Search Console Finally Shows You When AI Steals Your Content. The Opt-Out Toggle Goes Live June 17.

Google flipped two switches in one week and most contractors missed both.

On June 3, Google launched a dedicated Generative AI performance report inside Search Console. For the first time, you can see when your pages get pulled into AI Overviews and AI Mode. Impressions only — no clicks, no queries, no CTR — but the data is first-party and it is real.

On June 17, a second toggle goes live. Flip it and your content stops appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews in Discover. Google has confirmed in writing that the opt-out is not a ranking signal. Your blue links and Discover feed stay intact. That is the deal: stay in AI surfaces, or leave with no organic penalty. Pick one.

What the new report shows

Inside Search Console, under Performance, there is a new item called Generative AI. It splits into two views — one for Search, one for Discover. Each view gives you impressions broken down by pages, countries, devices, and dates, at hourly through monthly granularity. Data starts May 18, 2026. No backfill.

The tab to watch is Pages. It shows exactly which of your URLs Google is pulling into AI answers and how often. If your HVAC service page is showing 800 AI impressions a month and your booking page is showing 12, you now have a measurable gap and an investment priority.

What it does not show: clicks, CTR, queries, average position, or anything about Gemini the assistant. AI Mode also now counts toward your overall Search Console totals — so the impression numbers you saw before June 3 are not directly comparable to what you see today.

Why this matters for trades right now

The trades that win AI search this summer are not the ones with the prettiest sites. They are the ones with measurable, first-party AI visibility data. Until June 3, you were guessing. Now you can see.

The stakes are not theoretical. AI Overviews now appear on roughly 60 percent of US searches, up from 31 percent a year ago. Forty-three percent of local searches trigger an AI Overview or AI summary. Sixty-seven percent of those local AI Overviews reference Google Business Profile data directly. Contractors cited inside AI surfaces are seeing 2.4x more GBP profile views and a 35 percent organic CTR lift on the same query. Paid ads next to a cited brand pick up a 91 percent CTR halo.

The flip side is brutal. Organic CTR on queries where an AI Overview shows has dropped 61 percent — from 1.76 percent to 0.61 percent. Roughly 69 percent of searches now end without a single click. If your HVAC, roofing, plumbing, or electrical page is not being cited, the AI is answering the homeowner without you and most of those people never scroll.

The opt-out is real. Use it carefully.

Some publishers are already planning to flip the new toggle on June 17. For trade contractors, opting out is almost always the wrong move. You give up the citation, the GBP halo, the 2.4x profile view lift, and the 35 percent CTR advantage — in exchange for a tiny amount of click recovery that is dwarfed by the homeowners you no longer reach.

The exception: if you have proprietary pricing pages, licensed photo libraries, or content you license to other contractors, you may want certain URLs out. The toggle is site-wide today; granular page-level controls have not shipped.

For everyone else, leave the toggle off and earn the citation.

Three moves to make before June 17

One. Verify your Search Console property and bookmark the Generative AI report. If you have not logged into GSC in six months, do it tonight. The UK rollout is first; wider global rollout is happening now. Check the report weekly and build a list of your top AI-cited pages.

Two. Add or update FAQPage schema on your top five service landing pages. Cited content is overwhelmingly Q&A-formatted. The plumbing, HVAC, roofing, and electrical shops getting pulled into AI answers right now are the ones whose service pages have explicit question-and-answer blocks with concrete pricing ranges, response times, and licensing information. If your pages are still corporate prose, you are invisible.

Three. Rewrite your Google Business Profile services field in homeowner language. Sixty-seven percent of AI Overviews for local queries pull straight from GBP. If your services field says "residential plumbing solutions," replace it with the actual questions homeowners ask — "water heater replacement under $2,500," "same-day drain cleaning," "tankless install with permit pull." The AI cites what matches the query, and homeowners do not query in jargon.

The compounding window is closing

The contractors who flip these three moves this month will have measurable AI visibility data inside Search Console by July. The ones who wait until fall will be comparing their numbers to competitors who have already been compounding for ninety days.

Open Search Console tonight. Check if the Generative AI report has rolled out to your property. If it has, you already have data. If it has not, your three moves above are still the right answer — and you will see the results the moment the report appears.

The toggle is the headline. The report is the weapon. Use it.