AI search visibility and what it means for you

Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools now both include an AI performance report. Bing’s report tracks citations in Microsoft Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries. Google’s report tracks impressions in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover.

That matters because it answers the question every business owner has been asking since AI Overviews appeared. Is AI search using my website, or replacing it? Until this year, nobody could tell you with first-party data. Now two free tools can.

Below, we explain what each report shows, how they compare, how to read them and what to change on your website as a result.

Why AI search visibility now needs its own report

AI search visibility needs its own report because AI answers don’t behave like normal search results. A page can inform an AI Overview or a Copilot answer without anyone clicking it, so traditional metrics like position and click-through rate miss part of the picture. A separate report shows how often AI is actually using your content.

For twenty years, search reporting has been built around the blue link. You ranked, someone saw you, they clicked or they didn’t. Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools measured exactly that.

AI answers broke the model. When Google shows an AI Overview, it summarises several sources at the top of the page. Your page might be one of them. The searcher might get what they need and never visit anyone.

Google was already counting those AI impressions in your overall Performance report, but it never separated them out. So if your impressions held steady while clicks fell, you couldn’t tell whether AI Overviews were the cause or something else was. The new reports give you that split for the first time.

Microsoft describes its version as an early step towards Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) tooling. That framing is right. These reports are version one, but they turn AI visibility from guesswork into something you can measure, report on and improve.

What is the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools?

The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows how often your website is cited as a source in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing search results and select partner integrations. It launched in public preview on 10 February 2026 and is available to anyone with a verified site.

The dashboard reports five things:

• Total citations: how many times your content was shown as a source in AI answers during the selected period.
• Average cited pages: the average number of unique pages from your site cited per day.
• Grounding queries: a sample of the phrases the AI used when it retrieved your content.
• Page-level citation activity: citation counts for individual URLs, so you can see which pages AI relies on most.
• Visibility trends: a timeline showing how citation activity changes over time.

Grounding queries are the most useful part, and the most misunderstood. They are not what people typed into Copilot. They are the internal search phrases the AI ran to find sources for its answer. Think of them as topics, not keywords. They tell you what AI thinks your page is about, which is exactly what you need to know when deciding what to strengthen.

As an example, a roofing firm in Kent might find its flat roof page cited for grounding queries about EPDM rubber roofing costs. That tells the business AI sees the page as a cost resource, and that adding clearer pricing detail could earn more citations.

There are limits. The report shows no click data, so you can’t tie citations directly to visits. It covers Microsoft’s AI surfaces only, not ChatGPT or other assistants. Microsoft also hasn’t named its “partner integrations”. And because it’s still a public preview, the metrics may change.

What is the Generative AI Performance report in Google Search Console?

The Generative AI performance report in Google Search Console shows how often URLs from your site appeared in Google’s AI features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search, plus AI features in Discover. It reports impressions only, broken down by page, country, device and date. It’s available to all sites with enough data.

Google announced the reports on 3 June 2026 and rolled them out to a subset of website owners in the UK first, before releasing them to every site worldwide at the end of August. You’ll find separate views for Search and Discover, both currently labelled Beta.

The report gives you:

• Impressions: how often your URLs appeared in generative AI features.
• Pages: which URLs appeared.
• Countries: where that visibility happened.
• Devices: desktop, mobile and tablet (Search only, not Discover).
• Dates: hourly, daily, weekly or monthly views.

What it doesn’t give you is clicks or queries. You can see that a page appeared in AI Overviews 2,000 times last month, but not which searches triggered it or whether anyone clicked through.

One point catches people out. These AI impressions aren’t new data. They were always included in your main Performance report totals. The new report simply isolates them, which means you can finally compare AI visibility against the rest of your search visibility.

The new AI opt-out setting

Alongside the report, Google added a property-level setting in Search Console that lets you block your site from appearing in, or helping to ground, its generative AI features. Google says opting out won’t affect your normal search rankings. It also says sites that opt out won’t get any impressions or traffic from AI features.

For publishers whose business model depends on people reading articles on their own site, that trade-off might be worth considering. For a local service business, it usually isn’t. If someone asks Google “who fits composite doors in Ashford?”, you want to be one of the businesses the AI mentions. Opting out removes you from that conversation entirely.

Google vs Bing: how the two AI reports compare

	Bing Webmaster Tools: AI Performance	Google Search Console: Generative AI performance
Launched	10 February 2026	3 June 2026 (worldwide from 31 August 2026)
Status	Public preview	Beta
AI surfaces covered	Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI summaries, select partners	AI Overviews, AI Mode, Discover AI features
Main metric	Citations	Impressions
Page-level data	Yes	Yes
Query data	Grounding queries (sample)	Not shown
Click data	No	No
Country and device data	No	Yes
Opt-out control	Via robots.txt and supported controls	Dedicated toggle in Settings
Cost	Free	Free

The short version: Bing tells you why AI uses your content, through grounding queries. Google tells you how much, at a scale Bing can’t match, because far more of your customers search on Google.

That makes them complementary. Use Bing’s grounding queries to understand which topics AI associates with each page. Use Google’s page and impression data to see where that visibility is happening at volume. Where the same pages perform well on both, you’ve found the content AI trusts most on your site.

How to find and read the AI Performance reports

Finding the Bing report

1. Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools at bing.com/webmasters.
2. If your site isn’t set up yet, choose the option to import it from Google Search Console. It pulls across your verified properties in a couple of minutes, with no code changes needed.
3. Select AI Performance from the left-hand menu.
4. Set your date range and review citations, cited pages and grounding queries.

Finding the Google report

1. Open Google Search Console and go to Performance.
2. Expand the Generative AI tab beneath the main report. Search and Discover each have their own view.
3. If you can’t see it, your site may not have enough AI impressions yet for Google to show data.
4. The opt-out setting lives separately, under Settings.

How to read the numbers

Start by setting a baseline. Note your current AI impressions in Google and citations in Bing, by page. Without a starting point, you can’t tell whether anything you change makes a difference.

Then look for three patterns:

• Pages that appear in AI but get few clicks overall. These are being used as sources. They’re your strongest candidates for a refresh.
• Important pages that never appear. If your main service page is missing from both reports, AI doesn’t see it as a useful answer. That’s a content problem, not a reporting one.
• Grounding queries that don’t match your intent. If Bing’s AI thinks your service page is about something you don’t offer, your page isn’t clear enough about what you do.

Finally, report AI visibility as its own line, separate from organic search. If you blend the two, a rise in one can hide a fall in the other.

What to do with the data

The reports tell you where you stand. These changes improve where you’ll be next quarter. Bing’s own guidance points in the same direction as Google’s advice on optimising for generative AI search: clear, structured, trustworthy content wins.

1. Refresh the pages AI already uses. A page that’s cited regularly is a page AI trusts. Update its facts, tighten its answers and add depth around the grounding queries it’s attracting.
2. Answer questions directly. Put a clear 40 to 60 word answer straight after each question-style heading. AI tools lift sentences, not paragraphs, so make each key sentence make sense on its own.
3. Use headings, tables and FAQs. Microsoft specifically names these as structures that help AI reference content accurately.
4. Back up your claims. Real prices, real project numbers and cited sources give AI a reason to trust your page over a vaguer competitor.
5. Keep content fresh with IndexNow. IndexNow tells Bing and other participating search engines the moment a page changes, so AI references your latest version. Many CMS platforms and SEO plugins support it already.
6. Keep your business details consistent. For local searches, AI pulls from your listings as well as your website. Make sure your name, address, phone number and opening hours match exactly across your site, your Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business.
7. Make sure your content is crawlable. Text that only appears on hover or loads through JavaScript may never be read. It’s an issue we’ve found in our own GEO audits, and it’s an easy fix once you know it’s there.
8. Add the right structured data. Organization, LocalBusiness and FAQPage schema help AI understand exactly who you are and what you offer.

If you want the bigger picture on getting found, our guide to SEO for small businesses covers the foundations these AI reports build on.

FAQs

Does the AI Performance report show clicks?

No. Neither Google’s Generative AI performance report nor Bing’s AI Performance report currently shows click data. Google reports impressions and Bing reports citations. To estimate AI-driven traffic, compare these reports with your Google Analytics 4 referral data and your overall Search Console clicks over the same period.

Is Bing Webmaster Tools worth setting up if most of my traffic comes from Google?

Yes. Bing Webmaster Tools is free, takes minutes to set up if you import your site from Google Search Console, and it’s currently the only major tool that shows which topics AI associates with your pages through grounding queries. Bing’s search index also feeds Microsoft Copilot.

Why can’t I see the Generative AI report in Search Console?

The Generative AI performance report is available to all sites worldwide, but Google only shows data for properties with enough AI impressions. If the tab is missing or empty, your pages may not be appearing in AI Overviews or AI Mode often enough yet. Improving your content’s clarity and structure is the way to change that.

Can I see whether ChatGPT cites my website?

Not through Google or Bing. Bing’s AI Performance report covers Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI summaries and unnamed partner integrations, while Google’s covers its own AI features. ChatGPT and other assistants don’t offer website owners an equivalent report, so third-party tracking tools or manual testing are the only options for now.

Should I opt out of Google’s AI features?

For most local and service businesses, no. Opting out removes your site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features, so you lose any visibility and traffic they would have sent. It suits some publishers protecting their content, but businesses that want to be recommended to customers are usually better off staying in.

Will opting out of AI Overviews hurt my normal Google rankings?

Google says the Search generative AI opt-out setting won’t affect how your site ranks in traditional search results. It only removes your content from Google’s AI features. The real cost is lost AI visibility, which matters more as more searches show an AI Overview at the top of the page.

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Want to know how visible your business is in AI search? Our Referral Accelerator GEO audit checks how Google and Bing’s AI see your website, then gives you a clear, prioritised list of fixes. Book a call and we’ll talk you through it.

Last updated: 6 October 2026