Measuring GEO Performance: Citation Tracking, Attribution Modeling, and Analytics Implementation

Parts 1-4 established the market imperative, technical foundations, content strategy, and platform-specific optimization for GEO. Now comes the critical question: how do you measure what matters when AI-powered search fundamentally changes visibility metrics?

Unlike traditional SEO where Google Analytics and Search Console provide comprehensive data, generative engines reveal far less information. AI-referred traffic grew 527% year-over-year between January and May 2025, yet most analytics platforms still misattribute it as “direct” traffic. This part provides production-ready measurement frameworks with complete implementations in Node.js, Python, and C#.

The Measurement Challenge

Traditional SEO metrics focus on rankings, clicks, and conversions. GEO requires measuring influence and authority within AI-generated answers where users may never visit your website. Research shows AI search visitors convert at 4.4x the rate of traditional organic search, making GEO measurement one of the highest-ROI investments you can make.

What We Can Track Today

• Citation Frequency: How often AI models mention your brand in responses
• Brand Visibility Score: Prominence and position within AI answers
• AI Share of Voice: Your mentions versus competitors
• Referral Traffic: Direct clicks from AI platforms
• Sentiment Analysis: How AI describes your brand

What Remains Opaque

• Query Volume: No equivalent to Google Keyword Planner for AI searches
• Attribution Complexity: Impossible to measure each source’s weight when AI synthesizes multiple sources
• Intent Signals: Limited data on what users ask before seeing your citation
• Training Data Influence: Cannot determine why AI chose to cite you

Core GEO Metrics Framework

1. Citation Frequency (Primary Metric)

The percentage of AI-generated answers that mention your brand when responding to relevant queries. This is your core GEO metric.

Citation Frequency = (AI answers mentioning your brand / Total AI answers for relevant queries) × 100

Example: 45 mentions out of 100 relevant queries = 45% citation frequency

2. Brand Visibility Score (0-100)

Combines citation frequency with position and prominence. A weighted score that accounts for where you appear in the response.

Brand Visibility Score Formula:
- First mention in response: 100 points
- Mentioned in first paragraph: 75 points
- Mentioned in middle section: 50 points
- Mentioned at end: 25 points
- Not mentioned: 0 points

Average across all tracked queries for final score

3. AI Share of Voice (SOV)

Your brand mentions relative to competitors in the same category.

AI SOV = (Your brand mentions / Total category mentions) × 100

Example: 
Your brand: 45 mentions
Competitor A: 38 mentions
Competitor B: 29 mentions
Competitor C: 18 mentions
Total: 130 mentions

Your AI SOV = (45 / 130) × 100 = 34.6%

4. Content Extraction Rate (CER)

Measures how much of your original content AI platforms incorporate into responses. High CER indicates unique, valuable information that AI models cannot easily synthesize from other sources.