Generative engines don’t simply list 10 blue links; they produce a synthesized answer with inline citations or references. As a result, visibility is multi-dimensional. Key aspects to consider include:
- Impressions in AI Answers: How often your content is presented as part of a generative answer (even if no click occurs). Unlike a traditional SERP impression, an AI impression means your site was referenced or cited in the answer text or as a source card. For example, Google’s SGE might quote or draw info from your page and list your site as a source in the snapshot. Tracking these impressions is crucial for understanding reach.
- Citation Position and Frequency: If your site is cited, note where and how prominently it appears. A source cited as the first reference in an AI summary likely gets more user attention than one listed last. Researchers propose weighted “position-adjusted” impression metrics to account for this – for instance, giving higher value to being cited in sentence one versus sentence five of an answer.
- Traffic and Click-through from AI: When users do click a citation or source link in an AI result, can you capture that? It’s important to configure analytics to identify these referrals. Some AI search experiences route clicks through unique referrer URLs. For example, Microsoft’s Bing Chat (now integrated as Copilot) began sending a referrer string “https://copilot.microsoft.com,” which now shows up in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) reports. Similarly, other platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity provide identifiable referrers (e.g. “search.chatgpt” or “perplexity.ai”) that you can filter for tracking.
- Brand Mentions without Clicks: In cases where an AI mentions your brand or content without linking (for instance, ChatGPT might answer from its trained knowledge and name-drop your brand), the user might not visit your site at that moment. These “non-click” attributions are hard to measure directly. You may need to rely on indirect signals (like increased branded search volume or anecdotal feedback) to gauge this impact. Setting up Google Alerts or social listening for your brand and product names can sometimes catch when people discuss information likely coming from AI answers.
By redefining what an “impression” and “engagement” mean in the AI context, you’ll be better equipped to measure GEO efforts. Next, we’ll explore how to gather this data.