Is Google’s AI recommending your business to potential customers? Until recently, there was no easy way to answer that question. Now there is, and it’s sitting inside a tool most businesses already have: Google Search Console.
Google has added a new report called the Generative AI Performance Report. It shows how often links to your website appear in Google’s AI Mode. Used the right way, it tells you whether your AI search strategy is actually working.
What the Generative AI Performance Report Shows
The report tracks AI impressions: the number of times a link to one of your pages is shown in a Google AI Mode answer.
Why does this matter? More of your potential customers are asking Google’s AI for recommendations instead of scrolling through a list of blue links. If your pages aren’t being cited in those answers, you’re invisible at the exact moment someone is deciding who to contact. Until now, most businesses had no first-party data to tell them either way.
Focus on Your Bottom-of-Funnel Pages
Not every AI impression is worth the same. A blog post cited in an answer to a general question is nice to have. A service page cited when someone is ready to buy is far more valuable.
So when you open the report, don’t start with your site-wide total. Find your key bottom-of-funnel pages. These are the pages designed to turn potential customers into leads:
- Service pages: The pages that describe what you do and how to engage you.
- Product pages: Where a customer compares options and makes a purchase decision.
- Location pages: The pages that tell Google, and its AI, which areas you serve.
These pages are the ones most likely to appear for transactional queries, such as “Show me diesel car mechanics in my area.” That is a customer with a problem, ready to book. If Google’s AI is putting your page in front of them, that is visibility that can turn directly into revenue.
Track AI Impressions Over Time
A single snapshot doesn’t tell you much. The value comes from tracking AI impressions on those bottom-of-funnel pages over time.
If impressions are rising, your visibility in Google’s AI answers is improving and your AI search strategy is working. If they’re flat or falling while you’ve been investing in content, schema or page updates, that’s a signal to review what you’re doing.
A simple approach is to note the AI impressions for each key page once a month, alongside any changes you made to those pages. Over a few months, you’ll start to see what actually moves the needle.
The Takeaway for Australian Businesses
You no longer need to guess whether Google’s AI is recommending you. Open Search Console and ask yourself:
- Do my service, product and location pages show any AI impressions at all?
- Are those impressions trending up, down or flat over the last few months?
- Are my most valuable pages getting cited, or only my blog content?
The answers will tell you whether your business is part of the AI conversation when it counts, or missing from it.
