Gsc AI Performance

Process

1. Access check — confirm the user has Google Search Console verified access for the brand's domain. The report has been available to all websites worldwide since 31 Aug 2026. If it is missing, check whether the site is excluded from Search generative AI features or has too few AI-feature impressions.
2. Locate the report — Search Console → left nav → Performance → switch tab to Search results → look for the new AI Overviews & AI Mode tab (the tab title may vary slightly during rollout; Google's working name during testing was "Search Generative AI"). On rollouts pre-tab, the data may also surface under the existing Performance report with an AI Features filter.
3. Run baseline export — set the date range to "last 28 days" (or maximum available since rollout), export to CSV/Sheets via Search Console's export button. Capture: impressions, pages, country mix, device mix. There is no Queries dimension in this report (checked 2026-10-04), so do not promise a query list. Use the main Performance report's queries only as a separate, non-AI-specific view, and label it that way. Then parse and archive it with the helper script:

   python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/gsc-ai-performance.py" \
       --brand {slug} \
       --csv "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/{brand}/seo/gsc-ai-performance/{date}/02-export.csv" \
       --format json \
       --archive

   Real flags only: --brand (required), --csv (path to the GSC export), --api (best-effort; Google has not published an AI-report API yet), --site, --format text|json, --archive. There is no summary subcommand — the script reads the CSV and emits the parsed metrics.
4. Reconcile against aeo-audit — synthetic queries from /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-audit test what AI engines might surface; the GSC report shows what they actually surfaced. Significant gaps either way are signals:
   • GSC shows much more than aeo-audit found → your test query set is too narrow; expand it
   • aeo-audit found brand in synthetic results but GSC shows few impressions → low query volume for those topics; redirect AEO effort to higher-volume topics
5. Opt-out decision — if any of the following apply, consider the in-SC opt-out toggle:
   • Industry has YMYL / regulatory risk and brand E-E-A-T isn't fully audited yet
   • Brand's content is paywalled or login-gated (AI surfacing of partial content can damage funnel)
   • Brand is the subject of active reputation management — surfacing in AI answers amplifies whatever sentiment AI models have absorbed
   • Editorial team wants to ship corrections via the brand's own properties first, not via AI synthesis
6. Run optimization recommendations — for brands NOT opting out, route to /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-geo for the optimization playbook (entity consistency, citation-worthy snippets, knowledge graph alignment).
7. Set up monthly tracking — schedule a recurring gsc-ai-performance baseline (CSV export → dated archive folder) so trend lines emerge over the next 6–12 months as AI search adoption grows.

Output

A structured GSC AI performance brief containing:

• Baseline metrics — current-period impressions, pages, country mix, device mix
• Trend analysis — period-over-period change (where prior data exists)
• Reconciliation table — GSC actuals vs aeo-audit synthetic results, with gap notes
• Opt-out recommendation — explicit opt-in / opt-out decision with rationale grounded in industry profile and brand context
• Optimization handoff — list of high-impact topics where the brand is under-cited (route to aeo-geo)
• Tracking cadence — recommended monthly export schedule, archive path

Caveats and known limitations (June 2026)

1. No click data, no CTR, no queries. The report shows impressions only, with Pages / Countries / Dates / Devices dimensions.
   • GA4's AI Assistant channel (rule: medium exactly matches ai-assistant) covers referrals from assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and Grok.
   • Per Google's channel definitions (checked 2026-10-04), it excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, which land in Organic Search.
   • So no first-party tool reports clicks from AI Overviews or AI Mode. Say so plainly rather than inferring a number. Source: GA4 default channel group.
2. UI only at launch. No public API. Wait for Google to publish the AI report under the Search Console Search Analytics API (searchanalytics.query) before automating against it. Current automation must rely on CSV export + manual upload.
3. Rolled out worldwide. The report started UK-first. Google's help page now says "As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide" (checked 2026-10-04). Mark the date you first see data so subsequent month-over-month comparisons start from a real baseline.
4. Tab placement may move during rollout. Google often refines the UI in the first 30–60 days. If the exact tab path differs from step 2 above, look anywhere in the Performance > Search results area for "AI", "Generative", "AI Mode", or "AI Overviews" labels.
5. September 2026 is a measurement break, not necessarily growth. Multimodal impressions (Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads) began being counted in September 2026. Before reporting a month-over-month jump, re-run the comparison with the multimodal filter excluded — otherwise a counting change reads as a visibility gain.
6. Don't compare AI Overviews impressions to classic SERP impressions one-for-one. AI Overviews surface differently — an "impression" there means your page was used as a grounding source, which is a stricter bar than appearing in a 10-blue-link result.

Agents used

• seo-specialist (primary) — for interpretation and recommendation framing
• analytics-analyst — for the GA4 reconciliation when AI Assistant channel data is available
• brand-guardian — for the opt-out decision when brand-safety or compliance is in play

See also

• /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-audit — synthetic AI-engine probing
• /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-geo — optimization playbook for AI visibility
• /digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights — GA4 AI Assistant channel attribution
• skills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md — EU Article 50 transparency context for AI-cited content
• scripts/gsc-ai-performance.py — helper script (placeholder until Google publishes API; reads exported CSV today)