Your brand shows up more and more in Google’s AI answers, but in Search Console the numbers lag behind. How come? John Mueller of Google explained on Bluesky in June how Google counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that explains part of that gap. Worth understanding before you draw conclusions from your AI visibility.
Let’s stay grounded: above all, it’s a reason to read your data carefully.
An impression only counts when your link is visible
The core of what Mueller said: impressions are based on links to your site that are actually shown in an AI Overview or AI Mode. So a brand name without a link doesn’t earn an impression. On a lone favicon in a cluster he was careful: he didn’t know whether such an icon is linked, but if it links to a page on your site, it counts.
And here’s the catch: if a link is hidden behind a “show more” or the user has to expand something to see it, that impression only counts when the user actually does that. Not everyone expands them. So your site may appear as a source in AI answers more often than Search Console shows, but anyone who doesn’t expand hasn’t seen that link either.
All sources share one position
Another difference from the traditional search engines results: in an AI Overview all the links shown share one position. There is no spot 1, 2 and 3 like you’re used to. You’re either in it or you’re not, and the order says much less. That makes “average position” a lot less useful for AI features than you’d like.
Clicks? Not yet
And then the uncomfortable part: the separate generative AI report in Search Console currently only shows impressions, no clicks. Clicks on a link in an AI Overview or AI Mode do count in the regular Performance report, but there they’re lumped together with all your other clicks. So you can see whether you’re shown, but not yet how many people actually click through from AI features. Google itself says that more metrics may be added over time, so treat these numbers as a direction, not as a final verdict.
What this means for your reporting
- Don’t underestimate your AI visibility based on impressions alone. Your presence as a source can be larger than what gets counted: a link in a collapsed section only counts once someone opens it.
- Don’t fixate on “position” for AI features. Presence is the new position.
- Measure with more than one source. Combine Search Console with your own spot checks: run real searches in Google and ask real questions in AI Mode and LLMs, and see whether your brand appears.
That last point fits with how we look at AI visibility: as a picture you build up from several signals. You can read more about this in our piece on what AI means for your SEO and on how AI Mode is changing the world of search engines.
You don’t measure AI visibility with one number. Search Console shows part of it, not the whole truth.
Giacomo Perticara, founder and SEO strategist at GRP Digital
Google is still expanding this report, so what you see in it may still change. Keep an eye on the numbers, but only draw conclusions once you place them next to your own observations. And above all, make sure you’re in there at all: that starts with content that LLMs understand and trust, in other words Generative Engine Optimization.
