What's the difference between an AEO agency and a GEO agency?

In practice, there's little difference. AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) both describe work to get a brand cited and recommended in AI answers. Some agencies use GEO for generative engines like ChatGPT and AEO for answer features more broadly. Judge agencies on their methods and deliverables, not on which acronym they use.

Should our existing SEO agency handle AEO?

Your existing SEO agency can handle AEO if it already covers content quality, technical access and off-site mentions well, since those drive both. Ask it the same ten questions, especially about prompt testing across engines and who implements page changes. If it can't show a prompt baseline or relies on llms.txt and schema, it may not be ready.

How long should an AEO agency contract be?

Prefer short initial terms or a fixed-scope first project, such as an audit or sprint, before committing to a long retainer. That lets you judge the quality of work and communication with limited risk. Long minimum terms are common in agency retainers, so ask what happens if results or delivery fall short, and get the exit terms in writing.

Do AEO agencies need access to our website code?

An AEO agency that implements fixes will need access to your CMS and often your code repository, because rendering, structure and page templates affect AI visibility. Agencies that only advise may not need it. Grant the minimum access required, use separate accounts you can revoke and make sure changes go through your normal review and deployment process.

What should an AEO agency report each month?

A monthly AEO report should show the fixed prompt set results across engines, changes in mentions and descriptions, pages shipped or updated, outreach progress and AI referral traffic with its conversions. It should explain what changed and what's planned next. A report full of activity counts with no link to visibility or pipeline isn't telling you much.

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SEO & AI search

How to Choose an AEO Agency: 10 Questions to Ask

How to choose an AEO agency: 10 questions that expose hype, check who builds the pages, and show whether a GEO or AI search agency can prove its work.

By Mehdi HassanOct 29, 20267 min read

The short answer

To choose an AEO agency, ask how it measures AI visibility, who rewrites and builds the pages, what its first 30 days produce and what it won't promise. Good AEO or GEO agencies show a fixed prompt baseline, explain fixes with evidence and admit that nobody controls AI citations. Agencies selling llms.txt and guarantees fail these questions.

Key takeaways

Ask every AEO agency for a sample deliverable before you sign, not a case-study deck.
The best answer to "can you guarantee citations?" is no.
Check who writes, designs and builds the page changes; recommendations alone rarely ship.
A fixed prompt baseline across several engines is the minimum for measuring anything.
Agencies leading with llms.txt or schema are selling what Google calls unnecessary.

Part of How Much Does AEO or GEO Cost? Pricing for Audits, Retainers and Builds

How do you choose an AEO agency?

You choose an AEO agency by testing how it measures results, who does the implementation and how honest it is about what it can't control. The ten questions below separate agencies that change your pages and earn mentions from those that sell reports and buzzwords.

AEO and GEO are new labels on a mix of old and new work: clear pages, crawlable content, off-site mentions and AI answer tracking. That makes the space easy to fill with hype. We build pages ourselves, so we've written these questions from the side of the team that has to implement whatever the strategy says. For pricing context, see our guide to AEO and GEO services cost.

What are the 10 questions to ask an AEO agency?

The ten questions to ask an AEO agency cover measurement, method, implementation and honesty. Ask all of them in writing, and compare the answers side by side.

How will you measure our AI visibility, and can we see the baseline?
Which engines do you test, and why those?
What do the first 30 days produce, specifically?
Who rewrites the copy, who designs the pages and who changes the code?
Can you show a sample finding from a past audit, anonymized?
What's your view on llms.txt and AI-specific schema?
How do you earn off-site mentions, and which sources would you target for us?
What can't you promise?
How will we know if this isn't working, and when?
What happens to our content, prompts and data if we stop?

The sections below explain what a good answer to each group of questions sounds like, and which answers should end the conversation.

How should a GEO agency measure AI visibility?

A GEO agency should measure AI visibility with a fixed set of buyer prompts run across several engines on a regular schedule, recording mentions, descriptions and cited sources. Without a baseline from before the work starts, no later result means anything.

Questions 1, 2 and 9 test this. A good answer names 20 to 30 non-branded buyer prompts, covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI features, and explains that engines behave differently. Semrush's AI Visibility Index found ChatGPT cites about 15 sources per answer against about 3 for Gemini, so one engine isn't a fair sample. Ask how they'll connect visibility to pipeline too: a GA4 channel group for AI referrals and a "How did you hear about us?" field are the basics.

Understanding how engines pick sources helps you judge the answer. Our guide to how AI search engines choose sources explains the mechanics.

Who should do the implementation work?

The implementation work should be done by the agency or by a named team ready to act on its plan, never left undefined. Most AEO value comes from changing pages and earning mentions, so an agency that only recommends leaves the expensive part to you.

Questions 3, 4 and 5 test this. Ask what ships in the first month: rewritten pages, new comparison pages, fixed rendering, outreach started. Ask for names or roles for the copywriter, designer and developer. If the answer is "your team implements", check whether your team actually can. Our comparison of SEO agencies vs web design agencies explains why splitting strategy from the build slows everything down.

Good page work follows known patterns: answer-first sections, real tables and visible FAQs, as covered in our guides to structuring content for AI search and FAQ sections that get cited.

What answers should make you walk away?

Walk away from an AEO agency that guarantees citations, leads with llms.txt or schema as the core fix, or can't explain what it won't promise. These answers signal an agency selling activity rather than results.

Question	Good answer	Walk-away answer
What can't you promise?	Specific citations or rankings; engines decide	"We guarantee you'll appear in ChatGPT"
llms.txt and AI schema?	Optional hygiene, unproven as a lever	"That's the core of our AEO package"
First 30 days?	Baseline, priority fixes shipped, outreach started	"A strategy deck and onboarding"
Who implements?	Named roles for copy, design and code	"Your developers will handle it"
Mentions?	Named target sources and a method	"We'll publish best-of lists on partner sites"
If we stop?	You keep all content, prompts and data	Vague or locked-in answers

The evidence backs these lines. Google's guidance on AI features says no special optimization is needed beyond normal SEO, Ahrefs found 97% of llms.txt files got zero requests, and its 2026 schema test showed no lift. Peec's analysis of 232,000 citations found self-promotional "best" lists made up only about 4% of ChatGPT citations.

Should you hire an AEO specialist or a team that builds pages?

Hire an AEO specialist when your pages are already strong and your gap is off-site mentions and tracking. Hire a team that builds pages when your homepage, pricing or comparison pages are the problem, because that's where AI citations and leads concentrate.

TripleDart's Q1 2026 study of 28 B2B SaaS companies found homepages earned 81.7% of AI-attributed leads, while general blog posts produced zero. If your homepage doesn't say clearly what you do, no outreach program will fix that. AI startups face this most, which is why our guide to choosing a website design agency for AI startups focuses on clarity first.

Pros

An AEO specialist brings focused tracking, prompt analysis and outreach experience.
A page-building team ships the fixes itself, with no handoff.
A team that owns copy, design and code can keep pages consistent across the site.

Cons

Specialists often leave the page changes to you or another agency.
Page builders may not run ongoing mention outreach.
Either can oversell; the ten questions apply to both.

Hypothetical example: comparing two agency answers

For example, suppose you ask two agencies question 8, "What can't you promise?". Agency A says it guarantees placement in AI answers within 60 days. Agency B says it can't promise specific citations, but it can promise a baseline in week one, five priority pages rewritten and shipped in the first month, and a monthly re-run of the prompt set.

Agency B's answer is less exciting and far more useful: it tells you what you're buying and how you'll judge it. This is an illustration, not a description of real agencies.

How do you compare AEO agency proposals?

Compare AEO agency proposals by listing what each one ships in the first 90 days, who does the work and how success will be measured, then setting the price next to that list. Proposals that look cheaper often exclude the implementation.

Put the deliverables in one column, the price in the next and the measurement method in a third. If one proposal includes page rewrites and builds while another only includes recommendations, they aren't comparable on price. For the monthly options, our comparison of SEO retainers vs website retainers shows how to judge value per dollar. Before signing, check that the audit scope matches our checklist of what an AEO audit should include. If a platform move is part of the plan, compare AI migration vs agency migration as well.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between an AEO agency and a GEO agency?: In practice, there's little difference. AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) both describe work to get a brand cited and recommended in AI answers. Some agencies use GEO for generative engines like ChatGPT and AEO for answer features more broadly. Judge agencies on their methods and deliverables, not on which acronym they use.
Should our existing SEO agency handle AEO?: Your existing SEO agency can handle AEO if it already covers content quality, technical access and off-site mentions well, since those drive both. Ask it the same ten questions, especially about prompt testing across engines and who implements page changes. If it can't show a prompt baseline or relies on llms.txt and schema, it may not be ready.
How long should an AEO agency contract be?: Prefer short initial terms or a fixed-scope first project, such as an audit or sprint, before committing to a long retainer. That lets you judge the quality of work and communication with limited risk. Long minimum terms are common in agency retainers, so ask what happens if results or delivery fall short, and get the exit terms in writing.
Do AEO agencies need access to our website code?: An AEO agency that implements fixes will need access to your CMS and often your code repository, because rendering, structure and page templates affect AI visibility. Agencies that only advise may not need it. Grant the minimum access required, use separate accounts you can revoke and make sure changes go through your normal review and deployment process.
What should an AEO agency report each month?: A monthly AEO report should show the fixed prompt set results across engines, changes in mentions and descriptions, pages shipped or updated, outreach progress and AI referral traffic with its conversions. It should explain what changed and what's planned next. A report full of activity counts with no link to visibility or pipeline isn't telling you much.

Mehdi Hassan · CEO & Design Director

Copywriter, designer and developer, and founder of Designify Studio. Over five years, 60+ projects across 14+ industries, for startups that have raised $300M+.

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