Google AI Search controls: a checklist for small-business websites

A new website gives your business a place to answer a customer’s questions. Google now gives website owners a specific choice about whether their content appears in its generative AI Search features. For a small business, that makes this a good week to check one setting and save a starting record of how people find you.

What changed in 2026

Google announced the new control on June 3, 2026. Its August 31 update says the control and new performance insights had rolled out to all websites worldwide. That gives a recently launched business an explicit participation setting to review alongside its usual search setup. Google’s announcement and rollout update explain the dates.

Treat this as a recorded business choice. A service business seeking discovery might choose inclusion for its public service pages. A publisher reviewing content licensing might assess different priorities. Those are suggested decision criteria; neither example predicts traffic or sales.

Check the setting for the property you manage

Open your verified website property in Search Console, then go to Settings → Search generative AI. Record the property address and the selected choice. Google’s control documentation describes inclusion, exclusion, and inheritance from a parent property. Inclusion is the default for properties without a parent; a child property can inherit its parent’s choice.

Inclusion permits your content and links to appear in the covered AI Search features. Exclusion removes that eligibility and the associated impressions and traffic. Google says this choice does not affect ranking or inclusion in other parts of Search.

If you manage both a domain property and a URL-prefix property, check which parent supplies the inherited value before making a change. Save the effective choice with the date and the person responsible. Ask whoever manages your website to join this review if you cannot identify the property that covers your public pages.

Write the decision in ordinary business language

Use a short record your colleague can understand. For example, a fictional local repair business could write: “Our public service pages explain the areas we cover and how customers book. We will keep AI Search inclusion enabled for the next review period. Sam will record the setting today and review enquiries in four weeks.”

Add the reason for the choice and the next review date. If you change it, record the old value before saving. Keep any simultaneous website or campaign changes in the same log so later comparisons have context. A newly published pricing page, a seasonal promotion, or a changed booking form can each affect what you observe.

This example illustrates an operating approach. The four-week review is a convenient planning interval; it does not establish that a setting caused a change in demand.

Keep each Google control tied to its purpose

Search generative AI inclusion controls participation in the covered Search experiences. Google-Extended is a separate robots.txt product token. Google’s crawler documentation explains that it governs certain Gemini training and grounding uses and does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search.

Give your website maintainer a specific request: “Please review our AI Search participation setting and document our Google-Extended policy separately.” That request keeps the two decisions legible. It also gives you a useful record when a supplier proposes a robots.txt edit.

Changes to crawling and indexing need their own review. Ask which URLs a proposed change covers, which Google product it affects, and how the maintainer will verify the outcome. Keep the documentation link beside the change record.

Make one customer question easy to answer on your site

Google’s current optimization guide says ordinary SEO practices remain relevant. A page needs to be indexed and eligible for a Search snippet, and the site needs AI Search inclusion, to be eligible for these features. Google also states that eligibility does not guarantee crawling, indexing, or appearance.

Choose a question that comes up before a sale. For a fictional furniture repair workshop, that might be: “Can you repair a dining chair with a loose joint?” A useful service page could describe the joint types the workshop handles, show an original repair photograph with permission, explain how to send photos for an estimate, and state the service area. Publish only details the business can substantiate.

Have someone read the page on a phone and try the enquiry step. Record unclear wording or a broken form and assign the fix. The customer should be able to understand the offer and take the next step directly from the page.

Save a baseline and review the evidence

Before changing anything, save the review date, the chosen property, and its effective setting. Google’s rollout announcement describes new insights about impressions, pages appearing in generative AI responses, and countries. Check the available report in your Search Console property and label each metric exactly as the report does.

Alongside search visibility, record the business outcome you care about: completed enquiries, booked consultations, or orders. Use the same definition and date window at the next review. For a new website with little history, note when the site became public and how many days the baseline covers.

If enquiries rise after you publish a better service page, describe the timing and the observed counts. A before-and-after comparison can inform your next question; by itself it cannot establish causation. Short periods and small counts make that limitation especially relevant. Avoid filling missing data with estimated results.

Use BrandMochi visibility as another research record

BrandMochi’s shipped Visibility screen shows a model-based scan, its date and model, phrase scores, answer summaries, and suggested next actions. Its Refresh button queues a new scan. You can use that record to spot wording or identity questions to investigate on your public website.

The scan is a model-generated research assessment. Google’s Search Console reports provide Google’s own search observations. Keep the source and date attached to each observation when you compare them, and verify a suggested website change against your current public content. No score guarantees that a search engine will feature your business.

Your next step is small: open the Google property you manage, record its AI Search choice, and choose one customer question to improve on your website. Put an owner and a review date beside that work. You can complete this checklist with Search Console and a simple shared document, whether or not you use BrandMochi.