• To check whether your site appears in Google AI Mode, combine two methods: the generative AI performance report in Search Console, which counts impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode together, and a monthly manual test of 10 fixed buyer prompts in AI Mode where you record every cited domain.
  • Google says AI Mode has no extra technical requirements: a page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet. Blocked crawling, snippet restrictions, the Search generative AI exclusion setting and content that appears only after JavaScript runs are the technical reasons a page gets left out.
  • Once a page is eligible, the usual gaps are editorial: no short, direct answer on the page and weak signals about who the brand is. A dated test log is the only way to see whether your fixes change what AI Mode cites.

A prospect mentions on a call that they “asked Google” and got a shortlist of providers. Your competitor was on it. You search the same question, see a long AI answer with a column of source links, and cannot tell whether your site was ever there.

That answer came from AI Mode, and checking your presence there takes two methods. As of October 2026, Google’s Search Console help page lists no way to separate AI Mode impressions from AI Overviews impressions, and it shows no queries. The rest has to come from a structured manual test.

What is Google AI Mode, and how is it different from AI Overviews?

AI Mode is Google’s conversational search experience for questions that need exploration, reasoning or comparison, while AI Overviews are short AI summaries that appear on top of regular results only when Google judges them helpful. Both link to source pages, and both count in the same Search Console report.

Google’s page on AI features and your website describes AI Overviews as a quick way to get the gist of a topic and AI Mode as the place for questions “where further exploration, reasoning, or complex comparisons are needed”. Both use query fan-out, running multiple related searches across subtopics. In practice, AI Mode can cite a page that ranks for one of those sub-questions even if it ranks nowhere for the question the user typed.

Users reach AI Mode through google.com/ai, the Google home page or the Google app. When Google expanded it in October 2025 to more than 200 countries and territories, it also said users ask questions two to three times longer than in regular search, according to Israel Hayom’s report on the launch. Those long, specific questions are the ones your test should copy.

How do I check AI Mode visibility in Search Console?

Open the generative AI performance report in Search Console and look at the Pages tab: every URL listed there was shown as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode during the selected period. If your key pages are missing, Google is not using them as sources yet.

According to Google’s help page for the report, it counts impressions only, with four views: Pages, Countries, Dates and Devices. There are no clicks, no queries and no split between AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google also notes that some properties will not see the report, either because the site has too few impressions in these features or because it was excluded from them. A full walkthrough, including a 30-minute first-session routine, is in our guide to Search Console’s generative AI report.

Use the report for scale and trend, and the manual test for what it cannot answer: which buyer questions surface you and who is cited in your place.

How do I test manually whether AI Mode cites my site?

Pick 10 real buyer questions, run each one in AI Mode in a private browser window while logged out, record whether your domain is cited and which domains are, and repeat the same 10 prompts every month. The value comes from repetition with fixed conditions.

Build the list from sales calls and inbound emails, covering the question types that lead to a purchase: a recommendation request (“which agencies…”), a cost question, a comparison between two approaches, a how-to question in your field, and a question about your brand by name. Write them in full sentences, the way buyers now type into AI Mode.

Run each prompt at google.com/ai in a private window, logged out, to reduce the effect of your own search history. Answers can depend on location, so run the test from the market you sell in, or at least note where you ran it. Count a citation only when your domain appears as a link in the answer or its source list, and note separately when your brand is named without a link. Screenshot each answer as your record.

This is the log we use. Copy it into a spreadsheet and fill one row per prompt per month.

Prompt Date Cited? Which domains were cited Notes
Recommendation: “Which B2B content agencies work with SaaS companies selling in the UK?” Test date Yes / No / Named without link Every cited domain, in order of appearance Competitors named, screenshot file
Cost: “How much does outsourced content marketing cost for a 50-person software company?” Test date Yes / No / Named without link Every cited domain, in order of appearance Whose page supplies the price range?
Brand: “What do clients say about [your company name]?” Test date Yes / No / Named without link Every cited domain, in order of appearance Which third-party sites describe you, and how accurately?

After three months the log shows which domains keep appearing across your prompts, whether they are competitors, directories or media sites, and which of your pages Google uses. The recurring domains double as your PR target list.

Why doesn’t AI Mode cite my site?

A site is left out of AI Mode for one of two reasons: Google cannot use the page as a source for technical reasons, or it can but finds a clearer answer from a better-known source elsewhere. Rule out the technical causes first, because they are binary and quick to check.

Google states that to appear as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet, and that there are “no additional technical requirements”. It also says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup. The table below maps the common causes.

Cause How to check Fix
Page not indexed URL Inspection in Search Console Resolve the indexing issue Google reports
Snippet restricted Look for nosnippet, data-nosnippet or a low max-snippet value Remove the restriction where you want AI visibility
Crawling blocked robots.txt rules for Googlebot Allow crawling of pages you want cited
Site excluded from AI features Search Console settings, Search generative AI Return the control to the include option
Content appears only after JavaScript Compare the raw HTML with the rendered page Server-side render or pre-render key content
No direct answer on the page Read the first paragraph under each heading Open each section with a one or two sentence answer
Weak entity signals Search your brand name and see what Google shows Consistent company details, named authors, third-party mentions

On JavaScript, Google’s JavaScript SEO guide says pages can wait in a rendering queue longer than a few seconds and that server-side or pre-rendering “is still a great idea”.

The last two rows are our editorial view, based on reading what AI answers cite. Query fan-out rewards pages that answer a sub-question in a sentence the system can lift, and a brand that Google clearly recognizes is easier to name in a recommendation. The broader discipline of shaping content for AI answers is covered in our guide to what GEO is.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google AI Mode the same as AI Overviews?

No, they are separate features. AI Overviews are short summaries shown above regular results when Google judges them helpful. AI Mode is a conversational experience for longer questions that need reasoning or comparison, reached through google.com/ai, the home page or the Google app. Both link to source pages.

Can Search Console show AI Mode data separately?

Not according to Google’s current help page. The generative AI performance report covers AI Overviews and AI Mode together, with four dimensions: pages, countries, dates and devices. It shows impressions only. To see how you perform specifically in AI Mode, and for which questions, you need a manual test with fixed prompts.

Do I need special schema or an AI text file to appear in AI Mode?

No. Google’s documentation says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no need for new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup. Structured data still helps when it matches the visible text, and the page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.

How often should I test whether AI Mode cites my site?

Monthly is enough for most businesses. Run the same 10 prompts in the same week each month, from the same location and browser setup, and log every cited domain. Keep the prompts fixed for at least a quarter, so any change in the log comes from AI Mode or from your content.

What should you do after the first test?

Fix technical exclusions immediately, then rewrite the pages that should answer your buyer prompts so each section opens with a direct answer, and rerun the same prompts a month later. The first log is a baseline, and progress shows only against it. If you want a team to run the test, read the results and turn them into a content plan, that is what our search and AI visibility service does.

Sources

Add Content Managers as a preferred source on Google