At GOOP Digital, we work with a large number of professional service businesses across Geelong, Hobart and other parts of Australia. That includes accountants, medical practices, psychologists, land surveyors, legal firms, financial advisers and other businesses where trust, expertise and credibility matter.
Google’s new Generative AI performance report in Search Console is genuinely useful for these businesses because it gives owners a clearer view of whether their website is appearing in Google’s AI-generated search results and, importantly, which parts of the website are being surfaced.
Professional service clients rarely choose a provider after one simple search. They research, compare and look for qualifications, experience, local knowledge, specialisations and signs that a business understands their particular issue.
Someone may still search for “accountant Geelong” or “psychologist Hobart”, but they are also increasingly asking Google more detailed questions. The new report helps us see whether a client’s website is becoming part of those AI-generated answers.
What does the report actually tell us?
The report shows how often links to a website appear within Google’s AI features.
- How many AI impressions the website receives
- Which pages are appearing
- How that visibility changes over time
- Where the impressions come from
- Which devices people are using
For the professional service businesses we work with, the most useful part is often not the overall number of impressions. It is seeing which pages are appearing.
That can tell us a great deal about what Google currently understands about a business.
- An accounting firm may find a capital gains tax page appearing regularly while its business advisory page is barely visible
- A psychology practice in Hobart may see strong visibility around workplace stress or trauma
- A Geelong land surveying business may be gaining visibility around boundary surveys but not subdivision work
That is much more useful than simply producing more content and hoping something works.
It can show which areas of expertise Google understands
Professional service businesses are usually built around multiple areas of expertise. The new report gives us another signal about which of those areas Google appears to understand most strongly.
That can help us answer questions such as:
- Which service pages are appearing most often?
- Which areas of expertise seem to be gaining traction?
- Which practitioner or staff pages are being surfaced?
- Which services are not appearing at all?
- Which articles or case studies are contributing to visibility?
For a business owner, that is useful because it helps show where the website is strong and where it may need work.
It can help identify weak service pages
One of the things we regularly see when reviewing professional service websites is that some service pages are much stronger than others.
If an important service page receives very little AI visibility, it may be worth reviewing whether it clearly explains:
- What the service is
- Who it is for
- When someone might need it
- Who provides it
- What experience the business has
- Where the service is available
- What questions clients commonly ask
For professional services, clarity and credibility matter. A vague page full of generic claims is unlikely to be as useful as a page that clearly demonstrates expertise and answers real client questions.
This is where the data becomes valuable. It helps us move from assumptions to evidence.
It can show what content is already working
At GOOP Digital, we have always encouraged professional service clients to build useful, relevant content around the work they actually do.
That might include:
- Detailed service pages
- Practitioner profiles
- Case studies
- Project pages
- Articles answering common client questions
The new report can help show which of those pages are already gaining AI visibility.
That gives us a better idea of what to build on.
- If an accounting article is regularly appearing, there may be value in strengthening that topic with related service pages
- If a doctor or psychologist profile is gaining visibility, that may reinforce the value of detailed practitioner information
- If a surveying project or technical service page is being surfaced, that may suggest real-world examples are helping Google understand the business
The key is not to create more content for the sake of it. The key is to create better content around areas that matter to the business.
It can help us prioritise website improvements
This is where we see one of the biggest practical benefits for GOOP Digital clients.
Most professional service websites have plenty of opportunities for improvement, but budgets and time are not unlimited.
The AI performance report gives us another way to prioritise.
- Improve a weaker service page
- Strengthen staff and practitioner profiles
- Add more expert-led articles
- Expand case studies or project content
- Improve internal linking between related services
- Add clearer answers to common client questions
The data does not make the decision for us, but it gives us a stronger basis for making the decision.
It is particularly valuable for businesses built on expertise
Professional service businesses are different from many other types of businesses because the person delivering the service often matters as much as the service itself.
That is why staff and practitioner pages are so important.
For accountants, psychologists, doctors, land surveyors and similar professionals, a strong profile may include:
- Qualifications
- Registrations
- Areas of expertise
- Industry experience
- Professional memberships
- Relevant special interests
- Articles or resources written by that person
These details matter to potential clients because they help build trust. They also help Google understand who is behind the business and what expertise exists within it.
If pages containing strong practitioner or specialist information are gaining visibility, that is useful evidence that the website is communicating expertise clearly.
It can help stop businesses guessing
One of the problems with digital marketing is that business owners are constantly told they need more.
More blogs. More pages. More content. More AI content.
That is not always the answer.
The new report gives professional service businesses another way to understand what is actually happening.
- Which pages are being surfaced
- Whether visibility is increasing
- Which areas of the website appear stronger
- Which services may need more work
- Which types of content are gaining traction
That means we can make better decisions about what to improve next rather than simply adding content because it seems like the thing to do.
For GOOP Digital clients, this is where the value really lies.
It is still a visibility report, not a lead report
This distinction is important.
The report measures appearances in Google’s AI results. It does not tell us how many phone calls, bookings, enquiries or new clients were generated.
It also does not tell us the exact search or question that caused the website to appear.
The report helps show whether Google’s AI is including your business in the conversation. It does not tell you whether that conversation became a client.
That is why we would never look at this data on its own.
For our clients, we would review it alongside:
- Traditional Google Search visibility
- Website traffic
- Phone calls
- Contact form submissions
- Appointment bookings
- CRM data
The AI report is one part of the picture. Used properly, it can become a very useful part.
It can help measure whether improvements are gaining traction
The report also gives us a baseline. We can see where a business sits today and monitor how that changes over time.
A Geelong accounting firm might improve an important tax service page. A Hobart psychology practice might expand practitioner profiles and service information. A medical practice might improve pages around specific health services. A surveying business might publish more detailed project examples.
We can then monitor whether those pages begin appearing more frequently in AI-generated results.
That does not prove that one particular change caused the increase. Search behaviour, competitors and Google’s own systems are always changing.
But over time, the trends can help us understand whether the website is becoming more visible and whether our improvements appear to be heading in the right direction.
Good SEO still matters
The arrival of AI reporting does not mean professional service businesses need a completely new strategy.
The fundamentals still matter.
- Clear service pages
- Detailed staff profiles
- Useful original content
- Accurate business information
- Strong local relevance
- Genuine qualifications and experience
- FAQs that answer real client questions
- Case studies where appropriate
- Strong internal links
- Clear ways for people to enquire or book
The goal is not to write content for AI. The goal is to make the business easy to understand.
That helps potential clients, it helps Google and increasingly it helps AI search systems as well.
Why this matters to GOOP Digital clients
For GOOP Digital, this is another useful reporting layer we can apply across the large number of professional service businesses we work with in Geelong, Hobart and across Australia.
It gives us another way to understand:
- How Google is interpreting a client’s website
- Which services are gaining visibility
- Where the next opportunities may be
- Which content needs strengthening
- Which areas are already performing well
- What should be prioritised next
Most importantly, it gives us more evidence.
Better evidence leads to better decisions.
The number of AI impressions is not the end goal. New clients, patients and enquiries remain the goal.
But understanding where Google is already recognising a business’s expertise gives us another valuable way to help our clients improve their visibility as search continues to evolve.
If you would like to understand how your website is performing across traditional Google Search and Google’s growing AI search features, contact GOOP Digital.