All 12 answers named five services, as we coded them#
Prefer asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity three times each on 13 September 2026 (via API, not the consumer apps) and coded the services listed. Two Claude answers named strategy and consulting but no audit. Prefer Managed covers all five services below for $2,500 a month.
| Service | What the answers said it involves | Example deliverable in a cited guide |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy and audit | Testing buyer questions in AI engines, then a plan | A “Baseline citation report” of queries, engines, models and brands named, dated |
| Content optimization | Answer-first pages, FAQs, comparisons | 8 to 12 “citation-worthy assets” in the first 90 days |
| Technical SEO and schema | Schema in all 12; crawler access in 4 | A “Technical and schema gap report” |
| Digital PR and earned mentions | Reviews, directories, industry publications | ”Directory submissions” to five general and 2 to 4 industry directories |
| Prompt tracking and monitoring | Re-running prompts to track mentions and citations | ”Monthly citation-share reporting” |
Examples come from cited agency guides: doodleweb.io (audit, PR), voctos.com (content), qwestyon.com (technical, tracking).
Beyond the five: entity and knowledge graph work (7), reporting (6), Reddit and community (6), and, by our count, checking or fixing wrong facts (6) and measuring traffic, leads or conversions (4).
What none of the answers said#
No answer said how often an agency reports, what a month of work delivers, how long results take or what it costs. All three Perplexity answers offered to cover deliverables in a follow-up instead. The only figure for the work itself was one Gemini answer’s “thousands of buyer-intent queries”, unsourced.
Most cited pages come from agencies: at least 22 of the 35 domains are agencies’ own sites, and 3 are neutral references. Cited guides split on how often to track: voctos.com, cited in all three Perplexity answers, says to “test monthly”; a doodleweb.io guide, cited in two, asks for “a weekly or biweekly cadence”.
Where the engines disagree#
Reddit split them evenly. Every Claude and Gemini answer named it; no ChatGPT or Perplexity answer mentioned Reddit or forums.
All three ChatGPT answers listed fixing wrong facts about you; all three Gemini answers listed checking for them (how to correct them).
Asked what an agency does, only ChatGPT warned against guarantees, in all three answers. One Gemini answer closed by saying an agency “makes sure” that “the AI recommends your business.”
None of the 12 named OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT’s search crawler. The two that named specific crawlers listed GPTBot, which OpenAI documents as a training crawler.
What Google says about this work#
Google’s guide, cited once by ChatGPT, was the only search engine documentation cited. All 12 answers listed schema as agency work; Google says structured data “isn’t required” for its AI features, though it recommends it for rich results.
One Claude answer, given without web search, said there is no “AI Search Console” yet. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google had rolled out Search Console’s Generative AI performance report to all websites by 31 August 2026.
How to turn the list into a scope#
- Get a dated baseline. Run 10 to 50 buyer prompts, not thousands, three or more times per engine, since answers change between runs. Log the engine, date, whether you were named and the sources. Done when you hold your own copy and a pass mark is agreed.
- Put an output and a date on each service. Ask for items as specific as a “Baseline citation report” or a “Technical and schema gap report”; the answers named none. Done when each core service has one, with a due date.
- Fix the reporting in writing. We suggest a weekly run and a weekly report. Ask for traffic, leads and conversions too; only 4 answers named them as measures. Done when the contract names the frequency and the metrics.
- List the off-site targets. Half the answers named Reddit. Done when the proposal names the sites and who does the work.
- Re-run the baseline on the agreed date. Done when you beat the pass mark, or use the cancellation clause (how to choose an AEO agency).
Disclosure: Prefer sells Prefer Managed, a done-for-you AI search service, so we have a stake in this answer. To start step 1, run a free AI visibility audit.
Sources
- Across 12 answers to 'What does a GEO agency actually do?' from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity (three runs each, 13 September 2026, via API rather than the consumer apps), all 12 named five services as we coded them: strategy and audit, content optimization, technical SEO and schema, digital PR and earned mentions, and prompt tracking and monitoring. Ten described an audit of how AI engines answer buyer questions; two Claude answers named strategy and consulting but no audit. (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- Prefer Managed, our done-for-you AI search service, costs $2,500 a month and covers the audit and baseline, on-page and content work, off-page work such as Reddit participation and PR pitches, and tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. Its guarantee: a measurable lift in AI-citation visibility on your tracked prompts against a day-zero baseline within 90 days, or Prefer works at no management fee until it is hit. We have a commercial stake in what buyers expect from an agency. Prefer Managed (our product)
- Below the five, the coded services were entity and knowledge graph work (7 of 12: all three Gemini, all three Perplexity, one ChatGPT), reporting (6) and Reddit and community (6: all three Claude and all three Gemini; no ChatGPT or Perplexity answer mentioned Reddit or forums). Counted from the answer text: 6 listed checking or fixing wrong facts about a brand (all three ChatGPT, all three Gemini), and 4 named traffic, leads or conversions as something to measure (two ChatGPT, two Gemini); other answers mention traffic only in passing. All 12 named schema or structured data; 4 named crawler access or crawlability as work. (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- None of the 12 answers gave a reporting frequency, a monthly deliverable, a timeline for results or a price. All three Perplexity answers offered to cover deliverables in a follow-up instead ('what a GEO agency delivers month to month', 'what a GEO agency delivers week to week', 'what a GEO agency deliverable looks like'). The only figure for the volume of the work itself was one Gemini answer's 'thousands of buyer-intent queries', with no source. (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- Claude cited no web sources in any of its three answers. The other nine cited 83 links to 41 pages on 35 domains, and only one domain was cited by more than one engine. At least 22 of the 35 domains are agencies' own sites; 3 are neutral references (Google's Search Central guide, the 2023 GEO paper on arXiv, and Wikipedia). (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- Asked what a GEO agency actually does, all three ChatGPT answers warned against guaranteed placement, rankings or inclusion, and no Claude, Gemini or Perplexity answer did; one Gemini answer closed by saying a GEO agency 'makes sure' that 'the AI recommends your business'. Asked how to choose an AEO agency (same run), 11 of 12 answers, from all four engines, named guaranteed AI placement as a red flag. (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- Google's guide to generative AI features in Search (last updated 10 July 2026) says structured data isn't required for generative AI search and there is no special schema.org markup to add, though it recommends structured data for rich results; that seeking inauthentic mentions 'isn't as helpful as it might seem'; that from Google Search's perspective optimizing for generative AI search is 'still SEO'; and that Google Search ignores llms.txt files, so creating one will neither help nor harm visibility there. Google Search Central: Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search
- One Claude answer, given without web search, said there is no 'AI Search Console' equivalent to Google Search Console yet, so agencies often build custom tracking. Google's Search Console Help says the Generative AI performance report was rolled out to all websites as of 31 August 2026 and shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report
- In agency guides the engines cited (read 19 September 2026), example deliverables include a 'Baseline citation report' and 'Directory submissions' (doodleweb.io), 8 to 12 'citation-worthy assets' in a 90-day foundation phase (voctos.com), and a 'Technical and schema gap report' and 'Monthly citation-share reporting' (qwestyon.com). All three guides list a baseline and a monthly report; qwestyon.com schedules its baseline for days 1 to 14, before any optimization. voctos.com (cited in all three Perplexity answers) says to 'test monthly'; a doodleweb.io guide (cited in two) asks for 'a weekly or biweekly cadence'. voctos.com and qwestyon.com list llms.txt setup as a deliverable. (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- On timelines, the cited agency guides disagree and none links outside evidence: voctos.com says that, for brands with existing domain authority, ChatGPT and Perplexity citations typically begin moving in 60 to 90 days and AI Overviews follow at 90 to 120; doodleweb.io says AI Overviews and Perplexity often move in 30 to 45 days and ChatGPT and Gemini typically take 60 to 90 on competitive queries; qwestyon.com gives 'citation-share movement inside 90 days'. (Prefer research note: what a GEO agency does (2026-09-19), dated research note)
- Two answers named specific crawlers, one Claude and one Gemini, and both listed GPTBot as a crawler an agency manages, the Gemini answer listing it among 'AI search crawlers'; none of the 12 named OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says GPTBot crawls content that may be used in training its models and OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features. OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Two of ChatGPT's three answers said some GEO offerings are conventional SEO or content marketing with new branding. Asked 'How do I choose an AEO agency?' (12 answers, same run), 8 named an SEO rebrand with no new method as a red flag. (Prefer research note: AI SEO and GEO agencies (2026-09-16), dated research note)
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