Just as SEO has KPIs (rankings, organic traffic, etc.), GEO will develop its own performance indicators. Some metrics to consider tracking over time include:
- AI Impressions and Citations: How often is your content being cited or referenced by generative AI? Using the tracking setup from Step 0, look at the trend in impressions from AI (e.g., impressions in Search Console if they start separating AI overviews, hits from known AI referrers, etc.). If possible, track on a per-query or per-topic basis. For instance, you might see that in month 1, you got cited in AI results for 5 queries, and by month 6 for 20 queries. That growth indicates improving GEO.
- Share of Voice in AI Results: This is a bit more qualitative, but tools or manual checks can help. For a given important query, what percentage of the AI-generated answer is attributable to you (either via direct quotes, citations or clearly your unique info)? If you run 100 target queries through Bing Chat, how many mention your brand? You might set a KPI like “Brand is mentioned in AI results for 30% of high-intent queries by Q4” and measure against that with periodic testing.
- Traffic & Conversions from AI referrals: While not all AI exposure yields a click, track the traffic that does come. Monitor GA4 for session quality of AI-sourced visitors: do they spend time, do they convert at a decent rate? If you see conversion coming from these, it’s a strong sign that those AI mentions are effective. Also, if conversion is low, maybe the snippet that AI shows is giving too much away (so users feel no need to click) – you might reconsider how much detail to put in one place versus encouraging click-through for more.
- Brand Search Volume and Direct Traffic: These can serve as proxies for overall awareness. If your visibility in AI increases, more people may search your brand or navigate directly later. Tools like Google Trends or the performance section in Search Console for branded terms can show upward movement. Likewise, monitor direct traffic or “dark traffic” (direct that likely came from untrackable sources like copy-pasting a link from ChatGPT).
- Engagement Metrics on Content: If you’ve optimized content well, users who do visit from AI answers should find exactly what they looked for and engage. Check bounce rates, scroll depth, and time on page for those key pages. If a lot of users from Bing Chat land on your page but quickly leave, perhaps the AI summary already gave them all and they didn’t find more value (meaning you might need to add a hook or additional info that wasn’t in the snippet).
- Search Rankings and SEO Traffic: Continue tracking SEO as well – often improvements in SEO and GEO go hand in hand. If you see a drop in organic for a query but impressions via AI up, that’s a sign of traffic shifting (but still reach). If both SEO and AI presence drop for a query, maybe a competitor overtook you with better content – investigate and respond.
User Feedback: If you have means, gather qualitative feedback. For example, ask new customers how they heard about you. Some might now say “ChatGPT recommended you” or “I saw you in a Bing answer.” This is invaluable evidence of GEO ROI. You might even run surveys or polls on your site: “Did you find us via an AI assistant?” – small sample, but could reveal trends (just ensure it’s optional and not intrusive).