An agency is pitching GEO to show up in AI search — what is it, can it be tracked?

It's the latest agency sales hype. People who can't close traditional SEO contracts slap "AI optimization" on the pitch and double the price tag. AI citing your brand comes down to your existing authority anyway; no one has cracked some secret formula for it yet.

The actual technical side is just setting up flawless JSON-LD markup for Organization and LocalBusiness, and structuring site content into direct Q&A formats to feed knowledge graphs. You can tackle that in a single, well-executed technical audit; it definitely doesn't justify a 1,400 EUR monthly retainer.

A colleague of mine paid 1,000 EUR a month for 4 months on a similar pitch. In the end, the agency's monthly report was literally just weekly screenshots of them asking an AI chatbot "who's the best consultant in Paris". Not a single click brought to their website.

What are they committing to as KPIs in the proposal? If they can't guarantee organic traffic or verified referral traffic, how are they justifying a 6-month contract?

1400 euros a month is a huge budget. with that money you could completely overhaul your site's technical infrastructure and put out press releases in local media that actually make noise. once a press release drops, ai models pick it up naturally and start mentioning you anyway.

4 things you absolutely need to demand during the meeting: 1) A custom analytics dashboard setup that isolates referral traffic from AI bots. 2) The targeted semantic entity list. 3) An off-site digital footprint development plan. 4) The right to terminate without penalty after month 3.

Definitely don't sign a 6-month contract. If you really want to test the waters, offer a one-off project fee covering your site's FAQ sections and local schema markup, then track performance for three months.

The bottom line is simple: the GEO concept makes sense in theory, but in practice it's not a mature or measurable service yet. A solid technical foundation and strong local citations already do the exact same thing; don't risk your money by locking yourself into a contract.

I've been dealing with this for a long time. The answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

Internal linking is the cheapest and most neglected task. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks, that was the answer I was looking for. When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

I've been dealing with this for a long time. A competitor's ranking might come from years of accumulation, not just their content.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You're right, I've been down that road too. Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

Good luck with that.

Youre right. tbh dont trust anyone who gives guarantees; there are no guarantees in this business.

Thats all sorry if I went on too long.

I have a question. Start with a small trial; don't commit to everything at once.

When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

Let me summarize what's been said so far. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

I've been down this road, let me tell you. If rankings stay the same but clicks drop, the issue isn't your page, but the search result appearance.

Thanks that was the answer I was looking for.

I'm curious too.