How to Choose a GEO Agency or Consultant (and What It Costs)
How to choose a GEO agency or consultant: build your own baseline first, ask who does the off-site work, check published prices, and start with a pilot.
To choose a GEO agency, build your own AI visibility baseline first, match the firm’s specialty to the gap that baseline shows, ask who does the off-site placement work, check the firm’s measurement against your prompts, and start with a scoped audit or 90-day pilot before you sign a retainer. The same process works for choosing a GEO consultant.
I run SEO and GEO strategy for B2B SaaS companies, and the baseline-and-plan work described below is how I run it on live accounts. Case studies from those accounts are on my work page, and my own offer is GEO consulting. This guide is part of my generative engine optimization series. If you want names, my list of the best GEO agencies and consultants is grouped by specialty.
Build your own baseline before the first sales call
The single most useful step in choosing a GEO agency happens before you talk to one. Without your own baseline, every pitch arrives with its own dashboard and its own score, and you have nothing to check them against.
- Write 20 to 30 prompts your buyers actually ask. Best-of questions (“best [category] software for [use case]”), versus and alternatives questions, problem-first questions, and integration questions.
- Run each prompt in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode. Use a logged-out or fresh session so personal history does not skew the answer.
- Mark each answer named, cited, or absent, and note which competitors appear in your place.
- Copy the sources each answer cites. That list shows where AI gets its information about your category.
A spreadsheet is enough. On a cybersecurity account I run, this first read showed the brand in 3% of tracked AI responses while two larger competitors appeared in 26% and 21%. That one number set the priorities for everything after it. On an HR-tech account, the tracked set later grew from 139 to 200 prompts to cover CFO-ready ROI questions, alternatives, and integrations, because the first version missed the questions that precede a purchase.
Bring this sheet to every call. A good firm will want to see it.
Decide whether you need a GEO agency or a GEO consultant
A GEO agency sells strategy plus production: the people who write, build, and pitch. A GEO consultant sells senior direction, and your team or other partners do the production. Pick the model before you pick the firm.
| GEO consultant | GEO agency | In-house GEO specialist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Senior direction, baseline, roadmap, specs, briefs | Strategy plus writing, technical work, and often PR | A dedicated owner on payroll |
| Who does the work | Your team and partners | The agency’s team | Your employee and team |
| Best when | You have writers and developers and no senior GEO owner | You need output and have no team | GEO is proven and there is a full role’s worth of work |
Whichever you pick, plan for placement work. In a citation export across six B2B SaaS accounts I track, 88.7% of the sources AI answers cited were independent third parties and 2.6% were the brand’s own site. Earning mentions on review sites, category lists, publications, and forums is PR work, and many GEO firms treat it as an add-on. Budget for a digital PR partner or an in-house PR owner unless the firm you hire runs placements itself. My guides to digital PR and earned media cover how that side runs.
Some teams search for an AI search consultant and some for a GEO agency; the vetting below applies to both.
Match the firm to your gap
Your baseline tells you which kind of firm you need. Read the sources column first.
- AI answers cite review sites, lists, and forums, and you are missing from them. The gap is off-site. Favor firms with digital PR and earned-media depth.
- AI answers cite your pages and still recommend a competitor. The gap is retrievability: your pages exist and do not answer the prompt cleanly. Favor firms that do answer-first page retrofits and prompt-to-URL mapping.
- AI answers describe your company wrongly or leave it out entirely. The gap is entity clarity. Favor an entity specialist.
- You barely rank in classic search for the underlying queries. The gap is SEO. Fix that first; Google says its AI features are rooted in its core ranking systems, so GEO work on pages that do not rank has little to build on.
Questions to ask a GEO agency
These are the questions to ask a GEO agency or consultant, with what a strong answer sounds like.
- “What is your baseline method?” A strong answer names the prompts, the engines, the date, how often they re-run it, and whether results are recorded as named or cited.
- “Here is my baseline. What stands out to you?” A strong firm reads your sources column and tells you where the gap is. A weak one pivots to its own dashboard.
- “Who does the off-site placement work?” You want a specific answer: an in-house PR team, a named partner, or your comms team. “We handle it” with no detail is a warning sign.
- “Which pages would you change first, and why?” A strong answer maps specific prompts to specific URLs.
- “How does this build on our SEO?” A strong answer connects GEO work to the pages that already rank.
- “What does the monthly report lead with?” You want named and cited rates by prompt, AI-referred sessions, and influenced pipeline.
- “Show me a baseline and a follow-up from a client.” Dated, with the prompt list, and ideally in a similar category.
- “What can you not control?” A credible firm says it cannot guarantee placement, because answers vary by prompt, model version, and user.
- “What is included in the price, and what costs extra?” Content production, PR placements, and tracking software are the usual extras.
- “What does the first 90 days deliver?” A baseline, a prioritized plan, a first set of shipped changes, and a re-read of the prompt set.
For the SEO side of the same vetting, see how to choose an SEO agency.
Red flags in a GEO pitch
- Guaranteed placement in ChatGPT, AI Overviews, or any AI answer.
- A single visibility score with no prompt list behind it.
- Case studies with AI traffic growth and no baseline, no dates, or no pipeline attached.
- llms.txt or “AI files” as the lead tactic. Google’s AI optimization guide says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files, or special markup to appear in its AI features.
- No answer to “who does the off-site work.”
- A plan that ignores classic SEO on a site that barely ranks.
How much does GEO cost?
GEO costs from about $3,000 for a one-time AI visibility project to $10,000 a month or more for a full-service B2B program, based on the prices firms publish on their own sites. Most firms quote after a discovery call, so published price points are the best benchmark you have.
| Offer | Published price | Source, checked September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| SEO and GEO audit, fixed scope (mine) | $5,000 one time | SEO and GEO audit |
| AI visibility project (Digital Elevator) | From $3,000 | Digital Elevator’s pricing guide |
| Managed AEO and SEO (Digital Elevator) | From $3,500 a month | Digital Elevator’s pricing guide |
| AI search optimization (WebFX) | From $3,000 a month | WebFX’s GEO cost page |
| Full-service B2B program (Omniscient Digital) | From $10,000 a month | Omniscient Digital’s site |
GEO pricing spreads widely because firms bundle different work under the same name. Five things drive the price:
- Prompt coverage. Tracking 30 prompts across four engines is a different job from tracking 300.
- Off-site placement. PR and outreach are the most labor-intensive part of GEO, and some firms price them separately.
- Content production. Retrofitting eight pages and writing forty new ones are priced very differently.
- Tracking software. Some firms include a visibility tracker; others bill it to you.
- Seniority. A retainer staffed by a senior strategist costs more than one staffed by a junior account team.
When you compare generative engine optimization cost across firms, compare the scope line by line. A cheaper retainer that excludes placements often costs more once you add a PR partner. The broader pricing picture for SEO models is in how much SEO costs.
Start with a GEO audit or a 90-day pilot
The lowest-risk way to hire is a fixed-scope first project. A paid GEO audit gives you a baseline, a source analysis, and a prioritized plan you own whether or not you continue. Free GEO audit tools are useful for a quick look at page structure; they do not read your buyers’ prompts or your competitors’ sources.
If you go straight to a retainer, make the first 90 days a pilot with a written deliverable list and a re-read of your prompt set at the end. As a yardstick: on an HR-tech account, retrofitting eight low-visibility pages with answer-first structure and prompt-to-URL mapping lifted average AI-answer presence from about 30% to 48% in 30 days. Off-site work moves slower, usually a quarter or more before it registers in AI answers.
How to tell if the hire is working
Re-run your own baseline on a fixed schedule, and judge the firm against it.
- At 30 days: the baseline, source analysis, and plan are delivered, and the first page changes are shipped.
- At 90 days: named or cited rates have moved on the prompts the work targeted, and AI-referred sessions show in your analytics.
- At six months: placements are live on the sources your baseline flagged, and AI-referred visitors are showing up in pipeline.
If the firm’s report and your own re-read disagree, trust your prompts. More on setting up that measurement is in my guide to AI visibility.
Frequently asked questions
What is a GEO agency?
A GEO agency is a firm that works to get your brand named and cited in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. The work covers a prompt-level baseline, source analysis, page retrofits, off-site placements, entity work, and reporting. For the full definition, see what is GEO.
Which are the best GEO agencies?
The best GEO agencies are the ones whose specialty matches your gap: B2B software programs, enterprise technical work, content at scale, or entity and brand work. My list of the best GEO agencies and consultants groups them by those specialties.
How much money does a GEO agency cost per month?
A GEO agency retainer starts around $3,000 to $3,500 a month for entry-level managed programs and reaches $10,000 a month or more for full-service B2B programs, based on prices firms publish on their own sites. Off-site placement work, content volume, and tracking software are the main reasons monthly quotes differ.
How do I choose the right SEO agency for GEO work?
Choose an SEO agency for GEO work the same way you choose a GEO agency: bring your own prompt baseline, ask who does the off-site placements, and ask how the GEO plan builds on the pages that already rank. An SEO agency that cannot show a prompt-level baseline from a past client is still learning GEO.
What is GEO and how does it work?
GEO, generative engine optimization, is the work of getting a brand into AI-generated answers. It works by influencing which sources AI engines retrieve, which passages they quote, and which brands they name, through ranking pages, answer-first content, third-party mentions, and clear entity information.
Is a GEO agency different from an AEO agency?
A GEO agency and an AEO agency sell the same work under different names. Both aim to get your brand into AI-generated answers. Compare them on baseline method, off-site capability, and specialty.
Can one agency handle both SEO and GEO?
One agency can handle both SEO and GEO, and it often makes sense, because GEO builds on the same pages and rankings. Check that the firm reports on both scoreboards: classic rankings and traffic, and named and cited rates by prompt.
Should I hire an in-house GEO specialist?
Hire an in-house GEO specialist once GEO has proven its value and there is a full role’s worth of work: a large prompt set, ongoing content, and placements. Before that point, a consultant or agency on a scoped engagement costs less and gets you a baseline faster.