Search Console flags child property AI control overrides

Google has added a line about child properties to its help page for the Search generative AI control. Barry Schwartz reported it at Search Engine Roundtable in Google Search Generative AI Control Page Adds Top-Level Domain Details. The added line reads: “Owners of the top-level domain property will see a notification on the Search generative AI control page when one of their child properties overrides the parent setting.” Roundtable had no screenshot of the notification, and neither do we. The wording below comes from Google’s own Search generative AI control page.

What changed on the control page?#

Google added that notification line to the section on manually configuring the control for a child property. Owners of a child property can follow the parent’s control or change it for that property and its subpages. They do it by logging in to that property in Search Console and using the Search generative AI control page.

Google rolled the control out to all websites worldwide as of 31 August 2026, and reports on the features it governs are covered in our piece on Search Console’s AI performance reports.

How does inheritance work?#

By default a property inherits its control from its closest parent that has changed its control to stop inheriting. If no parent did, the property follows its top-level domain property. Google’s example: the URL-prefix property https://example.com/business/cats inherits from the domain property example.com unless the owner of a closer parent, such as https://example.com/business/ or https://example.com/, configured the control to stop inheriting.

The choices on the page are to include your site, exclude it, or inherit from the parent. Inherit is the default for any property that has a parent, and include is the default for all properties.

What does the control cover?#

It governs AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover, and Google expects the list to change over time. Excluding a site keeps its links and content out of those features, including as grounding for AI responses, and the site gets no traffic or impressions from them.

Google lists limits. The control is not a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search, does not override choices such as Merchant Center and Google Ads, does not affect AI training (Google points to Google-Extended for that) and does not remove a page from Search, which takes noindex. An exclusion generally takes a few days to apply.

What should domain owners check?#

The new line matters for sites split across properties, where a blog, a store or a section may have its own owner. If you own the top-level domain property, open the Search generative AI control page and look for the notification. The help page does not say how a notice is shown or whether it names the child property, so treat those details as unconfirmed.

Before you change a setting, compare traffic in the Generative AI performance report, which Google says helps estimate the effect of a change.