Video Transcript:
Original Article: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-tests-dedicated-ai-search-reports-in-search-console/577793/
Hey everyone, Scott Orth here.
Um, so I wanted to react to a recent search engine journal uh article that caught my attention. Uh, it was about uh Google testing dedicated AI uh search reports in search console. Um, and this is something I’m I’m hoping to do more of now kind of when when cool or scary or whatever new news comes out um in the industry to uh go ahead and hop on that and talk about it a little bit.
So, if you’re a business owner, marketer, you know, SEO agency owner, or uh anyone who relies on Google traffic, this is a pretty big deal. Not because Google suddenly solved the, you know, entire AI search measurement problem. They definitely have not, but because this is one of the first real signs that Google understands website owners need more visibility into how their content is showing up in AI overviews, AI mode, and other generative search experiences.
For the last couple of years, a lot of us in SEO have been asking the same question. How do we know if AI search is helping us, hurting us, or just changing the way people discover our content? And really, like this year, it’s more important than ever because AI is just everywhere.
So, until now, the answer has mostly been, you know, uh, we don’t really know. We can look at overall search console trends. We can look at organic clicks. We can look at impressions. We can look at uh traffic and analytics. But when AI overviews and AI mode are blended into the same reporting buckets as regular search, it becomes really hard to separate what’s actually happening.
So according to the article, Google’s testing two things. First, a toggle in search console that lets website owners decide whether their site can appear in generative AI search features. Second, dedicated performance reporting that shows when URLs from your site appear in these AIdriven results.
Uh, so let’s talk about the toggle first. This is interesting because Google’s basically saying you now have a choice. Your content can help ground AI responses and appear in AI features or you can opt out. But here’s the catch. If you opt out, Google says you won’t receive traffic or impressions from those generative AI features.
So, for most businesses, especially small businesses, law firms, local service companies, uh, and professional service firms, I don’t think opting outs, uh, going to be the move. In fact, I would think that would be quite the opposite of what you’d want to do. At least not right now.
Why? Well, because even if AI search reduces some traditional clicks, it’s also becoming part of the discover uh, discovery journey. So, people are asking longer uh, more detailed questions. They’re comparing options. They’re researching services. They’re asking for recommendations, summaries, explanations, things of that nature, and then kind of moving into like next steps. They’re not just searching for a keyword.
That means your business needs to be eligible to show in those moments. So if you remove yourself from that environment, you may be protecting your content kind of in one sense, but you may also be removing your brand from where search behavior is clearly heading and where your audience actually is doing their searching.
Now I I do understand why publishers and content heavy sites are concerned. If Google uses your content to answer the question directly and the user never clicks through, that’s a real issue. I mean, it impacts traffic, attribution, ad revenue, uh, and lead flow and so forth. So, I get it. But for any kind of service business, I’d be very cautious about opting out of visibility.
The better place is to understand how you’re showing up, strengthen your authority, and create the type of content AI systems uh, are likely to reference.
All right, so now let’s talk about reporting. This is the part I’m I I think I’m most interested in.
Google’s new AI search reports are expected to show impressions from generative AI features. The article says the reporting can be broken down by uh page, country, device, and date with hourly level detail. So, that could really be useful. It tells you which pages are are being surfaced inside AI experiences. It gives you some directional insight into whether your content’s being recognized as useful enough to appear in AI generated responses.
Um, but here’s my honest reaction. Impressions alone, they’re just not enough. Um, they’re helpful, but they don’t answer the bigger uh business question, right? The real question is not just did my page appear. We want to know, did that appearance drive any meaningful action? Did someone click? Did they visit the site or did they call? Um, did they fill out a form or book a consultation? Right? Did they become a lead or a customer? That’s what we really want to know.
And that is currently or even with this new update, it’s it’s the reporting gap. According to the article, Google’s dedicated reports do not yet include click data or query level metrics for AI search. So that’s a major missing piece. I mean, because without click data, marketers and business owners are still left trying to connect the dots.
For example, imagine you see that your service page appeared 5,000 times in AI overviews. That sounds great, but what if it drove zero clicks? What if it drove uh you know like no clicks? Uh people who did click were much more qualified. Let me restate that. I mean like what if it drove fewer clicks than what you were getting now, but those who did click weren’t really qualified or or what if it showed up for the wrong topics entirely? Right?
Without query level data and click data, you can’t fully evaluate performance. you can only see visibility. And that’s, you know, with typical um with SEO, with paid ads, everything else, that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for what was the search query that brought somebody to a website and then what did they do when they were there. That whole journey is is critically important to marketing, not just, you know, how many times did you show up in search. So, we need that additional data for it to be uh valuable. So, that distinction really, really matters.
Now, I do want to give Google credit here. This is a step in the right direction. I mean, for a long time, and I mean, right up until very, very recently, AI search reporting has really felt like a black box. Um, AI overviews, AI mode, they were influencing how people interacted with search, but website owners didn’t have any data, let alone clean data, to really understand that impact.
So dedicated AI search visibility reporting is definitely progress. But it also feels like Google’s giving us the top of the funnel while holding back the most important conversion signals.
So that means SEOs and business owners still need to build their own measurement systems. You can’t rely on search console alone. You need to track form submissions, phone calls, booked appointments. Uh if you’re using CRM, what are the CRM stages, pipelines, things of that nature. uh and really your lead source, your close rates and what revenue is being generated due to all of that.
Um this is especially important for service businesses and for and for law firms. So if you like if you run a law firm um you know or a consulting form firm or any kind of professional business really any even a home service HVAC uh just all kinds um you don’t need just rankings you need to know which visibility is turning into real opportunities.
That’s where the conversation around SEO is really changing. Old SEO reporting was often about rankings, impressions, clicks, and traffic. Modern SEO reporting has to include AEO uh AIO, you know, it has to include all of the visibility, brand mention, citations, assisted discovery and actual lead quality coming from AI type queries because the customer journey is, you know, no longer as simple as just search a keyword and, you know, click the blue link and read a page and maybe pick up the phone.
Now, it’s more like uh ask an AI style question, see an AI overview, compare several companies, click one of the results, go back to search, ask a follow-up, check reviews, visit the website, and maybe a book a call, you know, like two days later. That’s a much harder journey to measure uh than we’ve really dealt with uh ever until now. But it is the reality we’re moving into.
The other part of the article that stood out to me is the comparison to Bing. So Bing has already been moving faster with AI performance reporting in uh web master tools, including citation performance and grounding query data.
That matters because grounding queries help show what phrases or concepts caused AI systems to retrieve your content. That’s extremely valuable because if you know the types of question your content is being associated with, you can improve your content strategy or you can uh you know double down ones that you know are generating the right kinds of uh results.
So you can see whether AI systems understand your expertise, you can identify gaps, uh build better topic clusters, you can create stronger service pages, FAQs, comparisons, educational content, whatever the key may be. By being able to see that data, you’re able to know what to do next with your content.
Um, that’s what I’d really like to see Google provide. And I wish they would hop on it, you know, sooner than later. It’s not just, you know, hey, your page appeared. I want to know what topic triggered it. What was the query type that was involved? Um, you know, was the brand cited? Was a page linked to? Um, where was the user? Was it local? Uh, did they click? Did they convert? Like, there’s so many things that we need to know.
So, what should business owners do right now?
First of all, don’t panic. AI search is not the death of SEO. First of all, uh, as I keep hearing that, and it’s so ridiculous, but it is changing what good SEO looks like.
Second, focus on creating content that answers real customer questions clearly, not generic keyword stuff pages, real answers. For example, if you’re a law firm, don’t just write, you know, personal injury lawyer Portland over and over. Answer questions. So, uh, you know, look up what people are asking, what queries are like. Uh, what should I do after a car accident if the insurance company calls me? Um, how long do I have to file a personal injury claim? What makes a personal injury case worth pursuing?
So, you know, th those are those are things that are critically important. Those are questions people are asking. And if you have the answers for them, uh, that’s what’s really going to help. And it’s going to help AI, but it’s also going to help them find you.
You know, if you’re a a home service company, it might be questions like, uh, why is my furnace running hot? Uh, or or not, you know, I’m sorry, why why is my furnace running but not heating? You know, something like that. Uh, how much does a new AC system usually cost? Or should I repair or replace my heat pump? Like things that uh a homeowner is actually thinking about and they they want to know why something is h happening.
It’s kind of goes back to like DIY. A lot of people would ask uh Google for things because they’re trying to figure out how to fix it. Well, they’re asking the same kinds of things now when they’re looking for service providers as well. And the reality is that kind of content is much more useful for both humans and AI systems.
All right. Third, uh strengthen your identity signals. I mean that means your brand, your authors, your your uh your services, your location, your reviews, credentials, case studies, and any kind of supporting content um for any of those areas. They all need to connect. AI search isn’t uh just looking for pages. It’s trying to understand entities, authority, context, and trust.
Fourth, make sure your website can convert the traffic that you do get because if AI search sends fewer clicks, but those clicks are more informed, your website has to be ready.
So, make sure you’ve got things like clear uh clear calls to action. Uh make sure it’s easy for them to schedule, that you have strong trust signals. Uh you need to have forms like if you’re if your conversion point is like a form submission, I call it fast forms. It’s like it’s a form that is quick and easy to fill out without a lot of of barrier. Uh, and then make sure that you have good follow-up.
You u put in automation. These are all things that we do now. They’re so critical in these uh this day and age. You’ve got to have speed to lead. You’ve got to have automations in place. You’ve got to have follow-ups. uh whether they schedule a call, whether they missed a call, whether it’s uh you know a two or a 3-day follow-up, all those things can be automated, but they have to be in place. And then make sure that you have things like um proof concepts, case studies, reviews. You’ve got to have reviews.
And then finally, start watching Search Console closely uh as these reports roll out because I do think they’re going to keep adding to them. Um when AI specific reporting becomes available, don’t just look at it as, you know, an SEO novelty. Use it as a strategic signal. Which pages are being surfaced? Which topics are gaining visibility? Um what content types are being recognized?
And also kind of by looking between the lines, where are you invisible? Um that should guide your next wave of content. It should tell you what what to write, what not to write, what gaps there are, where to fill them. Um all of that is critically important.
My my final thought is this. Um, Google giving us uh AI search reporting is a great sign, but it’s not the finish line. It’s the beginning of a new measurement era.
The businesses that win are not going to be the ones obsessing only over old ranking reports. They’re they’ll be the ones who understand how search and AI, content, trust, and conversion all work together. So, yes, I’m glad Google’s testing this, but I’ll be much more excited when we get clicks, queries, citations, and conversion visibility that helps business owners make real decisions.
Until then, it is prog Sorry, I tripped over my words. Until then, it is progress, but it’s incomplete progress. Um, and if you’re investing in SEO right now, the message, I think, is pretty simple. Keep creating useful content, build real authority, track beyond rankings, and prepare for a search world where visibility may happen before the click ever does.
Thanks for watching.
As always, feel free to reach out if you need help with AI / AEO and related reporting.