The Best4GEO AI Search Visibility & Citation Methodology

The 3 Levels of AI Visibility

Not every appearance in an AI answer has the same meaning. Best4GEO scores each completed response at three distinct levels so a passing reference is not mistaken for a commercial recommendation or a source citation.

1. Level 1: Mention

   The LLM recognizes that the company entity exists and names it in the answer. We match agreed brand names and aliases, then check the context to avoid counting unrelated businesses with similar names. A mention alone does not mean the brand was endorsed.

2. Level 2: Recommendation

   The LLM actively recommends or shortlists the brand in response to a commercial buyer prompt, such as “Best GEO agencies in Poland.” We require an explicit selection or recommendation; a neutral reference, a warning, or a name included only in the user's question is not scored as a positive recommendation.

3. Level 3: Citation

   The answer uses best4geo.com as a primary source citation when answering a relevant industry query. We retain the cited URL and the claim it supports. For client audits, the same rule applies to the client's agreed owned domains. A third-party article mentioning the company is recorded separately from a direct citation to its website.

The 4-Step Audit Process

1. Step 1: Prompt Set Benchmarking

   Build and test a panel of 50+ non-branded buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and the search-enabled ChatGPT experience associated with SearchGPT. Cover category discovery, comparisons, regional CEE needs, and purchase-stage questions. Record the exact product, model when available, language, market, search setting, and date; search-enabled ChatGPT is a configuration, not an additional independent engine to double-count.

   Run repeated samples in fresh conversations. Separate branded checks from discovery prompts, preserve the competitor set, and report completed and unavailable samples rather than silently treating errors as absent mentions.

2. Step 2: Source Extraction & Mapping

   Extract the URLs cited by each answer and map them to owned websites, directories, review platforms, media, documentation, and other independent sources. Identify which platforms are repeatedly cited for regional CEE queries and which relevant claims lack an accessible source. Keep dated answer excerpts so the source-to-claim relationship can be reviewed.

3. Step 3: Entity Injection & Schema Deployment

   Structure the site's metadata, visible organization information, founder biographies, service definitions, and JSON-LD relationships. Align genuine third-party entity profiles with the company's name, location, and canonical website. “Entity injection” here means publishing accurate, accessible business information—not manipulating prompts, inventing identities, or guaranteeing a model will accept a claim.

4. Step 4: Share-of-Voice Tracking

   Repeat the recommendation audit monthly using the same prompt panel and fixed competitor set. Compare each engine, market, and language independently before producing any combined view. Log site interventions and product changes so observed movement is not automatically attributed to a single optimization.

How We Calculate the Rates

• Mention rate: completed answers naming the brand ÷ all completed answers × 100.
• Recommendation rate: completed answers explicitly recommending the brand ÷ all completed answers × 100.
• Citation rate: completed answers citing an agreed brand-owned source ÷ all completed answers × 100.
• Recommendation share of voice: the brand's answer-level recommendations ÷ total answer-level recommendations across the fixed competitor set × 100.

Count each brand at most once per answer for each metric. One answer may recommend several competitors, so share of voice and recommendation rate have different denominators. Show raw counts beside percentages. If no qualifying recommendations exist, share of voice is not applicable—not zero percent by assumption.

Evidence, Comparability, and Limits

Report changes in rates as percentage points. Calculate relative citation growth only when the baseline is greater than zero; otherwise report the new citation count. Keep prompt-level scoring rules and exclusions available alongside the summary.

Generated answers vary by question, context, source availability, engine settings, and time. An audit is a documented sample, not a universal ranking or a guarantee of future visibility. Qualified strategy calls and revenue require separate conversion evidence; a higher recommendation rate does not by itself establish business impact.

Read the GEO strategy guide for the content foundations and our B2B case studies for reported client outcomes.