Google Enables Publisher Opt-Out From AI Search Features

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed its first binding conduct requirement on Google under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, requiring Google to give publishers control over whether their content appears in its generative AI search features. According to The Verge and Search Engine Journal, publishers must be able to withhold content from features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, and from use in Google's broader generative AI services, without being penalized in ordinary search rankings. The CMA also requires clearer attribution, with links back to source sites in AI responses, The Verge reports.

Google has begun testing a new opt-out control in Search Console that lets participating site owners choose whether their content and links appear in its generative AI features, per CNET and The Verge. Google's general manager of Search Ecosystem, Mrinalini Loew, said sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from its generative AI features, according to CNET. Google says it is starting with a subset of UK publishers and engaging with regulators including the CMA during testing. Per Search Engine Journal, the toggle is configurable now but Google will only begin acting on the setting on June 17, 2026.

Search Engine Journal reports that Google's new AI performance reports in Search Console currently show impressions for AI features but do not provide clicks, click-through rates, average position, or a query-level breakdown, nor a clean separation of AI-driven traffic from organic search. The CMA's requirement, as described in coverage of the regulator's documents, calls for publishers to receive click and click-through data separated from organic search, data not yet present in the published reports, SEJ notes.

Impressions alone do not reveal engagement or referral value. Practitioners typically separate visibility metrics (impressions) from behavioral metrics (clicks, sessions) when estimating monetizable traffic, so the missing click data limits a publisher's ability to weigh the tradeoff of opting out. A related nuance: the existing Google-Extended robots.txt token blocks content from training Google's models but does not remove it from AI Overviews or AI Mode, which draw on the regular search index, which is why a dedicated opt-out control was needed.

Per The Verge and Search Engine Journal, the CMA's substantive obligations take legal effect on December 3, 2026, and Google is expected to introduce finer, page-level opt-out controls within roughly nine months. Reporting frames the action as a first-of-its-kind requirement on a search platform that other jurisdictions may study.

• •Whether Google adds clicks, click-through rates, and a clear split of AI-feature metrics from organic search, as the CMA documentation and SEJ indicate publishers want.
• •The rollout's expansion beyond the initial UK subset and the arrival of page-level controls.
• •How CMA-required attribution links are implemented in AI Overviews and whether they generate measurable referral traffic.

This is a regulator-driven product change with real operational stakes for publishers, but current reporting highlights a gap: the opt-out control exists in testing while the click-level data needed to quantify its cost is not yet available. Practitioners tracking publisher analytics should treat the presence or absence of AI click metrics as the key signal of how usable the control is in practice.