How to compare AI search agencies: the questions to ask

To compare AI search agencies, ask the same 12 questions of each one: what proof they have, how they measure, what ships each month, who does the work, who approves it, and what it costs. Prefer specific answers you can check. Below is each question, why it matters, and what a weak answer sounds like, followed by Fame's own answers.

Why is comparing these agencies so hard?

The category is young and the labels are loose. AEO, GEO, LLM SEO and AI visibility can all describe the same service or very different ones (see our guide to the terms). Much of the published research also comes from vendors. The figures are often useful, but they rarely transfer directly to your category, and studies can disagree. OtterlyAI and Meltwater reached very different views of how much Gemini cites YouTube, for example. A good agency should be comfortable saying what is unknown.

What proof should you ask for?

Question 1: What results have you achieved for clients, and can I speak to one? Ask for the starting position, the end position, the time period and what else changed. A weak answer quotes a percentage with no baseline or period.

Question 2: Are these client results or your own site? Results on an agency's own website are real evidence that it can do the work, but they are not the same as results for a client. Ask directly, because the distinction is easy to blur.

Question 3: Do you guarantee citations or rankings? Google says that meeting its technical requirements does not guarantee crawling, indexing or serving. A guarantee is a warning sign unless the contract explains exactly what it covers.

How should tracking be judged?

Question 4: Which engines do you track, and how often? Get the list in writing. Coverage differs even among software tools: Peec AI's pricing page lists Perplexity on its Enterprise plan only, and OtterlyAI sells Gemini and Claude as add-ons. If an agency relies on a tool, ask which one.

Question 5: How do you handle variation between runs? Answers change from one run to another. Ask how many runs each question gets and how a score is calculated. A screenshot of one good answer is not measurement.

Question 6: Who chooses the questions? Ask whether they come from your sales calls and buyers, or from a keyword list. Also ask what share of them do not mention your brand. A panel full of branded questions will flatter almost anyone.

What should you expect to be delivered?

Question 7: What ships in a typical month? Ask for quantities and examples: technical fixes, new pages and improved pages. Then ask to see one real page.

Question 8: How do you avoid thin or inaccurate content? Ask where facts come from and who checks them. Most B2B companies have real expertise in sales calls and customer work, so a page made only from the open web is a missed opportunity. It also tends to repeat what is already out there.

Question 9: What exactly happens off your site? Third-party pages can shape answers, so this matters. Ask whether the agency places links, pitches lists, runs PR or only drafts outreach. Ask how any placement is disclosed and whether it follows the rules of the sites involved. There is a large practical gap between "we run a link-building program" and "we draft emails for you to send."

Who does the work, and who controls it?

Question 10: Who will actually work on my account? Ask for the names and roles of people doing the work and how AI tools are used. There is nothing wrong with using AI tools, but you should know who checks the output.

Question 11: What needs my approval? Find out whether changes reach your live site before you see them, how long reviews usually take and what happens when you are slow. Approval protects your accuracy and your brand, but it also makes you part of the delivery process.

What should you ask for in a trial or pilot?

Before committing, ask the agency to show its working on your own category. A short sample is fair to request, and it reveals more than a sales deck:

• Five of your buyer questions, run several times on each engine, with the raw answers and not only a score.
• A list of the sources cited for those answers, marked as owned, competitor or third-party.
• One suggested page change, with the reasoning and the source of every fact it uses.

You are looking for honest uncertainty as well as confidence. An agency that says "this source appears on Perplexity but not on ChatGPT, and we do not yet know why" is showing you how it will behave once you are a client.

What about cost and terms?

Question 12: What is the full price, what is the commitment and what happens at the end? Ask about setup fees, add-ons, minimum terms and notice periods. Ask who keeps pages, tracking data and accounts if you leave. If an agency does not publish pricing, that is not automatically bad, but ask for it in writing early so you do not spend three calls finding out.

It also helps to know the price of doing part of it yourself. Tracking software alone starts far below agency retainers: OtterlyAI lists plans from $29 a month and Peec AI from $95. An agency's fee should be explained by the work it does on top. We compare the two in AI visibility tool or agency.

How can you score the answers?

Put agencies in a simple table and score each area from 0 to 2, where 0 means no clear answer, 1 means a clear answer without evidence and 2 means a clear answer you can verify.

Weight the areas to suit your situation. A regulated company may care most about control. A small team without a writer may care most about delivery.

How does Fame answer these questions?

Fame publishes this guide and sells Fame Search, so read these as our own answers and put them to the same test as anyone else's.

• Client results (1): none yet. Please do not assume otherwise.
• Own-site results (2): measured from June 1, with a snapshot on October 30, 2026, 38-76% of tracked AI answers cite fame.so, 1,416 of 1,610 pages are graded A, and fame.so had 42,966 Google impressions and 41 AI assistant visits in the last 28 days. The 41 visits is a modest number, and it is worth seeing alongside the others.
• Guarantees (3): the Fame Search page does not offer one.
• Engines (4): ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, tracked weekly.
• Variation (5): several runs per question.
• Questions (6): agreed with you at the start, drawn from sales calls, forms, podcast content and market research.
• Monthly delivery (7): one action on your site each day, whether a fix, a new page or an improved page, with up to 10 new or improved pages a month.
• Accuracy (8): pages are written from your own material, and claims are checked against sources.
• Off-site (9): outreach drafts for third-party lists. There is no link-building program.
• People (10): managed by Tom Hunt, Fame's CEO, with your account manager.
• Approval (11): you approve every page and fix in your portal before it goes live.
• Price (12): $2,000 a month, one plan. Terms are not published, so ask on a call.

If you are comparing specific providers, we also publish comparison pages such as Fame Search vs FirstIndex and alternatives pages for Discovered Labs, Omniscient Digital and Optimist. Fame writes those too, so check each company's own site for current details.