What changed in search and AI engines, and what CitedBy checks
Each entry is a change an engine published itself, with its date, one exact quote and a link. Under it: what a site owner can do, and whether CitedBy checks it or not. Newest first.
We only list a change after reading it on the engine's own page. Trade-press reports and vendor studies are not entries. Rows we could not confirm on a primary page are left out. RSS feed of these changes
“As of August 31, 2026, we’ve rolled out this control to all websites worldwide.”
Quote (original wording)
What you can do. Open Settings > Search generative AI in Search Console and confirm each property is set to include the site, unless the owner chose otherwise.
What CitedBy checks: Not checked Not checked. The setting lives in Search Console and CitedBy cannot see it.
Generative AI performance reports roll out to all sites worldwide
“while these files aren't needed for Google Search (and won't negatively or positively impact your visibility or rankings)”
Quote (original wording)
What you can do. Keep llms.txt optional: publish it for other tools if wanted, but do not expect Google Search visibility from it.
What CitedBy checks: Checked Checked. A missing llms.txt shows as an optional notice, never an error, because no major assistant is confirmed to read it. Check yours free: llms.txt checker
Search Console launches Generative AI performance reports
“we're excited to announce the launch of new Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console”
Quote (original wording)
What you can do. Open the Generative AI performance report in Search Console and read AI impressions by page, country and device.
What CitedBy checks: Not checked Not read. The Search Console connection checks which pages Google has indexed; the Generative AI report is read in Search Console itself. Check yours free: Findable? check
Google Analytics adds a channel for AI assistant traffic
“Google Analytics now provides a dedicated way to measure and analyze traffic originating from popular AI assistants.”
Quote (original wording)
What you can do. Open the Default Channel Group in GA4 reports, check that the AI Assistant channel shows, and add a custom rule only for AI referrers that still land in Referral.
What CitedBy checks: Not checked Not checked. CitedBy reads your pages, not your analytics.
Lighthouse adds an agentic browsing category with an llms.txt audit
“New agentic browsing category added to default config”
Quote (original wording)
What you can do. Make /llms.txt answer 200 or 404, never a server error: Lighthouse flags server errors on it and marks a 404 Not Applicable.
What CitedBy checks: Partly checked Partly. Every crawl requests /llms.txt: 200 counts as present, 404 or 410 as missing (an optional notice). CitedBy does not flag a server error on it as an issue. Check yours free: llms.txt checker
Search Console's branded queries filter reaches all eligible sites
“We are happy to introduce AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, a new set of insights that shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot”
Quote (original wording)
What you can do. Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools, open AI Performance and export citations, cited pages and grounding queries each month.
What CitedBy checks: Not checked Not read. With a Bing Webmaster Tools API key CitedBy shows how many pages Bing holds, the sitemap's state and crawl errors; the AI Performance report is read in Bing Webmaster Tools itself. Check yours free: Findable? check
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