You’re thinking about bringing in outside help for your Generative Engine Optimization strategy. That’s actually smart—this is still new enough that most in-house teams don’t have the depth of expertise needed. But before you sign anything, there are some real things you need to understand about what you’re getting into.
I’ve seen companies make expensive mistakes in this space. They hire GEO agency on recommendation, without actually vetting whether the agency understands their specific business challenge. Then six months in, they realize the agency is applying the same playbook to everybody, and it’s not working for their situation.
Let me walk you through what actually matters when you’re evaluating whether a specific GEO agency is right for you.
Starting With the Fundamentals
First thing: does this agency actually understand your industry? GEO work in B2B SaaS looks different than GEO work in eCommerce or healthcare. The AI systems people use, the questions they ask, the type of answers they’re seeking—all of that changes based on your vertical.
A good agency should ask you detailed questions about your space before they pitch anything. They should want to understand your customer journey. Where are your customers looking for information? Are they asking AI systems about your category, or is that not really part of their research process yet? What are the key decision factors in your space?
If an agency jumps straight into their standard presentation without really understanding your context, that’s a sign they’re going to apply a generic approach. Sometimes generic works fine. Often it doesn’t. And you won’t know which until you’re halfway through the engagement and you’ve already committed resources.
Evaluating Their Actual Experience
Look, anyone can claim to do GEO agency now. The term is new, so there’s room for agencies to reinvent their existing practices and call it GEO. That’s frustrating because it makes it hard to know who actually has real depth in this space versus who’s just following the trend.
So dig deeper. Ask them specifically: What work have you done? Can they walk you through a case study where they didn’t just increase SEO rankings, but actually increased visibility within AI-generated responses? Can they show you examples of content that’s being cited by major AI systems?
Ask about their testing methodology. How do they actually test what works? Do they have tools set up to monitor mentions in AI responses? Are they just looking at impressions and clicks, or are they measuring something more specific to GEO?
Pay attention to whether they seem genuinely curious about AI systems versus whether they’re just applying SEO frameworks with new terminology. You want the former.
Understanding Their Approach to Content
Here’s where a lot of agencies miss the mark: they treat GEO like SEO with different metrics. But the content strategy can be genuinely different.
In SEO, you’re often optimizing existing content to rank for specific keywords. You might restructure a page, add more details, and improve the user experience. That work still matters for GEO. But GEO also requires you to think about creating new content specifically designed to be cited by AI systems.
A strong agency should articulate how they’re approaching both:
Content optimization: How are they modifying your existing content to work better for AI consumption? What specifically are they changing, and why?
Content creation: What new content are they recommending you create? And is it only for AI systems, or is it content that serves your human audience too?
Authority building: How are they helping you establish expertise in ways that AI systems recognize and value?
You want an agency that’s clear about all three. If they’re only talking about one dimension, they’re giving you an incomplete strategy.
The Importance of Ongoing Collaboration
This is critical: you need an agency that treats this as a partnership, not a service delivery model. GEO is evolving so rapidly that any agency claiming to have a completely figured-out formula is probably behind the times already.
The best agencies are the ones who say, “Here’s what we think will work based on what we’ve learned. We’ll test it, measure it, learn from it, and adjust.” They should expect to have regular check-ins with you—not to report metrics, but to understand what’s working in your business, what customer feedback you’re hearing, what’s changing in your space.
They should also be keeping you updated on how AI systems are evolving. When ChatGPT releases a new feature, when Perplexity changes how it trains its models, when Google launches new AI Overviews features—your agency should be proactively sharing how that affects your strategy.
Red Flags in the Hiring Process
There are some serious warning signs to watch for. If an agency promises you guaranteed rankings or citations from AI systems, they don’t understand the space. You can’t guarantee what ChatGPT will include in a response. You can optimize for it, you can increase the likelihood, but you can’t guarantee it.
If they seem uncomfortable discussing their actual methodology, keep that in mind. A good agency should be able to explain their process clearly and confidently. They don’t need to hand over trade secrets, but they should be transparent about how they work.
If they’re pushing you toward a contract longer than 6 months without explaining why, that’s worth questioning. A typical engagement might be 6-12 months depending on your scope, but if they’re insisting on 24 months before you’ve even started, that’s about locking you in, not about what actually makes sense for your business.
If they’re not asking about your budget thoughtfully, be cautious. Good agencies will help you understand the relationship between budget and scope. What can you realistically do in this budget? What would it take to do more? There’s a big difference between an agency that’s helping you allocate resources strategically versus one that just wants to sell you the highest-tier package.
The Contract Conversation
When you’re getting to the actual contract stage, here are some things worth negotiating:
Reporting and transparency: What are you actually going to see in terms of results? How often? What metrics matter to you?
Flexibility: If you need to adjust scope or strategy after the first month based on what you’re learning, can you do that without massive penalties?
Exit clause: What does it look like if things aren’t working after 90 days? You should have a graceful way out if it’s not the right fit.
Specificity of deliverables: Get specifics. Not “strategic recommendations”—which agencies are recommending? How many pieces of new content per month? What does optimization actually involve?
The Real Cost of Not Doing This Right
This matters because getting GEO wrong is expensive in multiple ways. Financially, sure—you’re paying for services that don’t produce results. But also strategically. Your team invests time and energy in the process. Your customers might get confused by shifting messaging. Your content might get pulled in directions that don’t actually serve your business.
Taking time upfront to hire the right agency—to ask the right questions, to evaluate carefully, to really understand what you’re signing up for—that time pays for itself many times over.
You’re not just hiring an agency to do work for you. You’re bringing in a partner to help you navigate a changing landscape with them. Make sure you’re actually comfortable with the person or team you’re bringing into that role.
Ready to bring on a partner who gets GEO? Check outThatWare’s GEO services to see how we approach this differently—with strategy first, data second, and genuine partnership throughout.
