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There's a new toggle in Search Console most shops should leave it alone
Google added a toggle to Search Console in June 2026 that removes your site from AI Overviews. For most shops with a service website, opting out is the wrong call.
I was working through a Search Console account with a jewelry store owner on Mass Ave last Thursday. She had gotten an email from Google about new features. She wanted to know if she needed to do anything.
The short answer was no. But I spent twenty minutes explaining why, so I figured I'd write it down.
What Google added
Earlier this month, Google added a toggle inside Search Console that lets you remove your website from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
If you've searched for anything on Google recently, you've seen AI Overviews. It's the AI-generated block of text that appears before the regular results. Google's own numbers: AI Overviews now has over 2.5 billion monthly active users. AI Mode, a separate tab that replaces the whole results page with an AI answer, has crossed one billion monthly users.
The new toggle says: opt your site out of those AI responses. Your regular search listing stays exactly where it is. Your ranking doesn't change. You stop appearing inside the AI answers at the top of the page.
Should you flip it?
For most shops, no.
Here's the math. AI Overviews is an additional place your business can appear when someone searches for what you do. A barbershop in Greenwood ranking on page two might still get cited in an AI answer. Opting out means giving that up. For a local shop trying to be found, that's usually the wrong trade.
The businesses who might want to opt out are content publishers, recipe blogs, news sites, anyone making money from people reading full pages rather than getting a summary. They have a reasonable argument: Google is synthesizing their work and keeping searchers from clicking through. A shop with a five-page service website is not in that situation.
If your website exists to get someone to call you, book with you, or walk through your door, an AI answer that names your business and points to you is helping, not competing.
Most shops don't need to opt out. Google built this toggle for content publishers. A five-page service website is not a content publisher.
The part worth checking
What is worth your time is the new Generative AI report Google added alongside the toggle.
It lives inside Search Console, under Performance. If you have Search Console set up, look for a tab or sidebar item labeled "Generative AI." It shows which of your pages are appearing in AI answers, in which countries, and how often.
For the jewelry shop on Mass Ave, her homepage was pulling AI impressions every week for searches like "custom engagement rings Indianapolis." She had no idea. That changes how she thinks about what belongs on that page and which searches she's already winning without running a single ad.
It's a new window. Most owners I've talked to haven't looked through it yet.
One thing to fix first
If you don't have Search Console set up for your website, that matters more than the toggle.
Search Console is free. It connects your site to Google and gives you a clear read on how search sees you: which queries bring people to your site, which pages rank, where traffic comes from, and now, which pages show up in AI answers. Setting it up takes about fifteen minutes if you have access to your website files or DNS. Your website host can usually do it in one click. Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify each have a direct integration in the settings.
Once it's set up, check the Generative AI report and see what's happening with your site inside Google's AI answers. From there, you'll know whether the opt-out toggle even applies to your situation.
For almost every shop I work with, it doesn't. But now you'll know why.
Sources
| # | Source | What it backed up |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New opportunities, control and insights for website owners (Google, June 3, 2026) | The toggle announcement, AI Overviews user counts, and opt-out mechanics |
| 2 | Google will let websites opt-out of AI Mode & Overviews in Search (9to5Google) | Timeline and enforcement date (June 17, 2026) |
| 3 | GSC AI Reports: Should You Block Google AI Responses? (Digital Applied) | Who the opt-out is useful for (publishers vs. local service sites) |
| 4 | Google Search Console | Official Search Console documentation. |