Google Search Console now gives website owners more control over how their content appears in Google's generative AI search experiences.
As of August 31, 2026, Google's Search generative AI control is available to websites worldwide. The setting lets site owners choose whether their content can appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Google Discover.
The default setting allows a site's links and content to appear in these experiences and help ground AI responses. Site owners can also exclude their content from Google's generative AI features. Google says excluded sites will no longer receive impressions or traffic from those features.
Why it matters for AI search
Traditional SEO focuses heavily on crawling, indexing, rankings, and organic traffic. AI search adds another visibility layer: whether a page can appear as a source or help provide information inside generative search results.
Google is also providing a Generative AI performance report in Search Console. The report shows impressions from generative AI features and can break performance down by pages, countries, devices, and dates.
For teams working on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and GEO, these controls make technical accessibility even more important.
Site owners should review their robots.txt, indexing directives, canonical signals, and AI crawler access alongside their Google Search Console settings. SiteAuditLint can help identify technical signals that affect how crawlers and AI systems can access a site.
The change is another sign that AI search visibility is becoming part of technical SEO rather than a separate discipline.
What site owners should check
- Search Console's Search generative AI control
- AI Overview and AI Mode visibility
- Generative AI performance data
- robots.txt and crawler access
noindexand other indexing directives- Canonical URLs
- AI crawler access and restrictions
For Google's official documentation, see the Search generative AI control documentation and Generative AI performance report .