Before you hire an AI SEO agency, ask for dated before-and-after answers from a real assistant, the exact questions and assistants it will test, who gets named instead of you and why, what it will change, how it reports, what it costs, and what it refuses to promise. A good agency answers all twelve questions below in writing.
I'm Nezar Humoud, founder of LinkTech Solutions, a web development, SEO and AI SEO company in Chino Hills, California. We sell AI SEO, so read this with that in mind. These are the questions I would want a buyer to ask us, and they work the same way on any agency selling AI SEO, GEO, AEO, AI search optimization or “AI visibility” services. They take about fifteen minutes on a sales call and they are hard to bluff.
For each question you will find why it matters, what a good answer sounds like, and the answer that should end the call. If you want the background first, our guide to what AI SEO services include and cost covers the work itself, and how small businesses get mentioned by ChatGPT covers the mechanics.
The short version
A good AI SEO agency can show dated before-and-after answers from a real assistant, names the assistants and questions it will test, shows you the raw answers, tells you what the assistants get wrong about you and who they name instead, separates what content can win from what reviews and listings decide, says exactly what it will change and who will do it, reports per question every month, publishes its price, and refuses to guarantee a placement.
1. “Can you show me a business you got named by an AI assistant, with dated answers from before and after?”
Why it matters. This is the only proof that matters. Rankings, traffic charts and citation counts can all move without a single assistant ever naming the client. The work is supposed to change what ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Perplexity say when a buyer asks, so the evidence is the answer itself.
A good answer. A real client (or the agency's own business, labeled as such), the exact question that was asked, the assistant, the date, and the answer before and after. A newer agency may only have its own results to show. That is fine if it says so.
Red flag. A ranking report, a screenshot with no date or question, or "our clients are confidential" with nothing else to offer.
2. “Which assistants will you test, and which questions?”
Why it matters. Each assistant builds answers differently. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot do not always agree, and the questions that matter are the ones your buyers actually ask, with your city and your service in them.
A good answer. A named list of assistants and a written list of questions for your category, agreed with you before any work starts, then re-run on the same wording every month so the comparison is fair.
Red flag. "We track AI visibility" with no list of questions, or a generic set of prompts that never mention your city or what you sell.
3. “Will I see the raw answers, or only a score?”
Why it matters. A single visibility score hides everything useful. You need to read what the assistant actually said about you, because a wrong phone number or an outdated service list is a fix, and a score will never show it.
A good answer. The full answer text for every question, kept on file, plus a short summary of what changed. The score, if there is one, sits on top of the answers, not instead of them.
Red flag. A dashboard number with no way to see the answers behind it.
4. “What do the assistants get wrong about my business today?”
Why it matters. Assistants often describe a business with stale or mixed-up facts: an old address, a service you dropped, a competitor's review attached to your name. These errors cost you buyers who never call. Finding them is the most practical part of any audit.
A good answer. A list of specific errors, where each one probably comes from (your site, your profile, a directory, an old article) and the order to fix them in.
Red flag. No answer until you sign, or a vague promise to "optimize your entity".
5. “Who gets named instead of me, and which sources do the assistants cite?”
Why it matters. The useful question is rarely whether you appear. It is who appears instead of you and why. The sources an assistant cites show you where its answer comes from, and that tells you where the work has to happen.
A good answer. The businesses named for each question and the pages or listings cited as sources, so you can see whether the answer is built from websites, reviews, directories or articles.
Red flag. "Everyone is starting from zero" with no competitor or source detail.
6. “Which of my questions can content win, and which depend on reviews and listings?”
Why it matters. For local questions like "recommend a plumber in Corona", ChatGPT shows a business list built from map listings like your Google Business Profile, with ratings and review counts. Blog posts do not change that list. For research questions, the assistant leans on pages it can quote. The work is different for each.
A good answer. Your questions sorted into the two groups, with a plain statement of what each one needs and which ones are realistic in the first 90 days.
Red flag. "We will publish content and you will show up everywhere."
7. “What exactly will you change, on my site and off it?”
Why it matters. AI SEO is real work on real assets: your website pages, the structured data behind them, your Google Business Profile, your directory listings and your reviews. If nobody can say which of those will change, nothing will.
A good answer. A named list: which pages get direct answers added, which new pages get built, what structured data is added or corrected, which listings get cleaned up, and how reviews will be requested.
Red flag. Monthly AI-written blog posts and nothing else, or tactics they will not explain.
8. “Who will actually do the work?”
Why it matters. A lot of AI SEO is a reseller arrangement. The person on the sales call is not the person editing your site, and the person editing your site may not have access to it at all. You want to know who touches your pages and who answers when something breaks.
A good answer. A named person or team, whether the work is in-house or outsourced, and who ships changes to your website.
Red flag. Evasion, or "our proprietary platform handles it".
9. “How will you report results each month?”
Why it matters. AI answers are new enough that most reporting is either missing or padded. Google Search Console folds AI Overviews and AI Mode into ordinary web results with no filter to separate them, so any "AI impressions" chart from it is not what it claims.
A good answer. Per assistant, per question: were you named, was your site the cited source, who was named instead. Plus visits from the assistants themselves (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot) in your analytics, and calls or form fills where they can be traced.
Red flag. Counts of articles published, or an AI traffic number with no explanation of where it comes from.
10. “What do you need from me?”
Why it matters. Good work needs access. An agency that never asks for anything is either not doing the work or doing it somewhere you cannot see.
A good answer. Read access to Search Console and analytics, manager access to your Google Business Profile, a way to ship changes to your website, and an hour of your time to agree the questions and correct the facts.
Red flag. Nothing at all, or a request to hand over ownership of your profile or domain.
11. “What does it cost, what is included, and what do I keep if I stop?”
Why it matters. Most agencies do not publish a price for AI SEO, which makes comparing proposals hard. A clear price and a clear exit tell you a lot about how confident the agency is in the work.
A good answer. A written price for the audit and for the monthly work, what each includes (fixes shipped or just a report), the contract length, and confirmation that you keep every page, profile and listing if you leave.
Red flag. A long contract before any audit, a price that only appears after three calls, or content that disappears when you cancel.
12. “Do you guarantee I will be recommended by ChatGPT, and what will you refuse to do?”
Why it matters. Nobody controls what an assistant says, and there is no placement to buy. The honest answer is no. What an agency refuses to do tells you even more, because a new category attracts tricks that work for a week and then get a site flagged or a profile suspended.
A good answer. No guarantee of placement, a clear statement of what they can influence, and a list of things they will not do: hidden text, fake reviews, bought links, spam directory submissions.
Red flag. "Guaranteed first-page AI placement", or any tactic that involves text visitors cannot see or reviews customers did not write.
Test the agency yourself before the call
An agency selling AI visibility should be able to show some of its own. Before the call, ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode the questions a buyer would ask about the agency's own category: who offers AI SEO in your region, and which agency can help a business show up in ChatGPT. Note whether the agency is named, what is said about it, and which sources are cited. Then run two or three of your own buyers' questions and bring the answers to the call. A good agency will read them with you and tell you what it sees.
Be fair about the result. A new agency may not be named yet for a broad region, and that alone is not disqualifying. What matters is whether it can explain why, and what it is doing about it. We hold ourselves to the same test. In October 2026, asked for an agency in the Inland Empire that can help a business show up in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT with web search named LinkTech Solutions first. Asked the same question about Los Angeles or Orange County, it named other agencies. Answers change from week to week, so treat any single result, including ours, as a snapshot. Our AI SEO page for Orange County and the Inland Empire answers six of these questions for local buyers, and our study of how ChatGPT picks local businesses shows what decided its picks across 20 Southern California searches.
What AI SEO should cost
Most agencies do not publish a price for AI SEO. Among California agencies that do, monthly retainers start around $1,500 and run past $8,000, with the higher end usually covering multiple locations, a national category, or a large content program. A paid audit before any retainer is a reasonable first step, because it answers questions 3 to 6 above before you commit to a monthly fee.
For reference, ours: an AI visibility audit for $750, one time, delivered in 10 business days and credited toward the first month if you continue, and a monthly AI visibility plan from $1,500 to $5,000 with no long-term contract. Both prices, and the things we will not do, are on our AI SEO services page, so you can hold it against any proposal you are comparing.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI SEO agency is best?
There is no single best agency, and any list claiming one is usually written by an agency on it. The best agency for you is the one that can show dated before-and-after answers from a real assistant, tests the questions your buyers actually ask, publishes its price, and refuses to guarantee placement. Run the twelve questions in this guide on every agency you are considering and compare the written answers.
Can an agency guarantee my business will be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. Nobody controls what ChatGPT, Google AI Mode or Perplexity says, and there is no placement to buy. An honest agency can remove the reasons an assistant skips you, give it accurate pages to quote, build the reviews and listings it reads, and show you the answers before and after. A guarantee of placement is a reason to walk away.
How much should AI SEO cost?
Most agencies do not publish prices. Among California agencies that do, monthly AI SEO retainers start around $1,500 and run past $8,000. A one-time audit is a sensible first step. At LinkTech Solutions the audit is $750, credited toward the first month, and the monthly plan runs $1,500 to $5,000 with no long-term contract.
What is the difference between an AI SEO agency and a regular SEO agency?
The foundation is shared: crawlable pages, clear content and structured data. An AI SEO agency also tests what assistants say about you, fixes the facts they get wrong, writes pages that can be quoted directly, and works on the reviews and listings assistants read. If a provider cannot show you how ChatGPT answers your buyers' questions today, it is doing regular SEO with a new label.
How long does AI SEO take to work?
Fixing wrong facts and structured data can change some answers within weeks, because assistants read live pages for many questions. Reviews and third-party mentions build over months. Expect a baseline in the first two weeks and a fair before-and-after comparison around the 90-day mark.
Do I need an AI visibility tool or an agency?
It depends on who will do the work. An AI visibility tool tracks how often the assistants name and cite you, which helps when someone on your team will act on the numbers. An agency makes the changes that move those numbers: your profile and listings, the pages assistants quote, reviews and mentions. Most small businesses need the changes first.
How do I check if my business shows up in ChatGPT?
Ask it the way a customer would, with your service and your city, for example “recommend a dentist in Irvine”. Turn on web search, note whether you are named, what it says about you, and which sources it cites. Repeat the same questions in Google AI Mode and Perplexity, and save the answers with the date so you can compare next month.