How to Choose an AEO Agency: Questions to Ask and Red Flags

Disclosure: GetCited sells AEO software and a managed AEO service, so we have an interest in this decision. The questions below are the ones we think any buyer should ask, including of us.

What does an AEO agency actually do?

An AEO agency works on whether AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews name and cite your brand when buyers ask the questions that lead to a purchase. The work has four parts:

• Measurement. Tracking how often each engine mentions and links to you on a fixed set of buyer questions, against named competitors. See AI share of voice and the KPIs that matter.
• Technical access. Making sure AI crawlers can reach and read your pages: robots.txt, firewall and CDN rules, rendering, structured data that matches the visible page. See technical AEO.
• Content. Rewriting key pages so each section answers a real question in its first sentence, and filling gaps where buyers ask questions your site never answers. See how to write content AI engines cite.
• Off-site authority. Earning coverage on the review sites, lists, publications and community threads that engines draw on. See digital PR for AI citations.

AEO, GEO and "AI visibility" are mostly different names for the same work; AEO vs GEO explains how the terms relate.

Is an AEO agency different from an SEO agency?

Partly: the foundations are the same, but the measurement and the emphasis are different. Google's own documentation says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there are no additional technical requirements beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet (Google Search Central, AI features and your website). An agency that tells you to throw away your SEO work is wrong.

What an AEO agency should add on top:

• It reports on AI answers, not just rankings: which engines name you, for which questions, and which sources they cite instead of you.
• It treats each engine separately. ChatGPT search, for example, relies on OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler, and OpenAI says sites that opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers (OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers). Google AI features follow Googlebot rules instead. See AI crawlers and robots.txt.
• It spends more of the budget off your site, because AI answers often cite third-party pages rather than the brand's own.

When do you need an AEO agency, and when is software enough?

You need an agency when the work is clear but nobody on your team has the time or the relationships to do it; software is enough when you have people who can act on what it shows. Use this as a rough guide:

Whichever route you choose, keep the measurement in an account you own, so you can check the work and keep the history if you change supplier.

What questions should you ask an AEO agency before hiring?

Ask questions that force the agency to show how it measures, what it will change, and how you will know it worked. Google publishes a similar list for hiring an SEO, and it now asks whether an agency's AEO or GEO advice is aligned with Google's official guidance on generative AI features (Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?). These are the AEO-specific questions we would add.

1. Which buyer questions and engines will you track?

A good answer is a written list of the questions your buyers actually ask, split into branded and non-branded, with the engines named. Be wary of a list made of keywords rather than questions, or of reports that only cover questions containing your brand name, because those are the easiest to win and tell you little about new buyers.

2. How do you handle the fact that AI answers change?

The agency should explain how many times it runs each question, how often, and how it decides a change is real rather than noise. AI answers vary between runs and over time (see citation drift explained), so a single screenshot is not a result.

3. What is the baseline, and how will you show progress against it?

Ask for a baseline before work starts: mention rate, citation rate and the sources engines cite today, per engine. Then ask how the agency will compare later results with it. If it suggests testing changes on some pages and not others, that is a good sign; see A/B testing for AI search.

4. What exactly will you change on and off our site?

You want a named list of deliverables per month: technical fixes, pages rewritten, new pages, structured data, outreach targets. Ask to see an example of each from another client, with that client's permission or with the details removed.

5. Does your advice match official guidance from Google and the AI companies?

Ask the agency to point to the official documentation behind its main recommendations. For example, Google says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup to appear in its AI features. An agency can still have reasons to recommend a file such as llms.txt, but it should say what it is for and not claim Google requires it. Our guide to schema markup for AI engines covers where structured data does help.

6. Who owns the accounts, content and data?

Your Search Console, analytics, CMS and tracking accounts should stay in your name. Google's advice for an SEO audit is to grant read access to Search Console at first, not write access. Agree in writing that content, prompt lists and visibility history are yours if the contract ends.

7. What will the monthly report look like?

Ask for a sample. A useful report shows what was shipped, what changed in AI answers for the tracked questions, which sources engines cited instead of you, and what is planned next. It should separate what was observed from what the agency expects to happen.

8. What do you do when an engine says something wrong about us?

The agency should describe a process: find the sources the engine relies on, correct your own pages and profiles, and work on the third-party pages that carry the error. See how to fix wrong information in ChatGPT.

What are the red flags when hiring an AEO agency?

Walk away from any agency that promises outcomes no one controls or will not show its working. The common ones:

• Guaranteed placement. "We guarantee ChatGPT will recommend you." No one controls AI answers. Google's guidance is blunt that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google, and AI answers are less predictable than rankings.
• A special relationship. Claims of a partnership or priority access with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or Perplexity that changes what their engines say.
• Screenshots as proof. One answer captured once, with no repeat runs, dates or question list.
• Branded questions only. Reports that show you winning on questions that already contain your name.
• Mass-produced content. Large volumes of near-identical AI-written pages, or fake reviews and forum posts. These can damage the site and the brand.
• Secrecy. No clear list of what was changed, or reluctance to give you access to the tracking.
• Invented numbers. Benchmarks or "average uplift" figures with no stated source, sample or method. Our AI visibility evidence checklist shows how to check a claim before you rely on it.

How are AEO agencies priced?

There is no standard price; most agencies quote from the scope, so compare scopes before you compare prices. The things that change the quote are:

• How many buyer questions, engines, markets and competitors are tracked, and how often.
• How much content and technical work is shipped each month.
• Whether digital PR and outreach are included, which is usually the most labour-intensive part.
• Whether there is a one-off audit or sprint before a monthly retainer.

Software-only tracking costs much less than a managed programme. For reference, GetCited plans start at $99 a month, and our managed AEO programme is quoted after a diagnostic, once we know what needs doing. See pricing for current plans.

How do you compare two AEO agency proposals?

Put the proposals side by side against the same checklist, and score each line yes, partly or no. A blank template:

If you want to see where you stand before talking to anyone, run the free AEO checker or read what an AEO audit includes. To track the results yourself whichever supplier you choose, see the AI visibility tracker and how to track AI citations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does an AEO agency do?

An AEO agency works on whether AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews name and cite your brand when buyers ask questions. The work covers measuring visibility on real buyer questions, fixing technical access, restructuring content so answers can be quoted, and building third-party coverage that engines draw on.

Is an AEO agency different from an SEO agency?

Partly. Most AEO work rests on SEO foundations, and Google says the same SEO best practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode. The difference is the measurement and the scope: an AEO agency should track mentions and citations in AI answers per engine, and spend more effort on third-party sources and answer-ready content, not just rankings.

Can an AEO agency guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend my brand?

No. AI answers change from one run to the next and no agency controls them. Google states that no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and the same logic applies to AI answers. Treat any guaranteed placement or special relationship with an AI company as a reason to walk away.

What questions should I ask an AEO agency before hiring?

Ask which buyer questions and engines they will measure, how often and how they handle answer variation, what they will change on and off your site, who owns the accounts and data, how they will show results against a baseline, and whether their advice matches official guidance from Google and the AI companies.

How much does an AEO agency cost?

There is no standard price. Agencies usually quote from the scope: how many buyer questions and engines are tracked, how much content and technical work is shipped each month, and whether digital PR is included. Ask for the scope in writing before comparing prices. Software-only tracking costs far less than a managed programme; GetCited plans start at $99 a month and managed work is quoted after a diagnostic.

Should I hire an AEO agency or do it in-house?

Do it in-house if you have someone who can own content, technical fixes and outreach, and use software to measure. Hire an agency when nobody has the time, when you need digital PR and editorial relationships you do not have, or when you need an outside team to set up measurement and a plan your team then runs.

How long before an AEO agency shows results?

Technical fixes can be checked within days, because you can confirm crawlers can reach and read the page. Changes in how often AI engines name you usually take longer, because engines have to recrawl pages and third-party coverage takes time to build. A good agency agrees a baseline and review dates up front instead of promising a date for results.