Google AI Overviews: How To Measure Impressions & Track Visibility

Google Search Console’s blind spot is costing you visibility into one of the biggest SERP changes in years.

AI Overviews now appear for millions of queries, yet Search Console lumps these impressions together with traditional organic results.

No filters. No segmentation. No way to know if your content appears in AI Overviews.

You’re seeing an increase in impressions without corresponding click growth, while your CTR is dropping for no apparent reason.

The culprit? AI Overviews that Search Console won’t let you track.

This article explores different approaches to tracking AI Overview performance, from manual methods to automated solutions, helping you choose the right approach for your team’s needs.

1. The Problem: There Is Now A Blind Spot In Google Search Console

Google Search Console Now Merges AI Overview (AIO) Impressions Into The Total Dataset

Google Search Console treats every AI Overview impression as a regular impression.

When an AI Overview appears for your keyword, it’s added to your total count without distinguishing it from typical organic impressions.

The Search Console API also provides this combined data, so when you query impression counts, you receive a number that merges traditional results with AI Overview appearances.

This creates challenges for SEO professionals generating reports. The dashboards show “10,000 impressions” but can’t specify how many involved AI Overviews.

SEOs Cannot Filter Or Isolate How Often AIO Shows, Or If Their Site Is Cited In The Answers

Search Console provides no dimension for AI Overview presence. You can filter by query, page, country, and device, but not by whether an AI Overview appeared.

More critically, when your content gets cited as a source within an AI Overview, Search Console doesn’t track it. Your content could be the primary source Google’s AI references, driving brand visibility and authority signals, but you’d never know from Search Console data.

Based on industry reports, AI Overviews cite three to five sources on average. These citations represent valuable real estate in search results that Search Console ignores.

This Creates Reporting Gaps For Agencies And In-house Teams. ROI Analysis Becomes Incomplete

Agencies face impossible client conversations.

“Why did impressions increase 40% but clicks only grew 5%?”

The answer might be AI Overviews absorbing clicks, but Search Console provides no data to confirm or measure this impact.

In-house teams can’t properly attribute performance changes. An algorithm update might shift AI Overview behavior, but without visibility into AIO metrics, teams waste weeks investigating the wrong variables.

AIO Is Reshaping Click Distribution On SERPs

AI Overviews change how clicks flow through search results. Position 1 organic results that previously captured 30-35% CTR might see rates drop to 15-20% when an AI Overview appears above them.

Industry observations indicate that AI Overviews appear 60-80% of the time for certain query types. For these keywords, traditional CTR models and traffic projections become meaningless. The entire click distribution curve shifts, but we lack the data to model it accurately.

Brands And Agencies Need To Know: How Often AIO Appears For Their Keywords

Knowing how often AI Overviews appear for your keywords can help guide your strategic planning.

Without this data, teams may optimize aimlessly, possibly focusing resources on keywords dominated by AI Overviews or missing chances where traditional SEO can perform better.

Check For Citations As A Metric

Being cited can enhance brand authority even without direct clicks, as people view your domain as a trusted source by Google.

Many domains with average traditional rankings lead in AI Overview citations. However, without citation data, sites may struggle to understand what they’re doing well.

How CTR Shifts When AIO Is Present

The impact on click-through rate can vary depending on the type of query and the format of the AI Overview.

To accurately model CTR, it’s helpful to understand:

• Whether an AI Overview is present or not for each query.
• The format of the overview (such as expanded, collapsed, or with sources).
• Your citation status within the overview.

Unfortunately, Search Console doesn’t provide any of these data points.

Without Visibility, Client Reporting And Strategy Are Based On Guesswork

Currently, reporting relies on assumptions and observed correlations rather than direct measurements. Teams make educated guesses about the impact of AI Overview based on changes in CTR, but they can’t definitively prove cause and effect.

Without solid data, every choice we make is somewhat of a guess, and we miss out on the confidence that clear data can provide.

How To Build Your Own AIO Impressions Dashboard

One Approach: Manual SERP Checking

Since Google Search Console won’t show you AI Overview data, you’ll need to collect it yourself. The most straightforward approach is manual checking. Yes, literally searching each keyword and documenting what you see.

This method requires no technical skills or API access. Anyone with a spreadsheet and a browser can do it. But that accessibility comes with significant time investment and limitations. You’re becoming a human web scraper, manually recording data that should be available through GSC.

Here’s exactly how to track AI Overviews manually:

Step 1: Set Up Your Tracking Infrastructure

• Create a Google Sheet with columns for: Keyword, Date Checked, Location, Device Type, AI Overview Present (Y/N), AI Overview Expanded (Y/N), Your Site Cited (Y/N), Competitor Citations (list), Screenshot URL.
• Build a second sheet for historical tracking with the same columns plus Week Number.
• Create a third sheet for CTR correlation using GSC data exports.

Step 2: Configure Your Browser For Consistent Results

• Open Chrome in incognito mode.
• Install a VPN if tracking multiple locations (you’ll need to clear cookies and switch locations between each check).
• Set up a screenshot tool that captures full page length.
• Disable any ad blockers or extensions that might alter SERP display.

Step 3: Execute Weekly Checks (Budget 2-3 Minutes Per Keyword)

• Search your keyword in incognito.
• Wait for the page to fully load (AI Overviews sometimes load one to two seconds after initial results).
• Check if AI Overview appears – note that some are collapsed by default.
• If collapsed, click Show more to expand.
• Count and document all cited sources.
• Take a full-page screenshot.
• Upload a screenshot to cloud storage and add a link to the spreadsheet.
• Clear all cookies and cache before the next search.

Step 4: Handle Location-specific Searches

• Close all browser windows.
• Connect to VPN for target location.
• Verify IP location using whatismyipaddress.com.
• Open a new incognito window.
• Add “&gl=us&hl=en” parameters (adjust country/language codes as needed).
• Repeat Step 3 for each keyword.
• Disconnect VPN and repeat for the next location.

Step 5: Process And Analyze Your Data

• Export last week’s GSC data (wait two to three days for data to be complete).
• Match keywords between your tracking sheet and GSC export using VLOOKUP.
• Calculate AI Overview presence rate: COUNT(IF(D:D=”Y”))/COUNTA(D:D)
• Calculate citation rate: COUNT(IF(F:F=”Y”))/COUNT(IF(D:D=”Y”))
• Compare the average CTR for keywords with vs. without AI Overviews.
• Create pivot tables to identify patterns by keyword category.

Step 6: Maintain Data Quality

• Re-check 10% of keywords to verify consistency.
• Document any SERP layout changes that might affect tracking.
• Archive screenshots weekly (they’ll eat up storage quickly).
• Update your VPN locations if Google starts detecting and blocking them.

For 100 keywords across three locations, this process takes approximately 15 hours per week.

The Easy Way: Pull This Data With An API

If ~15 hours a week of manual SERP checks isn’t realistic, automate it. An API call gives you the same AIO signal in seconds, on a schedule, and without human error. The tradeoff is a little setup and usage costs, but once you’re tracking ~50+ keywords, automation is cheaper than people.

Here’s the flow:

Step 1: Set Up Your API Access

• Sign up for SerpApi (free tier includes 250 searches/month).
• Get your API key from the dashboard and store it securely (env var, not in screenshots).
• Install the client library for your preferred language.
  • Python Tutorial
  • Node.js
  • Ruby

Step 2, Easy Version: Verify It Works (No Code)

Paste this into your browser to pull only the AI Overview for a test query:

https://serpapi.com/search.json?engine=google&q=best+laptop+2026&location=United+States&json_restrictor=ai_overview&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY

If Google returns a page_token instead of the full text, run this second request:

https://serpapi.com/search.json?engine=google_ai_overview&page_token=PAGE_TOKEN&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY

• Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key.
• Replace PAGE_TOKEN with the value from the first response.
• Replace spaces in queries and locations with +.

Step 2, Low-Code Version

If you don’t want to write code, you can call this from Google Sheets (see the tutorial), Make, or n8n and log three fields per keyword: AIO present (true/false), AIO position, and AIO sources.

No matter which option you choose, the:

• Total setup time: two to three hours.
• Ongoing time: five minutes weekly to review results.

What Data Becomes Available

The API returns comprehensive AI Overview data that GSC doesn’t provide:

• Presence detection: Boolean flag for AI Overview appearance.
• Content extraction: Full AI-generated text.
• Citation tracking: All source URLs with titles and snippets.
• Positioning data: Where the AI Overview appears on page.
• Interactive elements: Follow-up questions and expandable sections.

This structured data integrates directly into existing SEO workflows. Export to Google Sheets for quick analysis, push to BigQuery for historical tracking, or feed into dashboard tools for client reporting.

Demo Tool: Building An AIO Reporting Tool

Understanding The Data Pipeline

Whether you build your own tracker or use existing tools, the data pipeline follows this pattern:

• Input: Your keyword list (from GSC, rank trackers, or keyword research).
• Collection: Retrieve SERP data (manually or via API).
• Processing: Extract AI Overview information.
• Storage: Save to database or spreadsheet.
• Analysis: Calculate metrics and identify patterns.

Let’s walk through implementing this pipeline.

You Need: Your Keyword List

Start with a prioritized keyword set.

Include categorization to identify AI Overview patterns by intent type. Informational queries typically show higher AI Overview rates than navigational ones.

Step 1: Call SerpApi To Detect AIO blocks

For manual tracking, you’d check each SERP:

• Individually. (This tutorial takes 2 – 3 minutes per manual check.)
• Instantly. (This returns structured data instantly.)

Step 2: Store Results In Sheets, BigQuery, Or A Database

View the full tutorial for:

• Google Sheets (Simple Tracking)
• BigQuery (Scalable Analytics)

Step 3: Report On KPIs

Calculate the following key metrics from your collected data:

• AI Overview Presence Rate.
• Citation Success Rate.
• CTR Impact Analysis.

Combine with GSC data to measure CTR differences between keywords with and without AI Overviews.

These metrics provide the visibility GSC lacks, enabling data-driven optimization decisions.

Clear, transparent ROI reporting for clients

With AI Overview tracking data, you can provide clients with concrete answers about their search performance.

Instead of vague statements, you can present specific metrics, such as: “AI Overviews appear for 47% of your tracked keywords, with your citation rate at 23% compared to your main competitor’s 31%.”

This transparency transforms client relationships. When they ask why impressions increased 40% but clicks only grew 5%, you can show them exactly how many queries now trigger AI Overviews above their organic listings.

More importantly, this data justifies strategic pivots and budget allocations. If AI Overviews dominate your client’s industry, you can make the case for content optimization targeting AI citation.

Early Detection Of AIO Volatility In Your Industry

Google’s AI Overview rollout is uneven, occurring in waves that test different industries and query types at different times.

Without proper tracking, you might not notice these updates for weeks or months, missing crucial optimization opportunities while competitors adapt.

Continuous monitoring of AI Overviews transforms you into an early warning system for your clients or organization.

Data-backed Strategy To Optimize For AIO Citations

By carefully tracking your content, you’ll quickly notice patterns, such as content types that consistently earn citations.

The data also reveals competitive advantages. For example, traditional ranking factors don’t always predict whether a page will be cited in an AI Overview. Sometimes, the fifth-ranked page gets consistently cited, while the top result is overlooked.

Additionally, tracking helps you understand how citations relate to your business metrics. You might find that being cited in AI Overviews improves your brand visibility and direct traffic over time, even if those citations don’t result in immediate clicks.

Stop Waiting For GSC To Provide Visibility – It May Never Arrive

Google has shown no indication of adding AI Overview filtering to Search Console. The API roadmap doesn’t mention it. Waiting for official support means flying blind indefinitely.

Start Testing SerpApi’s Google AI Overview API Today

If manual tracking isn’t sustainable, we offer a free tier with 250 searches/month so you can validate your pipeline. For scale, our published caps are clear: 20% of plan volume per hour on plans under 1M/month, and 100,000 + 1% of plan volume per hour on plans ≥1M/month.

We also support enterprise plans up to 100M searches/month. Same production infrastructure, no setup.

Build Your Own AIO Analytics Dashboard And Give Your Team Or Clients The Insights They Need

Whether you choose manual tracking, build your own scraping solution, or use an existing API, the important thing is to start measuring. Every day without AI Overview visibility is a day of missed optimization opportunities.

The tools and methods exist. The patterns are identifiable. You just need to implement tracking that fills the gap Google won’t address.

Get started here →

For those interested in the automated approach, access SerpApi’s documentation and test the playground to see what data becomes available. For manual trackers, download our spreadsheet template to begin tracking immediately.