A good AI search report for leadership fits on one page and answers four questions in order: did search and AI bring enquiries and revenue, is our visibility growing against competitors, is anything broken, and what are we doing next. Lead with business outcomes, show visibility as trends rather than single numbers, keep technical detail to a short health check, and end with three to five actions. Leaders need to decide whether to keep investing; the report should make that decision easy.
Why most SEO and GEO reports fail
- They open with rankings, impressions and traffic, and bury enquiries at the end.
- They show dozens of metrics without saying which ones matter.
- They report AI mentions from a single test as if it were a fact.
- They list work done instead of results and next decisions.
The one-page structure
- OutcomesEnquiries, pipeline or sales from organic and AI.
- VisibilityShare of voice and search trends.
- HealthCrawling, indexing, errors: green, amber or red.
- NextThree to five actions with owners.
1. Outcomes
| Metric | This month | Last month | Same month last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiries from organic search | |||
| Enquiries from AI assistants | |||
| Pipeline or revenue from these enquiries | |||
| Branded search impressions |
Enquiries come from analytics key events, split by channel with a custom channel group for AI assistants. Pipeline and revenue come from the CRM. Branded search is included because people who see a company in AI answers often search for it by name later, so it captures part of the value that clicks miss.
2. Visibility
- Share of voice in AI answers, for you and two or three competitors, by month, from repeated test runs
- Non-branded organic clicks and impressions from Search Console
- Pages most often cited by AI assistants
Show at least six months as a line, with a note that AI answers vary between runs so small month-to-month changes are normal. The method is in tracking brand mentions for free, and a dashboard in building an AI visibility dashboard.
3. Health
| Check | Status |
|---|---|
| Search and AI crawlers can access key pages | Green / Amber / Red |
| Key pages indexed | Green / Amber / Red |
| Core Web Vitals | Green / Amber / Red |
| AI descriptions of the company accurate | Green / Amber / Red |
Anything amber or red gets one line of explanation and an owner.
4. Next
List three to five actions for the coming month, each with an owner, a date and the metric it should move. Include what was done last month and whether it worked. This is the section leaders read most carefully.
How to talk about AI search results
- Say “mentioned in 32% of test runs” rather than “ChatGPT recommends us”.
- Show AI referrals as both a share of traffic and a conversion rate. They are usually a small share of visits, so the conversion rate tells leaders more about their value.
- Set expectations with a timeline: technical fixes show in weeks, content in one to three months, mentions and reputation over six months or more. See how long GEO takes.
- Never promise positions or citations. No one outside the search and AI companies controls them.
Quarterly additions
Once a quarter, add a short page on competitors (who gains visibility and why, from your competitor analysis) and a re-score of your site on the GEO Readiness Score.
Frequently asked questions
How do we attribute revenue to AI answers?
Direct attribution covers visits that come from an assistant’s link. Ask new enquiries how they found you, and record answers like “ChatGPT suggested you” in the CRM. Together these give a fair picture.
Should the report include rankings?
A short list of the ten most important queries is enough. Full ranking tables belong in an appendix.
How often should leadership see it?
Monthly, with the quarterly additions every three months.
Sources
- Google Analytics Help, “Custom channel groups” and “Key events”
- Search Console Help, “Performance report”