How Brands Can Choose the Right SEO and GEO Agency for AI Search

Hiring an SEO agency used to be a fairly contained decision: check the case studies, look at ranking history, agree on a reporting cadence. That decision has gotten more complicated. AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews now sit alongside — and increasingly in front of — the traditional results page, and the skill set that earns a spot in one doesn’t automatically earn a spot in the other. A brand can hire a perfectly competent SEO team and still be invisible in the answer an AI assistant gives a buyer researching the same category.

That’s why more procurement conversations now specifically name generative engine optimisation agency capability as a separate line item, rather than assuming any SEO vendor can bolt AI-visibility work onto an existing retainer. The two disciplines share a foundation — a crawlable, well-structured, credible website — but they’re measured differently, reported differently, and often require different specialists to execute well. Treating them as identical is one of the more common ways brands end up disappointed six months into a contract.

The diagram above sums up the practical difference. Traditional SEO is still mostly about earning a ranking position and a click: backlinks, on-page relevance, and technical health decide who shows up in ten blue links. GEO is about earning a citation inside an answer the user never has to click through — decided by entity authority, structured data, and independent mentions the AI system trusts. The overlap in the middle is where most of the actual budget should go: content that’s genuinely well-sourced and clearly structured tends to perform in both systems at once, which is exactly what a competent combined agency should be optimising for rather than treating as two separate deliverables.

What to Evaluate Before Signing

A few questions tend to separate agencies with real GEO capability from ones that have simply relabeled an existing service:

• Documented proof in both channels. Ask for actual ranking data alongside specific, verifiable examples of the agency’s content being cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or AI Overviews — not just a claim of “AI SEO” on the services page. A screenshot of a single citation isn’t a track record; ask how many clients, and over what period.
• A technical foundation, not just content tricks. The strongest GEO work is usually built on the same technical rigor as strong SEO — crawlability, site architecture, structured data — rather than treated as a separate content exercise layered on top. If an agency can’t speak to your site’s technical health, its GEO plan is likely just content rewrites.
• A real measurement method. Standard rank trackers don’t capture whether a brand was cited inside an AI answer. Ask exactly how the agency tracks citation frequency and “share of voice” across AI platforms, how often that gets reported, and what a baseline audit looks like before work starts.
• Transparent, scoped pricing. Mid-market GEO retainers typically run in a fairly wide band, so ask what’s actually included at each tier — audits, content production, digital PR, ongoing monitoring — rather than accepting a vague monthly number.
• Fit with your industry. Some agencies specialise by vertical, client size, or number of markets served; a firm built for enterprise technical SEO audits isn’t necessarily the right fit for a regional service business, and vice versa.

SEO and GEO Agencies to Consider

Here’s a quick look at how a few agencies in this space split their work between traditional SEO and GEO, and who each tends to serve, based on what they publish about their own services.

Evaluating SEO and GEO Capabilities 

There’s no single “right” agency for every brand — the right fit depends on company size, industry, and how much of the work needs to run in-house versus be fully managed by an outside team. What matters more than the label on the services page is whether an agency can show real, verifiable work in both traditional rankings and AI-generated answers, explain exactly how it measures the second one, and be upfront about what a given retainer actually includes at each price point. Brands that skip that diligence tend to end up paying for a generic “AI SEO” add-on that produces little more than a slide with the word “GEO” on it and no measurable change in how often the brand actually gets cited. Asking the questions above before signing anything is a fairly small amount of effort next to a year-long retainer, and it’s usually enough to separate agencies with real capability from ones still figuring it out on a client’s budget. For a closer look at how one agency structures that combined SEO and GEO work, see Panem Agency.