The short answer: export, compare, sort and rewrite
To measure your AI answer share, export generative AI impressions by page from Search Console, set them against your regular web search impressions and sort the pages by the ratio. The pages at the bottom become your rewrite list, and the pages at the top become your template.
Every Search Console account can now do this. After a slow rollout, Google made the AI performance reports and the Search generative AI control available to everyone, and its documentation notes the control reached all websites worldwide as of August 31, 2026. The steps below take you from first login to a monthly routine.
Step 1: Open the generative AI reports
Choose your property in Search Console and open the Performance section. Look for the Generative AI reports, which come in one view for Search and another for Discover.
Google says not every property has access yet, and a report can look empty when a site has too few impressions in generative AI features. An empty screen is a result, not an error, so note it and come back later.
Step 2: Understand what the numbers count
The reports cover impressions in features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken out by page, country and date, and the Search view adds a device breakdown. Google states the data comes from the Web search type of the Performance report, so it is an isolated subset of what you already had.
Your totals stay the same. Treat the AI figure as a share of your visibility rather than a second pile of impressions to add on top.
Counting rules matter too. A link has to be scrolled or expanded into view before it counts, which John Mueller confirmed in June 2026, and a link the user must activate counts only once it is activated, so a citation inside a collapsed drawer may never show up.
Step 3: Export three months of AI impressions
Export the last three months of generative AI impressions by page. Save this file somewhere safe, because the report does not reach back to the beginning of time and this export becomes your before picture.
Step 4: Export the matching web search window
Open the standard Performance report, filter it to web search and export the same three months. Matching the dates exactly keeps the comparison fair.
Step 5: Calculate the AI share for your top 25 pages
Put both exports side by side in a spreadsheet. For each of your top 25 pages, divide AI impressions by web impressions and show the result as a percentage.
Step 6: Sort the list and read both ends
Sort the pages by that percentage. The bottom of the list shows where your content is not being read as a clean, quotable answer, and those pages form your gap list.
The top of the list holds the pages that punch above their weight in AI answers. Study what they do well, because they are the template for everything else.
Step 7: Segment by country on multilingual sites
If your site serves more than one language or market, never compare versions on raw totals. Segment by country first, check the Google-selected canonical second and look at content structure only after that.
Step 8: Rewrite three pages from the bottom of the list
Pick three pages from your gap list and rewrite each one as a clear answer. These fixes are plain, but they are the ones that tend to move AI visibility:
- Answer the main question in the first two sentences, then back it up.
- Use headings that match how customers phrase the question out loud.
- Put real facts on the page, such as your service area, pricing structure, hours, credentials and process steps.
- Add first-hand proof only you have, like project details, photos and named customer outcomes.
- Keep the page current, since stale dates and dead service listings get skipped.
- Confirm the page renders in plain HTML and can be crawled, or none of the other fixes will count.
Step 9: Leave the opt-out toggle alone for now
The same rollout added a setting that removes your site from Google AI features, and its help page carries the same worldwide rollout note. Look at your AI impressions for a while before you decide anything, because the reports show where pages appear without saying how many clicks those appearances produce.
For a local service business, an AI answer that names you, lists your hours and shows your phone number can lead to a call that never appears as a session in your analytics. Switching that off to protect a click metric can cost you the lead.
Step 10: Save, repeat and compare each month
Repeat the exports every month on the same day so the numbers stay comparable. Over time you will have a trend line instead of a guess.
Treat a single odd week as noise until it repeats. Search Engine Roundtable noted in its September recap that the new reports had a bug a couple of weeks earlier, so one strange data point should not drive a rewrite on its own.
What the walkthrough cannot show you
The report carries no click data, so pair it with Google Analytics or your server logs for real visits. There is also no average position, because AI answers have no position 1 or position 3, and citations can appear as inline text links, side-panel cards or expandable footnotes. Prompts are left out as well, so you will see that a page appeared but not the question that led there.
The surfaces keep moving, which is why a saved baseline is so useful. Google has started pushing AI Mode into AI Overviews inside Google Search, and AI Mode is partially powered by Gemini 3.7 Flash.
Plan for the next round of controls
The CMA has given Google until March 2027 to introduce page-level controls for generative AI features, which is more detailed than the current property-level setting. The regulator also expects click-through data, and Google must report on compliance every six months during the first year. Page-level control will let you treat different parts of your site differently, so knowing now which pages truly earn AI visibility puts you ahead of that change.
Three rewrites a month, measured against a saved export, leave you with a clear record of what worked. If you want help building your first baseline and turning it into a plan, contact us with your site address, or schedule a call and AppWT will go through your Search Console numbers with you.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first step to open the generative AI report?
Log in to Search Console, choose your property and go to the Performance section, where the Generative AI reports appear. Search and Discover each have their own view. An empty report usually means your site has not yet built up enough generative AI impressions.
Which step shows me how many clicks AI Overviews sent?
None of them inside this report. It breaks impressions out by page, country and date, with device added in the Search view, but clicks are not given as their own breakout. Use Google Analytics or your server logs when you want to study real visits.
Where does the opt-out decision fit in the walkthrough?
It comes last, and only after you have studied your impression data for a few weeks. Showing up in AI answers is often how new customers first hear your name, so most small businesses should leave the control off. Talk the choice over with whoever runs your marketing before you change anything.
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