| name | gsc-ai-performance |
| description | Query and interpret the new Google Search Console AI Performance Report (AI Overviews + AI Mode impressions/pages/countries/devices/dates). Use when: baselining AI search visibility, reading the new GSC AI report, or configuring the in-Search-Console AI opt-out toggle. |
| argument-hint | [brand-name or site URL] |
/digital-marketing-pro:gsc-ai-performance
Purpose
Google rolled out a new GSC AI Performance Report on 3 June 2026 (Search Engine Land announcement) covering both AI Overviews and AI Mode in a single combined surface. This skill helps you (a) baseline a brand's visibility in the new report, (b) understand the metric trade-offs, and (c) decide whether to use the new in-SC opt-out toggle.
What is genuinely new (3 June 2026)
| Metric / surface | Status |
|---|
| Combined AI Overviews + AI Mode impressions | NEW — one report for both surfaces |
| Pages cited (per query group) | NEW |
| Country breakdown | NEW |
| Device breakdown | NEW |
| Date range filtering | NEW |
| Click data | NOT INCLUDED (Google explicitly excluded — important caveat for attribution) |
| Opt-out toggle in Search Console | NEW (replaces having to ship robots.txt / meta tags for AI-specific exclusion) |
| API surface | NOT YET PUBLISHED — UI only (still true as of July 2026) |
| Discover generative surfaces | NEW (June–July 2026) — the report family now also covers generative AI features in Discover (Google announcement) |
| Data availability | Backfilled from 18 May 2026; access expanded broadly in July 2026, with a companion deep-dive help doc on AI controls |
| Geographic rollout | UK first, then global (source) |
Critical interpretation guidance: The report shows when your pages were SHOWN in AI Overviews / AI Mode, not when users clicked through to them. Because click data is absent, all downstream attribution to AI traffic must come from your analytics (GA4's new AI Assistant channel — added 13 May 2026 — is the matching analytics-side surface; see /digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights).
When to use this skill
- Setting baseline AI visibility for a new brand (first 30-day capture of AI Overview + AI Mode impressions)
- Comparing brand AI visibility against
aeo-audit synthetic results — the GSC report shows ACTUAL impressions vs aeo-audit's probe queries
- Deciding whether to flip the in-SC AI opt-out toggle for a brand (regulated industry, brand-safety concern, or paywall/login content)
- Quarterly business review evidence — "AI search impressions grew X%" using authoritative Google data
Brand context (auto-applied)
- Read
~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json for the active slug, then load ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json
- If no brand exists: ask "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults
- Apply industry-specific guidance from
skills/context-engine/industry-profiles.md (YMYL industries may want opt-out toggled ON until E-E-A-T audit is clean)
- Reference
skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md for jurisdiction-specific rules (EU markets — see skills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md for Article 50 transparency context)
Numbered output convention
All outputs go to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/{brand}/seo/gsc-ai-performance/{YYYY-MM-DD}/:
00-input.md brand domain, GSC access status, UK-cohort flag, date range
01-access-check.md verification result; if no access, instructions for adding the user
02-export.csv raw CSV export from GSC (preserved for reproducibility)
03-script-output.json gsc-ai-performance.py parsed output (impressions, pages, countries, devices)
04-reconciliation.md vs aeo-audit synthetic probe results — gap analysis
05-opt-out-decision.md y/n on the in-SC opt-out toggle, with rationale
06-quality-scorecard.md the gates below
PLAN.md single-page summary with tracking cadence
Quality scorecard
| Gate | What it checks |
|---|
| gsc_access_verified | User has confirmed Search Console verified ownership for the brand domain |
| export_completeness | CSV has ≥ 1 day of data + at minimum the impressions column |
| cohort_documented | 00-input.md notes whether the brand is in the UK rollout (data live) or pending global rollout (no data yet — wait) |
| reconciliation_done | 04-reconciliation.md cross-references against the brand's most recent aeo-audit |
If the brand isn't in the UK rollout yet, the gate framework still applies but export_completeness will be fail until Google rolls out globally — that's expected, not a regression.
Chain handoffs
- Upstream:
/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup for property verification
- Downstream:
/digital-marketing-pro:aeo-geo — optimization based on what's surfacing (or not)/digital-marketing-pro:seo-drift — month-over-month tracking using the exported CSVs/digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights — GA4 AI Assistant channel attribution closes the click-side gap
Process
- Access check — confirm the user has Google Search Console verified access for the brand's domain. If the brand is in the UK rollout cohort, the report is live; otherwise it will appear when global rollout reaches them.
- Locate the report — Search Console → left nav → Performance → switch tab to Search results → look for the new AI Overviews & AI Mode tab (the tab title may vary slightly during rollout; Google's working name during testing was "Search Generative AI"). On rollouts pre-tab, the data may also surface under the existing Performance report with an AI Features filter.
- Run baseline export — set the date range to "last 28 days" (or maximum available since rollout), export to CSV/Sheets via Search Console's export button. Capture: impressions, pages, country mix, device mix, top queries (if available in your cohort). Then parse and archive it with the helper script:
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/gsc-ai-performance.py" \
--brand {slug} \
--csv "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/{brand}/seo/gsc-ai-performance/{date}/02-export.csv" \
--format json \
--archive
Real flags only: --brand (required), --csv (path to the GSC export), --api (best-effort; Google has not published an AI-report API yet), --site, --format text|json, --archive. There is no summary subcommand — the script reads the CSV and emits the parsed metrics.
- Reconcile against
aeo-audit — synthetic queries from /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-audit test what AI engines might surface; the GSC report shows what they actually surfaced. Significant gaps either way are signals:
- GSC shows much more than aeo-audit found → your test query set is too narrow; expand it
- aeo-audit found brand in synthetic results but GSC shows few impressions → low query volume for those topics; redirect AEO effort to higher-volume topics
- Opt-out decision — if any of the following apply, consider the in-SC opt-out toggle:
- Industry has YMYL / regulatory risk and brand E-E-A-T isn't fully audited yet
- Brand's content is paywalled or login-gated (AI surfacing of partial content can damage funnel)
- Brand is the subject of active reputation management — surfacing in AI answers amplifies whatever sentiment AI models have absorbed
Output
A structured GSC AI performance brief containing:
- Baseline metrics — current-period impressions, pages, country mix, device mix
- Trend analysis — period-over-period change (where prior data exists)
- Reconciliation table — GSC actuals vs
aeo-audit synthetic results, with gap notes
- Opt-out recommendation — explicit opt-in / opt-out decision with rationale grounded in industry profile and brand context
- Optimization handoff — list of high-impact topics where the brand is under-cited (route to
aeo-geo)
- Tracking cadence — recommended monthly export schedule, archive path
Caveats and known limitations (June 2026)
- No click data. Google explicitly chose not to include click metrics. AI-to-website attribution must come from GA4 (the new
AI Assistant channel group, added 13 May 2026, captures Medium=ai-assistant referrals from ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude). Note: GA4's channel may or may not specifically attribute Google's own AI Mode traffic the same way — verify in your property.
- UI only at launch. No public API. Wait for Google to publish the AI report under the Search Console Search Analytics API (
searchanalytics.query) before automating against it. Current automation must rely on CSV export + manual upload.
- Rollout completed broadly July 2026. The report started UK-first but access expanded broadly in July 2026, so most properties should now see it. Mark the date you first see data so subsequent month-over-month comparisons start from a real baseline.
- Tab placement may move during rollout. Google often refines the UI in the first 30–60 days. If the exact tab path differs from step 2 above, look anywhere in the Performance > Search results area for "AI", "Generative", "AI Mode", or "AI Overviews" labels.
- Don't compare AI Overviews impressions to classic SERP impressions one-for-one. AI Overviews surface differently — an "impression" there means your page was used as a grounding source, which is a stricter bar than appearing in a 10-blue-link result.
Agents used
seo-specialist (primary) — for interpretation and recommendation framinganalytics-analyst — for the GA4 reconciliation when AI Assistant channel data is availablebrand-guardian — for the opt-out decision when brand-safety or compliance is in play
See also
/digital-marketing-pro:aeo-audit — synthetic AI-engine probing/digital-marketing-pro:aeo-geo — optimization playbook for AI visibility/digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights — GA4 AI Assistant channel attributionskills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md — EU Article 50 transparency context for AI-cited contentscripts/gsc-ai-performance.py — helper script (placeholder until Google publishes API; reads exported CSV today)
