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 recently explained how Google counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that explains exactly that gap. Worth understanding before you draw conclusions from your AI visibility.
Let’s stay grounded: this is no reason for panic, and no reason to celebrate either. It’s a reason to read your data carefully.
An impression only counts when your link is visible
The core of what Mueller said: an impression is counted the moment a link to your site is actually shown in an AI Overview or AI Mode. Not when your brand name comes up somewhere, not when your favicon sits in a cluster, but when the link is really there.
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. Many people expand nothing. So in practice your visibility may be higher than your Search Console shows.
All sources share one position
Another difference from the classic search 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 report currently only shows impressions for AI features, no click-through data. So you can see whether you’re shown, but not yet whether people actually click through. documentation about AI features in search results is still incomplete and grows week by week, 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. What you see in practice may be higher than what gets counted.
- 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: ask real questions to AI Overviews, AI Mode and assistants, and see whether your brand comes back.
That last point fits how we look at AI visibility: not as one number, but as a picture you build 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 the rules are still changing. 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 AI understands and trusts, in other words Generative Engine Optimization.
