A GEO score measures how visible and citable a business is to AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Scored from zero to 100 across five pillars, it tells you exactly where your AI visibility stands and what to fix first.
GEO score in one sentence
A GEO score is a zero-to-100 measurement of how likely AI platforms are to cite and recommend a business. It is calculated by testing real prompts on real AI platforms and scoring the results across five pillars: AI Citability, Brand Authority, Content E-E-A-T, Technical GEO, and Schema and Data.
Think of it as a credit score for AI visibility. A high GEO score means AI assistants have the information, authority signals, and structured data they need to recommend your business confidently. A low score means they will recommend a competitor instead.
The five pillars
AI Citability measures whether your content is structured in passages AI can extract and quote. Content needs to be in direct-answer blocks of 40 to 80 words, starting with factual statements, and containing specific details like locations, service names, and credentials.
Brand Authority measures your presence across the platforms AI trusts. This includes Google Business Profile completeness, directory listings, review volume and sentiment, social media presence, and mentions in forums and communities like Reddit.
Content E-E-A-T scores your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. AI models evaluate whether content has named authors with credentials, cites specific data sources, demonstrates firsthand experience, and follows a factual rather than promotional tone.
Technical GEO evaluates whether AI crawlers can access your site. This includes robots.txt configuration for GPTBot and other AI crawlers, llms.txt file presence, page load speed, HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, and server response time.
Schema and Data measures your structured data implementation. JSON-LD markup for Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, Person, FAQPage, and Article tells AI exactly what your business is and reduces the inference AI has to make.
How the score is calculated
At Iris Digital Consulting, we calculate GEO scores by running 18 prompts across six AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude. Each prompt is a real question a customer might ask, like "Who is the best roofer in Utah County?" or "What AEO agency do you recommend?"
We score each pillar on a zero-to-100 scale, then weight them to produce the composite score. AI Citability and Brand Authority carry the highest weight because they have the most direct impact on whether AI names your business. Technical GEO and Schema are weighted slightly lower but represent the fastest fixes.
What a good GEO score looks like
Most businesses score between 20 and 40 on their first audit. This is normal. It means they have a website and some basic online presence but have not optimized specifically for AI citation.
A score of 50 to 65 means the business has a solid foundation with room for improvement. A score above 70 puts the business in a competitive position for AI citations. Scores above 85 are exceptional and typically belong to businesses that have invested specifically in AEO optimization.
Iris Digital Consulting improved its own GEO score from 47.2 to 71.6 in three days by implementing technical fixes, schema markup, and content restructuring. The score continues to climb as brand authority signals compound over time.
How to improve your GEO score
Start with the fastest wins. Technical GEO fixes — adding AI crawler access in robots.txt, creating llms.txt, and deploying schema markup — can be implemented in a single day and typically move the score by 5 to 15 points.
Next, restructure content for citability. Rewrite key pages in direct-answer blocks. Add FAQ sections with FAQPage schema. Ensure every important page starts with a factual statement that answers the question the page targets.
Brand authority is the long game. Build directory listings, encourage reviews, post on LinkedIn and Reddit, and create content on multiple platforms that references your business by name. This is the pillar that compounds most over time and creates the strongest competitive moat.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a GEO score?
- A GEO score is a zero-to-100 measurement of how visible and citable a business is to AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It is calculated by testing real prompts on real AI platforms across five pillars.
- What is a good GEO score?
- Most businesses score between 20 and 40 on their first audit. A score above 50 indicates a solid foundation, above 70 is competitive, and above 85 is exceptional. The goal is continuous improvement rather than a single target number.
- How quickly can a GEO score improve?
- Technical fixes like schema markup and AI crawler access can move the score 5 to 15 points in a single day. Content restructuring adds more over weeks. Brand authority building compounds over months.
- How often should I check my GEO score?
- Monthly. AI platforms re-crawl and re-index content regularly, and authority signals shift as competitors optimize. Monthly tracking shows whether your visibility is growing relative to your market.
- Is a GEO score the same as an SEO score?
- No. An SEO score measures search engine ranking factors. A GEO score measures AI citation factors. While they share some technical foundations, GEO scores emphasize brand mentions, content citability, and AI crawler access over backlinks and keyword rankings.