- Date
- June 3, 2026
- Kind
- Product launch
- Significance
- Moderate
On June 3, 2026, Google announced new Search Console insights on how pages appear in generative AI features in Google Search, together with a control that lets site owners choose whether their site appears in, and helps ground responses in, those features. The announcement said the features were beginning to roll out to a subset of website owners in the UK for testing before a global rollout.
What the reports show
- The Search report measures impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode, and can be grouped by page, country, date and device. Data from Search Labs experiments is excluded.
- Google’s help page describes impressions only. It does not mention clicks or search queries.
- Google said more metrics will follow.
The opt-out
Google says sites that opt out stop receiving traffic and impressions from generative AI features, and that the setting is not used as a ranking signal for results outside those features. Google said it was engaging with the UK Competition and Markets Authority to make sure website owners have the right tools; the post does not describe a formal requirement.
Worldwide rollout
The Search Console help page says that “As of August 31, 2026, we’ve rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide.” The report appears only when a site has enough generative AI impressions or is not excluded from the features.
Why it matters
It is the first first-party number for how often a site appears in Google's AI answers. Without clicks it cannot say whether those appearances send visitors, so the sensible use now is to record a baseline of impressions by page. Opting out removes a site from the features altogether, which makes it a visibility decision, not a ranking tactic.
What happened next
The reports were available worldwide from August 31, 2026, according to Google's help page. Google said more metrics would follow; the pages we read gave no dates.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (opens in a new tab)
We could read the title and date of this post but not its full text; details below come from Google's two other pages.
- Google: New opportunities, control and insights for website owners (opens in a new tab)
- Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search) (opens in a new tab)