When choosing a GEO agency, look at four things: measurement (which questions, which engines, how often, is there a baseline), transparency (are the question set and raw answers shared, any guarantee claims), scope (technical foundation, content, entity consistency and third-party mentions together) and their own practice (is the agency’s own site ready for AI crawlers). Walk away from “#1 in ChatGPT, guaranteed”.
12 questions to ask at proposal stage
- How many questions do you measure? Can I see sample questions?
- Which AI engines do you measure, and how often?
- How many times, under what conditions (clean session, search on), do you ask each question?
- When is the baseline taken, and will I receive it?
- Will I have access to the raw answer archive?
- Are questions containing the brand name included? (If so, visibility is inflated.)
- Do you build the technical foundation (bot access, schema, server-rendered content)?
- How many content pieces per month, and who reviews them?
- What’s your plan for third-party mentions (list articles, directories, trade media)?
- Do you guarantee anything? If so, what?
- Does the report also list work that didn’t pay off?
- Whose name will Search Console, Analytics and Business Profile stay in?
Red flags
| What you hear | What it means |
|---|---|
| “Guaranteed #1 in ChatGPT” | Nobody can guarantee engine answers; Google itself warns against anyone guaranteeing rankings[1] |
| “Our proprietary AI network” | An unverifiable black box |
| “The question set is a trade secret” | You can’t know what’s measured |
| “llms.txt alone will make you visible” | Google says no such file is needed for AI Overviews |
| “100 AI articles a month” | Originality and review problems |
| Reports made of screenshots only | No repeatable measurement |
Look at the agency’s own site
A GEO agency’s own site is its best reference. Is robots.txt open to AI crawlers? Are pages readable without JavaScript? Are schema and entity data consistent? Is there an llms.txt? With the GEO Readiness Check you can check any agency’s site — ours included — in seconds.
Frequently asked questions
01Which is the best GEO agency?
“Best” can’t be proven, and engine answers vary by question and time. Compare the agencies you’re considering on the same 12 questions instead: measurement method, transparency, scope and how ready their own site is.
Sources
- Google Search Central — Do you need an SEO? · accessed 27 September 2026