What do GEO services actually include?
A GEO engagement should cover four things: measuring where you currently appear across AI engines, making your content retrievable and extractable, strengthening the entity signals that let engines identify you, and building the third-party presence engines draw on. Anything sold as GEO that consists only of a monitoring dashboard is measurement, not optimisation.
The distinction matters because it is currently the main thing separating providers in this category, and the price gap doesn't reliably reflect it.
What the market charges
GEO and AEO have become a distinct line item. It's frequently billed as an add-on at $900 or more per month on top of an existing SEO retainer, and standalone GEO agencies price comparably.
The advertising market tells you how contested this is: cost-per-click on generative engine optimization agency runs above $110, and best ai seo company is similar. Nobody bids that on a low-intent query.
What that pricing doesn't tell you is what's inside. Some of it is genuine restructuring, entity work and outreach. Some of it is a monitoring subscription with a markup — a dashboard you could run yourself, resold monthly.
The four components, and how to check them
1. Measurement
Should include: a prompt set reflecting real buying questions, run across multiple engines, reporting mention rate, citation rate, share of voice against named competitors, and which sources the engine used instead of you. Per engine, not blended.
Check: ask who chooses the prompts and whether you can see the full list. A prompt set the agency picks unilaterally can be tuned to look good. Ask for the source attribution data too — that's the part that tells you what to fix.
2. Content and structure work
Should include: restructuring pages so passages stand alone, direct answers in the opening lines, definition-first phrasing, comparison tables, explicit entity naming rather than pronouns.
Check: ask which specific pages will be changed and what the change is. "Optimising content for AI" is not a deliverable. "Restructuring these eleven pages with answer-first openings and comparison tables" is.
3. Entity signals
Should include: consistent Organization markup, consistent naming and description across your site and external profiles, and alignment between what your site says you are and what LinkedIn, Crunchbase and industry directories say.
Check: ask what external properties they'll update and whether they need access. This work is unglamorous and frequently skipped because it isn't visible in a dashboard.
4. Third-party presence
Should include: getting your business accurately described on the sources engines actually retrieve — review platforms, industry roundups, comparison articles, relevant communities.
Check: ask for the method. This is the hardest component, the most valuable, and the one most likely to be quietly absent. If the answer is vague, assume it isn't happening.
Six questions before you sign
- What's my baseline today? If they can't tell you your current mention and citation rate before selling you a programme, they haven't looked.
- Which engines are covered? Engines diverge sharply. A programme covering only ChatGPT is a partial answer.
- Who writes the prompt set, and can I see it?
- What's the deliverable each month? Named pages changed, named profiles updated, named placements pursued.
- What proportion is dashboard versus work? Ask directly. The answer, and how comfortably it's given, is informative.
- What can you not control? Anyone who claims full control over AI citation is describing something nobody has.
Two claims to be sceptical of
"We'll get you into ChatGPT." Nobody controls what an AI system cites. Providers can improve the odds meaningfully. They cannot guarantee an outcome, and a guarantee here means either a meaningless definition of success or a prompt set chosen to produce one.
"You need llms.txt for AI visibility." Adoption sits near 10%, major AI crawlers rarely request the file, Google has said it doesn't use it, and one large study found no relationship with citation rates. It's cheap and harmless — the full evidence — but a provider leading with it is leading with the weakest item available.
Should you buy GEO services at all?
Not yet, if: your site has crawl or indexation problems, you're absent from ordinary search, or you've never checked your AI visibility manually. Fix the foundation first; GEO on an unretrievable site is nothing.
Yes, if: you're visible in search but absent from AI answers, your category is one buyers research conversationally, or competitors are appearing and you aren't.
Measure first, either way. Run twenty real buying questions through ChatGPT and Perplexity yourself. Twenty minutes, no cost, and it tells you whether you have a problem worth $900 a month.
Where we sit
TapasSEO sells GEO as fixed-price deliverables rather than a monthly retainer — a discovery audit that establishes the baseline and the diagnosis, then specific implementation services bought individually.
That's a real preference and worth stating: we think most businesses need a diagnosis and a defined piece of work, not an indefinite monthly programme in a discipline this young. If your category genuinely demands continuous competitive monitoring, a retainer may fit better — and that comparison is here.
Frequently asked questions
How much do GEO services cost? GEO and AEO are commonly billed as an add-on at $900 or more per month on top of an SEO retainer, with standalone agencies pricing comparably. Fixed-price audits and implementation services are the alternative to a recurring commitment.
What does a GEO agency actually do? Measurement across AI engines, content restructuring for passage extraction, entity signal alignment, and third-party presence building. If only the first is happening, you're buying monitoring.
Can a GEO agency guarantee I'll appear in ChatGPT? No. Nobody controls what an AI system cites. Providers can improve the odds; a guarantee means either a meaningless success definition or a prompt set selected to produce one.
Do I need GEO services if my SEO is already good? Possibly not. Strong search visibility often correlates with AI citation because the signals overlap. Check manually before buying — twenty real buying questions across ChatGPT and Perplexity takes twenty minutes.
Is GEO worth paying for? It depends on whether your buyers research conversationally and whether competitors are appearing where you aren't. Both are answerable for free before you commit to anything.
What should a GEO audit tell me? Your mention and citation rate per engine, your share of voice against named competitors, which sources engines are using instead of you, and specifically what's keeping you out.
Start with the baseline, not the retainer
The AI Visibility Checker shows whether AI engines mention you for a query you choose. Free, no email.
The GEO/AEO Discovery Audit is the full diagnosis: mention and citation rate per engine, share of voice against competitors, source attribution, and the specific reasons you're absent. Fixed price, one time, and it tells you whether you need ongoing work before anyone sells you any.