Context: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is an emerging analytics category that tracks how AI engines (Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT browsing) discover, cite, and drive traffic to content. Optimizely shipped GEO dashboards in January 2026 with crawl-to-refer ratio tracking. Adobe's pending Semrush acquisition ($1.9B) adds SEO/GEO intelligence natively. Sitecore has no comparable capability today.
Steps:
1. Research GEO analytics requirements: what signals indicate AI-driven traffic vs traditional search?
2. Evaluate whether `@sitecore-content-sdk/analytics-core` and `@sitecore-content-sdk/events` can capture GEO-relevant signals (e.g., referrer patterns from AI engines, structured data exposure metrics)
3. Prototype a GEO event type that tracks AI-engine referrals
4. Assess whether this should live in Content SDK or in SitecoreAI's analytics backend
5. Produce a technical spike document with recommendations
Acceptance criteria:
Technical spike document produced with feasibility assessment
Prototype event type defined (even if not shipped)
Recommendation on where GEO analytics should live (SDK vs platform)
Risks: GEO analytics is nascent and standards are not yet established. Early investment risks building for a moving target. However, Optimizely's first-mover position creates competitive pressure to at least have a documented strategy.