How to choose an SEO and AEO agency: 12 questions to ask (and the red flags)

Short answer: Choose an SEO and AEO agency that can show you, before you sign, what AI assistants and Google say about your business today. It should measure change against that baseline across named engines, report results with a denominator and a starting point, tell you who does the work, and refuse to guarantee rankings or AI citations. The twelve questions below separate agencies that can do this from those that have renamed an old SEO package.

We sell a combined SEO + AEO service, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to write the checklist we'd want a buyer to use on us, and we give our own answers where they're useful.

Why is choosing an AEO agency harder than choosing an SEO agency?

Because the discipline is young and the vocabulary isn't settled. Answer engine optimisation (AEO), generative engine optimisation (GEO), "AI SEO" and "LLM optimisation" often describe the same work. AI answers also change between sessions, so a single screenshot proves very little. Recent roundups of AEO agencies (Magier, COSEOM) say much the same: a large share of the market is repackaged SEO with new labels. The only reliable filter is to ask how the work is measured and what evidence already exists.

The 12 questions

1. What do AI assistants say about our business today?

A good agency runs a baseline before it quotes. That means a fixed set of real buyer questions ("best [service] for [need] in [city]", comparisons, pricing questions) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and, where relevant, Copilot. It records whether you're mentioned, whether you're cited with a link, and who's named instead. Red flag: "We'll look at that once you've signed."

2. Which engines do you measure, and how?

Ask them to explain the difference between a mention (your name in the answer), a citation (a link to your page), and referral traffic (people clicking through). Each is measured differently. Referral traffic appears in Google Analytics 4. Copilot citations can be seen in Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report (in public preview since February 2026). Mentions need repeated checks, because answers vary. Red flag: one number called "AI visibility score" with no explanation of how it's built.

3. What does your own website look like to an AI crawler?

It's a fair test. Open the agency's site, choose "view source", and check whether the page copy is in the raw HTML. Many AI crawlers don't run JavaScript. Then look at its robots.txt and check whether OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is allowed. In our case, we rebuilt our own site in 2026 for exactly this reason. It had been a JavaScript-only app, and AI crawlers saw an almost empty page. Our pages are now server-rendered, and our robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot.

4. Can you show results with a denominator and a baseline?

"Page one for 51 keywords" means little on its own. "From 5 to 51 of 56 tracked keywords" tells you the starting point and the size of the set. Ask for the metric, the source (Search Console, GA4, a named rank tracker) and the time window. Here are our own anonymised SEO results, stated that way:

• An industrial bearings distributor: 5 → 51 of 56 target keywords on Google page one. Organic-search conversions (key events in Google Analytics 4) 118 → 273 quarter on quarter. About 270 visits a month from AI assistants.
• A training college: 7 → 44 of 51 keywords on page one. Visitors referred by AI assistants are already converting.
• A property education brand: 6 → 16 of 22 keywords on page one.

Red flag: percentages with no base ("+267% traffic"), or client logos with no numbers.

5. How do SEO and AEO fit together in your plan?

Google says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for its AI features, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that no special optimisation is needed to appear in them. A credible plan treats crawlability, indexing, content quality and authority as the shared foundation. It adds AEO-specific work on top: tracking answers across engines, answer-first page structure, and earning third-party mentions. Red flag: an AEO proposal that ignores your SEO basics, or an SEO proposal that ignores AI answers entirely.

6. What exactly happens in the first 90 days?

You should get a week-by-week outline. A typical one:

• Month one: baseline and technical fixes.
• Month two: entity and profile consistency, plus the first answer-first pages.
• Month three: off-site mentions and the first review against the baseline.

Red flag: "Strategy" as the only deliverable for three months.

7. Who actually does the work, and where?

Ask who writes, who edits, who touches your analytics and CMS, and whether any subcontractors are involved. If anyone at the agency, or a subcontractor, will handle personal data from your analytics or CRM, check with your advisers what written agreement you need (for example a data processing agreement) and make sure it covers everyone involved. Red flag: vague answers about who actually does the work.

8. How will you earn mentions off our website?

AI answers lean on corroboration: reviews, directories, trade press, "best of" lists and genuine community discussion. Ask how the agency earns those. Good answers include expert commentary for journalists, original data, podcast appearances and getting listed on the directories that matter in your sector. Red flag: packages of "guaranteed high-authority links", directory blasts, or paid posts presented as editorial.

9. What will you never promise?

The right answer: no guaranteed rankings, no guaranteed AI citations, and no "secret file" that makes ChatGPT recommend you. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files (llms.txt is one example) or special schema.org markup to appear in its AI features. Structured data helps machines read accurate facts, but it doesn't force a citation. Red flag: "Top three in ChatGPT within 30 days."

10. Who owns the work if we leave?

Content, schema, reports, and access to your analytics and Search Console should be yours. Our terms say you own the final reports, the schema markup we deploy and the text produced for you during your subscription. Red flag: the agency holds your Google Business Profile, analytics or domain in its own account.

11. What does it cost, and what are the terms?

Published market ranges for managed AEO start at about USD 1,500 a month for smaller businesses and reach five figures for enterprise programmes. Our own fees are on our pricing page. Ask what's included at the price, the minimum term, and what happens at the first review point. Red flag: a separate fee per AI engine for the same monitoring, or a long lock-in with no review point.

12. How will we know it's working at 30, 60 and 90 days?

Agree the scorecard before you start. For example:

• Pages indexed.
• Non-brand search impressions and clicks (Search Console).
• Mentions and citations on the fixed question set (per engine).
• Copilot citations (Bing Webmaster Tools).
• AI-assistant sessions and leads (GA4).
• Earned third-party mentions.

Red flag: reports that only show activity ("we submitted 40 listings") rather than outcomes.

A quick scorecard

What to do next

Send these twelve questions to every agency on your shortlist, including us, and compare the written answers side by side. If you'd like to see question 1 answered for your business, book a free AI visibility review. We'll run your buyer questions across the main AI engines and show you exactly where you stand. You can see what our plans include on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Should I hire a specialist AEO agency or an SEO agency that does AEO?

Either can work. What matters is whether they measure AI answers properly and keep the SEO foundations strong. Because Google's AI features draw on its core search systems, an agency that's weak at SEO will struggle with AEO.

How many agencies should I compare?

Three is usually enough, as long as each gets the same brief and the same questions. Ask each one for a baseline on the same five buyer questions, so the answers are comparable.

Is it a red flag if an agency won't name its tools?

Not on its own, but it's worth asking. Many agencies use commercial AI-visibility trackers alongside their own checks. What matters is that they can explain the method and show you the raw answers behind any score.

Can an agency guarantee we'll be recommended by ChatGPT?

No. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google choose sources themselves, and their answers vary between sessions. An agency can make your business a stronger, easier-to-verify candidate and measure the change. It can't guarantee the outcome.

What should a monthly AEO report include?

Results on the fixed question set by engine, competitors named in your place, the pages that earned citations, AI-assistant traffic and leads, search performance split into brand and non-brand, the work done, and the plan for next month.