How to choose a GEO agency: questions to ask and red flags

How do you choose a GEO agency?

You choose a GEO agency by testing whether it can show its work. A pitch deck shows outcomes. A good agency also shows the method: the buyer questions it measures, how often you appear across many runs, the pages it will change and who approves them. What it cannot show you, you cannot check later.

That test works because GEO is mostly execution. The paper that named generative engine optimization reports that changing what a page says and how raised visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40% on its own benchmark. It is an arXiv preprint, not peer reviewed. [1] So the useful question is which agency will change the right pages on your site every month and prove what moved.

This article assumes you have a shortlist. Whether you need an agency at all is covered in agency vs tool vs in-house vs DIY, and a month of agency work in what a GEO agency does.

Your baseline before the first call

Measure where you stand before you talk to anyone. Write down ten to twenty questions your buyers ask right before they choose a provider in your category, then check which brands AI answers name for them. The free AI Visibility Check runs ten real buying questions through ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. You can also check your AI visibility by hand.

With that baseline you can see whether a sample audit found the same competitors you did, and any promised growth has a number to be measured against. Also decide how many hours a week your team can give to reviews and approvals, then ask each agency how much time it needs from you.

Which questions should you ask a GEO agency?

Ask questions that force the agency to describe work, not results. Google’s own advice for hiring an SEO is a useful base. It suggests asking for examples of previous work, the results to expect in what timeframe and how success is measured. [2] It also suggests asking whether the agency will share every change it makes to your site, with the reasoning behind it. [2] For GEO, sharpen them like this:

In regulated categories, also ask how the agency checks every claim before it goes live. Reviews on Clutch or Trustpilot show how clients felt about the service, not whether AI answers changed.

Red flags that should end the conversation

Some answers end the evaluation on the spot. Google’s guidance for SEO applies one to one: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” It warns against anyone who claims to guarantee rankings or a “special relationship” with Google. [2] Five red flags for GEO:

1. A guaranteed top spot in ChatGPT or any other AI answer. The next section explains why nobody can promise it.
2. A secret method. Google advises caution if a company “is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do”. [2] GEO work can be explained in plain words.
3. A special markup for AI Overviews. Google says there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary”. [3] An agency selling one sells something Google says is not needed.
4. Results you cannot reproduce. No prompt list, no dates, no assistant named: the number cannot be checked.
5. Work that ends at the report. If nobody changes your pages, AI answers have no new reason to change.

For what the main agencies actually offer, compare them in the scored list of GEO agencies and the DACH ranking.

Why can nobody guarantee first place in ChatGPT?

Nobody can guarantee first place because AI answers have no fixed positions. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may run several related searches across subtopics and data sources to build one response. It adds that the responses and links they show will vary. [3] The answer is assembled again for every request.

SparkToro measured how much that varies. In its study, 600 volunteers ran 12 prompts through ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s AI a combined 2,961 times. [4] The chance that ChatGPT or Google’s AI gave the same list of brands in any two of 100 responses was below 1 in 100. Rand Fishkin’s conclusion: visibility share across many prompts, run many times, is a reasonable metric. Any tool that reports a “ranking position in AI” is not. [4]

So an honest agency promises work and a way to measure it, never a place. It reports how often your brand appeared across a fixed set of prompts, and how that share moved. A good AI visibility score is built the same way.

How do you verify an agency’s case studies?

Verify a case study by repeating part of it yourself. The four questions to put to every number are in how to check an AI SEO agency’s results. These five steps test the answers:

1. 1
   Ask for the prompt list

   Get the prompts behind the result, the assistants and the date range.

   Your partPick five to ten prompts from the list
2. 2
   Re-run a sample

   Ask those prompts in a clean session, several times each, in each assistant named.

   Your partCount how often the client’s brand appears
3. 3
   Compare the share

   Your count will not match the agency’s figure exactly, because answers vary. It should land in the same range.

   Your partNote large gaps and ask about them
4. 4
   Check the site

   Look at the client’s pages the agency says it changed. The work should be visible and live.

   Your partAsk what changed and when
5. 5
   Talk to the client

   Ask for a reference call with the person who approved the work.

   Your partAsk what their team had to do each week

A case study that cannot share its prompts is a story, not evidence.

A scoring sheet for your shortlist

Score every agency from 1 to 5 on the same criteria, with weights fixed before the first call. Execution weighs most because it is the part that changes AI answers.

Criterion	Suggested weight	What earns a 5
Execution on your site	25%	Names the pages and fixes for month one; publishes with your approval
Prompt selection	20%	Buyer questions from data, with reasons; you see the full list
Measurement	20%	Visibility share across runs and assistants; you can re-run it
Verifiable case studies	15%	Prompt lists, live pages and a reference call
Fit with your team	10%	Clear weekly time from you; approval flow you can live with
Ownership and exit	10%	Content, briefs and data stay yours

Prices belong next to this sheet, not in it: compare them with what generative engine optimization costs once the scores are in.

The best GEO agency for you is the one whose work you can see, check and own. Take your baseline, your questions and this sheet into every call, and drop the agencies that cannot answer. If nobody on your team has the hours to run GEO, talk to scaile about We run it: put the same questions to scaile first.

FAQ

Sources

1. 2311.09735 GEO: Generative Engine Optimization
2. Do You Need an SEO? Tips for Hiring an SEO | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers
3. AI Features and Your Website | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers
4. NEW Research: AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products; marketers should take care whe