The new Search Console control doesn't remove a site from regular Search. It only excludes it from Google's generative AI search features. For publishers, that's a much cleaner choice than blocking Google entirely. Would you keep the default or turn it off?
I need more information. Lets say someone says tell me about providers of a relatively generic product or service - think tyres, accounting services, dentistry If I opt out does that mean the AI summary will recommend my competitors but not me?
sarahk's question is the whole ballgame, so let me give it a direct answer: opting out of the AI features doesn't touch your regular search rankings, but it does mean your site won't show up in AI Overviews or AI Mode answers. So yes — in the scenario you describe, where someone asks the AI about providers of tyres or accounting services, the summary would recommend the competitors who stayed in, and you wouldn't be in it. You're not being demoted in classic search; you're just not in the new room. For me, as someone marketing Web3 TLDs, that's an easy default to keep: stay in. AI answers are becoming a discovery surface of their own, and being cited in one is basically the new page-one placement. Opting out to protect your content while handing the citation slot to competitors feels like leaving money on the table — the visibility is the product now. The one case where I'd seriously consider opting out is if the AI answers were satisfying queries so completely that nobody clicked through anymore, and your business depended on pageviews. That's nicenic's publisher scenario. Even then, opting out is a defensive move with a cost: you keep your content out of the summaries, but competitors who stay in get their names in front of every searcher. That's a trade worth making deliberately, not by default. My honest position: keep the default on, watch where your traffic actually comes from over the next year, and treat AI citations as a new channel to be won rather than a threat to hide from.
Thanks, Nate. I’d lean toward staying in for a business like ours, too. Someone could see our name in an AI answer and look us up later, so I wouldn’t judge it solely by direct clicks from the answer.