AI Mode has officially rolled out to US users, but the new search feature has sparked controversy and debate since its initial testing period, with some fearing AI Mode could hurt businesses. To combat this, Google has added clarity around AI Mode within its Google Search Console documentation.
Before, businesses lacked AI Mode reporting, but AI Mode clicks, impressions, and positions are now included in Google Search Console. What does this look like? And how does AI Mode change best practices?
Viewing AI Mode Data
After uncertainty about how website owners and businesses would be able to monitor traffic from the newly launched AI Mode, Google has revised its documentation as of this week. AI Mode data is grouped together with the total data, which means you can’t filter out this data separately.
The updated wording explains:
“AI Mode expands on AI Overviews to show a more interactive AI-powered response with links to web resources that support the information or direct the user to view relevant webpages. AI Mode groups the user’s question into subtopics and searches for each one simultaneously, and users can go deeper.”
Google goes on to describe how AI Mode affects traffic data:
- Click: Following a link to an external page counts as a click
- Impression: Standard rules continue to apply, meaning a person must see or potentially see a link to your website
- Position: Position rules are calculated in the same way as Google Search results pages (it shows where in the SERPs a link was seen)
If a searcher asks a follow-up question when using AI Mode, it counts as a new query, and the data will be displayed as such in Google Search Console.
Keep an eye on your Google Search Console data to see if traffic, clicks, or impressions change. Studies have found that the similar AI Overviews search feature has negatively impacted click-through rates for businesses. And, since AI Mode is so new, it’s too soon to know if it’ll have the same effect.
Have Best Practices Changed?
No, best practices haven’t changed with the introduction of AI Mode. Google doesn’t want websites to write or restructure content for AI – putting your reader first and providing helpful, valuable content is still best practice.
If you want to boost your chances of appearing in AI Mode or AI Overviews, there’s not much you can do. Digestible and easy-to-snippet content has seen success by some, but there’s no specific schema markup or technical work you need to do.
My advice? Produce high-quality content and make sure information is clearly available for AI elements to pull from.
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