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GEO · ExplainerWhat does a GEO agency do?
A GEO agency helps your brand get found, understood and recommended by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Here is the work in plain terms, phase by phase, and the limits any honest agency will state.
Key takeaway: A GEO agency audits how AI assistants describe your brand, fixes access and entity problems, publishes answer-first content and structured data, builds third-party proof, and then monitors and reports on AI visibility every month. It cannot control or guarantee what AI systems say about you.
The short answer
A GEO (generative engine optimization) agency improves the odds that AI assistants name your brand, describe it accurately and recommend it. It does this with a mix of technical, content, entity and off-site work, and it measures the result by testing real buyer questions in the assistants. It is closely related to SEO and builds on it. See GEO vs SEO vs AEO.
The work, phase by phase
| Phase | What the agency does | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Discover | Learns your category, buyers, competitors and the questions buyers ask AI | A prompt universe: the buyer questions to test |
| 2. Audit | Tests how assistants describe you today and checks crawlability, indexing and structure | A baseline and a prioritised issue list |
| 3. Fix | Removes access and technical blockers, such as blocked crawlers or content that needs JavaScript to appear | Corrected robots rules, rendering and indexing |
| 4. Structure | Adds structured data and a clear site architecture | Valid schema and a coherent page hierarchy |
| 5. Create | Writes answer-first pages, FAQs and comparison content from real buyer questions | Published, quotable content |
| 6. Establish the entity | Makes your name, category and facts consistent across your site and profiles | One clear, consistent brand entity |
| 7. Build authority and earn mentions | Pursues reviews, directory presence, digital PR and original research | Independent sources that corroborate you |
| 8. Monitor and measure | Re-runs the prompt panel on a schedule and reports against the baseline, then adjusts | A monthly report on mentions, accuracy and recommendations |
What a GEO agency cannot do
- Control AI answers. AI vendors do not publish how they choose sources, and answers vary by user, location and day.
- Guarantee citations or rankings. Any promise of a specific placement is overpromising.
- Buy a place in an answer. There is no paid slot for ordinary AI answers; visibility is earned through clarity, content and corroboration.
- Replace a good product or real reputation. Engines reflect what the web says about you.
How it differs from an SEO agency
An SEO agency focuses on ranking pages for searches that lead to clicks. A GEO agency focuses on being cited and described correctly inside AI-generated answers, where there may be no click. The overlap is large: crawlability, quality content and authority help both. A good GEO agency does the SEO foundation too, and measures AI answers with a prompt panel instead of a rank tracker. See SEO isn't dying, it's splitting in two.
What a typical first 90 days looks like
- Days 1-30: baseline prompt panel, technical and entity audit, and a fixed-scope plan.
- Days 31-60: fixes shipped, structured data added, first answer-first pages published.
- Days 61-90: entity clean-up completed, third-party presence started, the panel re-run and compared with the baseline.
How to tell a real GEO agency
- It starts with a baseline of how AI assistants describe you today.
- It gives a written scope with named deliverables and dates.
- It reports against a prompt panel, not just rankings or traffic.
- It states what it does not guarantee.
- It works on your site's technical access and entity facts, not only content.
- You own the work and the accounts at the end.
See our comparison of GEO providers for a checklist, and GEO agency pricing in India for what drives cost. Reckona AI runs this work in its GEO practice, and the complete GEO guide explains the method in depth.
Frequently asked questions
What does a GEO agency do?
It audits how AI assistants describe your brand, fixes technical and entity problems, publishes answer-first content and structured data, builds third-party proof, and monitors and reports on AI visibility every month.
What is the difference between a GEO agency and an SEO agency?
An SEO agency aims to rank pages for clicks. A GEO agency aims to get your brand cited and described correctly inside AI-generated answers. They overlap heavily, and good GEO builds on strong SEO.
Can a GEO agency guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No. AI vendors do not publish how they select sources, so no agency can guarantee a citation or recommendation. A good agency improves the odds and measures progress against a baseline.
How long does GEO take to work?
Technical and entity fixes can show effects within weeks as engines re-crawl, while earning independent reviews and mentions typically takes months. Timelines vary by category and starting point.
How do I know if a GEO agency is any good?
Check that it starts with a baseline, gives a written scope, reports against a prompt panel, states what it does not guarantee and leaves you owning the work.
Want this done for your brand?
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