What Google's AI Overviews opt-out does, and two things it does not

Google Search Console carries a Search generative AI control under Settings that takes a site out of AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative features in Discover. Google’s documentation is explicit that it is ring-fenced from ranking — it “isn’t used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search” — and that exclusion takes one to two days. Google says it is rolling the control out to “a subset of website owners,” so it is not in every account.

It is the only control that separates the two. nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet limit what Search displays but take the ordinary result snippet with them; noindex removes the page from Search altogether; Google-Extended governs training and grounding for Gemini rather than appearance in Search’s own AI features. Before this, leaving AI Overviews meant accepting damage somewhere else.

The stated price is not small. Opt out and “you won’t receive any traffic or impressions from these features” — and AI Overviews appeared on 43% of Google searches in July, up from 15% a year earlier, per Similarweb.

It does not cover training. Google’s documentation sends publishers to Google-Extended for that, which makes the control a partial answer to the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s Publisher Conduct Requirement. That order, imposed June 3 and legally binding under the digital markets regime, requires Google to let publishers opt out of content used for AI training, fine-tuning and the grounding behind AI Overviews and AI Mode, with nine months to comply. Appearance is one of the three.

Google’s own guidance for site owners does not mention it. “AI features and your website,” the Search Central page that tells publishers how to approach inclusion in AI Overviews and AI Mode, still directs them to nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, noindex and Google-Extended — none of which do what the control does. Checked August 27: that page names nosnippet 18 times and the Search generative AI control not once. A publisher following Google’s documentation rather than opening Search Console’s settings would not learn it exists.

There is also a caveat Google’s ring-fence language does not address. Google places Top Stories carousels inside AI Overviews on roughly 15.5% of US and 17.5% of UK news searches, per an analysis by NewzDash founder John Shehata reported in July — so a news publisher who excludes itself from AI Overviews may lose the Top Stories placement rendered within them. Shehata called the link high-confidence and unconfirmed by Google, and Google has not addressed it since. “Not a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search” is a claim about how the control is used, not a guarantee about what disappears from the page.