Every SEO agency sells GEO now. Few can prove it.
Mentionable counted three or four agencies calling themselves GEO specialists at the end of 2023, and several hundred by 2026. Most of those are SEO agencies that rebranded without changing their method. From the outside, the two sound the same.
This is how to tell them apart before you sign.
1. The test that settles it
Ask one question: can you show me a client you got cited by name in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overview, and let me check it myself?
Buzz Dealer calls this the decisive test, and VisibilityStack goes further: ask for a case study with citation counts by engine, before and after. A consultant who can't produce one is selling a strategy, not a result.
Run the check yourself, in a private browser window. A consultant with real results expects you to.
2. What a real GEO consultant can explain
Mentionable suggests a simple filter for the first call. A real specialist brings up, without prompting, the factors that decide whether an AI cites you: fan-out queries, entity signals, structured data, topical authority. If those words never come up, or come up without explanation, you're talking to an agency that relabelled its SEO offer.
Fan-out queries are worth understanding before that call. Ask ChatGPT a question and it often runs several searches behind the scenes before it answers. I can see this in my own Search Console: searches that could only come from an assistant looking for a GEO consultant on someone's behalf, and my site comes up first for some of them. A good consultant works on the searches the AI runs, as well as the one the person typed.
3. Red flags
Buzz Dealer warns against anyone who claims to train or hard-code the AI engines to favour you. Nobody outside those companies can do that. The real work is influencing the sources and signals the engines draw on.
VisibilityStack flags agencies that only talk about keywords, backlinks and on-page SEO. Ulysses News flags the opposite problem: AI visibility pitched without any mention of SEO foundations, when technical SEO, content and authority are what make a site citable in the first place.
Be wary of guarantees too. AI answers keep changing, so nobody can promise you a permanent place in them.
4. What it should cost
Published 2026 figures vary, because different things are sold under the same name. GEO Playbooks cites a range of $10 to $1,000 or more a month for GEO tools and platforms, against $1,500 to $50,000 for agency work. NON.agency puts consultancy, where the consultant builds the strategy and your team executes it, at $1,500 to $5,000 a month.
Mentionable adds a useful warning: below €1,000 a month, you're buying classic SEO with a new label. Market rates are broken down in my article on monthly SEO and GEO retainer costs.
5. What a baseline audit should look like
Before any monthly work, a serious consultant measures where you stand. VisibilityStack describes a credible audit as 50 to 100 prompts over two to three weeks, showing which engines cited you, which didn't, and which competitors appeared instead.
Ask for a sample report before you commit. A consultant who can't show one hasn't built the measurement.
6. When you don't need one
Not every business does. Mentionable argues that for solopreneurs and micro-businesses, paying an agency for GEO often doesn't pay back. If your customers don't ask an AI assistant before buying, the effect will be small.
7. The test, applied to me
I pass my own test. In September 2026, ChatGPT named International Pixel Production its top choice for an audiovisual production agency in Tunisia, in English, French and German, and Google's AI Overview cited it first. It's one of my clients, and the project is in my case studies. AI answers move, so check them yourself rather than taking my word for it.
My GEO work starts at 1,200 € a month for the Essentials plan and 2,400 € for Growth. That entry price is below the published range, because I work alone with no agency overhead. The detail is on my SEO and GEO services page, and a one-off SEO and GEO audit is the usual starting point.
Sources
Figures gathered on 25 September 2026 from published sources: Mentionable, Buzz Dealer, VisibilityStack, Ulysses News, NON.agency, and teamai.com via GEO Playbooks. AI citation screenshots captured 4 to 6 September 2026. Market prices are in US dollars as published.
Want to see how AI assistants describe your business today? Send me your site and the question your customers ask before they find you. Get in touch, I reply within 24 hours. The detail of the service: SEO and GEO services.
