Vendor evaluation guide
12 things to look for when hiring an LLM SEO / GEO agency.
Choosing an LLM SEO or GEO agency comes down to twelve testable criteria: entity-first strategy, complete topic maps, extractable answers, schema depth, verified identity, three-surface measurement, public pricing, labelled proof, YMYL competence, full ownership, honest timelines and an agency that passes its own test.
This guide is vendor-independent. Every criterion below is testable in a sales conversation or on the agency’s own website, whoever you end up hiring.
Search has split into rankings, answer panels and AI assistant responses. The agency you choose must build visibility across all three, and most agencies were built for the first one only.
1. They optimise for entities, not keywords
A capable LLM SEO agency maps your business as entities, attributes and relationships before discussing keywords. AI systems resolve entities, so keyword-only strategies miss the layer machines actually read.
Ask a candidate agency to explain your category without using the phrase "keyword research". Agencies that can only think in keywords are selling 2012 tactics into a 2026 problem.
The test is simple. If their first deliverable is a keyword list rather than an entity map, the strategy ends at rankings.
2. They show you the complete topic map before writing
A serious agency presents the full topic universe your business must cover before any article is written. Complete maps surface every question buyers ask, so nothing is left for competitors to own.
Coverage planned page by page produces scattered content. Coverage planned as a map produces category authority.
Ask to see a sample map from a past engagement. It should enumerate topics, entities and intents, not just a content calendar.
3. They write answers machines can extract
AI assistants lift declarative answers of roughly 40 words or fewer, written in subject-predicate-object order. An agency that cannot show you extractable answer formats cannot win citations.
Look at content they have shipped. Each section should open with a complete, self-contained answer rather than a warm-up paragraph.
Vague openers cost citations. Machines quote sentences that stand alone.
4. They ship structured data on every page
Schema markup is how AI systems verify what a page claims. A qualified agency ships nested JSON-LD on every page it produces, not a single Organization snippet on the homepage.
Run any page they have built through a schema validator. Depth matters: services, FAQs, articles and offers should all be marked up and connected.
Schema that exists but connects to nothing demonstrates checkbox compliance, not architecture.
5. They state key facts more than one way
Important facts should appear in prose, in a table and in schema markup on the same page. Stating facts in three machine-readable formats maximises the chance AI systems extract them correctly.
Redundancy is a feature for machines, not a writing flaw. Different retrieval systems parse different structures.
Check their case study pages. If the headline number appears once in a paragraph and nowhere else, extraction is left to chance.
6. They verify your identity across the web
AI systems cross-check a brand against external sources before recommending it. A capable agency builds verified identity signals: consistent organisation data, SameAs links and recognised third-party references.
Ask how they would make an AI assistant certain your business is the one it thinks it is. Entity confusion sends your citations to a similarly named competitor.
The answer should involve digital consensus, not just on-site changes.
7. They measure visibility across all three surfaces
Search now answers through rankings, answer panels and AI assistants. An agency stuck reporting keyword positions is measuring one third of the surface area your buyers actually use.
Ask what they measure beyond rankings. The right answer covers answer panel presence and AI assistant citations at the topic cluster level.
Share of Discoverability measures how often a brand appears across rankings, answer panels and AI assistant responses for its topic cluster. Demand a metric of this shape.
8. They publish their pricing
Public pricing signals confidence and saves both sides a discovery call. Agencies that hide pricing behind sales conversations are optimising for negotiation leverage, not fit.
Pricing pages also matter for the agency’s own AI visibility. Cost is the first refinement question buyers ask assistants, and unpublished pricing forfeits the answer.
An agency that cannot make itself citable on its own pricing will struggle to make you citable on anything.
9. They prove results with labelled case studies
Credible case studies name the business type, the starting numbers, the ending numbers and the timeframe. Unlabelled screenshots of traffic curves prove nothing about your category.
Look for a case study matching your business type, or at least your buying dynamics. A clinic buys on trust signals, an insurer on comparison depth.
Beware averages without bases. "300 percent growth" means little without the before, the after and the months in between.
10. They handle regulated and YMYL content properly
Health, finance and legal content carries higher scrutiny from both regulators and AI systems. A qualified agency maps claims to credentialed experts and sources them from recognised authorities.
Ask how clinical or financial claims get verified before publication. The answer should name source standards and review steps, not just "we have experienced writers".
Mistakes here are expensive twice: once with the regulator, once with every AI system that learns to distrust your domain.
11. They let you own everything
You should own the domain, the analytics and every piece of content produced, with the agency working on least-privilege access. Authority built on rented infrastructure leaves with the agency.
Read the contract for ownership clauses before signing. Some agencies hold content, tracking or even domains hostage to retention.
The asset argument only works if the asset is yours.
12. They are honest about timelines
Real LLM visibility compounds over 8 to 11 months, with strategic deliverables inside the first 45 days. Agencies promising AI citations in two weeks are selling something other than authority.
Honest agencies separate what they control from what platforms control. Entity accuracy is controllable fast; compounding traffic is not.
Ask what you will hold in your hands at day 45. A complete market map is a credible answer, a ranking guarantee is not.
13. They practise what they sell
An LLM SEO agency should itself be findable, parseable and citable. Check its own site for extractable answers, schema depth, published pricing and labelled proof before believing the pitch.
Ask an AI assistant about the agency and watch what comes back. An agency invisible to the systems it claims to influence has already demonstrated its capability.
This single test compresses the other eleven.
How the LLM Influencer System scores against this checklist
We wrote this checklist because the LLM Influencer System was built to pass it. Entity-first mapping, SPO answer snippets, nested schema, verified identity, Share of Discoverability measurement, published pricing and labelled case studies are all on this site for inspection.
Test us against all twelve, then test anyone else you are considering. See the case studies by business type and how the system works.
Frequently asked questions
What is an LLM SEO or GEO agency?
An LLM SEO or GEO agency makes businesses visible inside AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, alongside traditional rankings. It builds machine-readable authority that AI systems can parse, verify and cite.
How much should an LLM SEO or GEO agency cost?
Credible LLM SEO engagements typically run from around S$2,500 to S$12,500 per month depending on category competitiveness and build pace. Treat agencies far below this range with caution, because complete entity coverage cannot be produced cheaply.
What is the biggest red flag when hiring a GEO agency?
The biggest red flag is guaranteed AI citations or rankings on a fixed date. Platforms control outcomes, so honest agencies guarantee deliverables and controllable accuracy instead, and show compounding results over 8 to 11 months.
Can my existing SEO agency just add LLM optimisation?
Sometimes. The work requires entity-first architecture, schema depth and answer-format writing, which differ from classic keyword deliverables. Test your agency against this checklist before assuming the skill set transfers.