Key Takeaways
- Stick to your SEO numbers but include a second set showing how the AI tools speak of your brand.
- Demand in the form of an AI brand mention can be identified but may never arrive as website traffic, and teams are trained to know this.
- Place both sets together every month so that none hides the other.
Introduction
You don’t have to pick a side in the SEO vs GEO debate. In fact, it’s possible to have excellent search engine optimization while ChatGPT suggests your competitors and fails to include your business. This explains the unfinished nature of some dashboards. This article explains the key performance indicators (KPIs) for both SEO and GEO, and how to integrate both in the same report.
What SEO Numbers Still Tell You?
SEO statistics still indicate whether individuals can discover your pages. So, the rankings, organic clicks, click-through rate & search conversions are all stable and therefore should not be dropped.
SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is the practice of optimizing your pages in order to achieve higher rankings in search results and earn more organic clicks.
But the catch is what they are not seeing: a rank means nothing if an AI tool tells a buyer that it is his favourite. Fewer clicks doesn’t always equal less interest. Well, in some cases, the answers to the questions are on the results page if they never leave that page, and therefore your content didn’t do its job.
Keep these on the report:
- Your money terms and their corresponding keyword rankings
- Organic clicks and click-through rate
- Conversions and sign-ups from search
- One of the most important points is pages that see visibility GAIN or LOSS after updates
What GEO Adds to Your Report?
GEO incorporates three other metrics for measuring: if AI tools refer to you, if they hyperlink to you, and how they characterize you. All of this is happening internally in the response, and your regular analytics never see it.
Generative engine optimization GEO is basically optimizing your content and brand presence so that AI tools cite you and recommend you in their answers.
Mentions: The frequency at which your brand is mentioned when someone is asking a question in your category.
- Citations: which of your pages a tool uses as a source in an AI system.
- Sentiment: how people feel about you (positive, neutral, or negative)
- Competitor share: who gets mentioned in your place
Checking this by hand is slow, and answers change from one day to the next. That is where an AI visibility tool earns its place. It asks the same questions on a schedule and keeps a record you can compare.
A Simple Three-Question Framework for Reporting
Three questions each month: Are we found? Are we named? Are we chosen? That will make the report short and put each number to work.
- Found: You have an SEO layer installed, which is called Found. It encompasses all the clicks and rankings you use.
- Named: Your GEO layer’s name is specified. Here’s where you’re able to track mentions and track them for a predetermined set of topics and then compare the results from month to month.
- Chosen: This is the product of your choices; Chosen. It is for signing up, demonstration, sales, and branded searches.
The readings are easily implementable. Found but not named – These indicate AI gaps – pages need to be clearer and more quotable to remedy this. Named but not chosen: the selected page and/or the offer requires improvement.
If you’re interested in knowing, then check out the brand AI naming tools that can be found here.
Want to get your free GEO Report?
What Is MentionPilot?
When, where, and how your brand is mentioned in AI answers is clearly visible with MentionPilot, an AI search analytics platform. Regularly monitors ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, as well as Google AI Mode.
Customers pose the questions that you want to find the answer to, including “what is the best crm system for startups”. Then MentionPilot will run them daily and record your mentions, the sources that you are mentioned by, who you are mentioned by as competitors, and your sentiment. Google AI Overviews tracking is available on all plans and isn’t limited to the number of users, making it ideal for agencies and teams of more than eight users.
To put it simply, a tool that every marketer wants to observe their AI brand mentions but is unable to do so by manually creating a spreadsheet.
How to Set Up Your 2027 Measurement Plan?
Take it slow and be repeatable. It’s just a 4-step process to make it through the first month.
Write down the true questions that are asked by buyers. You might try sales calls and support chats, or the People Also Ask section of the search results.
- Pick an AI visibility tool that supports the engines your buyers use – not Google.
- Mark a starting point to go back to if you need to make changes to the content. If not, you will never be able to demonstrate any growth later.
- Please also send the report to sales and product. They listen to buyer talk, and this enables you to fine-tune questions.
What to Do When AI Tools Skip Your Brand?
Fix the page first, then the footprint around it. AI tools prefer answers that are clear, current, and backed up by other sources, so work through three checks.
- Give rapid answers to an enquiry. Write answers to each of the questions directly underneath, and then explain them.
- Keep pages fresh. Regularly update your key pages if there are facts, prices, or features that change.
- Build mentions elsewhere. AI tools validate your identity by reading through your reviews and guest articles on sites such as LinkedIn, or your communities and profile pages.
Then come back next month and review the answers again! If the mentions increase, you are relaying the information correctly.
Where to Start?
Continue to report on your SEO, and add a GEO layer to that. Select a few questions (or a few words in the list) and begin keeping track this week if it’s a brief list. You can see where AI tools are calling on you and where they aren’t, helping you to focus your next content creation.
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