Last updated: 5 November 2026. By Kousik Bhattacharya, Founder and CEO, Clickseek Digital.
To choose a GEO agency, check four things before price: proof that it already gets brands cited in AI answers, a written prompt set it will track for you, reporting that ties AI visibility to leads in your own analytics, and a contract you can exit. This guide gives you the 12 questions and a scorecard to compare agencies side by side.
Key takeaways
- GEO (generative engine optimization) is SEO plus work to get your brand named and cited in AI answers from Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
- Google says there are no special requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Any agency selling a “secret AI markup” is selling a myth.
- Published GEO retainers range from about $1,500 to $25,000+ a month. Ask what is in scope before you compare price.
- Avoid guarantees, 12-month lock-ins and reports that never reach your leads or pipeline.
What does a GEO agency actually do?
A GEO agency makes your brand easier for AI systems to find, trust and quote. In practice that means strong technical SEO, pages that answer buyer questions directly, consistent facts about your company across the web, mentions on third-party sites that AI tools cite, and monthly tracking of whether AI answers name you for the prompts your buyers use.
The term comes from a 2023 research paper, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” by researchers from Princeton and others, accepted at KDD 2024. It reported that content changes such as adding citations and statistics could boost visibility in generative engine responses “by up to 40%” on its benchmark. That is a lab result, not a promise any agency can make for your brand.
The demand is real. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said AI Overviews had 2 billion monthly users by July 2025, and AI Mode had over 100 million. And Pew Research Center found that users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits, against 15% for those who did not. Fewer clicks means being named inside the answer matters more.
GEO agency vs SEO agency: do you need both?
Usually not. GEO sits on top of SEO, so the best setup is one partner that does both, or your SEO agency adding a defined GEO scope. Google’s guidance says the usual SEO best practices apply to its AI features, so an agency that ignores rankings, crawlability and content quality will not win AI citations either.
Google is explicit on this. Its page on AI features and your website says: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” It also says no special schema or AI text files are needed for Google’s features.
Where GEO adds real work is outside Google. ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants lean more on third-party mentions and clear, quotable answers. So the real question is who covers that extra scope and how they will prove it.
| Scope | Classic SEO agency | GEO-ready agency |
|---|---|---|
| Main goal | Rank and win clicks | Rank, win clicks and get named in AI answers |
| Research input | Keywords and search volume | Keywords plus the full questions buyers ask AI tools |
| Content | Pages built around a keyword | Answer-first pages, comparison tables, FAQs with facts and sources |
| Off-site work | Backlinks | Backlinks plus mentions in roundups, reviews and communities AI tools cite |
| Reporting | Rankings, traffic, leads | The same, plus citation share across a fixed prompt set |
12 questions to ask a GEO agency before you sign
Ask every agency on your shortlist the same 12 questions in writing. Good answers are specific, name tools and timelines, and admit limits. Weak answers lean on buzzwords, guarantees or “proprietary AI”. Use the answers to fill the scorecard in the next section.
Methodology
- Which AI platforms will you track, and how often? Expect Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini at minimum, checked monthly or more often.
- Which buyer prompts will you track for us? Ask for the list before you sign. It should include category prompts (“best X agency for Y”), comparison prompts and problem prompts, not only your brand name.
- How do you handle answer variation? AI answers change between runs. A serious agency runs each prompt several times and reports a share, not a single screenshot.
- What will you change on our site in the first 90 days? Look for named pages, technical fixes and content updates, not “AI optimization”.
Authority and content
- Who writes the content, and who checks the facts? AI-drafted copy without expert review rarely earns citations. Ask who signs off.
- How will you get us mentioned on third-party sites? Listicles, review platforms, industry media and communities are often what AI tools quote. Ask for examples of placements they have earned.
- How do you keep our company facts consistent? Your description, services, locations and credentials should match across your site, profiles and directories.
Measurement
- What is in the baseline report? You should get a month-zero snapshot of citation share against named competitors before any work starts.
- How will you connect AI visibility to leads? Google counts AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic inside the normal Search Console Performance report. For ChatGPT and Perplexity, the agency should set up an AI referral channel in your analytics and track enquiries from it.
- Can you show a client cited for a competitive prompt? Ask for a live example you can run yourself.
Commercials
- What is the exit clause, and who owns the work? Content, prompt sets, dashboards and data should stay with you if you leave.
- How do you charge? Retainer, project or hybrid, and whether fees are tied to your ad spend.
How to choose a GEO agency: a scorecard you can use
Score each agency from 1 to 5 on six criteria, multiply by the weight, and add up. A total above 80 out of 100 is a strong shortlist candidate. Below 60, keep looking.
| Criterion | Weight | What a 5 looks like | Red flag (score 1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proof of AI citations | 25% | Live client examples you can test yourself | Only screenshots, or “all clients are under NDA” |
| Measurement method | 20% | Written prompt set, repeated runs, baseline vs competitors | “AI visibility is hard to measure” |
| SEO foundations | 20% | Technical audit, rankings and organic leads in scope | Dismisses SEO as outdated |
| Content and authority plan | 15% | Named pages, expert review, third-party mention plan | Volume of AI-written posts as the main deliverable |
| Lead attribution | 10% | AI referral channel in analytics, enquiries tracked | Reports stop at “mentions” |
| Commercial terms | 10% | Clear scope, monthly exit, you own all assets | 12-month lock-in, setup fee before any work |
How much does a GEO agency cost?
Published ranges are wide. US-focused sources quote retainers from about $1,500 to $25,000 or more a month, plus one-time AI visibility audits from a few thousand dollars. Price depends on scope: number of markets, prompts tracked, content volume and off-site work. Compare agencies on scope per dollar, not headline fee.
For reference, MarketerHire’s 2026 guide lists lean retainers at $3,000 to $8,000 a month and full-service retainers at $10,000 to $25,000. These are vendor-published figures, so treat them as a starting point. Agencies in India and the UAE may quote in local currency with a different cost base, which is another reason to compare written scope line by line.
Watch the fee model too. Some agencies charge a percentage of ad spend across bundled services, which ties their income to how much you spend, not to results. A fixed fee for a fixed scope is easier to judge.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Walk away if an agency guarantees placement in ChatGPT or AI Overviews, sells special AI markup as a must-have for Google, cannot show a baseline report, or wants a long lock-in before proving anything. No one controls what an AI model says. Good agencies talk about probabilities, prompts and process.
- Guaranteed citations. AI answers vary by user, location and run. A guarantee means the agency does not understand the system or is not being straight with you.
- “Secret” methods. If they cannot explain what they will change, you cannot judge whether it worked.
- Blocking the wrong bots. Ask them to check your robots.txt. OpenAI’s crawler documentation says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. An agency that misses this has skipped the basics.
- Reports with no leads. Mentions are a leading indicator. If the report never reaches enquiries, you are paying for vanity numbers.
- One-platform focus. Your buyers use more than one assistant. An agency that tracks only one sees part of the picture.
How to run a 30-day test before a long contract
If you are unsure, start with a paid audit or a 30-day pilot. Agree on 20 to 30 buyer prompts, get a baseline of who AI tools name today, ask for the top ten fixes, and judge the agency on the quality of that plan.
- Week 1: agree the prompt set and competitors. Include prompts for each market you sell in, for example India, UAE, US and UK.
- Week 2: baseline report across at least four AI platforms, with repeated runs.
- Week 3: technical and content audit of your top service pages.
- Week 4: a 90-day plan with named pages, owners and the metrics you will review together.
If you are also weighing broader options, our guide on choosing a B2B digital marketing agency covers the wider selection process.
How Clickseek approaches GEO
We treat GEO as part of SEO, not a separate product. Our AI SEO services start with the same checks we run on our own site: answer-first service pages, visible FAQs with matching FAQPage schema, one consistent company description across the homepage, About page and llms.txt, and an AI Assistant channel in GA4 so AI referrals are measured, not guessed.
That last step taught us something useful. When we first segmented AI referrals on clickseek.in, ChatGPT was sending most visitors to our careers page, not our service pages. AI traffic was arriving, but from job seekers rather than buyers. A baseline should surface findings like this.
Clickseek is an AI-led digital marketing and technology agency with 150+ clients and 50+ specialists, and an Official Meta Business Partner. We work on a fee-only model: no percentage of ad spend. Our SEO services and GEO work share one plan and one report. If you want a second opinion on a GEO proposal you have received, we are happy to review it. For more background, read what marketers need to know about AI and search and how local businesses can optimise for AI-powered search.
Frequently asked questions
What is a GEO agency?
A GEO agency helps your brand appear and get cited in answers from AI tools such as Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. The work combines SEO, answer-first content, third-party mentions and tracking of how often AI answers name you for buyer prompts.
Is GEO different from AI SEO or AEO?
Mostly in name. GEO (generative engine optimization), AI SEO and AEO (answer engine optimization) describe the same goal: being found and quoted in AI-generated answers. Judge an agency on its method and proof, not on which label it uses.
Can a GEO agency guarantee my brand will appear in ChatGPT?
No. AI answers change by user, location and run, and no agency controls the model. A credible agency will promise a process and a measured share of citations across a fixed prompt set, not a guaranteed placement.
Should I hire a GEO agency or do it in-house?
If you already have a strong SEO team, train them on prompt tracking and answer-first content. If you do not, an agency is faster because it brings tools, a tested process and outreach relationships. Many brands use an agency for setup and keep an in-house owner for content.
Do I need special schema or an llms.txt file?
Not for Google. Google states that no special schema or AI text files are needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Clear structure, accurate facts and normal structured data still help, and an llms.txt file costs little to add for other AI tools.
Get a second opinion on your GEO plan
Choosing a GEO agency is a judgement call on proof, measurement and terms. If you want an independent read on a proposal or a baseline of where AI tools mention you today, talk to the Clickseek team. We will tell you what is worth paying for and what is not.
