On 3 June 2026 Google gave website owners, starting with a test group in the UK, a Search Console toggle to opt their content out of AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus new reports showing how often their pages appear inside those AI answers, as set out in Google's official announcement. For a UK small business owner doing their own marketing, this is the first time you can measure your visibility in Google's AI layer, and the first time you could switch it off. One of those two things is useful. The other is a trap for almost everyone reading this.
What exactly did Google announce on 3 June 2026?
The toggle is a genuine first. Until now, participation in AI Overviews was bundled with being indexed at all: if Google could crawl you, it could summarise you. Google's announcement separates the two, stating that sites which opt out "will not receive traffic or impressions" from the generative features but continue to appear normally in standard search results.
The reports matter more for most owners. Search Engine Land's coverage from 3 June 2026 details what they include: impressions inside AI features, broken down by page, country, device and date. Clicks, click-through rate and the underlying queries are missing for now. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land: "We're continuing to work with website owners to understand what insights will be most helpful to inform their strategies, and we'll introduce additional metrics over time."
Why are UK websites getting this first?
Search Engine Land was blunt about the motivation, reporting that Google was effectively forced into these controls by UK regulatory pressure rather than offering them voluntarily. The CMA has spent 2026 using its new digital markets powers to demand fairer terms for businesses that depend on Google Search, and this is the most visible product change to come out of that so far.
The practical consequence for a UK owner is simple: you are in the test group. The toggle and the reports will appear in UK Search Console properties before anywhere else, which means UK businesses get an early look at data their overseas competitors cannot see yet.
What does the opt-out toggle actually do?
The exclusion is important. As 9to5Google reported on 2 June 2026, the control covers Google Search's generative features only, and the Gemini app sits outside it. It also does nothing about ChatGPT, Perplexity or any other assistant, which have their own crawlers and their own rules. Anyone imagining a single switch that removes their content from AI everywhere will be disappointed.
It is also all or nothing per property. There is no page-level version, no "summarise my guides but not my pricing" option. You are either in the AI layer or out of it.
Should a UK small business opt out?
The scale is the argument. Google's announcement cites 2.5 billion monthly users for AI Overviews and more than 1 billion monthly users for AI Mode. That is where a growing share of "best accountant near me" and "how much does a boiler service cost" journeys now start.
That last figure cuts both ways. Search Engine Land reported early research suggesting roughly a third of SEOs would consider blocking their content. If sizeable numbers of sites in your market do it, the ones that remain get cited more often. Their exit is your opportunity.
What is the case against opting out?
In a follow-up piece for Search Engine Land published on 18 June 2026, Nick LeRoy framed it plainly: "This isn't a decision about whether AI succeeds or fails. It's a decision about whether your brand is present when customers choose to use it." The same article references research showing ads in Google's AI Mode already reach nearly 30 percent of queries, which tells you how quickly commercial intent is moving into that surface.
How should you use the new AI performance reports?
The workflow is straightforward. Open Search Console, look for the new generative AI report described in Search Engine Land's breakdown, and export the page list. You cannot see clicks or queries yet, but impressions alone answer the question owners have been guessing at for two years: does Google's AI use my site at all?
If the answer is no, the fixes are the same ones that drive generative engine optimisation for UK small firms: direct answers near the top of each page, specific numbers and dates, named locations, and content that reads like a source worth quoting rather than a brochure.
What should you change on your website as a result?
This is less mysterious than the industry makes it sound. The pages that earn AI impressions tend to answer a question in the first paragraph, back it with a figure, and carry visible signals of a real business: an address, a named owner, recent dates. The same structure that wins featured snippets wins AI citations, and it overlaps heavily with what gets a business mentioned in ChatGPT answers, so the work compounds across platforms rather than fragmenting.
Structured AI visibility work is now measurable in a way it was not in May. That is the real gift of this update: a feedback loop. Change a page, wait, and watch whether its AI impressions move.
What should a UK owner actually do this month?
The rollout is staged, so do not panic if your property shows nothing yet. Google's announcement confirms it is testing with a subset of UK site owners and will expand. Use the wait to tidy the fundamentals: one clear answer per page, consistent business details everywhere, and proof you are a real firm with real customers.
The owners who lose from this update are the ones who flip the toggle out of frustration with AI, and the ones who ignore the new data entirely. The ones who win will be boringly methodical about a report most of their competitors have not opened.
Where does this leave the wider AI search fight?
The missing metrics are the tell. Google shipped impressions without clicks, and its spokesperson's promise to Search Engine Land of "additional metrics over time" means the picture UK owners see today is deliberately partial. When click data arrives, the debate about whether AI Overviews starve websites of traffic will finally have first-party numbers behind it, and businesses that recorded their baselines early will be the only ones able to compare before and after.
Until then, the position for a small business is unglamorous but clear: stay in, measure, and make yourself the easiest firm in your market for a machine to recommend.
Google's New AI Search Opt — FAQ
Can I stop Google using my website in AI Overviews and AI Mode?
Yes, for the first time. On 3 June 2026 Google announced a toggle inside Search Console that lets a verified site owner block their content from appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI Overviews in Discover. Flip it and your pages stop being shown or used to ground answers in those features, and you stop receiving any traffic or impressions from them. The control is rolling out to a subset of UK website owners first before a global release, so if you do not see it in your Search Console property yet, it has not reached you. Your site continues to appear in the ordinary blue-link results either way, and Google states the choice is not used as a ranking signal.
Will opting out of AI Overviews hurt my normal Google rankings?
According to Google's own announcement, no. The company stated explicitly that the control will not be used as a ranking signal for search results outside the generative AI features, so a site that opts out should keep its positions in the standard organic listings. The real cost is not a ranking penalty but absence. AI Overviews sit above the traditional results on a large share of queries, and a site that opts out simply disappears from that surface while competitors remain. For most small businesses the practical damage of invisibility in the AI layer is likely to outweigh any principled objection to Google summarising their content, so treat the toggle as a publisher tool rather than a small-business one.
How do I see whether my site already appears in AI Overviews?
Use the new Search Generative AI performance reports that Google started rolling out in Search Console on 3 June 2026. They show impressions your pages earn inside AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative features in Discover, broken down by page, country, device and date. Click data and the actual queries are not included yet, which Google says it is working on. The reports are appearing for a subset of UK site owners first, so check the left-hand navigation of your Search Console property. If you have not verified your website in Search Console at all, that is the first job, because both the reports and the opt-out control only exist there.
Should a small local business opt out?
Almost certainly not. The opt-out exists mainly because news publishers and large content sites lobbied for control over how their journalism is reused, and UK regulators pushed Google to provide it. A plumber, salon, accountant or shop has the opposite problem: they want to be the business an AI answer names when someone asks who to hire locally. Google reports 2.5 billion monthly users of AI Overviews, and removing yourself from that surface hands the visibility to whichever competitor stays in. The sensible small-business move is to stay opted in, watch the new AI impression data, and make your pages easier to cite with clear answers, up-to-date details and consistent local information.
Does the toggle also block Gemini, ChatGPT or Perplexity from using my content?
No. Coverage of the launch by 9to5Google on 2 June 2026 confirmed the Gemini app is excluded from the control, so content blocked from AI Overviews can still be summarised inside Gemini. The toggle has no effect on ChatGPT, Perplexity or any other company's AI products either, because it is a Google Search setting, not a web-wide one. If you want to manage those, you need crawler-level rules such as robots.txt directives for GPTBot, PerplexityBot and similar user agents. For most small firms the goal runs the other way: being cited by these assistants is free distribution, so blocking them rarely makes commercial sense.
