# GEO implementation pilot record

Use one copy for one buyer question and one canonical page. This is an editable working document for people, not special AI markup or an eligibility requirement. Keep completed records private if they contain commercial or personal data. Blank fields are not measured zeros.

## Question, market and page

- Buyer question:
- Related wordings covered by the same answer:
- Why this matters to a buyer:
- Market / country:
- Language:
- Target page URL:
- Intended canonical URL:
- Intended buyer action:
- Effort cap:
- Hypothesis, expressed without a visibility promise:
- Accountable owner:

## Baseline

- Date captured:
- Search Console property:
- Baseline dates, start and end:
- Reporting time zone:
- Search type:
- Exact page filter:
- Country filter, or all countries:
- Device filter, or all devices:
- Query filter / regex, or none:
- Saved unfiltered page view / export location:
- Saved query-subset export location, if used:
- Overall Web impressions:
- Overall Web clicks:
- Overall Web average position, context only:
- Dedicated Generative AI report status: available / unavailable / insufficient data:
- AI report page, country, device and search-type filters:
- AI impressions, if available:
- UI unavailable markers retained, including ~ or -:
- Qualified enquiry definition:
- Existing enquiry measurement method and baseline, if available:
- Known data limitations / preliminary dates excluded:

AI impressions are already included in overall Web performance. Do not add them to Web totals. Ordinary query impressions and average position do not establish AI citations. The dedicated AI report does not provide query-level data. Query-filtered totals can exclude anonymised queries. Preserve unavailable statuses because AI report exports can represent unavailable values as zero.

## Technical checks

For each check, add pass / fail / not applicable, evidence, date and checker. Fix blockers before the content pilot and date repairs separately.

- [ ] Live page returns HTTP 200.
- [ ] Googlebot can access the page through robots.txt, hosting and CDN controls.
- [ ] Important answer text is present in Google's rendered view.
- [ ] No unintended noindex directive exists.
- [ ] Snippet controls permit the intended answer to be shown.
- [ ] URL Inspection index status is recorded.
- [ ] Declared and Google-selected canonicals are recorded; discrepancies are resolved or explained.
- [ ] Effective Search generative AI inclusion setting is recorded, including inherited control.
- [ ] Publisher's inclusion choice is respected; any proposed change is approved separately.
- [ ] Relevant internal links lead directly to the canonical page.
- [ ] Enquiry route works on mobile.
- [ ] Existing structured data matches visible content and is appropriate to the page.

Evidence / issues / repair dates:

These checks establish technical readiness, not guaranteed crawling, indexing, selection or citation. No special schema or llms.txt file is required for Google's AI features.

## Evidence, facts and authorship

- Direct answer draft:
- Original supporting material:
- Source / method / observation date:
- Permission and anonymisation status:
- Material limitations:
- Service facts checked against business records:
- Real author / reviewer:
- Relevant author background URL:
- Internal source pages and descriptive link text:
- Destination for the intended enquiry action:
- Applicable markup reviewed, or reason none is needed:

Content acceptance: a buyer can find the answer, verify an original supporting item and identify who checked the facts. Label illustrative examples. Do not invent prices, credentials, results or testimonials.

## Release record

- Previous version location:
- Change date and time, with time zone:
- Exact changes to answer / evidence / authorship / links / markup:
- Technical repairs, logged separately:
- Owner signing off:
- Live checks completed on:
- URL Inspection crawl date after release, when observed:
- Other releases or unavoidable changes during the pilot:
- Agreed review date:

Release acceptance: previous version, exact changes, owner, live checks and review date are saved. Avoid unrelated rewrites during observation.

## Comparison

Choose equal complete periods and retain the same supported filters, aggregation and reporting time zone. A 28-day checkpoint is optional, not a required duration or a guaranteed response time. Exclude release day and preliminary days from completed comparison windows. If Google has not processed the release, record that limitation rather than treating the page as an observed post-change version.

- Baseline window, start and end:
- Comparison window, start and end:
- Window length:
- Release-to-processing interval / evidence:
- Same property / canonical page / country / device / search type confirmed:
- Same query-filter rules confirmed for the ordinary Web view:
- Overall Web impressions, before / after:
- Overall Web clicks, before / after:
- Ordinary average position, before / after, context only:
- AI impressions, before / after, with availability status:
- AI report filters and aggregation unchanged:
- Qualified enquiries, before / after, method unchanged:
- Missing / anonymised / preliminary data limitations:
- Demand, seasonality, other releases or recrawling as possible explanations:
- What was observed, without a causal claim:

## Decision

- Decision date and owner:
- Choose one: fix blocker / keep improvement / extend observation / revise answer:
- Evidence supporting this decision:
- If sparse: state "insufficient evidence" and set the next review date:
- Next action and effort cap:
- Next review date:

A before-and-after difference alone does not prove that the pilot caused the change. Missing AI reporting is not automatically a measured zero or a technical failure.

## Official references

- [Google's AI optimization guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)
- [Helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content)
- [Search generative AI control](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16908024?hl=en)
- [Generative AI performance report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139?hl=en)
- [Search Console filtering and comparisons](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/17011165?hl=en)
- [Search Console dimensions and limitations](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/17011259?hl=en)

Draft template date: November 2, 2026. No performance results are supplied or implied.