Day 1: Crawling 15
Shown on screen 1
Myth: the old metrics don't work in the AI era. Google's answer: measure success through metrics that matter to your business.
Speaker Cherry Prommawin, Gary IllyesIn Day 1, 11:45 · How Search works and where's AI?Evidence slide photo, transcript
- Extended by D3-C518 Day 3: A community speaker concluded that rankings and clicks no longer equal real business outcomes.
- Extended by D3-C536 Day 3: A May 2025 Search Central blog post advised site owners to look at the overall value of visits from Search…
- Extended by D3-C542 Day 3: Google's own line on Day 1 was to measure success by metrics that matter to the business, and its Generative…
Said on stage 12
Google said Search Console's generative AI reporting launched alongside the generative AI control, starting with impressions only, and may expand later.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 1, 11:35 · What's new in the world of SearchEvidence transcript
- Repeats D1-C124 Day 1: Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to…
- Repeated by D3-C440 Day 3: Google called AI reporting in Search Console an evolving space and expects the generative AI report to get…
In agency marketing-data pipelines, as in financial forecasting, one misplaced figure travels downstream and compounds into later analysis and decisions, which is why LLM errors on search data must be caught early, a community speaker warned.
Speaker Rafael KovashikawaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
At a community speaker's agency, monthly client reports took each SEO manager one full workday every month, contained technical errors and were not read by anyone, which led the team to automate them.
Speaker Kira BreuerIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
An agency's automated monthly SEO report follows four simple steps: the data comes in, a script processes it, AI summarises it and the result goes onto a dashboard.
Speaker Kira BreuerIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
- Extended by D3-C477 Day 3: The community workflow's third step feeds the exported Search Console dataset into the agency's LLM agent…
- Extended by D3-C478 Day 3: Nik Vujic's slide said no agent is needed to start: pull the Search Console data, import it into any LLM and…
A good AI summary in an automated SEO report needs cleaned, good-quality data, a clear definition of what is wanted and a detailed, explicit prompt, a community speaker said.
Speaker Kira BreuerIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the SEO industry turned everything into a metric because budgets are approved on numbers, not ideas.
“an idea doesn't get you budget approval; a number does.”
Wording checked against the slide or recording
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said Google's AMP project, meant to get people building fast websites and addressed directly to engineers and marketers, was smart, but the industry reduced it to a metric and a checklist ('now I have an AMP website').
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said most AI-visibility tracking copies rank tracking and is worse than it, because it tracks invented prompts with no known search volume.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker proposed measuring AI search as a five-stage funnel (know, association, search, retrieval, selection) to learn whether the AI understands, trusts and finally chooses a brand, measuring the earlier stages rather than only the last.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
An audience member asked what changes to expect in Search Console's reporting on Google's AI features.
From the audienceIn Day 1, 16:35 · Q&AEvidence transcript
- Answered by D1-C449 Day 1: A Google panelist said he expected more AI reporting to launch in Search Console, without a timeline or a…
- Answered by D1-C450 Day 1: Google said reporting on AI features should not simply mirror classic search results, because users get more…
A Google panelist said he expected more AI reporting to launch in Search Console, without a timeline or a promise, because many people at Google care about giving site owners the information to understand and adapt to what happens in Search.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 1, 16:35 · Q&AEvidence transcript
- Answers D1-C448 Day 1: An audience member asked what changes to expect in Search Console's reporting on Google's AI features.
- Extended by D3-C440 Day 3: Google called AI reporting in Search Console an evolving space and expects the generative AI report to get…
Google said reporting on AI features should not simply mirror classic search results, because users get more information before they click and interact with pages differently, so it first has to work out which data would be useful and actionable.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 1, 16:35 · Q&AEvidence transcript
- Answers D1-C448 Day 1: An audience member asked what changes to expect in Search Console's reporting on Google's AI features.
What Google's documentation says 2
Google's guide for generative AI features recommends the Generative AI performance report in Search Console for measuring how content performs in generative AI features on Google Search and Discover.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 1, 11:45 · How Search works and where's AI?
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07glossary term Generative AI performance report
- Extended by D3-C535 Day 3: Beyond Search Console, Google's AI features guide suggests tracking conversions and time spent on the site in…
Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to all sites worldwide by 31 August 2026) lists impressions, pages, countries, devices (Search only) and dates, and no click or query metrics.
Publisher Search Central blog (3 June 2026)Annotates Day 1, 11:45 · How Search works and where's AI?
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07glossary term Generative AI performance report
- Repeated by D1-C196 Day 1: Google said Search Console's generative AI reporting launched alongside the generative AI control, starting…
- Extended by D2-C607 Day 2: Check AI Overviews and AI Mode with native-language queries in each target market, not with translated…
- Extended by D3-C063 Day 3: Google said fan-out queries are not added to Search Console, because Google considers them part of its…
- Repeated by D3-C437 Day 3: Search Console added reporting of the impressions a site's content gets in the AI surfaces of Google Search…
- Repeated by D3-C439 Day 3: Search Console's generative AI report shows impressions broken down by pages, countries and devices.
- Extended by D3-C495 Day 3: Nik Vujic said he hopes Search Console's generative AI report will get query data.
- Extended by D3-C542 Day 3: Google's own line on Day 1 was to measure success by metrics that matter to the business, and its Generative…
Day 3: Serving: Ranking, Search Console, and Performance 69
Shown on screen 1
A community slide (Workflow 1) said the first step is to apply the filters you need, even natively in Search Console, for example branded versus non-branded queries, with clicks and impressions.
“Apply the filters you need, even natively in GSC. For example branded vs non-branded, with clicks and impressions.”
Wording checked against the slide or recording
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence slide photo, transcript
Said on stage 46
Google said fan-out queries are not added to Search Console, because Google considers them part of its infrastructure.
“Fan-out queries are not added in Search Console, because they're basically a part of our infrastructure.”
Speaker John MuellerIn Day 3, 10:25 · Making sense of users' queriesEvidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-AIF-03glossary term Query fan-out
- Extends D1-C124 Day 1: Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to…
In a community speaker's case study from the speaker's current company, a well-written, complex and complete article got 1,600,000 impressions, while an article written for a very specific audience got 46,000 impressions over the same period (data source and period length not stated).
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of qualityEvidence transcript
Despite far fewer impressions (46,000 against 1,600,000), the niche article in a community speaker's case study got 28 times more clicks than the comprehensive article over the same period.
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of qualityEvidence transcript
In the same case study, visitors who landed on the niche article converted 10 times more than visitors of the comprehensive article, a community speaker reported.
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of qualityEvidence transcript
Conversions from content are real money that can be reported to stakeholders and shareholders, not an abstract KPI, a community speaker said.
“This is not some abstract KPI. This is real money that you can report to your stakeholders”
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of qualityEvidence transcript
To improve a site after a core update, check whether users can complete their information journey on the site and ask users directly, for example with customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys, then improve based on the answers.
Speaker GoogleIn Day 3, 12:00 · What are quality updatesEvidence transcript
Search Console added reporting of the impressions a site's content gets in the AI surfaces of Google Search, found in the left navigation nested under Search results.
Speaker Ariel KroszynskiIn Day 3, 13:55 · Inside Search Console: What’s New & How to Use ItEvidence transcript
- Repeats D1-C124 Day 1: Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to…
The regular Search Console Performance report still shows all traffic including AI features, while the generative AI view shows only impressions from AI surfaces.
Speaker Ariel KroszynskiIn Day 3, 13:55 · Inside Search Console: What’s New & How to Use ItEvidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07glossary term Generative AI performance report
- Extended by D3-C492 Day 3: Nik Vujic said GA4 setups that separate out traffic from LLMs do not capture visits from AI Overviews and AI…
- Extended by D3-C498 Day 3: Google's AI features guide says traffic from sites appearing in AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode…
Search Console's generative AI report shows impressions broken down by pages, countries and devices.
Speaker Ariel KroszynskiIn Day 3, 13:55 · Inside Search Console: What’s New & How to Use ItEvidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07
- Repeats D1-C124 Day 1: Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to…
Google called AI reporting in Search Console an evolving space and expects the generative AI report to get richer, with more information in the future.
Speaker Ariel KroszynskiIn Day 3, 13:55 · Inside Search Console: What’s New & How to Use ItEvidence transcript
- Repeats D1-C196 Day 1: Google said Search Console's generative AI reporting launched alongside the generative AI control, starting…
- Extends D1-C449 Day 1: A Google panelist said he expected more AI reporting to launch in Search Console, without a timeline or a…
- Extended by D3-C495 Day 3: Nik Vujic said he hopes Search Console's generative AI report will get query data.
In a community lightning talk, agency founder Nik Vujic presented how his agency feeds Search Console and GA4 data to an LLM agent to support decisions for its clients.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
- Extends D1-C255 Day 1: A community speaker who is not a developer automated monthly SEO reports with Python in Visual Studio Code…
Nik Vujic called Google Search Console his favourite SEO tool, used alongside GA4, and said third-party SEO tools give only estimates, although they have some use cases.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Nik Vujic said that after a page is published, the queries it appears for are the first thing to show up in Search Console, while clicks and impressions come much later.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
To report content refreshes on large sites, Nik Vujic's agency compares date ranges and has an LLM give the exact number of queries the content improved on, then reports that number to the client.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Nik Vujic called the GA4 API combined with Looker Studio the only LLM traffic tracker that actually works.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Nik Vujic said GA4 setups that separate out traffic from LLMs do not capture visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
- Extends D3-C438 Day 3: The regular Search Console Performance report still shows all traffic including AI features, while the…
Nik Vujic said Google Tag Manager events can be used to follow real traffic arriving from different LLMs.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Nik Vujic's agency puts Search Console data, LLM referral traffic from GA4 and the data from Search Console's generative AI report into one LLM prompt to compare a client's performance in classic search and in AI features.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Nik Vujic said he hopes Search Console's generative AI report will get query data.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
- Extends D1-C124 Day 1: Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to…
- Extends D3-C440 Day 3: Google called AI reporting in Search Console an evolving space and expects the generative AI report to get…
A community speaker described a business whose visibility and average rankings for many important, high-value commercial keywords improved over a year while its clicks and impressions did not rise with them.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker argued that SEOs who panic when rankings rise but clicks do not are relying on a metric, rankings and visibility, that no longer stands up to scrutiny.
“we rely on a metric that no longer stands up to scrutiny”
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said most people in the room had probably seen clicks decline over the past couple of years because AI now takes part of the demand by summarising information from websites, a shift that hit informational queries first.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
In data a community speaker tracks for particular brands, local search terms have started to lose clicks too as AI features appear on more results pages.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the problem SEOs face is not ranking but positioning SEO differently and measuring and showing its value to stakeholders while AI features take away clicks, some of which were probably not relevant anyway.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Key stakeholders such as heads of department just want to see metrics and numbers, a community speaker said, which makes the way SEO reports its value the question to solve.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said digital marketing has been spoiled by about 20 years of plentiful attribution and that SEOs should relearn the mindset of marketers who worked with very little of it, while still using the performance data that remains.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker advised SEOs to focus, as marketers did before detailed attribution, on downstream impact: the effect their work has on other channels.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Used byglossary term Downstream impact
A community speaker cited a recent Similarweb study as showing that being recommended in AI-driven services multiplies a brand's chance of getting traffic downstream; a Similarweb study reported in June 2026, probably the one meant, found brands recommended by ChatGPT 2.5 times more likely to get a site visit within 7 days (US desktop data, finance, travel and beauty).
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Traffic that follows an AI recommendation need not arrive through organic search but may come direct, through paid search or through another channel, a community speaker said, predicting the effect will show in data in the coming months and years.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Used byglossary term Downstream impact
A community speaker concluded that rankings and clicks no longer equal real business outcomes.
“rankings and clicks don't really equal real outcomes anymore”
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
- Extends D1-C057 Day 1: Myth: the old metrics don't work in the AI era. Google's answer: measure success through metrics that matter…
A community speaker ran a controlled test with a brand that had seen organic clicks drop: for a set period the only activity was work to raise the brand's AI visibility, with no external campaigns and no budget changes.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker reported that a higher rate of recommendation in AI answers brought one brand a really significant uplift in inquiries during a controlled test, without giving a figure.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the brand in the controlled test had a record month, the kind of real business value that business owners care about more than a dip in traffic.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
During a community speaker's controlled test, the brand's paid search click-through rate rose by 36% while the only activity was work to raise its AI visibility.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
In a community speaker's controlled test the brand's AI visibility was tracked across the main AI engines and was described as really strong early in the experiment (whether as a starting level or a gain was not said).
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
In the same controlled test the brand's top-of-page share in paid search dropped, so a slight dip in paid click-through rate would have been expected rather than the 36% rise, a community speaker said.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker advised SEOs to work with paid search teams to understand changes such as a rise in paid click-through rate and what impact SEO work may have had, since those teams may not credit SEO for it.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the customer journey that starts in AI services still exists and only the direct attribution is missing, so SEOs should look at wider metrics they have not tracked before.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker's simplified journey: an AI recommendation makes a visit more likely; the person may check the brand on social media or see it while scrolling, search the brand name, and later click it in a generic search because they know it.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
When a brand bids on its own name, people who search the brand after an AI recommendation may arrive through paid search rather than organic, so organic reporting loses that visit, a community speaker noted.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Clicks are down for a lot of businesses but rarely tell the whole story, a community speaker summarised, advising SEOs to ask the paid search team for Google Ads click-through rate reports.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker advised SEOs to report conversion rates and traffic by channel, not only organic clicks.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
For the brand in a community speaker's controlled test, organic sessions in GA4 roughly halved while direct sessions stayed fairly stable (an uncertain reading; a change of about 2% was mentioned, direction unclear in the recording).
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker advised comparing the relative performance of channels and choosing new metrics to report, rather than judging SEO on organic sessions alone.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A fully controlled test of AI visibility was possible for one brand only because it ran no other marketing activity, and is not viable for most brands, a community speaker said.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker recommended picking areas of a business where testing is possible and measuring how AI visibility affects conversion rates and revenue there.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
What Google's documentation says 9
Google's Search Console help says AI Mode groups the user's question into subtopics and searches for each one simultaneously, and that a follow-up question in AI Mode is essentially a new query.
Publisher Google Search Console HelpAnnotates Day 3, 10:25 · Making sense of users' queries
Google's core updates page recommends waiting at least a full week after a core update has finished rolling out before analysing Search Console data, then comparing that week with a week before the update started.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 12:00 · What are quality updates
Google's launch post for Search Console's branded queries filter (20 November 2025) says the branded versus non-branded split is made by an internal AI-assisted system, not by a regular expression, and that some queries may occasionally be misidentified.
Publisher Search Central blog (20 November 2025, updated 11 March 2026)Annotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Used byglossary term Branded queries filter
- Extends D3-C417 Day 3: Google said query groups are not built by matching query text alone: deciding which queries belong in which…
Google's blog post on Search Console data limits says anonymized queries are always left out of the report tables but counted in chart totals unless you filter by query, and are left out whenever a filter is applied, so filtered rows do not add up to the chart totals.
Publisher Search Central blog (19 October 2022)Annotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-08
Google's AI features guide says traffic from sites appearing in AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the overall search traffic in Search Console and reported in the Performance report within the Web search type.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07
- Extends D3-C438 Day 3: The regular Search Console Performance report still shows all traffic including AI features, while the…
In an August 2025 post, Google's Head of Search wrote that total organic click volume from Google Search to websites had been relatively stable year-over-year and that Google was sending slightly more quality clicks (clicks where users do not quickly click back) than a year earlier; the post gave no figures.
Publisher Google blog (6 August 2025)Annotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google's AI features guide says clicks from search results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the site.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Beyond Search Console, Google's AI features guide suggests tracking conversions and time spent on the site in tools such as Google Analytics to understand the value of traffic from AI features.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
- Extends D1-C062 Day 1: Google's guide for generative AI features recommends the Generative AI performance report in Search Console…
A May 2025 Search Central blog post advised site owners to look at the overall value of visits from Search rather than focusing too much on clicks, using indicators of conversion such as sales, sign-ups, a more engaged audience or information lookups about the business.
Publisher Search Central blog (21 May 2025)Annotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
- Extends D1-C057 Day 1: Myth: the old metrics don't work in the AI era. Google's answer: measure success through metrics that matter…
Analysis by the author 13
No Google documentation states that fan-out queries stay out of Search Console, but the docs fit the stage statement: the Performance report counts AI Overviews and AI Mode under the user's own queries, and the Generative AI reports have no query dimension.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 10:25 · Making sense of users' queries
Impressions and business value can diverge sharply, so judge each article by its clicks and conversions, not by its impressions alone, before deciding which content to expand or retire.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of quality
The case-study figures were said on stage without a photographed slide, a data source or absolute click numbers, and together they imply a click-through rate nearly 1,000 times higher on the niche article, so use them as an illustration, not a benchmark.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of quality
Search Console's generative AI performance reports count impressions only, with no clicks and no query dimension (Google documents the Search report for AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus a separate Discover report), so measure visits that follow AI answers with your own analytics.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 13:55 · Inside Search Console: What’s New & How to Use It
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07
A query reaches Search Console's Performance report only through an impression, so queries cannot come before impressions; what rises first after a publish or refresh is the number of queries with a few impressions each, before total impressions and clicks grow noticeably.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Pages that do better in AI answers than in classic results do not refute Google's line that optimising for people is optimising for generative AI Search, since the comparison mixed Google's AI features with third-party LLMs; measure each surface separately, per page, before deciding what to change.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
- Extends D1-C058 Day 1: Optimising for people is optimising for generative AI Search.
Because Google says anonymized queries are left out whenever a filter is applied, branded plus non-branded exports should not be expected to add up to the unfiltered chart totals; tell an LLM that sums filtered exports that the gap is expected, not missing data.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Before feeding a branded versus non-branded split to an LLM, spot-check a sample of queries in each group, since Google's AI-assisted classification can misidentify queries; on URL-path or subdomain properties, where the filter is unavailable, a regex query filter is the fallback.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
- Extends D3-C435 Day 3: Review the filters and regexes that Search Console's AI-powered configuration proposes before trusting the…
The click decline described on stage is what many individual sites report, while Google's published position (August 2025) is that total organic clicks are relatively stable but shifting between sites, with fewer clicks for quick-answer questions; neither side gave figures, so measure the trend per site and per query type rather than assuming a market-wide fall.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
The community speaker's figures (paid search click-through rate up 36%, organic sessions halved, a record month) come from one unpublished test of one unnamed brand with no stated period or baseline; use them as an illustration, not as a benchmark.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google's own line on Day 1 was to measure success by metrics that matter to the business, and its Generative AI performance report shows impressions but no clicks; together with the community talk this argues for a report that puts organic next to direct, branded paid search, conversions and revenue.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
- Extends D1-C057 Day 1: Myth: the old metrics don't work in the AI era. Google's answer: measure success through metrics that matter…
- Extends D1-C124 Day 1: Google's launch post for the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (3 June 2026; rolled out to…
For a site's own test of AI visibility, write down the period, the baseline and every other marketing change before starting, and compare a test area with a similar control area; paid click-through rate and direct and branded traffic are the signals the community speaker watched.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google's finding that AI users visit more brand websites is Google's own research; check it against your own data, such as branded and direct traffic in analytics and the Generative AI performance report in Search Console, before planning on it.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middle