Which KPIs do you use to measure success, and when can results be expected?

Rankings and traffic are interim metrics. What ultimately matters are enquiries, leads, and revenue contributions from organic search; the other metrics help explain why they rise or fall.

SEO metrics

Clicks, impressions, and average positions from Search Console, a visibility index (for example from SISTRIX), organic traffic, as well as conversions and, where possible, their quality. The latter requires enquiries to be tracked in the CRM.

GEO metrics

Visibility in AI responses across a defined set of prompts, cited sources, brand searches, referral traffic from AI systems, and enquiries that can be attributed to AI recommendations.

Limitations of measurement

AI responses fluctuate. In a study by SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai (not peer-reviewed), the chance of receiving the exact same list of brands twice for an identical query was under 1 per cent. More meaningful than position is said to be the share of responses in which a brand appears. In addition, visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode appear in the Search Console performance report under the 'Web' search type. That is why we combine multiple signals rather than relying on a single number.

Timeframe

Empirical estimates: initial effects after 1–3 months, sustainable visibility after 6–12 months. These are benchmarks, not guarantees; competition, the baseline situation, and implementation speed will shift them. Google itself does not state a fixed timeframe, but advises asking about expected results, timeframes, and how success will be measured before getting started.