GEO, generative engine optimization, is the work of getting a business named and described correctly inside AI-generated answers. A good GEO agency measures answers, not rankings; fixes the sources the engines read; and reports counts. A weak one renames SEO deliverables and sells a guarantee.
The simplest test: ask for the number of answers in which a client was named, out of how many asked, per engine, last month. A real GEO practice has that number for every client. We publish ours for 20 local trade markets every week.
Every week we put buyers' questions for 20 local trade markets in three metros to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google's AI Overviews and Google's AI Mode and count which businesses get named. The latest window: 3,778 AI answers read, 409 businesses named, 35 days, computed 3 November 2026. The most-named cremation provider in Tampa Bay appeared in 52% of 181 answers (95% range 45–59%); the most-named excavation company in Charlottesville in 20% of 209 answers. Nobody is named in every answer. The method and every number are public on the AI Market Index. Method: each question is asked repeatedly on every engine; a business counts as named when its name appears in the answer text or its domain in the cited sources; a failed read is excluded, never counted as a miss; every count is n of N with its date.
| What to check | Measurement shop | Relabeled SEO |
|---|---|---|
| The number reported | Named in N of M AI answers, per engine, with a range | Rankings, traffic, "AI score" |
| Before money | A counted baseline | A proposal |
| The work | Facts, structured data, listings, answer pages, citations; logged by date | "Content and links" |
| Guarantees | None, in writing | Often |
| Reporting a bad month | Reported with the number | Silence |
Every "best AI visibility agency" list the engines cite ranks its own author first. This table is not a list: it is a count. We asked the sixteen questions on this site to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google's AI Overviews and Google's AI Mode between 6 October 2026 and 5 November 2026 and counted which agencies were named in the 2,518 answers we recorded. We are at zero, and we publish that too.
| Agency (as it appears on the lists the engines cite) | Named in | Share | Engines that named it |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPullRank | 415 of 2,518 | 16.5% | Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Google AI Mode |
| First Page Sage | 270 of 2,518 | 10.7% | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini |
| Siege Media | 236 of 2,518 | 9.4% | Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| Omniscient Digital | 167 of 2,518 | 6.6% | Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Google AI Mode |
| Go Fish Digital | 165 of 2,518 | 6.6% | Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| Thrive Internet Marketing Agency | 133 of 2,518 | 5.3% | Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT |
| Optimist | 124 of 2,518 | 4.9% | Claude, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity |
| WebFX | 117 of 2,518 | 4.6% | Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Google AI Mode |
| NoGood | 106 of 2,518 | 4.2% | Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| Onely | 61 of 2,518 | 2.4% | Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity |
| Percepture | 60 of 2,518 | 2.4% | Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT |
| Hamster Garage | 57 of 2,518 | 2.3% | Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude |
| Rank Prompt | 50 of 2,518 | 2.0% | Perplexity, ChatGPT |
| Relevance (agency) | 46 of 2,518 | 1.8% | ChatGPT |
| Digital Elevator | 42 of 2,518 | 1.7% | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini |
| Minuttia | 39 of 2,518 | 1.5% | Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| ASN Intelligence (us) | 0 of 2,518 | 0.0% | none yet |
Method: exact-name match in the answer text; each question asked repeatedly on every engine; tools and software (Profound, Semrush, Peec, Otterly and others) excluded; a failed read is excluded, never counted as a miss; counts are of answers, so one answer naming three agencies counts once for each. Updated monthly from the same stored answers.
The explainer, with the counts on screen: how the assistants decide, what they cite, and the five things that move the answer. Narration is a generated voice; the numbers are ours.
Often, yes, when sold under about $1,500 a month. The difference is in what is measured and what is fixed: answer mentions per engine, and the sources behind them.
Published local retainers cluster around $2,000 to $3,000 a month; ours starts at $2,950 by application, with a $1,500 one-time Sprint to start.
Ask for the raw counts and the dates, and run the same questions yourself. Counts you can reproduce are the only ones that matter.
No. Clean pages and correct facts serve both. GEO adds measurement of AI answers and work on the sources those answers cite.
Run the free AI-visibility scan for one pass on your business. For the counted baseline across all six engines, the Visibility Sprint is $1,500 one time, credited in full if you start a managed plan within thirty days. Self-serve measurement starts at $49 a month. Managed plans start at $2,950 a month, by application. No plan promises rankings or placement; nobody controls what an AI model says, and we say so.
By Daley Adams, Founder, ASN Intelligence LLC. Updated 5 November 2026.