Inclusion dynamics are harder to measure than classic GEO metrics — but not impossible. A specific type of prompt test gives insight into your inclusion status per category.
The open category prompt
Test the following prompt structure systematically:
- “Name the most important [product category] providers in [market]”
- “Which [product category] players are active in [market]?”
- “Give an overview of the [sector] in [market]”
If your brand does not appear in answers to these open category questions — despite good content and SEO — that is — after ruling out the alternative explanations on 8.1 (language and localisation, search triggering, indexing, chance) — a strong indicator of the pattern we call the inclusion threshold.
Inclusion rate as a metric
Define a set of open category prompts per product category and market. Measure what percentage of those prompts mention your brand. That percentage is your inclusion rate — in full: category inclusion rate.
A low inclusion rate on open category questions is a signal to take seriously: it points to the bottleneck not sitting at page level. But the metric observes an outcome, not the cause — the next step is ruling out what else it could be (8.1), and only then shifting strategy.
Benchmark
Compare your inclusion rate with that of competitors. If large players have an inclusion rate of 80-90% and yours is 20%, that is the gap — and if the pattern holds up after checking, you bridge it sooner through brand penetration than through yet more content.