AI Search Analysis
Google may never show clicks for AI answers in Search Console, leaving UK businesses to make snippet and crawler decisions without the data they need. Here is what the evidence already supports.
What Google has signalled
Search Engine Roundtable reports that Google's Gary Illyes has implied that click data and query data are unlikely to come to the AI performance report in Google Search Console. He said the Search Console team wants to bring "data that makes sense" to the report. He did not say that clicks or queries count as that data.
This is a hint from one Google staff member. Google has made no formal announcement, and its plans could change. For now, though, site owners should assume they will not see how many people click through from an AI answer to their site.
That matters because AI answers already appear on many everyday searches. Google showed an AI Overview on 69.4% of the 360 everyday UK searches checked in October 2026, according to Sayu's study of AI answers. That figure comes from one month and one set of searches, so treat it as a snapshot. The same study found that 69.4% of the sites AI Overviews cited (1,252 of 1,804) did not appear in the top 10 ordinary results for the same search. Ranking well and being cited in an AI answer can therefore be quite separate outcomes.
Two separate decisions
Without click data, it is tempting to block everything AI-related and hope for the best. A better approach is to split the job into two choices.
Snippet limits. The nosnippet and max-snippet rules control how much of your text Google can show in its results, and Google applies these rules to AI Overviews too. Tighter limits give you more control over your words. They may also make your pages less useful as a source for an AI answer.
AI crawler access. Rules in robots.txt decide which bots can read your site at all. Some bots gather content to train AI models. Others fetch pages so an AI assistant can answer a question and link to a source. Blocking a training bot does not have to mean blocking a search bot.
These choices affect different things, so make them one at a time. If you change both at once, you will not know which change caused any shift in traffic.
What this means for UK businesses
- Decide on snippets page by page. Limit snippets where your text is the product, such as paid guides. Leave them open where being quoted brings you customers.
- Treat training bots and search bots separately. You can opt out of model training and still let AI assistants find and link to you.
- Test one change at a time. Make a single change, note the date, then compare organic visits, enquiries and sales over the following weeks.
- Use the data you do have. Search Console impressions, your analytics referrals from AI tools, and your own sales records still show a lot, even without AI click figures.
Analysis compiled by Sayu (sayu.co.uk), reacting to reporting by Search Engine Roundtable.
