Short answer. Choose a GEO agency by evaluating its measurement system before its tactics. A credible agency should define the prompts it will track, the engines it will test, how often it will repeat queries, how it distinguishes mentions from citations and how it will connect AI visibility to ordinary search and business outcomes. Then assess implementation depth across technical SEO, answer-ready content, entity clarity, original evidence and third-party authority. Avoid providers that promise guaranteed ChatGPT rankings or present one screenshot as proof of durable visibility.
What exact prompt set will you track and how was it selected?
Which engines do you measure: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI features, Perplexity, Claude or others?
How do you reduce random variation in AI answers?
Can I see the raw prompt-level data behind your visibility score?
What technical work will you perform on my site?
How will you improve third-party authority, not just on-site copy?
What will you publish or change in the first 90 days?
Can you show a case study with baseline, time window and measurement method?
How do you report AI referral traffic or assisted pipeline where possible?
What do you explicitly not guarantee?
How should GEO measurement be evaluated?
Measurement is the most important procurement question because GEO has no universal equivalent of a fixed Google ranking. Answers can vary between runs, and engines may use different retrieval sources. An agency should therefore define a stable measurement protocol before claiming improvement.
- Metric
- What it means
- Procurement question
- Mention rate
- Brand named in tracked prompts
How many prompts and repeated runs?
Citation rate
Brand-owned page linked/cited
Which engines expose citations?
Share of voice
Brand versus competitors
Is the prompt set buyer-relevant?
Recommendation position
Relative shortlist order
How is variability handled?
Accuracy/sentiment
Whether brand is described correctly
Who reviews qualitative output?
AI referrals
Traffic from AI sources
How is attribution implemented?
What should prompt tracking look like?
Prompts should mirror real customer questions rather than a list created to make the brand look good. A useful taxonomy covers category discovery, use cases, comparisons, alternatives, implementation, pricing, trust and problem-oriented questions.
Group prompts by buyer intent.
Track competitors in the same runs.
Use the same core prompt set over time.
Record engine, date, geography and model where possible.
Repeat a subset of prompts to estimate volatility.
Keep raw outputs available for qualitative review.
How important is traditional SEO?
Very important. Google explicitly states that existing SEO best practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode and that no special additional requirements are necessary for inclusion. That means a GEO agency that ignores crawlability, indexing, site architecture and high-quality content is missing the foundation.
See Google's official site-owner guidance for AI features. Google Search Central
What content capabilities should an agency have?
Question-led educational pages with concise direct answers.
Comparison and alternative pages for commercial evaluation.
Original data and research that others can cite.
Product/service pages with explicit use cases and limitations.
Statistics and claims linked to primary sources.
Content updates for freshness and factual accuracy.
Editorial quality strong enough to earn external references.
How should entity optimization work?
Entity optimization makes the brand easy to identify and describe consistently. The agency should review organization, product, leadership, category and location information across the website and important third-party profiles. The goal is to remove ambiguity, not merely add schema markup.
- Entity issue
- Example fix
- Category ambiguity
- Clarify exactly what the company sells
- Product naming inconsistency
- Standardize names across site and profiles
- Missing relationships
- Link company, products, founders and locations clearly
- Outdated facts
- Update pricing, markets, features and leadership
- Unsupported differentiator
- Add evidence or remove the claim
What is third-party authority?
Third-party authority is evidence about the brand that does not originate on the brand's own website. It can include independent media, industry comparisons, reviews, partner pages, citations and expert references. A GEO agency should explain how it will earn legitimate authority rather than manufacturing low-quality mentions.
How should case studies be evaluated?
Named client or enough context to understand the category.
Baseline prompt set and baseline visibility.
Exact measurement window.
Engines included.
Changes implemented.
Outcome by metric, not a vague visibility score.
Disclosure when results are company-reported.
How should GEO pricing be compared?
Pricing varies because the scope can range from measurement-only consulting to a full SEO, content and digital-PR program. Compare deliverables and internal effort rather than the monthly fee alone.
| Pricing component | What to clarify |
|---|---|
| Audit/setup | Prompt research, technical baseline, competitor mapping |
| Tracking software | Included or separate license |
| Content | Number/type of pages and editorial level |
| Technical implementation | Advice only or hands-on fixes |
| Digital PR | Included, separate or not offered |
| Reporting | Prompt-level dashboard or summary only |
| Contract term | Pilot, monthly or minimum commitment |
What should a 90-day pilot include?
Baseline measurement before implementation.
Technical accessibility fixes.
One priority content cluster.
At least one comparison or buyer-focused page.
One original-evidence or authority-building initiative.
Repeated AI visibility measurement.
A written explanation of what moved, what did not and what should happen next.
Sources and further reading
- Google Search Central - AI features and your website.
- OpenAI - Publishers and Developers FAQ.
- Princeton / KDD - GEO: Generative Engine Optimization.
- First Page Sage - GEO Strategy Guide.
- Directive - GEO Guide.
- Omnius - What is GEO?.
- Omnius - GEO Checklist.
- Siege Media - GEO Guide.
- Intero Digital - RASE Framework.