Hiring an SEO, AEO and GEO Agency: Deliverables, Evidence and Questions to Ask

The short answer: a credible SEO, AEO and GEO agency sells deliverables you can inspect — technical fixes, content, structured data, measurement — and describes AI visibility honestly as something you improve the odds of, not something anyone can guarantee. This guide is for businesses comparing agencies that promise visibility in Google, AI Overviews and chat assistants like ChatGPT. It defines the terms, lists real deliverables and gives you the questions that separate evidence from theatre.

Define the Terms Before Comparing Proposals

SEO is visibility in classic search results. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is making your content easy for search engines and assistants to quote directly — clear answers, structure and markup. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is improving how often AI assistants mention or cite your brand when answering questions in your category. The three overlap heavily: the same clear, well-structured, credible content drives all of them. An agency selling them as three separate magic systems should explain what is actually different in the work.

Deliverables You Can Inspect

For each service, ask for the tangible output. SEO: a technical audit with fixes, content briefs and published pages, internal linking work, and reporting tied to Search Console data. AEO: restructured key pages with direct-answer sections, FAQ content, and structured data where it genuinely applies — Google documents what structured data does and does not do in its Search Central documentation. GEO: a baseline of how often AI assistants currently mention your brand for agreed test questions, content and citation work to improve it, and periodic re-testing with the method written down.

Distinguish the Five Levels of 'AI Visibility'

Agencies blur these, so keep them separate: discoverability (AI systems can find and read your pages), citations (your site is referenced as a source), recommendations (the assistant suggests your brand by name), referral visits (people actually click through to you), and enquiries (those visitors contact you). Each level is harder and rarer than the last. A report showing screenshots of your brand in an AI answer is evidence of a mention — not of enquiries. Ask which level each promised metric belongs to.

Claims That Should Worry You

Be cautious of: guaranteed ChatGPT or AI Overview placement (no agency controls what these systems say), 'schema markup will get you recommended' (structured data helps machines understand a page; it does not produce recommendations), proprietary scores with no published method, and case studies with no verifiable detail. Honest agencies describe GEO as improving the probability and quality of mentions over time — and show their testing method so you can repeat it yourself.

Questions to Ask in the First Call

• List the concrete deliverables per month for SEO, AEO and GEO separately.
• How do you measure AI visibility today, and can I repeat your test myself?
• Which of your metrics are mentions, which are visits, and which are enquiries?
• What will you change on my website in the first 60 days?
• What do you not promise, and why?

That final question is the fastest honesty test available.

A hypothetical example: imagine two agencies pitching a Leeds accountancy firm. Agency A promises 'guaranteed ChatGPT visibility in 30 days' and shows screenshots of AI answers with no method behind them. Agency B proposes a baseline test of twenty agreed buyer questions, restructures the firm's service pages with direct answers and genuine FAQ markup, and re-tests quarterly with the method documented. The example is hypothetical, but only Agency B's work can be checked, repeated and improved — which is the whole point.

Our own article on being recommended by ChatGPT and AI Overviews explains the mechanics in the same plain terms.

Aspire Ads provides SEO, AI SEO and AI Overview optimisation with written deliverables and repeatable measurement — see our AI search visibility page and FAQ, or write to hello@aspireads.com for a free consultation.

FAQs: Seo aeo geo agency

Can an agency guarantee my business appears in ChatGPT answers?

No. No agency controls what ChatGPT, Gemini or AI Overviews say. What an agency can legitimately do is make your content discoverable, quotable and credible — improving the odds and quality of mentions — and measure the change with a repeatable method.

Does schema markup get my site recommended by AI assistants?

Not by itself. Structured data helps machines understand your pages and can enable rich results in search, but it does not produce AI recommendations. Recommendations follow from clear, credible, well-cited content across the web — schema is one small supporting piece.

What is the difference between AEO and GEO?

AEO focuses on making your content easy for search engines and assistants to quote as direct answers; GEO focuses on how often generative AI systems mention or cite your brand. In practice the work overlaps heavily — be wary of agencies that sell them as unrelated products without explaining the difference in deliverables.