Search Console has no filter to separate AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google documentation shows

Google Search Central's official documentation confirms: AI Overviews and AI Mode fall into the same data bucket as the Web search type. There is no dedicated segment in the Performance report, and this changes how any SEO team should build a GEO before/after.

Google Search Central's official documentation confirms: AI Overviews and AI Mode fall into the same data bucket as the Web search type. There is no dedicated segment in the Performance report, and this changes how any SEO team should build a GEO before/after.

The filter the story wanted doesn't exist, and that is the news itself

The idea of segmenting the Search Console Performance report by AI Overviews and AI Mode is tempting: one more click on the filter would be enough to prove the GEO before/after with official Google data. Google Search Central's own documentation for developers, updated on December 10, 2025, dismantles that expectation right in the section on measuring site performance.

The passage is direct, in the original English:

"In particular, they're reported on in the Performance report, within the 'Web' search type."

(translation) In particular, these features are reported in the performance report, within the "Web" search type.

(source) Google Search Central, official documentation on AI features and sites

In other words: there is currently no separate line for AI Overviews or for AI Mode within Search Console. Anyone building a GEO report promising that fine-grained breakdown is promising something the tool itself doesn't deliver.

Where the generative search click disappears

The Search type filter in the Performance report has a Web option, and it's within that option that the documentation confirms clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position of links referenced in AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted. The documentation doesn't detail the filter's other options or their behavior in relation to AI features.

This means that clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position for a page referenced within an AI Overview are mixed, in the same bucket, with all the rest of that same page's traditional organic traffic. The documentation also points to three other Google guides on how AI Overviews and AI Mode data aggregates into the Search Console total, how to analyze overall traffic changes, and how to combine Search Console data with Google Analytics data. None of these guides describes a dedicated filter: they deal with how to interpret the aggregate, not how to separate it.

What you can measure with what exists today

To appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, the technical requirement is the same as always: the page needs to be indexed and meet Search's technical requirements to show a snippet in Google results. The documentation is explicit in saying there's no additional technical requirement beyond that.

Google's SEO recommendations for appearing in these features also aren't new, but they're worth reviewing as a checklist:

• Make sure robots.txt, CDN, or hosting infrastructure allow crawling
• Make content easily discoverable through internal links
• Provide a good page experience for users
• Make important content available in text form
• Support text with high-quality images and videos, when it makes sense
• Make sure structured data matches the text actually displayed on the page
• Keep Merchant Center and Business Profile information up to date
• Verify the site in Search Console to quickly detect technical issues

In short: there's no specific optimization for AI Overviews. What exists is good SEO, which also applies to these features because they inherit the index and quality criteria of traditional search.

The indirect signal the documentation gives: traffic quality

The documentation makes an observation that's worth more than it seems at first glance: clicks coming from result pages with AI Overviews tend to bring higher-quality traffic, in the sense that the user spends more time on the site after clicking. This is a proxy, not an isolatable metric, but it's measurable with the right tools.

In practice, this means cross-referencing the Search Console aggregate with Google Analytics engagement metrics (average engagement time, conversion rate) for the organic search channel as a whole, during the period when a content or structured data change went live. It's not direct attribution to the specific AI Overview, but it's the real data Google provides today.

An honest roadmap for your own before/after

In the absence of a dedicated filter, the path that makes sense to follow is well-documented temporal correlation, not guaranteed causality:

1. Mark the exact date the content, schema, or restructuring change went live.
2. In the Performance report's Search type filter set to Web, compare impressions and clicks for the affected pages in the weeks before and after, knowing that this number includes, but doesn't isolate, AI Overviews and AI Mode.
3. Filter queries by long tail and by questions (how, why, what is), which are the type of query the documentation itself associates with AI Overviews and AI Mode, since they require more context or comparison.
4. Cross-reference the period with Google Analytics, looking at engagement time and conversion for the organic channel.
5. Document the limitation in the report: it's temporal correlation with a traffic-quality proxy, not direct attribution to the AI feature.

Content controls: what you can turn on and off

Anyone who wants to restrict their site's presence in these features has concrete options, all via robots.txt or meta tag directives: nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex control what appears as a snippet in Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. To limit the use of content for training and grounding in other Google AI systems, the control is Google-Extended.

If preview controls have been implemented and content still appears in AI features, the documentation recommends confirming, via the URL Inspection tool, whether the HTML received by Googlebot during crawling actually contains the directive. After that, it's a matter of waiting for the change to be recrawled and processed, which can take anywhere from days to months, with the option to request reindexing when necessary.

What remains open

The documentation makes clear that GEO efforts today are measured by approximation: the Web type aggregate in Search Console, cross-referenced with engagement signals from another tool. Promising a team or client an exact breakdown of clicks coming from AI Overviews, with the current Search Console, is promising something Google itself doesn't yet deliver. The December 10, 2025 update suggests the documentation is still under revision, which is a good reason to revisit this page periodically before closing out any GEO report.

Source 1: Google Search Central — official AI Overviews documentation (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-overviews)

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AI features and your website

This guide covers how AI features like AI Overviews and AI Mode work in Google Search from a site owner's perspective and how to approach your content's inclusion in these experiences.

How AI features work in Search

As with Search overall, the AI features AI Overviews and AI Mode surface relevant links to help people find the information they're looking for quickly and reliably, as well as to help them explore content they may not have discovered before. These features offer unique opportunities for more types of sites to appear.

AI Overviews help people get to the gist of a complicated topic or question more quickly, and provide a jumping off point to explore links to learn more. They were designed to show up on queries where they can add additional benefits beyond what people might already get on Search. With AI Overviews, people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions.

AI Mode is particularly helpful for queries where further exploration, reasoning, or complex comparisons are needed. People can ask nuanced questions that might have previously taken multiple searches — from exploring a new concept, to comparing options, and beyond — and get a comprehensive AI-powered response with links to supporting websites.

Both AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a "query fan-out" technique — issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources — to develop a response. While responses are being generated, our advanced models identify more supporting web pages, allowing us to display a wider and more diverse set of helpful links associated with the response than with a classic web search, enabling new opportunities for exploration.

AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary. AI Overviews are only shown when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger.

How to appear in AI features

You can apply the same foundational SEO best practices for AI features as you do for Google Search overall: making sure the page meets the technical requirements for Google Search , following Search policies , and focusing on the key best practices , such as creating helpful, reliable, people-first content .

Technical requirements for appearing in AI features

To be eligible to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, fulfilling the Search technical requirements . There are no additional technical requirements.

SEO best practices

While specific optimization isn't required for AI Overviews and AI Mode, all existing SEO fundamentals continue to be worthwhile, for example:

Ensuring that crawling is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure

Making your content easily findable through internal links on your website

Providing a great page experience for users

Making sure that important content is available in textual form

Supporting your textual content with high-quality images and videos , when applicable

Making sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page

Checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date

To discover and diagnose potential technical issues quickly, verify your site in Search Console .

Measuring the performance of your site

Just like the rest of the search results page, sites appearing in AI features (such as AI Overviews and AI Mode) are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console . In particular, they're reported on in the Performance report , within the "Web" search type . Learn more about how AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted towards the overall data in Search Console, how to analyze traffic changes overall, and how to combine Search Console and Analytics data .

In addition to Search Console, you could also track conversions and time spent on your site in other tools, such as Google Analytics. We've seen that when people click from search results pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality (meaning, users are more likely to spend more time on the site).

Controlling your content in AI features in Search

AI is built into Search and integral to how Search functions, which is why robots.txt directives for Googlebot is the control for site owners to manage access to how their sites are crawled for Search. To limit the information shown from your pages in Search, use nosnippet , data-nosnippet , max-snippet , or noindex controls.

To limit AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems, read more about Google-Extended .

Troubleshooting preview controls

If you implemented preview controls and you're still seeing your content appear in AI features on Search, try the following steps:

Make sure that the preview control is correct and visible to Googlebot. To test if your implementation is correct, use the URL Inspection tool to see the HTML that Googlebot received while crawling the page.

Allow time for Google to recrawl and process the change in preview controls. Remember that crawling can take anywhere from several days to several months, depending on how often our systems determine a page needs to be refreshed. If you've made changes, you can request that Google recrawl your pages .

If you tried the troubleshooting steps and still find issues, post in the Google Search Central Help Community .

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License , and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License . For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies . Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2025-12-10 UTC.