How Do You Choose an AEO Agency?
Choose an AEO agency by verifying real, reproducible results, not claims. Ask them to show a client appearing in AI answers from a logged-out session you can replicate. Look for a defined, transparent methodology, honesty about timelines and what they cannot guarantee, experience in your vertical, and a refusal to fabricate stats, reviews, or unverifiable claims.
What separates a real AEO agency from a repackaged one
AEO is new enough that many agencies have relabeled traditional SEO as "AI SEO" without changing what they do. The questions below separate genuine practitioners from rebrands.
The questions to ask
Can you show me a result I can reproduce? Ask them to name a client and a query, then run that query yourself from a logged-out, no-memory session. If the client appears, that is real proof. If the agency can only show screenshots from accounts that might be logged in, or dashboards you cannot verify, treat it as unproven. Reproducibility from a clean session is the only honest standard.
What is your methodology, exactly? A serious agency has a defined, repeatable process and a way to measure appearance across engines. Vagueness here usually means there is no method underneath.
What can you not guarantee? AI answers are probabilistic and churn constantly. An agency that promises a fixed permanent position is either misunderstanding the systems or misleading you. Honesty about volatility is a good sign, not a weakness.
How do you handle my vertical's constraints? For med spas, health-adjacent content sits in stricter territory, with credentialing and advertising rules. An agency that does not raise compliance unprompted has not worked in the vertical seriously.
Do you fabricate anything? Fake reviews, invented statistics, and unverifiable award or certification claims are not just unethical, they are a liability that can get profiles suspended and create legal exposure. A credible agency refuses them on principle and will tell you so.
Guarantee framing to look for
The trustworthy structure is money-back: if we do not deliver within the window, you get your money back. Be cautious with pure "pay only on results" pitches that can hide loose definitions of what counts as a result. What matters is that the definition of success is specific, verifiable from a clean session, and written down.
Red flags
Promises of a permanent fixed position. Proof that cannot be reproduced from a logged-out session. No named methodology. Willingness to fabricate reviews or stats. Silence on compliance in a regulated vertical. Reselling generic SEO under an AI label with no answer-engine-specific work.
Want this done for your practice — and verified from a clean, logged-out session?
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