What is Google AI Mode?
Google AI Mode is a search experience inside Google Search that answers questions with a generated response and links to sources. Google says it may use query fan-out, running several related searches at once. A page needs no special markup to be eligible, only to be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.
How it works
Google's documentation on AI features says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a technique called query fan-out, which issues multiple related searches, and that these features can display a wider and more diverse set of helpful links than classic search. AI Overviews, by Google's own description, often do not trigger, because they appear only when Google's systems find them additive to the classic results. See AI Overviews for the difference in how the two are measured.
What it takes to appear
- The page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. Google states there are no additional technical requirements.
- No new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup are needed, according to Google. Meeting the conditions does not guarantee that a page is crawled, indexed or shown.
- To limit what is shown from a page, Google points to the nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex controls. Google-Extended is a separate robots.txt token for managing use of content for AI model training and grounding; Google says it does not affect inclusion in Search.
How to measure it
Google counts clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode inside the overall search traffic, in the Web search type of the Search Console Performance report, so they cannot be separated from other clicks there. Search Console also has a Generative AI performance report. Google's help page describes one metric, impressions, covering AI Overviews and AI Mode together, and mentions no clicks.
Nodpick takes a different angle: in paid plans it reads a logged-out Google search in your country and language and records whether your brand is named in the AI Mode or AI Overview answer. That shows whether you are in the answer; Search Console shows how often your links were displayed. The two answer different questions.
Read more: How ChatGPT chooses which brands to recommend