Google will finally show you your AI search data.

Google just gave us our first real window into AI search traffic. On June 3, 2026, Google launched Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console — dedicated reports that show how your site performs inside AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the generative AI features in Discover.

I've been waiting for this one. For the past year, almost every business owner I talk to asks me some version of the same question: "Are AI Overviews stealing my traffic?" And the honest answer has been: nobody knows for sure, because Google wasn't showing us the data. That changes now — partially. Let's walk through it.

What Google actually launched

Until now, when your site appeared inside an AI Overview or an AI Mode answer, that impression got blended into your regular Search Console performance report. It was counted — but it was indistinguishable from a classic blue-link impression. You had no way to tell how much of your visibility was coming from AI features versus traditional results.

The new reports fix that. Search Console now has a dedicated view for generative AI visibility, split across Search (AI Overviews and AI Mode) and Discover. Your overall performance report keeps working exactly as before — this is a new lens on the same data, not a change to how anything is counted.

What you can see

The reports break your generative AI visibility down five ways:

• Impressions — how often URLs from your site appeared inside generative AI features in Search and Discover.
• Pages — exactly which URLs are showing up in AI answers. This is the one I'd watch closest.
• Countries — where in the world those impressions are happening.
• Devices — what people are using when they see you (Search results only).
• Dates — trends over time, with hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly granularity.

Hourly granularity is a nice touch — if you publish something new or land a mention somewhere, you can watch AI visibility react almost in real time.

The catch: impressions, but no clicks

Notice anything missing from that list? Clicks.

The new reports tell you how often Google's AI features show your pages. They don't tell you whether anyone actually clicked through. And click-through is the entire question — an AI Overview answers the searcher's question right on the results page, which is exactly why site owners have been nervous about them in the first place.

Google says it's "continuing to work with website owners to understand what insights and data would be most helpful" and mentions "adding additional metrics over time." I read that as: clicks are probably coming, but nobody's committing to a date. Until then, treat these reports as visibility data, not traffic data. They tell you whether you're in the game — not whether you're scoring.

Why this matters for local businesses

When a homeowner asks Google "who's the best water damage restoration company near me," AI Mode doesn't hand them ten blue links anymore. It composes an answer — and it names the businesses it trusts. If you're in that answer, you exist. If you're not, you're invisible, and you'd never know why.

These reports are the first tool that lets a local service business actually measure that. You'll be able to see whether your service pages are being pulled into AI answers, which ones, and whether that's trending up or down.

And here's the part I want to be clear about: getting into those answers is not some new dark art. The signals AI features lean on are the same fundamentals I've been preaching for years — an accurate Google Business Profile, a steady stream of real reviews, proper schema markup, and service pages that actually answer the questions people ask. Same game. Google just finally gave us a scoreboard.

It's also not the only ground shifting under local search this summer — Google is merging Local Services Ads into Google Ads starting in August. Busy season.

What to do now

Nothing here is a fire drill, but there's a short list worth running:

• Check Search Console. Look for the new generative AI view under Performance. If it's not there yet, you're not in the first rollout wave — check back monthly.
• Baseline the day it lands. Note your AI impressions in week one so you can tell later whether changes you make actually move the number.
• Audit the fundamentals. Schema on every page, a complete and accurate Google Business Profile, reviews coming in weekly — these are what AI answers are built from. (The full playbook: what AEO is and how it works.)
• Compare AI vs. classic. Watch what share of your impressions comes from AI features over time. That ratio is the story of where local search is heading.
• Tell Google you want clicks data. There's a dedicated feedback form for these reports. The more site owners ask, the faster it ships.

Where we come in

Every website we build ships with the exact ingredients AI answers pull from: full schema markup, fast pages, structured service pages for every service and city you cover, and a review funnel that keeps fresh 5-star reviews flowing. That wasn't a bet on AI — it's just what working local SEO looks like. But it's why our clients tend to show up when the AI starts naming names.

As these reports roll out, we'll be baselining them for every client account and folding AI visibility into how we measure what's working. If you want to know whether your business is showing up in AI answers — or why it isn't — that's a 20-minute conversation.

FAQs