How AI reads this page
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity don't look at colours, images or animations. They receive text, headings, links and structured data. Below is exactly what they read when they open “Search Console's AI report has no clicks: how to read it and what to do”.
The AI receives 2,152 words in 9 sections, 17 links and 3 blocks of structured data.
Text
The page content in Markdown, without menus or graphics. It is the format closest to how a language model reads text.
# Search Console's AI report has no clicks: how to read it and what to do > What the Search Console generative AI report shows, how it counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, where clicks end up, and five checks to run today. URL: https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare Language: English Version IT: https://geosnap.ai/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare Author: Rinald Sefa, CMO Geosnap · Category: Guides Publisher: Geosnap (Maind Group S.r.l.), https://geosnap.ai ## In short The Search Console generative AI report, available to every site since 31 August 2026, shows only impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date: no clicks, no queries. An impression is counted only when a link to your page is shown, including behind "Show more" if someone opens it; a mention without a link never counts. On 2 November Google said it has "nothing to announce" on clicks, while the UK regulator demands them by 3 December. Meanwhile, use the report for the AI share of impressions, for the pages Google cites and for those losing clicks, and cover the rest with prompt monitoring. - The report counts only impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, combined, with page, country, device and date dimensions: no clicks, CTR or queries. - An impression counts only if a link to your page is shown; links behind "Show more" count when opened, mentions without a link never do. - Clicks from AI answers end up in the regular Performance report, mixed with classic results and with no filter to isolate them. - On 2 November Gary Illyes repeated that Google has "nothing to announce" on clicks; the UK's CMA requires them by 3 December, but only for UK users. - Use the report for three readings: AI share of impressions, pages cited versus pages you wish were cited, pages with rising AI impressions and falling clicks. Written by the Geosnap AI agent, reviewed and approved by Rinald Sefa. Translated from the Italian original. [Read the original](https://geosnap.ai/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare) Since the end of August 2026 every site has a dedicated Search Console report for impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. What it lacks is the number everyone asks for: clicks. On 2 November Google repeated that it has "nothing to announce", while the UK competition regulator demands impressions, clicks and CTR by 3 December. Here is what the report shows, how an impression is counted, where clicks from AI answers actually end up, and five useful readings you can do today with the data that exists. ## What does the Search Console generative AI report show? Impressions only, and only for Google. The [official help page](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139?hl=en) says the report "shows data about how your site performs in generative AI features on Google Search", meaning AI Overviews and AI Mode, with a note that "as of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide". Search Labs experiments are excluded, and there is a sibling report for the AI features in Discover. In practice you can see: - **Impressions over time**, by day, week or month (Pacific Time). - **Pages**: which URLs appear most or least, assigned to the canonical URL after redirects. - **Countries and devices** (desktop, mobile, tablet). - **Search type**: text or multimodal (Lens, Circle to Search, uploaded images). Three details change how you read it. The chart aggregates by property: if an AI answer shows two links to your site, the chart counts one impression while the page table counts two. The newest data is preliminary and shown as a dotted line. And if the site gets few impressions in AI features, the report does not appear at all. As [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-ai-reports-rolled-out-worldwide/587836/) reports, the rollout was announced on 3 June 2026 with a test on UK sites, then extended to everyone on 31 August. Under Settings there is also the control that excludes the site from the same AI features: according to Google it is not a ranking signal and has nothing to do with training. ## When is an impression counted in AI Overviews or AI Mode? When a link to your page is shown to the person. It is not enough that Google used your content to write the answer, and a brand mention without a link does not count. John Mueller explained it on Bluesky, as reported by [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-mueller-explains-how-ai-search-impressions-get-counted/580491/) and [Search Engine Roundtable](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-performance-report-count-impressions-41564.html): "the impressions are based on links to your site being shown in AI Overviews / AI Mode"; a favicon linked to a page counts; and "if something needs to be 'activated' to see the link, it would only count when users do that". On 1 July he added that a link hidden behind "Show more" is counted the moment someone expands that block. This explains why the numbers are often lower than you expect. AI answers cite many sources inside collapsed elements most people never open. And it explains why the report is not a measure of brand visibility in AI answers: if the AI names your company without linking it, you will see nothing here. We covered that case, [ghost citations](https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/citazioni-fantasma-ai-cita-il-sito-ma-non-nomina-il-brand-cosa-fare), in another article. ## Where do clicks from AI answers end up? In the regular Performance report, mixed with clicks from classic results. According to what [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-click-reporting-uk-deadline/595663/) pieces together from Google's help pages, a click on a link inside an AI Overview or in AI Mode counts as one click, and a new question in AI Mode counts as a new query. But the search appearance types do not include AI Overviews or AI Mode, so you cannot filter them. The result: the AI report has impressions without clicks, the Performance report has clicks you cannot isolate. No CTR for AI answers, no queries. For brands it is the most requested metric. On 2 November Gary Illyes replied on LinkedIn to a post claiming, from a Search Central Live event, that "clicks and queries" were on their way: "I don't think we've phrased it like this. The team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don't have anything to announce yet." Barry Schwartz, on [Search Engine Roundtable](https://www.seroundtable.com/click-data-search-console-ai-reporting-42437.html), notes that "this is the line Google has been giving us for years" and asks what data makes more sense than click data. ## What changes with the 3 December deadline in the UK? Google will have to give UK publishers impressions, clicks and CTR for AI features, but only for UK users. Search Engine Journal reports it citing the Competition and Markets Authority: the publisher conduct requirements ask for "clear and detailed metrics on user engagement" for content used in AI search features, aggregated by feature (AI Overviews, AI Mode), with a breakdown by publisher and the ability to tell whether the content appeared in an AI answer or in an organic result. The suggested channel is "a commonly accessible platform, such as Google Search Console", but Google may show it complies in other ways. The first compliance report covers 3 June to 3 December and is due on 3 January 2027; page-level controls follow three months later. For a company outside the UK this means two things. First: if Google picks Search Console to comply, the data may well show up in everyone's interface; that is our inference, not a Google commitment. Second: until then, clicks from Google's AI answers can be estimated, not measured. ## How to read the report today: five checks The report answers one precise question: how often Google puts a link to your site inside its AI answers, and on which pages. Use it for that. 1. **AI share of web impressions.** Divide the AI report's impressions by the total "Web" impressions in the Performance report, month by month. The absolute number matters little; the trend does. 2. **Pages with rising AI impressions and falling clicks.** Export the pages from the AI report and compare them with the same pages in the Performance report. Where AI impressions rise and total clicks fall, the AI answer is replacing the visit: the pattern the [studies on AI Overviews and clicks](https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/ai-overviews-clic-cosa-dicono-studi-2026) describe. Decide page by page whether to change the content or accept visibility without clicks. 3. **Pages Google cites versus pages you wish it cited.** If all AI impressions come from the blog and none from product, service or pricing pages, you have a content problem on those pages, not a ranking problem. 4. **Countries and devices.** AI Mode is not available everywhere in the same way: a very different AI share between markets tells you where the phenomenon is already real for you. 5. **Brand and non-brand.** The "Brand" filter of the Performance report is not in the AI report, but you can cross the pages: if the pages appearing in AI answers are the same ones receiving brand clicks, Google is using you to answer people who already know you. We wrote about this for [AI Overviews on brand searches](https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/ai-overviews-ricerche-nome-brand-83-per-cento-cosa-fare). A made-up example. A business software company in Manchester sees 12,000 AI impressions a month, almost all on three blog guides; the pricing page never appears. In the Performance report the three guides have lost 30% of their clicks in six months at constant impressions. The right reading is not "AI is stealing our traffic" but "Google uses us to explain, not to recommend": the pages to fix are the commercial ones, with direct answers to comparison and pricing questions. ## What Search Console cannot tell you, and how to fill the gap Three things stay out. The questions: without the query dimension you do not know which prompts make your page appear. Mentions without links: a brand named in the answer but not linked leaves no trace. The other engines: ChatGPT, the Gemini app, Perplexity and Claude do not pass through Search Console; for the traffic they send to your site use Google Analytics 4, as explained in our [guide to measuring ChatGPT traffic](https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/traffico-da-chatgpt-come-misurarlo-google-analytics-4). For the missing part, the only way is to ask the engines directly and read the answers. That is what Geosnap does: it monitors a set of prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, records whether the brand is cited, in what tone and with which sources, and with the Google Search Console integration puts traditional queries next to the questions people ask AI. So the Search Console report tells you how often Google links you in its answers; prompt monitoring tells you for which questions and in which words. Together they cover the gap Google, for now, does not intend to close. ## Sources - [Generative AI performance report (Search) - Search Console Help](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139?hl=en) (Google, 2026-08-31) - [Google Says No AI Click Reporting News Yet, Ahead Of UK Deadline](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-click-reporting-uk-deadline/595663/) (Search Engine Journal, 2026-11-02) - [Google's Gary Illyes Implies Click Data Not Coming To Search Console AI Reporting](https://www.seroundtable.com/click-data-search-console-ai-reporting-42437.html) (Search Engine Roundtable, 2026-11-02) - [Google Search Console AI Reports Rolled Out Worldwide](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-ai-reports-rolled-out-worldwide/587836/) (Search Engine Journal, 2026-08-31) - [Google's Mueller Explains How AI Search Impressions Get Counted](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-mueller-explains-how-ai-search-impressions-get-counted/580491/) (Search Engine Journal, 2026-06-25) - [Google On How The AI Performance Report Counts Impressions](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-performance-report-count-impressions-41564.html) (Search Engine Roundtable, 2026-06-25) ## Frequently asked questions ### Where do I find the generative AI report in Search Console? It is a separate report next to Performance, rolled out to all sites on 31 August 2026. If you do not see it, the most likely reason is that the site still gets few impressions in AI features: Google only shows it above a threshold. Also check you are looking at the right property, because data is assigned to the canonical URL. ### Are the AI report's impressions included in the Performance report? Yes. The help page says the AI report uses data from the "Web" search type of the Performance report: the same impressions are already inside the total. That is why you can compute the AI share by dividing the AI report's impressions by total web impressions, but you must not add them up. ### Why are AI impressions so low compared with the citations I see? Because only shown links count. Many citations sit in collapsed blocks the user has to open, and John Mueller confirmed that in that case the impression is counted only on opening. A brand mention without a link is not recorded. The report measures visible links, not presence in answers. ### Will Google add clicks and queries to the AI report? There is no date. On 2 November 2026 Gary Illyes wrote that the team wants to give "more data, data that makes sense" but has "nothing to announce". In the UK the CMA requires impressions, clicks and CTR for AI features by 3 December 2026, but only for UK users and not necessarily in Search Console. ### How do I measure traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity if Search Console does not show it? With Google Analytics 4: those engines arrive as referrals from domains such as chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com and perplexity.ai. Search Console only covers the AI features of Google Search. To know in which answers your brand appears, including mentions without a link, you need prompt monitoring on each engine.
Structured data
Schema.org data (JSON-LD) embedded in the page code. It tells the AI explicitly what the page is about and who published it.
BreadcrumbList describes the path through the site
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BreadcrumbList",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 1,
"name": "Home",
"item": "https://geosnap.ai/en/"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 2,
"name": "Blog",
"item": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 3,
"name": "Guides",
"item": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/#guide"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 4,
"name": "Search Console's AI report has no clicks: how to read it and what to do",
"item": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare"
}
]
}
BlogPosting describes the article: author, dates and sources
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BlogPosting",
"@id": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare#article",
"headline": "Search Console's AI report has no clicks: how to read it and what to do",
"description": "What the Search Console generative AI report shows, how it counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, where clicks end up, and five checks to run today.",
"inLanguage": "en",
"url": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare",
"mainEntityOfPage": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare",
"image": "https://geosnap.ai/img/blog/p2026-11-05-report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-en.webp",
"articleSection": "Guides",
"wordCount": 1506,
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Rinald Sefa",
"jobTitle": "CMO",
"url": "https://geosnap.ai/en/about",
"worksFor": {
"@id": "https://geosnap.ai/#organization"
}
},
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://geosnap.ai/#organization"
},
"isAccessibleForFree": true,
"abstract": "The Search Console generative AI report, available to every site since 31 August 2026, shows only impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date: no clicks, no queries. An impression is counted only when a link to your page is shown, including behind \"Show more\" if someone opens it; a mention without a link never counts. On 2 November Google said it has \"nothing to announce\" on clicks, while the UK regulator demands them by 3 December. Meanwhile, use the report for the AI share of impressions, for the pages Google cites and for those losing clicks, and cover the rest with prompt monitoring.",
"datePublished": "2026-11-05",
"dateModified": "2026-11-05",
"citation": [
"https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139?hl=en",
"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-click-reporting-uk-deadline/595663/",
"https://www.seroundtable.com/click-data-search-console-ai-reporting-42437.html",
"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-ai-reports-rolled-out-worldwide/587836/",
"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-mueller-explains-how-ai-search-impressions-get-counted/580491/",
"https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-performance-report-count-impressions-41564.html"
],
"translationOfWork": {
"@id": "https://geosnap.ai/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare#article"
}
}
FAQPage describes the frequently asked questions
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"@id": "https://geosnap.ai/en/blog/report-ai-search-console-senza-clic-come-leggerlo-cosa-fare#faq",
"mainEntity": [
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Where do I find the generative AI report in Search Console?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "It is a separate report next to Performance, rolled out to all sites on 31 August 2026. If you do not see it, the most likely reason is that the site still gets few impressions in AI features: Google only shows it above a threshold. Also check you are looking at the right property, because data is assigned to the canonical URL."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Are the AI report's impressions included in the Performance report?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Yes. The help page says the AI report uses data from the \"Web\" search type of the Performance report: the same impressions are already inside the total. That is why you can compute the AI share by dividing the AI report's impressions by total web impressions, but you must not add them up."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Why are AI impressions so low compared with the citations I see?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Because only shown links count. Many citations sit in collapsed blocks the user has to open, and John Mueller confirmed that in that case the impression is counted only on opening. A brand mention without a link is not recorded. The report measures visible links, not presence in answers."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Will Google add clicks and queries to the AI report?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "There is no date. On 2 November 2026 Gary Illyes wrote that the team wants to give \"more data, data that makes sense\" but has \"nothing to announce\". In the UK the CMA requires impressions, clicks and CTR for AI features by 3 December 2026, but only for UK users and not necessarily in Search Console."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "How do I measure traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity if Search Console does not show it?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "With Google Analytics 4: those engines arrive as referrals from domains such as chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com and perplexity.ai. Search Console only covers the AI features of Google Search. To know in which answers your brand appears, including mentions without a link, you need prompt monitoring on each engine."
}
}
]
}
Metadata
The information in the page header, which crawlers and engines read before the content.