Gustav The idea, in one sentence: track a few honest signals so you know whether you are actually being found, instead of guessing or flying blind.
Why it matters
Everything in this book is an investment, and an investment you cannot measure is just hope. Without a way to see whether you are showing up, you cannot tell what is working, what to do more of, or whether your money is being spent well. Measurement is what turns "we tried some SEO" into "this page brought in eleven enquiries, let us build three more like it."
The signals that actually matter
Three tools, all free. Google Search Console tells you whether you are showing up in search, for which queries, and how often people click, the clearest picture of whether you are being found. Analytics (such as GA4) tells you who arrives, what they do, and crucially whether they take an action: a contact, a call, an email. And watch your referrers: when visits start coming from chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, that is the AI door opening, proof your GEO work is landing.
The one number that matters most is not traffic. It is whether the people who find you do something. Set up a simple goal, a contact-form submit, a click on your email or phone, so you can connect being found to actually getting business.
How to do it
Set up Search Console and analytics on day one (they take minutes), and add one conversion event for your main call to action. Then look once a month, not obsessively. Ask three questions: are we showing up, are the right people arriving, and are they contacting us? Pour more effort into whatever the data says is working, and quietly retire what is not.
The pitfall to avoid
Two failure modes. Flying blind, never setting any of this up, so you genuinely cannot say whether your effort or your money is doing anything. And vanity metrics, celebrating "views" while ignoring whether anyone found you for something useful or ever made contact. A page with a thousand views and zero enquiries is not a success; it is a clue. Measure the thing that pays the bills.