You Can Finally See If AI Search Is Mentioning Your Business
At the start of June 2026, Google quietly added a report that shows whether your website is showing up inside its AI answers, the AI Overviews and AI Mode that now sit at the top of search. Until now you could not see that. You could watch your normal clicks fall and have no idea whether AI was putting you in front of people or leaving you out. Now you can check. If you run a business and you have wondered whether any of this AI search talk actually touches you, this is the update worth two minutes of your attention.
What actually changed
On 3 June 2026, Google launched new Search Generative AI performance reports inside Search Console, the free tool that shows how your site does on Google. For the first time, it shows how often your pages appeared inside AI features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, and which pages those were. It is rolling out slowly (sorry) to a set of sites first, so you may not see it in your account just yet, but it is on the way to everyone.
Why this matters if you run a business
Search has quietly flipped. Around half of searches in the US now show an AI summary at the top, and most searches now end without anyone clicking through to a website at all. So being named inside that AI answer, even when nobody clicks, has become its own kind of win. The trouble until now was that you had no way of knowing whether it was happening. This report is the first time you can see it. The goal is no longer only to rank. It is to be the source the AI quotes.
The bigger shift behind it
This sits on top of Google''s May 2026 core update, which finished on 2 June and was a heavy one. The direction was clear. It rewarded real brands, official sources, and pages with genuine depth and their own data, and it pulled visibility away from pages that mainly repackage what others have already said. In plain terms, being a real, named source with something of your own to say is what wins now.
One thing you can do today
Google also expanded something called Preferred Sources into its AI answers. People can pick the sites they want to see more of, and that choice now feeds into the AI summaries they are shown. That turns a loyal audience into a direct visibility signal. The simple move is to tell your customers and followers they can add you as a preferred source, so they see more of you in their results.
What we would focus on
- Write things only you can write, from real experience, with your name on them.
- Answer the question plainly and early, so an AI can lift a clear answer from your page.
- Keep your site fast and easy for machines to read.
- If you have the new report in Search Console, look at which pages are showing up in AI answers, and do more of what is working.
We do this for the businesses we work with, and we built our own site this way, so we are saying it from doing it rather than from theory. None of this means the sky is falling. It means the scoreboard changed, and for the first time you can see your score.
FAQ
Do I need a separate AI or GEO strategy for Google? Not for Google specifically. Google has said that optimising for its AI search is still just good SEO, so you do not need a separate playbook for it. Other tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity have their own quirks, but the foundation is the same.
Is SEO dead, then? No. It is the foundation the AI answers are built on. The same things that helped you rank, clear and trustworthy pages that are genuinely useful, are what get you quoted in AI answers.
Will this kill my website traffic? Clicks may keep falling as people get their answer without leaving the results page. But being named and quoted in those answers still builds recognition and trust, and that is the thing to measure now, next to clicks.
Sources
- Google Search Central Blog: Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, 3 June 2026
- yellowHEAD: Google Search Changes 2026, on the May 2026 core update and Preferred Sources
- Heroic Rankings: Google AI Overview Statistics 2026
