AI Search Changes Everything: How to Pick the Right SEO and GEO Agency

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-15

Hiring an SEO agency used to be simple. You'd check case studies, glance at ranking history, agree on a reporting schedule, and you were done. But that decision has gotten a lot more complicated lately. AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews now sit alongside — and increasingly in front of — the traditional search results. And here's the kicker: the skills that get you to the top of one system don't automatically get you into the other. You could hire a perfectly competent SEO team and still be invisible in the answer an AI assistant gives a buyer researching your category. That's why more procurement conversations now specifically call out generative engine optimisation (GEO) as a separate line item. It's not something you can just bolt onto an existing SEO retainer and hope for the best. ### SEO vs. GEO: What's the Real Difference? Traditional SEO is still mostly about earning a ranking position and a click. Backlinks, on-page relevance, and technical health decide who shows up in those ten blue links. GEO is different. It's about earning a citation inside an answer the user never has to click through. That's decided by entity authority, structured data, and independent mentions the AI system trusts. But here's the good news: there's a sweet spot in the middle. Content that's genuinely well-sourced and clearly structured tends to perform in both systems at once. That's exactly what a competent combined agency should be optimizing for — not treating as two separate deliverables. ### What to Evaluate Before You Sign A few questions tend to separate agencies with real GEO capability from ones that have simply relabeled an existing service: - **Documented proof in both channels.** Ask for actual ranking data alongside specific, verifiable examples of the agency's content being cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or AI Overviews. A screenshot of a single citation isn't a track record. Ask how many clients, and over what period. - **A technical foundation, not just content tricks.** The strongest GEO work is built on the same technical rigor as strong SEO — crawlability, site architecture, structured data. If an agency can't speak to your site's technical health, its GEO plan is likely just content rewrites. - **A real measurement method.** Standard rank trackers don't capture whether a brand was cited inside an AI answer. Ask exactly how the agency tracks citation frequency and "share of voice" across AI platforms, how often that gets reported, and what a baseline audit looks like before work starts. - **Transparent, scoped pricing.** Mid-market GEO retainers typically run anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per month, so ask what's actually included at each tier — audits, content production, digital PR, ongoing monitoring — rather than accepting a vague monthly number. - **Fit with your industry.** Some agencies specialize by vertical, client size, or number of markets served. A firm built for enterprise technical SEO audits isn't necessarily the right fit for a regional service business, and vice versa. ### SEO and GEO Agencies to Consider Here's a quick look at how a few agencies split their work between traditional SEO and GEO, and who each tends to serve, based on what they publish about their own services. | Agency | Traditional SEO | GEO | Best For | |--------|----------------|-----|----------| | Panem Agency | Technical, on-page, off-page, and local SEO | AI citation audits, schema/E-E-A-T content builds, and monthly AI-visibility scorecards across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity | Brands wanting a combined approach | > "The overlap in the middle is where most of the actual budget should go: content that's genuinely well-sourced and clearly structured tends to perform in both systems at once." ### The Bottom Line The line between SEO and GEO is blurring, but they're not the same thing. Before you sign a contract, make sure the agency can prove they understand both — and can show you real results in each. Your future visibility in AI search depends on it.