The Kaiku algorithm
The Kaiku algorithm measures, scores, explains.
Every week, the Kaiku algorithm records what Google, Bing and AI answers show of your brand, turns it into two scores from 0 to 100 where every measurement is named and explained, then tells you where each gap comes from and what to fix first. Here is how, step by step.
The demos on this page are illustrative examples: their numbers show the shape of the screens, not customer results.
In three steps
Measure, score, explain
The algorithm doesn't guess: it starts from dated readings, turns them into scores under written rules, then links each score to its causes.
Measure
Every week, on Sunday, Kaiku records:
- answers from the AI engines on your plan (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, AI Overviews) to your prompts: who gets named, in what order, which pages get cited;
- your Google and Bing rankings on your tracked keywords;
- Google AI Overviews on your keywords and AI mentions in your market;
- press coverage and your external presence: the sources that talk about you;
- Google indexing of your key pages (URL inspection and sitemaps from Search Console, read-only);
- your connected accounts, read-only: Search Console, GA4, Bing Webmaster, Google Business Profile and Cloudflare.
Score
Those readings become two separate scores, from 0 to 100:
- the SEO score (what Google and Bing show of you) and the GEO score (what AI answers show of you), never added together;
- each one is made of named measurements whose weights are calibrated on each site's real results, with guardrails and automatic rollback;
- the GEO score rests on two families of measurements: real data from your accounts (GA4, Search Console, Bing) and Kaiku checks of the answers given by AI engines; a piece of real data counts more when it is complete and recent, and less when it is partial or old;
- a missing measurement never counts as zero: the score is computed on what is measured;
- history is rebuilt as soon as a project arrives, from dated data.
Explain
Next to the scores, the algorithm tells you why:
- five health indices — technical, authority, external presence, local (when a Google Business Profile is linked) and crawler access — never added to the scores;
- the Technical index combines the technical SEO audit, Core Web Vitals, errors served to search engines, Bing crawling, critical changes and Google indexing: key pages that aren't indexed are a prerequisite to fix first. Indexing doesn't feed the SEO score, where it would count twice: it explains it;
- a “Why” line under the score says where a gap comes from and what to fix first, for example a site partly closed to AI crawlers before the content;
- every measurement that isn't measured shows its reason and a link to connect it. Cloudflare never feeds the scores: it serves technical health and the “Crawler access” index.
Demos
Four commitments, on screen
Each demo shows one rule of the algorithm with sample data, the way it appears in the app.
Every point has a source
Each score breaks down into named measurements. In “Where the score comes from”, you see every measurement, its value, its score out of 100 and what it adds to your score.
Where the score comes fromIllustrative exampleDemo with sample data: a GEO score gauge fills up to 55, then breaks down into eight named measurements, each with its weight and the points it adds to the score.
Calibrated on your results
Each measurement starts with a default weight. Kaiku then looks, site by site, at which ones best foreshadow your real clicks and your visits from AI assistants, and adjusts their weight in small steps, with guardrails and automatic rollback. The longer your history, the more closely the weighting fits your site.
Weighting adjusted to your siteIllustrative exampleDemo with sample data: on the left, the weights of five measurements; on the right, the curve of visits from AI assistants. Presence in AI answers follows that curve: its weight goes from 30 to 34%, while AI mentions in the market, with no clear link, go from 15 to 11%, and the total stays at 100%. Guardrails: small steps, automatic rollback.
Honest about what it doesn't know
A missing measurement never counts as zero: the score is computed on what is measured, and the screen tells you what's missing and how to measure it. SEO and GEO stay separate, with no catch-all score.
A source is missingIllustrative exampleDemo with sample data: visits from AI assistants are not measured because Google Analytics isn't connected. The other four measurements share its weight, and the GEO score stays at 56, computed on what is measured, instead of dropping to 48 if the gap counted as zero.
A score that explains itself
Five health indices — technical, authority, external presence, local, crawler access — tell you why a score is high or low. They sit next to the scores and are never added to them.
Site healthIllustrative exampleDemo with sample data: five health indices light up (technical 72, authority 54, external presence 47, local 66, crawler access 61). At the next reading, crawler access drops to 28 and a “Why” line appears under the GEO score: part of the site is closed to AI crawlers.
The measurements
What goes into each score
The same measurements for every project; only their weights adjust to your site.
GEO score
What AI answers show of you
- Average per-keyword presence in AI answersthe share of answers to your prompts that cite your brand, keyword by keywordKaiku check
- Share of voice vs competitorswhere you stand against the competitors you declareKaiku check
- Rank in AI answersnamed first, or after the othersKaiku check
- Your pages cited as sourcesbeing the source counts more than being namedKaiku check
- Observed presence in AI OverviewsGoogle AI summaries on your keywords that cite your domainKaiku check
- Exposure in Google AI summariesyour AI impressions, from Search Console's generative AI reportyour data
- Clicks vs AI answersyour queries with clicks where the AI summary cites you rather than another siteyour data
- Copilot citationsyour citations in Microsoft Copilot, from the Bing exportyour data
- AI mentions in the marketAI answers in your market that mention your domainKaiku check
- Visits from AI assistantsthe trend in your visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants (GA4)your data
SEO score
What Google and Bing show of you
- Google positionsyour tracked keywords, weighted by their volumeKaiku check
- Search Console trendclicks and impressions against the compared periodyour data
- Search Console keyword coveragethe share of your keywords that earn you impressionsyour data
- CTR vs expected CTRthe expected rate depends on your positionyour data
- Bing positionsthe engine behind Copilotyour data
A source not connected yet? The measurement is marked “not measured”, with the reason and a link to connect it.
Calibration with guardrails
- Small stepsA weight only moves a little with each change and stays within fixed bounds around its default weight.
- Spaced-out changesThe algorithm checks every week, but only adjusts after enough observation.
- Proof, not a hunchA change only applies if it foreshadows your results better over your most recent weeks.
- Automatic rollbackIf the following weeks prove it wrong, the previous weighting comes back on its own.
Calibration relies on your real data: Search Console for the SEO score (from Starter), GA4 for the GEO score (from Pro), once the project owner has agreed in the app. Without them, without that agreement, or until the link is clear, the default weights apply.
History from day one
When a project arrives, past weeks are recomputed from dated data: your curve doesn't start at zero. A measurement with no dated history stays “not measured” for those weeks.
What sets it apart
An explained method, data that stays yours
A score is only useful if you can check it. Here is what the Kaiku algorithm commits to doing, and not doing.
The method
Explained
Every measurement in each score is named and explained on this page; in the app, “Where the score comes from” shows each one's value and score, and what it adds to your score.
Calibrated site by site
Weights aren't the same for everyone: they follow what best foreshadows your site's results, within fixed bounds.
Honest about what's missing
No invented zero, no estimate passed off as a measurement: what isn't measured is stated, with the reason.
Health that explains
Health indices tell you why a score is high or low, without ever inflating or lowering it.
Your data
No Google data in automatic analyses
Automatic analyses send no Search Console, GA4 or Business Profile figures to any AI: they format them on our own servers. Only the item you choose to have the AI draft, such as a reply to one review, is sent to it.
No pooling of your Google data
Calibrating your scores uses your project's data only: no pooling of your Google data across customers, no generalized model built from it.
Anonymized statistics: Kaiku measurements only
Kaiku's anonymized statistics rely on its own measurements only, never on your Google or Bing data, and you can opt out.
Every use is described in our privacy policy.
FAQ
Questions about the algorithm
How is the score calculated?
Each score is a weighted average of named measurements, each scored from 0 to 100. The GEO score combines presence in AI answers, share of voice, rank in answers, pages cited as sources, Google AI Overviews (three measurements: observed presence, exposure, clicks vs AI answers), Copilot, AI mentions in the market and visits from AI assistants. The GEO score therefore rests on two families of measurements: real data from your accounts (GA4, Search Console, Bing) and Kaiku checks of the answers given by AI engines; a piece of real data counts more when it is complete and recent, and less when it is partial or old. The SEO score combines Google positions, Search Console trend and coverage, click-through rate and Bing positions. In the app, “Where the score comes from” shows each measurement's value and score, and what it adds to your project's score.
Why does my score move?
Most often because a measurement changed: a scan where your brand is cited less, rankings slipping, a source getting connected. Less often because calibration adjusted the weights: in small, spaced-out steps, and the date shows under the scores. Past weeks are then recomputed with the same weights, so the curve stays comparable. The health indices and the “Why” line tell you where to look.
What happens if a source is missing?
The measurement is marked “not measured”, with the reason and a link to connect it. It doesn't count as zero: the other measurements share its weight, and the score is computed on what is measured. If no measurement is available, the score shows as not measured, never as zero.
How long before calibration kicks in?
It first takes enough weeks of scores with your results measured: your Search Console clicks for the SEO score (from Starter), your visits from AI assistants in GA4 for the GEO score (from Pro), and the project owner's agreement. Because history is rebuilt when the project arrives, those weeks may already exist. The algorithm then checks every week and only adjusts the weights in small, spaced-out steps; until the link is clear, the default weights stay.
Is my data used for other customers?
Your Google data (Search Console, GA4, Business Profile) only feeds your own project's calculations: it trains no generalized model and is never pooled. Kaiku's anonymized statistics rely on its own measurements only, such as the AI answers recorded by scans, and you can opt out.
Why two scores instead of one?
Because Google and AI answers don't always reward the same things: a single score would hide the gap between them. The SEO and GEO scores stay separate, and no combined score is computed.
First scan
See your two scores, and where they come from.
One-month free trial, no credit card. The first scan records who gets cited on your keywords; your scores show up with every measurement and what it adds.