Google Documents How Sites Can Limit Use in AI Overviews and AI Mode

On 21 October 2026, Google updated its Search Central page Control what you share with Google Search. The page now lists, in one table, every lever a site owner has over how their content appears in Search, and that table includes the Search generative AI control, a Search Console setting that manages whether a site is included in AI Overviews and AI Mode. In the words of the page: “You can manage your site’s inclusion in generative AI features on Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode… by using the Search generative AI control in Search Console.”

The Search Central documentation changelog is explicit that the options on that page already existed and are not new. The robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, X-Robots-Tag and the generative AI control were simply brought together. So nothing switched on overnight. What changed is that Google now presents opting out of its AI features as a standard site-owner decision, documented next to noindex. For companies in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt, that means making the decision on purpose rather than leaving it to defaults.

What the control does, according to Google

The Search Console Help article on the control gives the detail the documentation page leaves out. The main points:

• Scope. It covers Search generative AI features: AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Google Discover. The list of features covered may change over time.
• Effect of excluding. Your links and content stop appearing in those features, and your content is no longer used to ground or preview AI responses. You also stop receiving traffic and impressions from them.
• Ranking. Google states that the setting is not a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search. Choosing to exclude should not push your pages down in the regular results.
• Training. It does not affect AI training. For that, Google points to the separate Google-Extended control.
• Options. Include (the default), exclude, or inherit from a parent property. A subdomain or URL-prefix property can override its parent, and the owner of the top-level domain property is notified when that happens.
• Timing. Changes generally take a few days to take effect. Content is usually excluded within one to two days after the change goes live, though caching can make some content take longer.
• Where to find it. Search Console, under Settings, then Search generative AI, in the relevant property.

One more point from the help article matters for any decision. Content from other sites still appears in these features after you exclude yours, and Google notes it may look similar to yours. Opting out removes your voice from the answer. The answer itself stays.

The four levers, side by side

Most sites need only one or two of these. Choose the one that matches the outcome you want, not the one that sounds most protective.

The snippet behaviour is set out on Google’s robots meta tag specification, which states that nosnippet applies to “all forms of search results”, AI Overviews and AI Mode included. Google’s guide to AI features and your website adds the other side of the rule: to be shown as a supporting link in these features, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet. There are no extra technical requirements beyond that.

Should a Gulf business opt out? Usually not, and here is why

The control matters most to publishers: sites whose product is the content itself, and who worry that an AI summary replaces the visit. Most business websites in the region are in a different position. A contractor in Riyadh, a distributor in Dubai or a clinic in Doha does not sell its articles. It sells a service or a product, and the website exists to be found by someone who is still comparing options.

For that kind of business, AI Overviews and AI Mode are another place where a buyer meets the brand before contacting anyone. Google rolled out AI Mode in Arabic in October 2025, about two months after launching it in English in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Google’s MENA blog. Bilingual buyers in the Gulf can now ask long, specific questions in either language. Examples include which fire-alarm systems are approved for a warehouse, what an HVAC maintenance contract should include, or how to choose a freight forwarder for a shipment to Egypt. Those are the questions a good service page or guide answers.

Opting out in that situation does not stop the question being answered. It only means the answer cites someone else. In most cases the better move is to make your pages worth citing. What summaries do to the clicks that remain is covered in our analysis of fewer clicks from Google’s AI summaries.

Where limiting does make sense

• Content that is the product. Paid reports, market data, training material or research that you sell, where a summary would substitute for the purchase.
• Sensitive or fast-changing details. Indicative prices, stock levels, promotions or regulated claims that you do not want quoted out of context. Use data-nosnippet on those blocks rather than switching the whole site off.
• Legal or contractual reasons. Content licensed from a principal brand or partner that comes with terms on reuse. Distributors and exclusive agents should check their agreements.
• A deliberate test. A separate section, set up as its own URL-prefix property, where you want to measure the effect before deciding for the main site.

Measure before you decide

Google now gives site owners data to base this decision on. The Generative AI performance report (Search) in Search Console shows how often links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Impressions can be grouped by page, country, date and device. Like the control, it has been available to all websites worldwide since 31 August 2026. If the report does not appear for your property, Google says the likely reason is that the site has not yet received enough generative AI impressions. Google also lists excluding your site through the control as a possible reason the report does not appear.

A practical sequence for a marketing or digital team:

1. Check who owns Search Console. Confirm the company’s own account controls the domain property, not a former agency or freelancer. Without ownership you cannot see the report or change the setting.
2. Open the Generative AI performance report. Note which pages appear, and in which countries. A Saudi company may find that its Egypt traffic behaves differently, or the reverse.
3. Compare with the standard Performance report. Look at clicks and inquiries from the same pages. Google’s AI features guide says this traffic is included in the overall search traffic, under the Web search type.
4. Check the current setting. Settings, then Search generative AI. Look for subdomains or URL-prefix properties that override the parent without anyone remembering why.
5. Record the decision. Write down who decided, why, and when it will be reviewed. The list of features covered may change, so a decision made today may need revisiting.

What to fix instead of switching off

If the concern is that AI answers describe your business badly or not at all, the control will not fix that. Your pages will. Google’s own guidance is that the usual SEO basics apply to AI features: indexed pages, eligible for snippets, with clear and useful content. For Gulf business sites, the common gaps are practical ones:

• Service pages that do not answer questions. A page titled “Our Services” with three lines of text gives an AI system nothing to cite. One page per service, explaining scope, standards, process and who it is for, does.
• Arabic content that lags behind English. AI Mode works in Arabic. If the Arabic version of a page is thinner, outdated or machine-translated, that is the version Arabic-speaking buyers may be summarised from. Our guide to Arabic SEO for Saudi B2B companies covers bringing it up to standard.
• Accidental nosnippet or noindex. Theme settings, SEO plugins and staging configurations sometimes leave these tags on live pages. A page carrying nosnippet is not eligible to be shown as a supporting link in AI features.
• Unclear company facts. Branch locations, approvals, brands represented and contact routes should be stated plainly on the site and kept consistent with the Google Business Profile.

The same basics decide citations outside Google; our guide to getting cited in ChatGPT search covers crawlers and tracking there.

This is the work our SEO and search visibility service covers, including AI search visibility, alongside the corporate websites we build for clients in the region. Some of them are shown on our websites work page.

The decision in one paragraph

Treat the Search generative AI control as a deliberate business setting, not a precaution. If your website exists to bring inquiries, the default of staying included is usually right. Make sure the people who manage Search Console know the setting exists, and protect individual sensitive blocks with data-nosnippet rather than taking the whole site out. If your content is the thing you sell, measure your AI impressions first, test on one section, then decide.