The New Benchmark: From Clicks to Citations

In traditional SEO, success was measured by Position #1. In 2026, success is measured by Information Dominance. To track your brand's performance in Generative Search, you must shift your KPIs from traditional session-based metrics to model-based technical signals.

The Three Master Metrics of GEO

To accurately measure your brand's AI visibility, you must track these three performance indicators:

1. Citation Probability (CP) This is the percentage of model responses within a specific query set that cite your brand as a primary source.

• Calculation: (Total Citations / Total Relevant AI Responses) * 100
• Benchmark: High-authority brands should aim for a CP of >15% in their primary category.

2. Sentiment Vector Score (SVS) This measures the mathematical alignment of your brand's sentiment across the web's training data.

• The SVS Scale: Ranges from -1.0 (Negative Bias) to +1.0 (Positive Bias).
• GEO Impact: A score below 0.2 often triggers a 'Safety Bypass' in models like SearchGPT, preventing your site from being retrieved regardless of technical relevance.

3. Entity Share of Model (ESM) ESM tracks how often your brand entity is mentioned relative to your competitors across a statistically significant sample of AI prompts.

• Significance: ESM correlates directly with long-term brand recall in the model's recurrent weights.

Technical ROI Benchmarks

Secondary Signals: RAG Extraction Efficiency

RAG Extraction Efficiency measures how many relevant tokens an LLM successfully extracts from your page compared to the total token count.

• Low Efficiency: Implies high noise (complex DOM, JS-heavy content, intrusive ads).
• High Efficiency: Implies 'LLM-First' formatting (Markdown tables, flat HTML, descriptive H2s).

Conversion from Citation (CfC) Unlike traditional CTR, which measures the click from a blue link, CfC measures the user's journey from a footnote to your landing page. This traffic is typically 3x more qualified than organic search traffic, as the user has already been 'sold' by the AI's synthesized answer.