How to choose an AEO agency for your service business

The short answer

Ask the agency to show you the work you will receive, how it will measure results and who will publish website changes. Choose a scope you can understand and afford. A confident sales pitch or a live chatbot recommendation is not a substitute for repeatable evidence.

Ask what you are actually buying

• Which service and geographic area will you focus on?
• Which pages or business details will you review and edit?
• What will I receive at the end: published changes, a report, raw evidence or all three?
• Which costs are included, and which require a separate agreement?

Ask to see a sample report

Look for exact questions, dates, engine names, answer counts and explicit citation URLs. Mentions, website citations and customer inquiries should be reported separately. Ask what happens when a request fails, a model changes or the results get worse. A sample should say whether its data is real, anonymized or fictional.

• Are discovery questions separate from questions that already name my business?
• Do you repeat the same questions before and after the work?
• Can I inspect the full answers behind a reported result?
• Do you report every selected engine, including unfavorable or incomplete results?

Resolve website access before paying for edits

Ask who built the website, which platform it uses and who maintains it now. Confirm whether you can edit it yourself, whether your existing provider will publish changes and what that provider charges. Agree a preview, approval and rollback process. You should not need to hand over your personal password.

Be specific about search surfaces

Ask whether the service measures Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, an API, ordinary search results or Maps. These are different experiences. A report from one should not be presented as coverage of all of them. Ask which location and settings are used and whether the measurement actually supports your market.

Treat guarantees and agency lists carefully

Ask for the evidence behind any promise of guaranteed recommendations or revenue. Check who wrote a best-agency list, whether they sell the service and whether placements are paid. A competitor comparison may help you ask questions without establishing an independent ranking.

Agree the finish line and your exit

• What happens if access or publishing is delayed?
• Who owns the accounts, content and report after the engagement?
• Does the agreement renew, and how can I stop?
• What useful deliverable do I receive if visibility does not improve?

How our pilot answers these questions

Found & Proven proposes a $500, 30-day pilot for one service and area: a baseline, one approved improvement, a same-protocol follow-up and an evidence review. Technical readiness and the editing route are checked before payment. This is a proposed offer, not a record of proven customer gains.