The five metrics of AI visibility

Boards understand SEO because it produces a familiar vocabulary: rankings, traffic, backlinks. GEO needs its own vocabulary, one that's just as measurable, and arguably more directly tied to revenue. Here are the five numbers worth putting on a slide.

1. Visibility

The share of relevant prompts where your brand is mentioned at all. This is your baseline, the AI-era equivalent of "do we show up on page one."

2. Position

Where you land when you do appear. First-mentioned and fifth-mentioned are very different outcomes even though both count toward visibility. Track your average position, not just your presence.

3. Sentiment

How the model frames you, as a confident recommendation, a caveated option, or a comparison footnote. A brand can be highly visible and still lose deals if the framing is lukewarm.

4. Citations

The specific sources the model leaned on to construct its answer. This turns an abstract score into an action list: the exact pages and domains worth investing in next.

5. Gaps

High-intent prompts nobody currently owns. These are the cheapest wins in GEO, no incumbent to displace, just a question waiting for a confident, well-sourced answer.

Reported together, monthly, these five numbers turn "what does AI say about us?" from a nervous hallway question into a metric your team is accountable for moving.