Impression-only reporting
Impression-only reporting tells you your page was shown somewhere, like an AI answer, but not whether anyone clicked, read it or bought.
Impression-only reporting is a report that tells you how often your page or link was shown, but not what happened next. You see that you appeared. You don't see whether anyone clicked, read the answer, or bought from you.
A lot of what's available about AI search works this way, so it's worth knowing what an impression can and can't tell you before you report on it.
Where you'll meet it
Google Search Console's Generative AI performance report counts impressions: how many times a link to your site was shown in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Its help page describes impressions only, by page, country, date and device.
On the other side, your analytics can show visits that came from AI assistants. But a visit only shows up if someone clicked, and many people read the answer and never do.
What an impression leaves out
An impression says a link to your site was on screen. It doesn't say what the answer around it said.
For example, say Kestrel Roasters' brewing guide gets 5,000 impressions in AI Overviews last month. That could mean the answers recommended Kestrel. It could also mean the answers used Kestrel's guide to explain brewing, then recommended Fernhill Coffee. The impression count is the same either way.
How to read it
Treat impressions as a sign that you're in the conversation, and pair them with two other things: what the answers actually said, and what people did next. Report trends more than totals, since a rise in impressions on the pages you've worked on is easier to stand behind than one big number.
In AnswerOrbit
We keep the full text of every answer to your prompts, with the brands it named and the pages it used, so you can see what was said as well as whether you appeared. What we can't see is what people did after reading an answer. For that, connect Google Analytics, and the AI traffic tab in Website shows the visits AI assistants sent you. How we count lists what's out of our view.