Google has turned its content-control documentation into a proper checklist. On October 21, 2026, the Search Central page “Control what you share with Google Search” was updated to list seven methods for keeping pages, text and media out of Google results. The additions are not new features — they already existed — but they now sit in one place for the first time.
What changed in the table
Earlier translations of the page still showed five methods. The refreshed English version adds two rows: a snippet-level control group and the Search Console switch for generative AI.
- Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet or X-Robots-Tag: page- and text-level settings that shape how content appears in listings.
- Search generative AI control: a site-wide toggle that removes a property from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The changelog says the edit was made “to keep the page fresh and reflect the current set of options available to site owners.” The word “existing” carries the weight: this is documentation, not a launch.
Why the AI row matters
The site-wide AI opt-out now sits in the same table as noindex and robots.txt, the controls SEO teams already audit. It is the only row labelled site-wide; other methods work per page, per file or, in the case of robots.txt, only for images and video.
The Search Console control has three choices: include, which is the default; exclude; and inherit from a parent property. Excluded properties stop being used as input for AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover features, and the change generally takes one to two days. Google says it is not a ranking signal and does not affect AI training.
Read the table as a ladder of control: delete or password-protect content for total removal, use noindex for pages, use snippet rules to shape a listing, and use the site-wide AI switch only when you are ready to forgo all AI traffic.
What the page still does not tell you
The page describes how to leave AI answers, but it does not mention Google-Extended, the robots.txt token that opts content out of model training. That is a separate mechanism in a separate place.
So a publisher that wants out of both AI visibility and AI training still has two jobs: switch the Search Console control off and add a Google-Extended rule in robots.txt. The overview page will not remind you to do the second one.
Use it as an audit checklist
Google’s stated reasons for blocking content have not changed: protecting visitor-only data, keeping low-value or spammy user content from hurting rankings, and refocusing crawl on very large sites. AI traffic loss is not listed as a reason, which suggests Google sees this as a technical control rather than a strategic recommendation.
This update lands seven weeks before the main obligations of the CMA’s Publisher Conduct Requirement take legal force on December 3, 2026. Page-level controls follow later, on March 3, 2027. Until then, a publisher that wants to keep some articles in AI answers but remove others has to use snippet-level rules such as nosnippet rather than the site-wide switch.
For agencies and in-house SEO teams, the immediate step is to add the two new rows to your technical audit. For each property, ask whether you want to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode at all, and whether you also need a training opt-out via Google-Extended. One warning remains: Search Console’s generative AI performance report still shows impressions, not clicks or queries, so you cannot model the traffic cost before flipping the switch.
Source: PPC Land
