How to choose an AI SEO agency: 12 questions to ask first.

Under the labels (AI SEO, answer engine optimization, generative engine optimization), the work falls into two kinds, and a good agency keeps them apart:

For Google, the requirements are short: its page on AI features and your website says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations beyond its SEO fundamentals. OpenAI and Perplexity document their search crawlers in their own guides, linked below. Anything beyond those is a test, and should be sold as one.

1. Which AI platforms will you work on?

A good answer names them (Google's AI features, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and so on) and explains what each one documents about access.

2. Is your advice aligned with Google's official guidance?

This is Google's own question for AEO and GEO services. Listen for specifics, not a claim of secret knowledge.

3. What will you do that our SEO does not already cover?

If the answer is “nothing, but we will call it AEO,” you are paying twice for the same work.

4. How do you separate requirements from experiments?

Requirements get fixed and checked. Experiments get a hypothesis, a date and a measurement.

5. How will you measure our AI visibility?

Expect a fixed set of buyer questions, named platforms and recorded conditions, with mentions, citations, accuracy and competitors tracked for each.

6. How often do you check, and how many times per question?

AI answers vary from run to run. A single run per question is an anecdote, not a measurement.

7. Will we see the full answers and citations?

A score without the underlying answers cannot be checked. Ask to see the raw record.

8. Which tools do you use, and what do they measure?

Tools estimate visibility from their own prompts; they do not see inside the platforms. A good agency says so.

9. Who implements the changes?

Recommendations and implementation cost very different amounts. Know which you are buying, and who approves changes to your site.

10. Whose expertise goes into the content?

Pages that get cited tend to carry real, specific knowledge. Ask how they will capture yours rather than write around it.

11. How do you earn mentions on other sites?

Earned coverage, reviews and partnerships, yes. Paid links are another matter: Google's spam policies treat buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam.

12. What happens to our data if we stop?

You should keep the observation record, the reports, the content and access to every account.

• Guaranteed AI rankings or citations. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, and nobody controls which sources an assistant cites.
• A proprietary black box. A method the agency will not explain cannot be checked.
• Fees for things Google says it does not need. Special AI files or schema sold as requirements for Google's AI features.
• A claimed special relationship with Google, OpenAI or any AI company. Google warns about exactly this in its hiring guidance.
• Reports that are only a score, with no answers, dates or citations behind it.

A useful monthly report has the same shape every time: the questions checked, on which platforms and under what conditions; whether you were mentioned and cited; any wrong facts; which competitors and sources appeared; what changed since last month, on your site and in the answers; and the traffic evidence available, from Search Console and from referrals. It also says what the data cannot show.

Treat AI search as part of your search and content work, not a separate silo. The same pages serve both, and the agency that does your AI search work should be able to explain how it fits with your SEO and content plans. Our guide to evaluating an SEO company covers the broader questions, and our framework for choosing marketing services for your stage helps decide how much of this you need now.

If you want to see how we answer these questions ourselves, our AI search optimization page explains the work.