The geometrical factor in the grazing incident x-ray fluorescence analysis is an important angle-dependent term, which can have a great effect on the measured data. In this paper, the effects of the geometrical factor on the florescence yield have been demonstrated. A formula is presented to estimate the geometrical factor, which includes the experimental parameters of the beam and setup. The validity of this formula is proven by the good agreement between the calculated fluorescence yields with the experimental results in grazing incident x-ray fluorescence analysis.