Too simple? Fine. Here is the longer version.
An SEO agency for AEO still has to be good at SEO
An SEO agency for AEO has to be good at SEO first, because AEO sits downstream of SEO. Answer engines don't invent their own web. They pull pages from a search index and write the answer from what they find. This is Google, in its own guide to AI search:
"From Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."
So the first check is a boring one. Does the agency rank for anything? You would be surprised how many don't. If it can't get its own pages found, why would ChatGPT or an AI Overview cite its clients?
What to ask before you choose an agency for AEO
Before you choose an agency for AEO, ask every firm on your list for the same three things. In writing, not on a call.
- A client they got into AI answers. A named client, the questions, the engines, the dates. Of the 345 providers eligible for an EliteAEO ranking, 104 publish proof like that. The rest mostly say they can.
- A real report. The same prompts, run on a schedule, with the sources each engine cited. Only 195 of the 345 say they report AI visibility to clients at all.
- The name of whoever does the SEO. Technical work, content, links. If the answer is "AEO replaces SEO", the meeting is over. Politely, but over.
What to ignore when you choose an AEO agency
When you choose an AEO agency, you can ignore most of the pitch deck. Guaranteed placement in ChatGPT? Nobody controls what an answer engine says. A special "AEO schema"? Google says there is no special markup to add. A "best AEO agencies" list where the author came first? You can work that one out yourself.
One disclosure, since this is a post about who to trust: I run a search business of my own. It is not listed or ranked on EliteAEO.
That is the short answer. The full one, with eight checks and the warning sign for each, is our guide to evaluating an AEO agency. The figures are from the State of the AEO Agency Market 2026.