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Should you opt your website out of Google鈥檚 AI search?

Since 2024, AI has been a significant part of the Google search experience. This comes primarily in the form of AI Overviews at the top of traditional search results, but you can also find AI responses in Google鈥檚 鈥淧eople Also Ask鈥� search feature and 鈥� most notably 鈥� in Google鈥檚 dedicated AI Mode.

Until recently, these AI search features haven鈥檛 been entirely optional. Although Google allows publishers to block AI training, doing so can still come at the cost of website traffic. The only reliable way to prevent your business website from appearing in AI search was to opt out of Google crawling altogether, which would essentially impact search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. But that might be about to change.

New information from Google indicates that an option may be coming that will allow websites to opt out of AI search without being removed from Google search results entirely. But is that something your business should do? explores that question, covering the following topics:

What is Google鈥檚 AI search opt-out?

Google where they made the following statement: 鈥淲e鈥檙e now exploring updates to our controls to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features. Our goal is to protect the helpfulness of Search for people who want information quickly, while also giving websites the right tools to manage their content.鈥�

As far as official statements go, this is relatively vague. It鈥檚 not clear exactly what the opt-out feature would look like, how businesses would access it, or when it would be available. But the gist of it is there 鈥� that Google may allow websites to opt out of appearing in AI search features while still letting them appear in traditional rankings.

This marks a change from the existing setup. As mentioned earlier, Google does technically allow websites to block Google鈥檚 AI from training on their content. But in practice, many sites still experience loss of traffic (and, subsequently, loss of leads and revenue) as a result.

For that reason, there have been numerous calls for Google to more thoroughly separate its AI and search crawlers, enabling publishers to prevent AI Overviews from stealing their content without having to sacrifice their revenue to do so. This new announcement from Google marks the first step in that direction.

Why is Google considering the AI search opt-out?

As the Google blog post explains, this decision comes in response to an open consultation from the United Kingdom鈥檚 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about potential new requirements for Google search. These requirements would include the ability for websites to opt out of AI search.

The CMA鈥檚 proposal includes numerous rules governing how Google handles AI search. While not all are listed here, the most relevant parts include the following:

• Google must let publishers prevent their content from being used in AI search features like AI Overview and AI Mode.
• Publishers must be able to opt out of AI search while still appearing in traditional search results as normal.
• The opt-out must be available both for entire websites and for specific pages on those websites.
• Google cannot penalize or downrank sites in any way due to their opting out of AI search.

Of course, it鈥檚 worth pointing out that this is not yet set in stone. None of these proposed rules have been made official yet, and Google鈥檚 blog post says only that they are 鈥渆xploring updates.鈥� It remains to be seen whether Google will actually provide this option at all.

Even so, it鈥檚 worth preparing for the possibility, which leads us to the question of whether this is something your business should take advantage of.

Why might businesses want to opt out of Google鈥檚 AI search?

AI search features have had a big impact on businesses, and not all of it has been positive. Many businesses feel frustrated by AI Overviews detracting from their search traffic 鈥� and worse yet, the AI Overviews often pull information from those businesses鈥� websites. So, in short, these businesses find their own content being used against them to steal their traffic.

Naturally, that leaves many website owners frustrated with Google鈥檚 AI search features. And of course, others simply distrust AI responses in general and don鈥檛 want their brand associated with them. As a result, many businesses want a way to opt out. In fact, one poll found that would choose that option if it were available.

You may be one of those businesses. This desire to keep websites out of AI search is common, but the effectiveness of doing so remains a question.

Should you opt out of Google鈥檚 AI search features?

Industry analysis suggests that for most businesses, the answer is likely no.

On the one hand, it鈥檚 true that from business websites. While websites may be facing challenges with traffic distribution, opting out of AI search isn鈥檛 the best response. If anything, it will only make the problem worse.

That鈥檚 because opting out of AI search features only decreases your visibility further. AI Overviews will be present in search results, whether you let them pull from your site or not. But at least if you let them access your content, there鈥檚 a chance that they鈥檒l cite your business as a source. That increases your visibility, along with the likelihood that people will click on your website.

If you exclude your site from AI responses, it just means those responses will be pulling from your competitors instead. That isn鈥檛 going to help you get your traffic back. So, for most businesses, the best approach is actually to optimize your content for AI citations. That鈥檚 the most effective way to boost your search visibility.

Who might benefit from the AI search opt-out?

While most website owners would be better off optimizing for AI search instead of opting out of it, that鈥檚 not necessarily the case for everyone. A small subset of site owners might actually have a good reason to block AI Overviews from accessing their content. That subset includes the following:

Get more details about each of those below.

1. Businesses worried about AI inaccuracy

AI responses have a tendency to oversimplify nuanced topics and mesh multiple types of content together. This is a particularly big problem in sensitive industries like healthcare and law, where the details are of paramount importance.

For that reason, some businesses may be concerned about AI search features pulling from their data in ways that misrepresent or oversimplify that data, rendering it less trustworthy or accurate while still attributing it to the businesses it was pulled from. That鈥檚 harmful for brand integrity, and it may lead such businesses to opt out entirely.

One example of this is recipe bloggers. If an AI Overview cites one of your recipes, it will likely combine it with bits and pieces from other recipes, mangling it so badly that anyone attempting to follow its instructions will be driven away from your site, not toward it. That鈥檚 one situation where it鈥檚 better not to be cited at all.

2. Businesses with tons of proprietary data

If the majority of your content consists of original, proprietary data, you may want to block AI search tools from crawling your site. Since your data is 100% original and unique to you, your audience won鈥檛 be able to find it anywhere else, so you don鈥檛 have to worry about competing with other sites offering the same thing.

If AI Overviews can simply regurgitate your content, though, you lose that advantage. Users can get the data from the AI response without leaving search results. To avoid that, you can block AI search from pulling from your content, so that the only way for users to access your data is to visit your website.

3. Nonbusiness websites

For business websites, it鈥檚 almost a given that online visibility is a big priority. But among noncommercial websites, that may not always be true. Some sites aren鈥檛 necessarily concerned with high Google rankings or driving tons of traffic, because that isn鈥檛 a source of revenue for them. For those websites, opting out of AI search features may not have any downsides.

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