Search Console AI Report: Impressions Yes, Clicks Still No

Google finally gave site owners a Search Console report for AI results. Great. Then someone asked where the clicks were, and a Google engineer basically shrugged. I’ve been waiting on this report like a guy waiting on a pizza, and it showed up with no pizza.

The short version

• Search Console now has an AI performance report, but it shows impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates. Not clicks.
• Google’s Gary Illyes has implied click data probably isn’t coming to that report, with no timeline given.
• Your real scoreboard is still the regular Performance report, plus the calls and form fills you can count yourself.

What does the Search Console AI report actually show?

It shows how often your pages appear in Google’s AI results, and which pages, countries and devices those appearances came from. That’s it. Google’s own generative AI performance report documentation is the place to check exactly what’s in there, since Google keeps changing this stuff.

So you can see “my page was shown.” You can’t see “somebody clicked it.” (An impression with no click is a billboard in a field. Nice to know it’s there.)

Is Google really not adding click data to the AI report?

Not committed, no. In a reply on LinkedIn, Illyes implied click and query data likely aren’t coming to the AI report, but he gave no timeline and said he didn’t think Google had phrased it the way someone else claimed. Treat it as “probably not soon,” not “never.”

I’m not mad about it, honestly. I’m just not building a strategy on a number that doesn’t exist yet.

Where do AI clicks show up, then?

In the regular Performance report. Clicks from AI surfaces still land in the standard numbers, mixed in with everything else, so you can’t cleanly split them out. That’s the annoying part: the clicks exist, they’re just wearing a disguise.

What I’d do instead of squinting at one report:

• Check the regular Performance report monthly and watch trends, not single days.
• Track the stuff that pays the bills: phone calls, form submissions, booking requests. I see sites all the time where nobody has looked at those since spring.
• Ask new customers how they found you. Yes, out loud. It’s free and it works.

Why does Google leave clicks out in the first place?

I can’t tell you Google’s reasoning, because nobody at Google asked me. What I can tell you is what it looks like from a small business chair: you get the flattering number (you were shown) and not the one that matters (you were visited). Every agency pitch deck in the world will now quote the flattering one.

So when someone sells you “AI visibility” with a screenshot of impressions, ask the follow-up question. Visibility into what? A report that says your page appeared 400 times is lovely. A report that says eleven people called is rent.

What should I fix on my site while the data catches up?

The unglamorous stuff, because that’s what any AI result pulls from. I see the same handful of problems constantly:

• A homepage that opens with “Welcome to our website” instead of what you do and where you do it.
• A phone number that’s an image, so nothing can read it and nobody can tap it.
• A contact form that emails an inbox nobody’s checked in a year. (Test it today. Seriously, it takes two minutes.)
• Business hours that disagree between the website, the Google profile and Facebook.

None of that needs a click report. All of it makes the clicks you do get worth more. If your site is a slow, confusing maze, a perfect AI impression just sends a stranger to a bad first date.

And keep a tiny notebook, or a spreadsheet if you’re fancy. Date, how the customer found you, what they wanted. After three months you’ll know more about where your leads come from than any dashboard is going to tell you, and it cost you nothing but the habit.

Should a small business even care about AI impressions?

A little. Impressions tell you Google considers your page worth showing, which is a decent sign your page says clearly what you do and where. They don’t tell you whether anyone walked through the door.

Which brings it back to the boring fix: a page that answers the question in the first sentence, a real phone number, a button that works. That’s the part you control. I wrote about the same idea when Google’s AI Mode started handing out booking links. The robot can only send people to a page worth landing on.

Questions people ask

Do I need to check the AI report every week?

No. Monthly is plenty. It’s a rough gauge, not a speedometer.

Can I tell how many customers came from AI results?

Not precisely from Search Console. Combine your Performance report with call tracking and a simple “how did you hear about us?” question.

Does this change how I should write my website?

Not really. Clear pages, honest answers and accurate business info were the job before this report existed and they still are. More on that on my AI page.

The soft close

If you want someone to look at your numbers and tell you what’s real and what’s noise, that’s what I do. Also, I build the outreach assistant I run for other businesses, and the ChenzoBot Starter below is the easy place to start at $50 a month. Or just tell me about your project and I’ll tell you straight.