Generalized Bézier surfaces are a multi-sided generalization of classical tensor product Bézier surfaces with a simple control structure and inherit most of the appealing properties from Bézier surfaces. However, the original degree elevation changes the geometry of generalized Bézier surfaces such that it is undesirable in many applications, e.g. isogeometric analysis. In this paper, we propose an improved degree elevation algorithm for generalized Bézier surfaces preserving not only geometric consistency but also parametric consistency. Based on the knot insertion of B-splines, a novel knot insertion algorithm for generalized Bézier surfaces is also proposed. Then the proposed algorithms are employed to increase degrees of freedom for multi-sided computational domains parameterized by generalized Bézier surfaces in isogeometric analysis, corresponding to the traditional $p-,$ $h-,$ and $k$-refinements. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our method.