TLDR
What happened: A Reddit user broke down three structural problems with Search Console’s AI Overview reporting. Google’s John Mueller agreed with every one of them — confirmed September 10-13, 2026.
Problem 1: Impressions are counted the moment an AI Overview loads on the page, even if your link never scrolled into view. Structurally inflated.
Problem 2: Links behind the “Show More” expansion are not counted until someone clicks to expand them. Your real visibility is likely higher than GSC shows.
Problem 3: Position tracking shows where the AI Overview block sits on the page — not where your link sits inside it. Every link in the same block gets the same number.
Mueller’s response: Agreed with all three. Said tracking AI features “as a block” is the best Google has right now. Asked the community for better ideas. No fix announced for the structural issues.
Also worth knowing: A separate GSC impression logging bug over-reported impressions from May 13, 2025 to April 27, 2026. That bug was fixed going forward in late April 2026 — but the historical data in that window stays permanently distorted.
Your AI Overview numbers in Google Search Console? They are probably wrong.
And now Google’s own John Mueller is admitting it.
Here is what happened. A Reddit user broke down three big problems with Search Console’s new AI-search reporting. Google did not disagree with a single one.
Source: Reddit SEO Community — r/SEO
Problem #1: Impressions lie. Search Console counts an impression the second an AI Overview loads on the page, even if your link never scrolled into view. That number you are staring at? Structurally inflated.
Problem #2: “Show More” hides your wins. If your link sits behind that expandable section inside an AI Overview, it does not count until someone clicks it. Your real visibility could be way higher than GSC shows you.
Problem #3: Position tracking is basically useless. The “position” you see is not where your link ranks. It is where the entire AI Overview sits on the page. Ten different links inside that box all get the exact same number.
Mueller’s Response
Mueller agreed. He said tracking AI features “as a block” is the best Google has got right now, and that the old ten-blue-links model does not map to modern search anymore. He even asked the community for better ideas.
“Position for these is hard to do in a way that makes it useful, so we’re currently tracking it as we do for many search features (as a block), and it’s not separated out in the Gen-AI performance report.”
— John Mueller, Google, Reddit / r/SEO, September 10-13, 2026
Let that sink in. Google does not have a structural fix for these reporting problems. Yet.
One thing to be precise about: The impression inflation the blog describes is a structural counting rule — how GSC is designed to count AI Overview impressions — not a bug. There was also a separate logging bug that over-reported impressions from May 13, 2025 to April 27, 2026. Google fixed that bug’s logging going forward in late April 2026, confirmed by Mueller on Bluesky (reported by Search Engine Land, May 4, 2026). However, the historical impression data in that window is permanently distorted and will not be reconstructed. The structural counting problems Mueller confirmed in September 2026 are a different issue — those have no announced fix or timeline.
So What Do You Do About It?
Stop treating GSC’s AI numbers as the full picture. Use them as a rough directional signal, not a scoreboard.
Cross-check with brand mention tracking. Watch your direct traffic trends. Manually check what AI Overviews actually show for your top keywords, week over week.
If your content is clearly performing but the dashboard says otherwise, trust the bigger picture, not the single metric. Dashboards lie sometimes. Results do not.
This is also why the Google Search Console Generative AI Performance Report — which we covered when it launched — needs to be read with these structural limitations in mind. The report is a useful directional tool. It is not an accurate scoreboard.
Bottom Line
AI search reporting is still playing catch-up to AI search itself. Until Google fixes the structural problems, the brands that win will be the ones building their own way to measure what is actually working.
The practical measurement stack until Google fixes this:
- Use GSC AI Overview data as a directional trend signal, not an absolute number
- Track brand mentions in AI answers manually or with tools like Otterly.ai, Semrush AI toolkit, or Ahrefs Brand Radar
- Filter GA4 for sessions from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, and gemini.google.com as a parallel AI referral traffic indicator
- Monitor direct traffic as a proxy for AI brand awareness driving unattributed visits
- Check AI Overviews manually for your most important queries weekly — what you see in the SERP is the ground truth, not the dashboard
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is Google Search Console AI Overview data wrong?
There are two separate issues. First, a structural counting problem confirmed by John Mueller in September 2026: impressions are counted when an AI Overview loads on the page even if your link was never visible, links behind ‘Show More’ are not counted until expanded, and position shows where the AI Overview block sits rather than where your link sits inside it. Second, a historical logging bug that over-reported impressions from May 13, 2025 to April 27, 2026 — that bug was fixed going forward in late April 2026, but the historical data stays permanently distorted.
2. What did John Mueller say about AI Overview reporting in Search Console?
Responding to a Reddit thread in r/SEO on September 10-13, 2026, Mueller confirmed that all three structural problems a Redditor described were accurate. He said Google is currently tracking AI features ‘as a block’ because doing position tracking in a way that is useful is hard. He said the old ten-blue-links position model does not map well to modern search results. He asked the community for better ideas but announced no fix or timeline for the structural reporting limitations.
3. Are Search Console AI Overview impressions reliable?
Not as an absolute number. An impression is counted the moment an AI Overview loads on a page — even if a user never scrolled down to where your link appears. This structurally inflates impression counts. Additionally, if your link sits behind a ‘Show More’ expansion element inside an AI Overview, it is not counted until the user clicks to expand. So the same report can simultaneously overcount some appearances and undercount others. Use GSC AI data as a directional trend signal, not a precise measurement.
4.What does 'position' mean in the Search Console Generative AI report?
It does not mean where your link sits inside an AI Overview. It means where the AI Overview block itself sits on the search results page — typically position 1. Every URL cited inside the same AI Overview gets the same position number, regardless of where their individual link appears within the generated answer. This is what Mueller confirmed when he said Google is tracking AI features ‘as a block.’
5. How should I measure AI Overview performance if GSC data is unreliable?
Use GSC AI Overview data as a directional trend signal — watch whether impressions and clicks are going up or down over time, not the absolute numbers. Supplement with manual spot-checks of your most important queries in actual Google Search. Track AI referral traffic in GA4 by filtering for sessions from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, and gemini.google.com. Use brand mention monitoring tools like Otterly.ai or Semrush AI toolkit. And watch direct traffic trends as a proxy for AI-driven brand awareness that does not show up in referral attribution.
Related from c3digitus
>> Google Search Console Generative AI Performance Report: What It Tracks and What It Misses
>> How to Get Your Website Cited in Google AI Overviews
>> What Is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)? The Complete 2026 Guide
>> Your Google Ranking Does Not Mean What It Used To
>> Google May 2026 Core Update: What Actually Changed and What to Do
Sources
- Reddit r/SEO: Original thread and John Mueller’s response (September 10, 2026)
- Search Engine Journal: Google Admits Search Console Reporting for AI Search Is Inadequate
- Search Engine Roundtable: Google Explains When AI Performance Reports Count Impressions (July 2026)
- Relevant Audience: Mueller — Search Console AI Overview Position Counted as Block
- SEO-Kreativ: GSC Impressions Bug — Google Logging Error Fixed Going Forward (May 4, 2026)
- PassionFruit: GSC Impression Bug — 11 Months of Inflated Data Analysis (April 2026)
Build Your Own AI Visibility Measurement Before the Dashboard Catches Up.
c3digitus helps B2B and industrial brands track actual AI search performance — not just what the dashboard shows. If you want to know whether your content is getting cited in AI answers and what to do about it, we can help.
