Does Search Console show featured snippets separately?

The Performance report help page lists search types for web text, web multimodal, image, video and news, and names no separate filter for featured snippets. Clicks on a featured snippet are counted, and Google's counting page says a featured snippet typically occupies position 1. To know which page holds the snippet for a question, search the question yourself and write down the result and the date.

What is the Generative AI performance report in Search Console?

It is a Search Console report for Google's AI features, rolled out to all websites as of 31 August 2026 according to its help page. It shows impressions, the times links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, date or device. It may not appear for a site that has not received enough impressions in those features.

Why can't I see the Generative AI performance report?

Google's help page gives two reasons. The usual one is that the site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features on Google Search. The other is that the site has been excluded from those features through the Search generative AI control, which sits under Settings in Search Console. Including the site is the default, so check that nobody changed it.

What are grounding queries in Bing Webmaster Tools?

Grounding queries, in Microsoft's post of 10 February 2026, are the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers. They appear in the AI Performance report of Bing Webmaster Tools. Microsoft says the data is a sample of overall citation activity. For a small business, they show questions for which Copilot or Bing's AI summaries already used a page.

How is an AI Overview counted in Search Console?

Search Console's counting page says a click on a link to an external page in an AI Overview counts as a click, standard impression rules apply, and an AI Overview occupies a single position in search results, with all its links assigned that same position. Google's AI features page adds that this traffic is included in the Performance report within the Web search type.

Are paid AEO tracking tools accurate?

A paid tool reports its own searches and observations. Google's July 2026 guide warns site owners to be wary of third-party tools that promise ranking success or claim to use internal Google metrics, and says that no third-party tool has access to Google's internal ranking or AI systems. Use a tool if it saves you time, and read its numbers as observations, beside the free reports.

How often should a small business check its AEO numbers?

We suggest once a month, with the same questions and the same reports each time. Google's SEO Starter Guide says some changes take effect in hours and others in several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging a change. A monthly record also matches the date groupings that Search Console offers.

How do I know whether answers bring customers?

The search engines count views, clicks and citations, and only the business can count customers. Ask each new customer how they found you, add the page address to each contact form, and write both in the same place as the report numbers each month. When a question gains impressions and the related service gains enquiries, the work is reaching customers.

What is a good first measurement before starting AEO work?

Write down this month's figures from the Search Console Performance report for your ten main questions, the Bing AI Performance totals, and what Google shows when you search each question by hand. Then run the free Get Found Check, which returns a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100 for your homepage in under 60 seconds, as a fixed starting point.

How do you measure answer engine optimization?

Which free reports Google and Microsoft give site owners in 2026, what each one counts and leaves out, how a featured snippet and an AI Overview are counted, and a monthly routine for a small business.

See if customers can find you

You measure answer engine optimization with the free reports that the search engines give site owners: Google Search Console's Performance report for clicks and impressions by search, its Generative AI performance report for impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report for citations in Copilot and in Bing's AI summaries. A monthly search by hand of your main questions covers what no report shows.

What should a small business measure?

Let's keep the list short, because a short list is one that an owner keeps doing each month. Three questions matter. Is the page shown when a customer asks the question? Does the customer click? And does a click turn into a call, a booking or a sale? The first two questions are answered by the search engines' own reports. The third is answered by your own records: the phone log, the contact form and the booking system.

Each report on this page counts something different, and none counts everything. So the method is to read each report for what it does count, write the numbers in one place each month, and compare the months. Google's SEO Starter Guide, updated 10 December 2025, says how long to wait: some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months, and you likely want to wait a few weeks to assess whether your work had beneficial effects.

What does the Search Console Performance report count?

Google Search Console is Google's free service in which a verified site owner sees how the site performs on Google Search. Its Performance report, in the words of its help page, counts four things. Clicks are the number of times a user clicked your site from Google Search results. Impressions are how many times your site appeared in Search results. The click rate is the click count divided by the impression count. Average position is the average position of the topmost result from your site.

The report can group these numbers by query, the words people typed, and by page. For answer work, the query view is the useful one: it shows the questions that already bring visitors, and the questions that bring impressions without clicks. Google's AI features page, updated 10 December 2025, adds that sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the overall search traffic, reported in the Performance report within the "Web" search type.

How does Google count featured snippets, People Also Ask and AI Overviews?

Search Console's help page How are impressions, position, and clicks counted? gives a rule for each answer place. The table collects them. Two rules deserve attention. Opening a People Also Ask question is not counted as a click, and its links only receive an impression once the question is opened. And every link inside an AI Overview receives the same position, the position of the Overview itself on the results page.

The Performance report help page lists the search types web text, web multimodal, image, video and news, and names no separate filter for featured snippets or People Also Ask. Clicks from those places are counted, following the rules in the table, but the report does not label them. This is the main reason for the search by hand described below.

How Search Console counts each answer place. Source: Search Console Help, How are impressions, position, and clicks counted?, accessed 16 October 2026.
Answer place	Click	Impression	Position
Featured snippet	A click on the link to the page counts	Standard rules	Typically position 1
People Also Ask	Opening the question does not count; a click on your link inside it does	Counted for the links inside once the question is opened	Standard rules
AI Overview	A click on a link to an external page counts	Standard rules	One position for the whole Overview, shared by all its links
AI Mode	A click on a link to an external page counts	Standard rules	Same method as a results page; a follow-up question counts as a new search
Knowledge panel	No rule specific to the panel is given	All impressions for the same page combine into one when grouped by page	In Google's example, all links in the panel share the panel's position

What does the Generative AI performance report show?

Search Console added a report for Google's AI features, and its help page says that as of 31 August 2026 these insights have rolled out to all websites worldwide. The report shows impressions, which Google defines as how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search, for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google writes that the report helps you see how your impressions from these features change over time, which pages get the highest or lowest impressions, and where the impressions come from by device or country.

The data can be grouped by pages, countries, dates and devices, and exported. The help page also says the report may not appear when a site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features. In that case the Performance report remains the place to read, because Google counts AI feature traffic inside its Web search type.

One setting sits beside the report. Google's help page Search generative AI control, also rolled out to all websites as of 31 August 2026, lets an owner include or exclude the site from these AI features, under Settings, then Search generative AI. Including the site is the default. If the report shows nothing, open the setting and check that nobody switched it off.

What does Bing's AI Performance report show?

Microsoft introduced its report on 10 February 2026, in a post on the Bing Webmaster Blog. It sits inside Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft's free service for site owners, and covers Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. Its measures, in Microsoft's words, are Total Citations, the total number of citations that are displayed as sources in AI-generated answers; Average Cited Pages, the average number of unique pages from your site displayed as sources per day; page-level citation activity, the citation counts for specific pages; and a timeline of visibility.

It also shows grounding queries, which Microsoft describes as the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers. Microsoft notes that this data represents a sample of overall citation activity, and that citation counts show only how often a page is cited. For a small business, the grounding queries are the valuable part: they are phrases for which the AI already used your page.

What does a check by hand add?

None of the reports above tells you which website holds the featured snippet for your question, or what Siri reads aloud about your shop. A search by hand answers both. Choose ten questions that matter to your business, write them down once, and search the same ten each month: on a phone and on a computer, in Google, in Bing, and aloud to the phone's assistant. Record the date, the device and what you saw.

Be careful with tools that promise more. Google's guide to generative AI features, updated 10 July 2026, warns site owners to be wary of third-party tools that promise ranking success or claim to use "internal" Google metrics, and says plainly: No third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems. A paid tool may save time on the searches by hand, but its numbers are its own observations, and they should be read as such.

What does a monthly routine look like?

The table gives the routine we suggest to a small business, in the order of the work. It is written as an illustration; adjust the questions to your own business. The first month sets the starting figures. From the second month, the useful number in each row is the change from the month before.

A monthly measuring routine for answer engine optimization. Written by Licheo on 16 October 2026 as an illustration; the reports named are the free ones described on this page.
Step	Where	What to write down
1	Search Console, Performance report, Queries	Clicks and impressions for your ten main questions
2	Search Console, Generative AI performance report	Impressions in AI features and the pages that receive them, if the report appears
3	Bing Webmaster Tools, AI Performance	Total citations, cited pages and new grounding queries
4	Google and Bing, by hand, on a phone and a computer	Which site holds the featured snippet and the People Also Ask answers for each question
5	Phone assistant, by hand	What Gemini or Siri answers for your three main local questions
6	Your own records	Calls, forms and bookings that customers say came from search

How do you connect answers to customers?

The search engines report views, clicks and citations. Only the business can count customers. The simplest method is to ask each new customer how they found you, and write the answer in the same place as the report numbers. Add the page address to each contact form, so that the form shows which page the customer came from.

Over a few months, the three sets of numbers can be read together. The questions that gain impressions and citations, the pages that gain clicks, and the services that gain enquiries should rise together. When they do not, the difference shows the next job: a page with many impressions and few clicks needs a clearer first sentence or title; a question with no page needs one; a page with many visits and no enquiries needs a clearer next step.

Start the routine with a fixed point. The free Get Found Check reads your homepage, the domain settings and the security certificate, and in under 60 seconds returns a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100, findings in six areas, three to five quick fixes, a comparison with up to four competitors and a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants. Run it in the first month and again after each round of changes.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Answer engine optimization. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Which free tools measure AEO?: Three free reports cover most of it: Google Search Console's Performance report for clicks and impressions by search, its Generative AI performance report for impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report for citations in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. A monthly search by hand covers what the reports do not label, such as featured snippets and spoken answers.
Does Search Console show featured snippets separately?: The Performance report help page lists search types for web text, web multimodal, image, video and news, and names no separate filter for featured snippets. Clicks on a featured snippet are counted, and Google's counting page says a featured snippet typically occupies position 1. To know which page holds the snippet for a question, search the question yourself and write down the result and the date.
What is the Generative AI performance report in Search Console?: It is a Search Console report for Google's AI features, rolled out to all websites as of 31 August 2026 according to its help page. It shows impressions, the times links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, date or device. It may not appear for a site that has not received enough impressions in those features.
Why can't I see the Generative AI performance report?: Google's help page gives two reasons. The usual one is that the site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features on Google Search. The other is that the site has been excluded from those features through the Search generative AI control, which sits under Settings in Search Console. Including the site is the default, so check that nobody changed it.
What are grounding queries in Bing Webmaster Tools?: Grounding queries, in Microsoft's post of 10 February 2026, are the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers. They appear in the AI Performance report of Bing Webmaster Tools. Microsoft says the data is a sample of overall citation activity. For a small business, they show questions for which Copilot or Bing's AI summaries already used a page.
How is an AI Overview counted in Search Console?: Search Console's counting page says a click on a link to an external page in an AI Overview counts as a click, standard impression rules apply, and an AI Overview occupies a single position in search results, with all its links assigned that same position. Google's AI features page adds that this traffic is included in the Performance report within the Web search type.
Are paid AEO tracking tools accurate?: A paid tool reports its own searches and observations. Google's July 2026 guide warns site owners to be wary of third-party tools that promise ranking success or claim to use internal Google metrics, and says that no third-party tool has access to Google's internal ranking or AI systems. Use a tool if it saves you time, and read its numbers as observations, beside the free reports.
How often should a small business check its AEO numbers?: We suggest once a month, with the same questions and the same reports each time. Google's SEO Starter Guide says some changes take effect in hours and others in several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging a change. A monthly record also matches the date groupings that Search Console offers.
How do I know whether answers bring customers?: The search engines count views, clicks and citations, and only the business can count customers. Ask each new customer how they found you, add the page address to each contact form, and write both in the same place as the report numbers each month. When a question gains impressions and the related service gains enquiries, the work is reaching customers.
What is a good first measurement before starting AEO work?: Write down this month's figures from the Search Console Performance report for your ten main questions, the Bing AI Performance totals, and what Google shows when you search each question by hand. Then run the free Get Found Check, which returns a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100 for your homepage in under 60 seconds, as a fixed starting point.

Sources

Performance report (Search results), Search Console Help. Accessed 16 October 2026.
How are impressions, position, and clicks counted?, Search Console Help. Accessed 16 October 2026.
Generative AI performance report (Search), Search Console Help. Rolled out to all websites as of 31 August 2026, accessed 16 October 2026.
Search generative AI control, Search Console Help. Rolled out to all websites as of 31 August 2026, accessed 16 October 2026.
AI features and your website, Google Search Central. Updated 2025-12-10, accessed 16 October 2026.
Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview, Bing Webmaster Blog, Microsoft. Posted 10 February 2026, accessed 16 October 2026.
Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central. Updated 2026-07-10, accessed 16 October 2026.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, Google Search Central. Updated 2025-12-10, accessed 16 October 2026.

Set your starting point in under 60 seconds

The free Get Found Check gives your homepage a letter grade from A to F with a score out of 100, a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants and three to five quick fixes. If you want the measuring and the fixes done for you each month, contact us for pricing.

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