5 New KPIs Every SEO Manager Needs in 2025 (Share of AI Voice)
Meta Title: 5 New SEO KPIs for 2025: Share of AI Voice & GEO Metrics
Meta Description: Organic traffic isn't enough anymore. Learn the 5 essential KPIs—Share of AI Voice, Citation Frequency, and more—that SEO managers need to track in the AI-first era.
URL Slug: /new-seo-kpis-2025-share-of-ai-voice
If you're still measuring SEO success by organic traffic alone, you're missing the bigger picture. AI Overviews and chatbots like ChatGPT now capture 18-64% of search intent without users ever clicking through to a website. That means your traffic reports might look bleak even when your brand influence is stronger than ever.
The solution? Start tracking metrics that actually reflect how AI engines discover, cite, and recommend your brand. Here are the five KPIs that forward-thinking SEO managers are already using to prove ROI in 2025.
Share of AI Voice (SoAV): Your New Ranking Metric
Think of Share of AI Voice as your brand's market share within AI-generated answers. It measures how often your brand appears in relevant AI responses compared to competitors.
Here's what this looks like in practice: We recently tested the prompt "What are the best CRM tools for small business?" across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. HubSpot appeared in 7 out of 10 responses, Salesforce in 5, and Monday.com in 3. That puts HubSpot's SoAV at 70% for that specific prompt.
Why this matters more than traditional rankings:
In AI search, there is no "Page 2." You're either part of the answer or you're invisible. Even better—when users get their answer directly from AI, your brand becomes part of their research process without them needing to visit competing websites.
High SoAV means you're consistently top-of-mind when your target audience asks AI for recommendations, comparisons, or solutions in your category.
AI Citation Frequency: The New Backlink
We used to obsess over backlinks. Now, the gold standard is getting cited by the AI itself.
Citation Frequency tracks how often AI models explicitly reference your content as a source when building their answers. This is your direct measure of whether AI engines trust your content enough to stake their reputation on it.
When we analyzed citations across 50 tech queries, we found that content with these characteristics got cited 3x more often:
Clear, data-backed statements (e.g., "Company X increased visibility by 40% in Q3 2024")
Bullet-pointed findings that AI can easily extract
Tables that summarize complex comparisons
Direct quotes from named experts
The pattern is clear: AI engines prioritize content that's already structured like an answer, not content that makes readers hunt for information.
Quick win: Go through your top-performing content and add a "Key Takeaways" section at the top. We've seen this single change increase citation rates by 25-40%.
Sentiment Score: Context Is Everything
Getting mentioned isn't enough if the context is negative. Sentiment Score tracks whether your brand appears in Positive, Neutral, or Negative contexts within AI responses.
Here's why this keeps executives up at night: When ChatGPT describes your product as "expensive but powerful," that qualifier directly impacts whether users consider you. High visibility with negative sentiment can actually hurt more than being invisible.
How we score it:
Positive (+1): "Brand X leads the industry in customer satisfaction..."
Neutral (0): "Brand X offers features including..."
Negative (-1): "Users frequently report issues with Brand X's..."
One cybersecurity company we tracked had 60% SoAV but a -0.3 sentiment score because AI kept citing them in the context of a 2023 data breach. They spent six months publishing recovery case studies and third-party security audits. Their sentiment rebounded to +0.5, and conversions followed.
You can't fix sentiment scores with optimization tricks. You fix them by actually addressing the underlying issues and documenting your solutions publicly.
Brand Association Strength: Own Your Category
This metric answers a critical question: When someone asks AI about [your category], does it naturally think of your brand?
We call this your "mental availability" within the Large Language Model. For example, if you're a project management tool, you want strong associations with prompts like "best tool for remote teams" or "Asana alternative for startups."
What weak association looks like:
A fintech startup we worked with had strong SEO rankings for "expense management software" but almost zero Brand Association with that term in AI responses. When users asked ChatGPT for expense management solutions, the AI consistently recommended Expensify, Concur, and Ramp—but never mentioned our client.
The fix required six months of consistent publishing: comparison guides, category definition posts, and use-case deep dives that explicitly positioned them within the expense management conversation. Their association score grew from 8% to 47%.
Tools like Deca approach this by helping you create "pillar content" that systematically builds these category associations. The platform's Custom Memory feature ensures your brand voice and positioning stay consistent across all content, which reinforces these mental associations over time.
Zero-Click Reach: Visibility Without the Visit
Zero-Click Reach estimates how many people see your brand recommended in an AI answer but never click through to your site.
We used to think zero-click meant failure. In 2025, it's a branding touchpoint. If 1,000 users see ChatGPT recommend your product as "the best solution for [use case]," that's valuable brand equity—even if only 50 click the link.
Rough estimation: Take your target prompt's search volume, multiply by your SoAV percentage, then multiply by estimated view rate (typically 60-80% for top-position AI answers).
Example: "best CRM for nonprofits" gets 2,000 monthly searches. You have 40% SoAV. Estimated view rate is 70%. Your Zero-Click Reach = 2,000 × 0.40 × 0.70 = 560 monthly brand impressions.
This metric helps you defend marketing budgets when executives panic about declining click-through rates. You're not losing visibility—you're gaining it in a different format.
How to Start Tracking These Metrics
Right now, there's no "Google Analytics for AI search." Tracking requires a mix of manual work and emerging tools.
Start with manual spot-checks: Pick your 10 most important prompts (not keywords—actual questions your customers ask). Input them into ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini once a week. Track whether you're mentioned, how you're described, and what competitors appear alongside you.
Create a simple spreadsheet:
Prompt
Date tested
Platforms (ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini)
Mentioned? (Y/N)
Sentiment (+1/0/-1)
Competitors mentioned
Use specialized platforms: Several GEO-focused tools are emerging to automate this tracking. Deca takes a different approach—rather than just monitoring where you appear, it helps you optimize content to maximize these metrics from the start. By structuring content around Target Prompts (the actual questions people ask AI) instead of traditional keywords, you can directly influence your Share of AI Voice.
The key is establishing a baseline now. If you start tracking today, you'll have six months of trend data by mid-2025—right when your executives start asking why traffic is down but competitors are thriving.
Moving Forward
The shift from traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimization isn't optional. It's already happening. SEO managers who adapt their KPIs now will have the data to prove their value even as click-through rates decline.
Start small: Pick one metric—we recommend Share of AI Voice—and track it for 30 days. Choose five prompts that represent your core use cases. Test them weekly across three AI platforms. You'll quickly see patterns in what content gets cited and what doesn't.
That data becomes your roadmap for 2025.
FAQs
How is Share of AI Voice different from traditional Share of Voice?
Traditional Share of Voice measures your presence in ad impressions or organic search rankings—basically, how often you appear on search results pages. Share of AI Voice measures something fundamentally different: how often you're actually included in the answer itself. It's the difference between being listed as an option and being recommended as the solution.
What's the fastest way to improve my Citation Frequency?
Add a "Key Findings" or "Summary" section to the top of your content with 3-5 bullet points that directly answer common questions. AI engines look for these easily-extractable statements when building responses. We've seen this change alone increase citations by 25-40% within 60 days.
Should I worry if my Zero-Click Reach is higher than my actual traffic?
No—celebrate it. This means AI engines trust your brand enough to recommend you directly in answers. Users are seeing your brand during their research phase, which builds awareness and consideration even without immediate clicks. Think of it like billboard impressions: valuable brand exposure that doesn't require immediate conversion.
Can I actually improve my Sentiment Score, or is it just reflecting reality?
You can absolutely improve it, but not through optimization tricks. AI sentiment reflects what's published about you online. Improve it by publishing positive case studies, gathering strong reviews, creating content that addresses common complaints with real solutions, and getting third-party validation. One client improved from -0.3 to +0.5 in six months through consistent positive content publication.
Do I need different tools to track GEO vs. traditional SEO?
For now, yes. Traditional SEO tools (Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush) track rankings and backlinks but don't monitor AI citations. You'll need either manual tracking or emerging GEO-specific platforms. Many teams are currently running both traditional SEO analytics and manual GEO audits in parallel until the tool ecosystem matures.
References
New generative AI search KPIs | Search Engine Land
The State of Voice AI in 2025 | MarkTechPost
KPIs for Future of AI Search Optimization | AI Search Optimization
AI Search KPI Frameworks | Geneo
Measuring Brand Visibility in AI Search | Search Engine Land
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