Choosing an SEO and GEO agency: start with your needs
An SEO and GEO agency supports a company’s visibility in search engines and AI assistant answers. Compare its diagnosis, the work it will actually deliver, your team’s responsibilities and the available evidence. A traffic promise is not enough to assess a proposal.
This guide helps small-business leaders and marketing managers compare a one-off audit, a consultant and ongoing support. For a B2B business, start with choosing a B2B SEO/GEO agency. For a product catalogue, also check the e-commerce requirements.
Which services should you compare in an SEO/GEO proposal?
A useful proposal separates diagnosis from execution. It identifies the pages, deliverables, people and dependencies involved: CMS access, subject-matter experts, editorial review or development capacity.
- Technical audit: identify crawling, indexing, rendering, redirect and performance issues; explain who will fix them and how each fix will be checked. Our technical SEO audit describes this scope.
- Research and content: connect buyer intent with service pages, comparisons and existing content. Separate creating pages from editorial optimization.
- Execution: identify who writes, reviews, integrates and checks published pages. A recommendations file does not prove that the fixes are live.
- GEO: define the questions monitored, engines, languages and cited sources. A citation sample is an observation within that scope, not a measurement of every AI answer.
- Measurement: distinguish impressions, clicks, visits, submitted forms, qualified enquiries and sales opportunities. Plan how to reconcile these with the available sales data.
For Google’s AI features, existing SEO best practices still apply. Google requires neither special markup nor a dedicated AI file. Ask which concrete problem each recommendation addresses, without extending this guidance to other engines.
How do you compare an agency, a consultant and your team?
The right format depends on the skills you already have and the work required. A small team can suit a focused scope; an agency can coordinate several disciplines. Check who will actually work on your site, their availability and their responsibilities.
| Format | When it may fit | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| One-off audit | Diagnosis before a redesign or a focused project | Priorities, work estimate and owner of each fix |
| Consultant | Focused expertise with an internal team able to execute | Actual writing, development and integration capacity |
| Agency providing ongoing support | Several workstreams requiring sustained coordination | Assigned team, deliverables, review and work tracking |
| Internal team | Available subject knowledge and production capacity | Time allocated, missing skills and priority decisions |
Give providers the same brief: business, markets, languages, CMS, priority pages, available team and objectives. Request an anonymized deliverable, an explanation of methods and the exit terms. Google’s questions for hiring an SEO provide a useful starting point.
How do you choose an SEO/GEO agency for a B2B company?
In B2B, a visit and a sales opportunity are different stages. Choose an agency that can understand your services, decision-makers and the questions preceding an enquiry: business problem, selection criteria, integration, constraints and expected evidence.
- Check market understanding: ask which pages address your buyers’ needs and which topics require input from your experts.
- Connect SEO and GEO to the same services: check the consistency of service pages, resources, client work and company information, instead of creating competing pages.
- Organize support for the marketing team: define the contact person, prioritization, review process and the roles of sales and technical teams.
- Assess evidence in context: read the work delivered, observation period and measurement limits. AI mentions or clicks do not constitute qualified meetings.
Our B2B approach and engagement method describe this organization. The Campus Consulting and IÉSEG Conseil case studies let you examine concrete contexts and work, without implying a guaranteed result for your company.
What trade-offs matter for an e-commerce website?
An online store adds catalogue, stock and purchase-journey constraints. A suitable proposal goes beyond blog posts: it examines categories, product pages, variants, filters and the pages buyers actually need.
- Technical work: decide which pages to index and how to handle filters, duplicate URLs and redirects with developers and platform constraints.
- Content: prioritize categories and products using the offer, demand and available sales data; check how stock and delivery information will be maintained.
- Measurement: track observed orders and revenue, including consent and attribution limits, instead of treating each click as an assumed sale.
- Coordination: identify who handles a migration, theme change or catalogue update.
Our e-commerce support describes these workstreams. Compare content work and technical fixes separately: their workload and dependencies can differ considerably.
How do you assess budget, timing and commitments?
There is no single price suitable for every SME. Compare the scope: website condition, selected pages and languages, research, production, fixes and integrations. Clarify included costs, potential external expenses, required reviews and renewal or termination terms.
Separate the delivery schedule from the time needed to observe search effects. A fix may be published before its effects become visible. Indexing, competition, seasonality and website changes influence the analysis. Request a work schedule and review points, without a guarantee of rankings, AI citations or revenue.
An ongoing engagement should allow priorities to be revised using published work and available data. Also agree how access, content and tracking documents will be handed over when the engagement ends.
Your comparison checklist before signing
| Question | Expected answer |
|---|---|
| Who will work on the project? | Names or roles, responsibilities and availability |
| What will be delivered? | Pages, fixes, content and acceptance criteria |
| Who executes the work? | Writing, integration, development and publication checks |
| How is progress assessed? | Sources, period, scope and indicator limitations |
| What must your team provide? | Access, subject expertise, review and technical capacity |
| What are the contractual terms? | Price, scope, priority reviews and exit terms |
Ask for evidence without confusing visibility with outcomes
A case study helps you understand a problem and the work completed. For a metric, request its source, period, scope and definition. An increase occurring alongside an intervention does not, by itself, demonstrate causation.
A useful report connects recommendations, published work and observations. Search Console describes Google visibility; browsing data and sales tools shed light on other stages. A contact-page view is not a submitted form, and a submitted form is not automatically a qualified enquiry.
For AI answers, request the exact questions, date, engine, language and sources. Read our GEO overview to distinguish work on content from monitoring observed answers.
How Pharelia supports your team
Pharelia provides SEO/GEO support operated by its team: research, content creation or revision, technical work and monitoring within the agreed scope. Organization and responsibilities are defined with your marketing team; the proposal specifies the selected pages, languages and deliverables.
To assess the fit for your needs, review our method and client work. You can then tell us about your project, including your business, website and priority workstreams. Scope and terms are discussed using that context.
Frequently asked questions
How do you choose a B2B SEO/GEO agency?
Check its understanding of your services and buyer questions, the work it executes, its support for your marketing team and the evidence it provides. Compare proposals using the same brief and distinguish visibility, enquiries and sales opportunities.
Should an agency implement technical fixes?
That depends on the agreed scope. The proposal should state whether the agency implements fixes, coordinates your developers or only provides recommendations, along with the checks required after publication.
How much does SEO/GEO support cost?
The quote depends on website condition, selected pages and languages, research, production and integrations. Compare deliverables, responsibilities, included expenses and contractual terms rather than an isolated price.
What timing and results can be guaranteed?
A delivery schedule can be agreed. Rankings, AI citations and business outcomes also depend on external factors. Request review points and evidence of work; no first-place ranking on Google can be guaranteed.
Should you choose SEO or GEO?
They can share technical and editorial work. SEO concerns visibility in search engines; GEO also examines AI assistant answers. Define your buyers’ needs and the monitoring scope before selecting the workstreams.
