TL;DR — Track six core metrics together, not in isolation. Open Overview > Performance for Brand Mention Visibility, Source Citation Visibility, average position, sentiment, share of voice, and relevance score, then benchmark them against competitors in Overview > Compare. Add the traffic layer via Analytics > Referrer Analytics to connect visibility to actual AI sessions. Pro tip: pair Brand Mention Visibility (leading indicator) with AI sessions (lagging indicator) as your two executive KPIs — plot them on the same Looker chart with a 30-day lag to see the correlation.
The Question
“What KPIs should I track to measure GEO success?”Generative Engine Optimization is a new discipline, and most marketing teams default to adapting their existing SEO KPI frameworks — which doesn’t fit. GEO performance requires its own measurement layer: one that captures how often your brand appears, how prominently, how positively, and whether that presence translates into tangible business outcomes. This page defines the full KPI set, explains what each metric means, and shows you exactly where to find it in Qwairy. You might also be wondering:
- “What’s the single most important metric to report to leadership on AI visibility?”
- “How do I benchmark my GEO KPIs against competitors?”
- “How do I connect GEO metrics to revenue and traffic?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Overview > Performance
Navigate to Overview > Performance — this is your GEO KPI command center.
Every primary GEO metric lives here: Brand Mention Visibility, Source Citation Visibility, average brand position, average sentiment score, share of voice, and relevance score. The period selector and provider filter let you contextualize each metric precisely.
Review this dashboard at least weekly. The trend sparklines alongside each card are as important as the absolute numbers — a flat 40% visibility is a different situation from a falling 40%.
Go deeper: Overview > Compare
Cross-reference with Overview > Compare to turn absolute numbers into competitive benchmarks.
Without a competitor reference point, a Brand Mention Visibility of 35% has no actionable meaning. With it, you can see whether 35% puts you first, second, or fifth in your category. The Compare page adds share-of-voice delta, position delta, and sentiment delta against each competitor.
Use the Topic filter to benchmark KPIs on your highest-priority product categories specifically — overall numbers can mask strong topic-level performance or serious topic-level gaps.
Go deeper: Analytics > Referrer Analytics
Add the traffic dimension to your KPI framework via Analytics > Referrer Analytics.
AI traffic KPIs — total AI sessions, sessions by platform, bounce rate, and pages/session — are the business impact layer of GEO measurement. A brand with 45% Brand Mention Visibility but 0 AI sessions is being mentioned without links; a brand with 20% visibility but 2,000 AI sessions has highly effective citation placement.
Complete the picture: GSC + Looker Studio
Connect Strategy > Google Search Console to benchmark AI KPIs against organic search KPIs.
This lets you answer whether GEO is additive to organic (the ideal outcome) or overlapping. Add the Looker Studio performance-overview data source to build a single KPI dashboard that tracks all metrics over time with no manual refresh — the closest equivalent to a GEO analytics suite.
What to Look For
The Six Core GEO KPIs — Performance Dashboard
| KPI | Definition | Target benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Brand Mention Visibility | % of monitored prompts where your brand is mentioned by at least one AI provider | Above 30% is competitive; above 50% is strong in most categories |
| Source Citation Visibility | % of monitored prompts where your domain is cited with a link by at least one AI provider | Above 10% is a healthy citation rate; below 5% means your content lacks authority signals |
| Average Brand Position | Where in the AI response your brand typically appears — lower numbers mean earlier, more prominent placement | Position 1–3 indicates top-of-list recommendation; above 5 is low prominence |
| Average Sentiment Score | Polarity of the language used to describe your brand in AI responses — scale from -1 (very negative) to +1 (very positive) | Above +0.3 is positive; below 0 requires content intervention |
| Share of Voice (SoV) | Your brand’s mention share relative to all competitor brands detected in monitored prompts | First in your category; closing within 10 points of the leader is an actionable target |
| Relevance Score | How closely the AI’s description of your brand aligns with your own positioning — calculated by Qwairy’s semantic comparison | Above 70% indicates strong positioning accuracy; below 50% signals a narrative drift problem |
Competitive KPIs — Compare Page
The Compare page transforms absolute KPIs into competitive benchmarks. For GEO reporting, always track your KPIs in relative terms: not just “our visibility is 34%” but “our visibility is 34% vs. Competitor A at 51% — a 17-point gap closing at 2 points per month.”| KPI | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| SoV delta vs top competitor | Compare page > By-provider or By-topic view |
| Position gap | Compare page > Positioning tab |
| Sentiment gap | Compare page > Breakdown tab |
| Topic coverage gap | GEO Matrix — topics where competitor is visible and you are not |
Traffic KPIs — Referrer Analytics
| KPI | What it measures |
|---|---|
| AI sessions (monthly) | Business impact — actual visitor volume driven by AI visibility |
| AI traffic share (%) | AI sessions as a % of total sessions — tracks the channel’s growing contribution |
| AI bounce rate | Landing page quality relative to AI-referred intent |
| AI sessions per platform | Platform-specific traffic distribution — indicates where citation investment is translating to visits |
Pro Tip: Combine Brand Mention Visibility and AI sessions as your two primary executive KPIs. Visibility is your leading indicator (it predicts future traffic), and AI sessions are your lagging indicator (it confirms past investment worked). Track them on the same chart in Looker Studio with a 30-day lag to see the correlation clearly.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider | Report KPIs per-platform as well as overall — different providers may show very different performance |
| Period | Always compare period-over-period, not just absolute values — 30d vs prior 30d is the minimum; 90d provides more stable signal |
| Topic / Tag | Segment KPIs by business-relevant topic clusters — “pricing” and “integrations” may perform very differently and require separate tracking |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
You have a documented KPI baseline for all six core GEO metrics at the start of a quarter. Brand Mention Visibility and Source Citation Visibility are both trending upward. Share of voice is within 10 percentage points of the top competitor. AI sessions represent at least 3% of total sessions and are growing month-over-month. Relevance score is above 65%, confirming that AI descriptions of your brand match your positioning.Needs attention
You are tracking only visibility without correlating it to traffic, sentiment, or relevance — single-metric reporting creates a misleading picture. A common scenario: visibility is growing but sentiment is declining (AI mentions you more but in increasingly cautionary contexts). Or: visibility is high but Source Citation Visibility is near zero, meaning you are mentioned frequently but never linked — traffic impact will be minimal. Always track all six core KPIs together.Example
Scenario: You are the Head of Growth at a D2C skincare brand selling online. You have been investing in GEO-optimized ingredient guides and “best-of” comparison content for three months, and now you need to establish KPI baselines and set targets for the next quarter to present to your CEO.
- Open Overview > Performance and note the current values for all six core KPIs with the period set to the last 30 days: Brand Mention Visibility: 31%, Source Citation Visibility: 9%, Average Position: 3.6, Sentiment: +0.42, SoV: 26%, Relevance Score: 68%. The high sentiment is promising — AI models describe your products positively — but Source Citation Visibility at 9% means most mentions lack a link back to your product pages.
- Open Overview > Compare, add your two main competitors (a legacy skincare conglomerate and a trending clean-beauty startup), and record their figures. You are 2nd in SoV behind the conglomerate (39%), but 1st in sentiment and relevance score. The clean-beauty competitor has a higher Source Citation Visibility (14%) despite lower Brand Mention Visibility (24%) — they are earning more linked citations per mention.
- Open Analytics > Referrer Analytics and record AI sessions for the last 30 days: 1,450 total, Perplexity 820 (57%), ChatGPT 340 (23%), others distributed. Bounce rate overall: 54%. Pages/session: 2.3. The
/blog/best-vitamin-c-serumsguide alone accounts for 390 sessions — a clear hero asset. - Set targets for the next 90 days: Brand Mention Visibility +6 points (to 37%), Source Citation Visibility +5 points (to 14% — matching the clean-beauty competitor), Average Position below 3.0, SoV from 2nd to within 5 points of the leader, AI sessions +50%. Document these targets in a dashboard shared with your CEO via Workspace > Shares, locked to a rolling 30-day view.
Go Further
KPI scorecard template
Build a GEO KPI scorecard in Looker Studio using the performance-overview data source as your starting template
All available KPIs explained
Read the Performance Dashboard documentation to understand every KPI available for GEO measurement
Video walkthrough of GEO KPIs
Watch the video tutorial for a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up and interpreting GEO KPIs
Related Questions
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