would be most helpful and will expand the metrics available over time.
Additionally, Google shared more details about the metrics we can expect:
– Impressions: Frequency of your site’s URLs appearing in generative AI features in Search and Discover.
– Pages: Identifying URLs that appeared within AI features.
– Countries: Understanding visibility on a country basis.
– Devices: Identifying the devices used to view your website. Available for Search results.
– Dates: Monitoring performance with hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly granularity.
I inquired about click data from a Google representative, who mentioned that they are exploring additional metrics that will help inform our strategies in the future.
Initially, this report is available to a subset of users in the UK, with plans to expand globally in the future.
If you want to explore more about this report, I recommend checking out the Google help center document.
Introducing AI Blocking Controls
Another exciting feature Google introduced is the ability to block your content from appearing in AI search features like AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Discover. Google described this as a “new toggle” within Google Search Console, allowing us to decide whether or not our site should be part of these AI search features.
Google notes that opting out will prevent your site from receiving traffic or impressions from these features. Importantly, this control won’t affect your ranking in standard search results outside of generative AI Search features, so there’s no risk of negatively impacting core web search visibility.
Again, like the performance report, this toggle is currently available to a subset of UK website owners, with plans to widen access as they complete further testing. Google had promised these controls after facing some backlash from the EU, and it’s promising to see them starting to roll out now.
One study even showed that 1/3rd of SEOs are willing to block Google from showcasing their content in AI search features.
Why It Matters
As site owners and publishers, many of us have been asking for control over how and if our content appears in Google’s AI features. Now, we have just that. Although it’s initially limited, I’m hopeful these features will eventually be available to all.
Moreover, we’ve been requesting AI Search reporting from Google from day one. With Google’s announcement following Bing’s release of its own AI performance report, we’re taking a significant step forward. While Google’s report currently targets UK site owners and lacks click data, it holds promise for a global rollout soon.
Inspired by this post on Search Engine Land.
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