Hire the agency that can show you which AI answers name your business today for your trade and city, tell you plainly what it will change (most of it is ordinary SEO, your Google Business Profile, listings, and reviews), and tie the result to calls and booked jobs. Walk away from anyone who guarantees you a spot in ChatGPT or sells a special AI file as the fix. Google itself says GEO and AEO, from Search’s point of view, are “still SEO,” and points anyone buying those services to its advice on evaluating SEO vendors. Below are the seven questions we would ask on the sales call, what good and bad answers sound like, and how we answer each one ourselves.
From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO. If you are considering third-party AEO or GEO advice or services, review Google’s guidance on evaluating third-party SEO advice. Source: Google Search Central, generative AI guide (last updated 2026-07-10 UTC).
Before the Call: Three Checks You Can Do in Ten Minutes
- Ask one assistant (ChatGPT or Gemini, logged out) one question a customer would ask, with your service and city in it and no business name. Write down who is named. For how to run and read a proper test, use the measurement guide. Do not stop at a single run.
- Open Search Console’s Generative AI performance report. It shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, with no queries or clicks. As of August 31, 2026, Google rolled these insights out to all websites worldwide (Search Console Help). No report usually means too few AI impressions so far.
- Confirm your site is not excluded from Google’s generative AI features in Search Console. Google’s guide says a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to be eligible for display in generative AI features on Google Search.
Where Ranked Agency Lists Fit
Ranked lists of GEO agencies are now being published. One example is First Page Sage’s “The Top Local GEO Agencies in 2026” (published October 14, 2026), which says its team evaluated 44 firms on a weighted score across six criteria. A list can give you names to call. It cannot tell you how an agency will handle your trade, your city, and your booked jobs. That is what the call is for.
Stage 1, scope
What Are You Actually Going to Do?
Ask: “Which parts of this are regular SEO, and which parts are new for AI?”
Why it matters: Google calls it still SEO. A vendor who sells it as a separate new science is pricing the familiar work twice.
Keep talking if you hear: a plain split. Most of the work is site pages, Google Business Profile, listings and reviews. What is added is testing AI answers and checking the AI describes your business correctly.
End the call if you hear: “SEO is dead,” or a “proprietary AI algorithm” they cannot explain.
Ask: “What will you change on my website, and what will you change off it?”
Why it matters: AI answers pull from more than your site. In our logged-out Scottsdale pool remodeling test (October 14, 2026), the answers cited the state license board (Arizona Registrar of Contractors), review and lead sites (Birdeye, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Houzz, Yelp), the companies’ own sites, and a manufacturer’s installer locator (pebbletec.com).
Keep talking if you hear: they name the outside sources for your trade (license lookup, review profiles, manufacturer or certification locators, trade directories) and say who updates each. For the inputs that get a business named, see AI search visibility for local service businesses.
End the call if you hear: “We place you on our network of sites,” with no list and no word on whether it is paid.
Ask: “What will you refuse to do?”
Why it matters: Google’s guide lists things you can ignore, including llms.txt and other “special” markup, chunking content, rewriting just for AI, and seeking inauthentic mentions. Google’s scaled-content policy also covers spinning out pages for every query variation mainly to rank.
Keep talking if you hear: no fake or paid-for reviews, no fake mentions, no page per keyword variant, no llms.txt sold as the fix.
End the call if you hear: no limits, or llms.txt / “AI schema” as the main deliverable.
Stage 2, proof
Show Me, Don’t Tell Me
Ask: “Can you show me a report you actually sent, or a real dated test?”
Why it matters: claims without a dated panel are marketing copy.
Keep talking if you hear: a dated report with the prompts, which assistants, and how often you were named. What a real report should contain, and the warning signs, are in our guide to measuring AI search visibility.
End the call if you hear: a single “AI visibility score” and nothing behind it.
Ask: “Can you run one question for my trade and city right now, logged out, while I watch?”
Why it matters: it takes two minutes and shows whether they can read an answer, not just sell one.
Keep talking if you hear: they use a question your customers would ask, point to the sources the answer used, and say what they would fix first. They also tell you one run proves little.
End the call if you hear: they type your business name into the prompt (“Is [your company] good?”) and call that visibility.
Ask: “Which assistants will you track, and which can’t you test?”
Why it matters: “All of them” usually means none of them carefully.
Keep talking if you hear: a short named list and an honest gap. Example from our test: Perplexity, logged out, answered “Sign up and repeat your request” with no answer, so we left it out rather than test signed in.
End the call if you hear: “all of them,” with no caveats.
Stage 3, money
How Will I Know It Booked Jobs?
Ask: “How will this show up in my calls and booked jobs, not just mentions?”
Why it matters: mentions are not revenue. For a trade, the real scoreboard is calls, forms and booked jobs in your CRM.
Keep talking if you hear: they connect AI-referred visits and calls to booked jobs in the CRM you already use, and they judge the work on that. Do not accept a claim of AI clicks that Search Console does not report. Google’s generative AI report is impressions only.
End the call if you hear: mentions, impressions or “share of voice” as the only result. Also end it if they guarantee a ChatGPT placement or “page one in AI in 30 days.” Google’s advice on hiring an SEO is clear: if they guarantee first place, find someone else (Do you need an SEO?).
Stage 4, fit
Will You Work for My Kind of Business?
Two quick asks on the same call
What access do you need on day one? Google advises granting only read access to Search Console during an audit. Good answer: read access first. You keep ownership of your site, Google Business Profile, Search Console and ad accounts.
Do you know my trade, and do you test both residential and commercial questions? A facilities manager asks differently from a homeowner (“commercial water heater replacement for a 40-unit building in [city]” versus “who can fix my water heater today”). Good answer: separate prompts and separate reporting lines for commercial work.
After the Calls: What to Get in Writing
Before you sign: the scope with on-site and off-site items, the exact question set they will test (attached to the contract), report date and contents, what is not guaranteed (no placement promise), and the term and how you leave, including that you keep your accounts and content. Month to month is what we use. If the paperwork does not say that, ask why.
Put These Seven Questions to Us
We are a Google Partner agency. Put these seven questions to us on a call, and we will run one question for your trade and city while you watch. See how our AI search visibility work runs.
Book a Strategy CallSources, read October 19, 2026. Google Search Central: Google’s guide to optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search (published May 15, 2026; last updated 2026-07-10 UTC); Do you need an SEO? (last updated 2026-06-05 UTC); Guidance on using third-party SEO tools, services, and advice (last updated 2026-06-05 UTC). Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search). First Page Sage, “The Top Local GEO Agencies in 2026” (October 14, 2026), cited only as an example of ranked lists. Ostmen Marketing test log, Scottsdale pool remodeling, October 14, 2026 (logged out; ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overview).