📘 This document explains how AI Overview (AIO) data appears in RealKeywords, part of Botify's Analytics Suite, available with all Botify plans.
Overview
AI Overviews (AIO) are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results. Because they can significantly affect organic click-through rates, many users want to track AIO impressions and clicks separately in Botify.
AIO clicks and impressions are included in RealKeywords, but they cannot be broken out from traditional organic results. This is a Google Search Console limitation — GSC does not currently provide a separate AIO data stream, so neither Botify nor any other tool that uses GSC data can isolate AIO performance.
Botify closely monitors updates from Google and will support dedicated AIO reporting as soon as that data becomes available in GSC.
How Google tracks AI Overview activity
Google counts an AIO impression when the AI Overview result is scrolled into view or expanded. If your page is cited in the AI Overview and ranks organically for the same query, GSC records both impressions at the same position. This means a single keyword can contribute multiple impressions, which is why there may be impression spikes that are not explained by ranking changes alone.
AI Overview data in RealKeywords
AIO clicks, impressions, and positions flow into RealKeywords alongside all other Google Search result types. There is no separate AIO filter or dimension because GSC does not provide that breakdown.
This means:
Your impression counts may include AIO impressions without a way to separate them.
A rising impression count with a falling CTR on a keyword is a common signal that an AI Overview is intercepting clicks; users see the answer in the AIO without clicking through.
Position data is not meaningful for AIO results: all pages cited in an AIO are assigned the same position, which can skew average position metrics for affected keywords.
Monitoring AIO impact without isolated data
Even without a direct AIO filter, you can use RealKeywords to spot AIO influence on your traffic:
Watch for impression/CTR divergence. Filter RealKeywords to keywords where impressions are growing but CTR is declining over the same period. This pattern often indicates AIO presence is satisfying queries without driving clicks.
Track known AIO keywords. If you identify keywords that trigger AIO results (via manual Google searches or third-party tools), add them as a saved segment in RealKeywords to monitor their performance trend over time.
Compare period over period. Use RealKeywords' comparison view to identify keywords where impressions spiked sharply and cross-reference those dates with known AIO rollout periods.
See also: