What To Do Differently Now That Google's AI Mode Is Now Live

Google's AI Mode has officially rolled out to every US search user, and as of this week, it's finally showing up in your Search Console data. If you've noticed unexplained changes in your traffic metrics lately, that's probably why. But here's what Google isn't telling you: the clicks you can see in Search Console represent only a tiny fraction of how AI Mode actually affects your business.

Every time someone asks AI Mode about your industry, your competitors, or the problems you solve, your business might be mentioned, compared, or completely ignored—and you'll never know which one happened. Traditional analytics only show you what happens after someone clicks through to your website. But most AI conversations end without any clicks at all.

This creates a massive blind spot that's about to get much bigger. AI Mode uses Google's "query fan-out" technique, issuing multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and multiple data sources, which means it's accessing and analyzing your content far more extensively than traditional search ever did. The question isn't whether AI Mode will impact your business—it's whether you'll be able to measure and optimize for that impact.

How AI Mode Actually Works (And Why It Matters for Your Business)

Unlike AI Overviews, which show up at the top of regular search results, AI Mode is Google's most powerful AI search experience with more advanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities. Users can ask complex, multi-part questions and get comprehensive answers without ever leaving Google's interface.

Here's what makes AI Mode different from traditional search: when someone asks "What's the best project management software for remote teams under $50 per month?", AI Mode doesn't just return a list of links. Instead, it uses Google's "query fan-out" technique, issuing multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics within Google's existing search index to create a complete comparison and recommendation.

Your business might be thoroughly analyzed and either recommended or dismissed during this process based on your indexed content. But unless the user clicks through to your website, you'll have no idea it happened.

What Shows Up in Search Console vs. What Actually Happens

As of June 17, Google confirmed that both AI Overviews and AI Mode now contribute to the Web category in Search Console. This means each time your content appears as a clickable source in AI Mode, it counts as an impression, and if someone clicks, it counts as a click.

But here's the limitation: Search Console only tracks the interactions that result in potential clicks to your website. It doesn't track:

• AI Research Without Clicks: When AI Mode analyzes your content to answer questions but users don't click through to your site
• Competitive Comparisons: When your business gets compared to competitors within AI Mode conversations
• Brand Mentions: When AI Mode references your company, products, or services in responses
• Decision Influence: When AI Mode recommendations steer users toward or away from your business

There's no separate "AI" appearance in the Search Console performance report. It's just merged in with everything else under "Web." This creates what digital marketing consultant Glenn Gabe describes as making it "very hard to glean insights about how AI Mode is impacting traffic" without dedicated tracking.

The SEO Strategy That Actually Works for AI Mode

Here's the critical insight that most businesses are missing: AI Mode doesn't require a fundamentally different SEO strategy—it requires executing traditional SEO much more thoroughly.

AI Mode uses Google's existing search index and ranking systems as its data source. AI Mode expands what AI Overviews can do with more advanced reasoning and ways of interacting, but it's still built on the same foundation of web content that Google already crawls and indexes.

This means the best way to "rank" for AI Mode is to optimize for Google's search crawler like you always have:

• Create Comprehensive Content: AI Mode analyzes content at scale, so superficial pages won't provide the depth AI needs for recommendations
• Use Clear Structure: Headers, lists, and organized information help AI understand and extract key details
• Include Specific Details: AI Mode excels at comparisons, so specific features, benefits, and use cases matter more than generic descriptions
• Maintain Accurate Information: AI Mode pulls from multiple sources, so inconsistent information across your site can confuse AI analysis
• Focus on E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness become even more important when AI systems evaluate your content for recommendations

How to Track AI Mode Impact When Analytics Can't

Since there's no separate view, no clear breakdown of what came from traditional search versus what came from a chatbot, traditional analytics leave you blind to most AI Mode activity. But there are ways to get visibility into this growing traffic source.

Monitor Traffic Patterns: The best approach is to annotate changes in traffic starting mid-June and watch for unexplained shifts in performance. Sudden increases or decreases in organic traffic might be related to AI Mode rather than traditional ranking changes.

Track Brand Searches: If AI Mode mentions your business positively, you might see increases in branded search traffic as users look up your company after learning about it through AI conversations.

Use AI-Specific Analytics: Tools like Spyglasses can detect when AI systems access your content and track clickthroughs from AI Mode specifically. This gives you visibility into both the AI mentions you can't see in Search Console and the clicks that do convert.

The Real Opportunity (And Why Most Businesses Will Miss It)

The businesses that succeed with AI Mode won't be the ones that try to game the system or create AI-specific content. They'll be the ones that recognize AI Mode as an amplification of existing SEO principles, not a replacement for them.

AI Mode represents a massive opportunity for businesses with strong fundamentals. If your content clearly explains your value proposition, your website structure helps visitors and crawlers understand your offerings, and your business information is comprehensive and current, AI Mode becomes a powerful discovery engine for your business.

But most businesses will miss this opportunity because they're waiting for AI-specific optimization tactics instead of executing basic SEO well. They'll focus on the 10% of AI Mode that's new instead of the 90% that's built on traditional search infrastructure.

The window for competitive advantage is still open. Right now, most of your competitors can't measure AI Mode impact and don't understand how it works. They're optimizing for yesterday's search experience while AI Mode reshapes how customers discover businesses today.

The question isn't whether AI Mode will change how customers find you—it's whether you'll have the data to optimize for that change or be left guessing while competitors pull ahead.

Start tracking your AI Mode traffic now, because the businesses that can see what's happening will have a massive advantage over those that can't.