The Google setting that can hide your dietitian website from AI Overviews, and how to check it in two minutes

Is there a Google setting that can keep your practice website out of AI Overviews? Yes, one. It is called "Search generative AI", it lives in Google Search Console, and since August 31, 2026 every website has it. The default is include, so most dietitians will open it, see that nothing is wrong, and close it again. The check takes about two minutes once you have Search Console, and this post walks through it, along with what the setting does and does not do.

A quick definition first. AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries that sometimes appear at the top of a Google results page, with links to the websites they drew on. AI Mode is Google's chat-style search. Search Console is Google's free tool for website owners. It shows how your site appears in Google and holds a few settings.

What is the Search generative AI setting?

It is one switch for your whole site that decides whether Google's AI search features may show your links and use your content. Google's help page for the control says it covers AI Overviews, AI Mode and the generative AI features in Google Discover.

There are three choices:

• Include. Your pages can appear in these features. This is the default for all properties.
• Exclude. Your links and content won't appear in them, and your site gets no traffic or impressions from them.
• Inherit. Your property follows the choice made on a parent property. This is the default when a parent property exists. More on that below.

Google first offered the control to some site owners in the UK in June 2026. Its help page now says: "As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out this control to all websites worldwide."

Why would a dietitian's site be set to exclude?

In most cases it won't be. A site is excluded only when someone with access to its Search Console changed the setting, or when it inherits from a parent that was changed. Three situations are worth ruling out.

1. Someone else set up your Search Console. A web designer, a marketing freelancer or a former business partner may still have access. If they manage several sites, a choice made for one reason may have been applied to yours.
2. You or a helper wanted to "opt out of AI". Plenty of people dislike the idea of AI companies learning from their writing. This setting looks like the place to say no. It isn't. It controls whether you show up in Google's AI search features, not whether your text is used for training. We cover the training control further down.
3. Your site inherits from a parent. If your site's address sits under a larger domain that someone else controls, the parent's choice can apply to you.

None of these is likely. All of them are invisible unless you look, which is the reason to look once.

How do you check it?

Open Search Console, go to Settings, and click Search generative AI. Here is the full path if you have never used Search Console.

1. Sign in. Go to search.google.com/search-console with the Google account you use for your practice.
2. Find your property. A "property" is Google's word for a website you have proven is yours. If your site is already in the dropdown at the top left, select it and skip to step 4.
3. Add your site if it isn't there. Google's instructions for adding a property give two types. A Domain property covers your whole domain and needs a DNS record, which is a small change at the company where you bought your domain name. A URL-prefix property covers one exact address, and Google's verification page lists simpler ways to prove ownership, such as adding a tag to your homepage. Website builders often have a field for that tag, so check your builder's help pages. Google says data usually appears within a few days.
4. Open Settings. It is in the left menu.
5. Click Search generative AI. Read what it says: included, excluded or inheriting.
6. If it says included, you're done. If it says excluded and you didn't choose that, switch it to include. If it says inheriting, check what the parent is set to.

Google says changes generally take a few days to apply.

While you are in Settings, look at who else has access under "Users and permissions". Remove anyone who no longer works with you.

What does "inherit from a parent property" mean for your site?

It means your site follows the setting of a broader property above it unless you set your own. Google's help page says a property inherits from its closest parent that has made its own choice. If no parent has, it inherits from the top-level domain property.

Two cases come up for dietitians.

• You have two properties for the same site. For example, a Domain property for yourpractice.com and a URL-prefix property for https://www.yourpractice.com. The second is a child of the first. Check the Domain property, because that is the one the child follows.
• Your site lives on a subdomain. Google's help page gives a subdomain as an example of a child property. If your address looks like yourname.somebuilder.com, the builder's domain is the parent. Google says a child property can override its parent, so verifying your own address and choosing include there is the direct way to be sure. If you can't verify it, ask the builder's support team what their domain is set to.

Google also says the owner of the top-level domain property sees a notification when a child overrides the parent setting, so nobody is surprised by the difference.

Does this setting affect normal Google results or AI training?

No to both, according to Google.

Normal results. Google's announcement of the control says: "This control will not be used as a ranking signal for search results outside of these generative AI Search features." The help page says the same, and adds that the control doesn't override choices you've made in other Google services such as Google Ads. Your Google Business Profile is a separate thing too.

AI training. The help page says the control does not affect AI training and points to Google-Extended. That is a name you can add to your site's robots.txt file, a small text file that tells crawlers what they may read. Google's crawler documentation says it manages whether your content may be used to train future Gemini models, and that "Google-Extended does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search."

So if your worry is training, Google-Extended is the control built for it. Excluding your site from AI Overviews does nothing for that worry, and it costs you the visibility.

One more control exists for single pages. Google's robots meta tag documentation says the nosnippet rule applies to AI Overviews and AI Mode, and "will also prevent the content from being used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode." It also removes the text snippet under your normal result, so it is a blunt tool. Most practice sites should not have it on any page. If you didn't build your site yourself, it is fair to ask whoever did.

If you're included, will Google's AI show your practice?

Not necessarily. Being included makes you eligible and nothing more. Google's guide to its generative AI features lists what eligibility takes: "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", and "a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console". It then adds: "Indexing and serving aren't guaranteed."

The same guide says there is no special file, markup or schema you need for AI search, and no ideal page length. It recommends the basics: a clear site and unique, expert-led content. For a dietitian that means pages that say plainly who you help, what you offer, where you are licensed and how to book. Our dietitian website checklist covers those pages, and our guide to how AI assistants choose dietitians to mention covers the wider picture. If you don't have a site yet, you can draft a free preview of your site and work from there.

This setting is also Google only. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity have their own crawlers and their own rules. If your question is about those, start with why ChatGPT may not recommend your practice.

How can you see whether Google's AI is showing your pages?

Use the Generative AI performance report, which sits with the other Performance reports in Search Console. Google's help page for the report says it has been available to all websites since August 31, 2026.

What it shows:

• Impressions. Google defines these as "how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search."
• Which pages were linked, and from which countries, on which devices and on which dates.

What to keep in mind when you read it:

• It may be missing or empty. Google says: "This usually happens when your site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features on Google Search." For a small or new practice site, that is normal. An excluded site would also show nothing, which is one more reason to do the check above first.
• The pages we read describe impressions only. An impression means a link to your site was shown. It does not tell you that anyone clicked it or booked a call.
• It covers Google only. For other assistants, the manual method in our guide to checking whether AI mentions your practice still applies.

We suggest looking once a month at most. On a small site the numbers are low, so week-to-week changes tell you little.

What are the common mistakes?

• Switching to exclude to "protect" your content. It doesn't stop training. It only removes you from the AI features.
• Checking the wrong property. If you have both a Domain property and a URL-prefix property, the child may be inheriting. Look at both.
• Assuming include means you will appear. It means you can.
• Paying someone to "optimize" this setting. There is nothing to optimize. It is a switch with a default that is already right for nearly every practice.
• Leaving old users on your Search Console. Anyone with enough access can change settings on your site. Keep the list short.
• Treating impressions as clients. The report counts how often a link was shown. Your booking calendar is still the number that matters.

The two-minute version

1. Sign in to Search Console and select your site.
2. Go to Settings, then Search generative AI.
3. Confirm it says included, or that the parent it inherits from does.
4. Check who has access under Users and permissions.
5. Once a month, glance at the Generative AI performance report.

If everything says include, you have ruled out one cause of being missing from Google's AI results, and you can spend your time on the pages themselves.