It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Google Search Console. I’d go as far as to say you can’t do SEO properly without it.
But as with pretty much everything Google does, it’s not always perfect. The long-awaited Generative AI feature is now available here in the UK, and while it’s definitely a welcome addition, many of us were expecting a bit more.
What is Search Console’s Generative AI feature?
Google’s Generative AI feature in Google Search Console lets site owners see how often their pages appear in AI-driven experiences such as AI Overviews and AI mode.
You can find it within the Search results/Performance and Discover sections on the left-hand menu, by clicking on the little downward arrow in the corner:
At the moment, data only starts from mid-late May onwards, so this feature will become more useful as time goes on.
Is it any good?
A more optimistic view than most perhaps, but I’d say yes. Yes, there’s a lot of data that isn’t included, but we’ll get on to that shortly.
What we can see is which pages are getting included in features like Google’s AI overviews and AI mode. We didn’t have any way of seeing this before, and it’s incredibly useful to have. If you’ve been working on optimising certain pages with the goal of appearing in AI overviews, you can see if it’s actually working.
As well as seeing which pages are performing best, you can start to identify patterns. Is it predominantly blogs? Is it pages answering the long tail search phrases? At the very least, it allows you to do more of the same to boost your visibility in AI search features.
You can also see impressions. This gives you an idea of whether you’re being shown for the big volume terms, or the super niche topics where you may be one of a few answering this query directly. You can also see via the graph whether these impressions all came in one go as one-off appearances, or if you’re appearing regularly.
In addition, it shows searchers’ countries and devices by URL, which may be of use to some more than others.
What’s missing?
Well, quite a lot, now you ask. The two main omissions are click data and queries; two quite fundamental areas.
Part of me wonders whether the absence of click data is a blessing in disguise. We’re all aware that this is supposedly notoriously low. Regardless, I think most users would prefer to have click data over devices.
Another issue is that the feature has a gradual, limited rollout and requires a threshold of visibility. Sites with low impression volumes in AI features may not see the report at all. Sigh.
To summarise: it will do for now
Ultimately, we didn’t have this data before, and now we do. Plus, it’s free. I personally find being able to see which pages are appearing in AI overviews really useful – even if it’s only to reassure clients that an effective SEO strategy is an effective GEO strategy.
I’d like to think that when it comes to missing data like clicks or queries, it’s more a case of ‘not yet’ rather than ‘not ever’, but we’ll see!