Search Console now shows AI-search reports. Should you opt out?
Open Search Console before you rewrite the homepage. On 31 August 2026 Google said the AI performance report and the generative-search control are available to every site. Coverage: Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and Aleyda’s weekly notes.
The report lists impressions in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative surfaces in Discover — by page, country, device, date. No clicks.
What a owner usually says in the meeting
“We showed up in that long answer, then nobody clicked. Should we turn AI off?”
Off means your pages stop grounding those answers. Google is clear: you also stop getting those impressions. For a small firm, that is giving up being named, not a clever ranking trick.
Do this in the console
- Confirm the property is the right domain or URL prefix
- Open the AI / generative report (labels may still move)
- Note which URLs were mentioned
- Fix the first paragraph on those URLs if the summary is wrong
- Leave the generative toggle on unless counsel says otherwise
- Keep using classic Search + GA4 for leads
If you cannot find the menu, search the console for “AI” or “generative”. Labels still move. Use the domain property (sc-domain) so www and the bare host are not two stories.
Turning the toggle off usually keeps classic blue links and drops you from the summaries. Publishers use that as leverage. For a small firm the more common result is a thinner answer when someone asks a chat tool what you do. Turning it back on is not instant; you wait to be picked up again.
Do not mix this report with sales. We still count form mail, brand-term search, and whether a monthly check describes the wrong city. High impressions and zero forms: fix the contact line on the landing page before you opt out of AI.
Our own brand search is still thin. Zero clicks there does not mean the new report is broken. See metrics beyond pageviews and structure.
FAQs
Does opting out hide us from classic Google Search too?
No. The control is for generative features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. You still appear in ordinary results. You just stop showing up in those AI surfaces.
The report has no clicks. Is it broken?
Clicks are not in this report. People may read the summary and leave. Watch forms, calls, and brand search for business.
Do we need to check it daily?
No. Once a month is enough: which pages were mentioned, and whether the wording is wrong.
Review Search Console with us Site structure
Sources: SEL 31 Aug 2026; SEJ.