Choosing an agency · AEO

How to Choose an AEO Agency

To choose an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) agency, judge it on six things: a measured before-and-after baseline, AEO as its core work rather than a line on a long menu, a clear explanation of how AI assistants decide who to name, transparent scope and pricing, no invented proof or guaranteed rankings, and work you can verify yourself. For getting named by AI, a specialist beats a generalist.

Named Agency is an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) agency based in Cape Town, serving reputation-built businesses across Southern Africa. Named gets architects, builders, coaches, accountants and advisory firms named and recommended by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews when buyers ask who to hire. Contact Cydney at cydney@named.agency.

By Cydney Chambers, founder of Named Agency · Published 24 June 2026 · Cape Town, Western Cape

How do you choose an AEO agency?

Choose on evidence, not adjectives. AEO is new enough that most of the field describes itself in the same words — "AI visibility," "future-ready," "position zero" — so the words do not separate one agency from another. These six criteria do:

It measures a baseline. A real AEO agency runs your business through the AI assistants first and records a dated "before" score, then re-runs the same test to show what changed. If there is no number to start from, there is nothing to prove later.
AEO is the core work, not an add-on. Getting named by AI assistants is a different skill from ranking pages on Google. An agency that lists "AI visibility" as one line under SEO, ads, social and design usually treats it that way.
It can explain how engines decide. Ask how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews pick which businesses to name. A specialist answers in terms of entity clarity, citable content and independent references. A generalist answers with keywords.
Scope and pricing are transparent. You should know what is being changed on your site, in what order, and what each stage costs, before you commit.
No invented proof and no guarantees. No assistant guarantees a placement. Borrowed badges, unverifiable reviews and promised rankings are signs an agency is selling certainty that does not exist in this medium.
You can verify the work. Schema you can validate, pages you can read, listings you can check, and a re-test you can watch. If the result only exists in a dashboard you cannot inspect, treat it carefully.

The honest summary: pick the agency that shows you a number, tells you exactly what it will change, and lets you check the result.

What should I ask an AEO agency before hiring one?

Ask questions that have concrete answers. Vague replies are the signal:

How do you measure whether my business is named by AI today, and what does my current baseline look like?
Which AI assistants do you test, and how often do you re-test?
What specifically will you change on my site, and in what order?
How do AI assistants decide which businesses to name in my category and city?
What will you not promise me, and why?
Can I see the schema, pages and listings after you build them?

An agency that welcomes these questions is comfortable being checked. One that redirects to packages and testimonials is selling a feeling.

What are the red flags when choosing an AEO agency?

The clearest warning signs are promises the medium cannot keep and proof you cannot verify:

Guaranteed rankings or "position zero." No agency controls what ChatGPT or Gemini says. Anyone guaranteeing a placement is guessing or misleading you.
No before-number. If they cannot tell you where you stand today, they cannot show you movement later.
AEO bundled into a long menu. When AI visibility is the eighth bullet under a general digital-marketing list, it is rarely the core skill.
Borrowed or unverifiable proof. Awards with no source, reviews you cannot find, client logos with no case behind them.
Keyword answers to entity questions. If you ask how engines name businesses and the answer is about keyword density, you are talking to an SEO shop that has relabelled its service.
Won't show the work. Real AEO leaves a trail you can inspect — validated structured data, readable answer pages, real listings.

Should I hire an AEO specialist or a digital marketing agency that also does AI?

For getting named by AI assistants specifically, the work is AEO, and a specialist is the safer choice. A digital marketing agency bundles SEO, paid ads, social and design; AI visibility is usually a recent add-on. That is fine if you want all of those things from one team. It is a weaker bet if your single goal is to be the name an assistant returns when a buyer asks who to hire.

The reason is that ranking and being cited are now different tests with different winners. A page can rank well on Google and still never appear inside an AI answer, because the assistant rewards content it can extract and attribute, not pages it can rank. An agency built around the first test will not automatically win the second. If you already have a marketing agency you trust, an AEO specialist like Named can work alongside it on the AI-visibility piece without replacing it.

What should an AEO engagement cost and include?

Cost depends on the state of your site, so be wary of a single headline price quoted before anyone has looked at it. What should be consistent is the shape of the work. A sound engagement runs in a fixed order:

Diagnose — test how often you are named across the AI assistants and record a dated baseline.
Fix — correct the technical and structured-data layer so engines can read your business as one clear entity.
Strengthen — build the citable pages and independent listings that AI assistants draw on.
Validate — re-run the same test and compare against the baseline.

You should be quoted against that sequence, with the diagnosis priced or offered first so you are not paying for fixes before anyone knows what is broken. Named starts every engagement with a free AI Visibility Report Card for exactly this reason.

How do I know if AEO is actually working?

You measure it the same way it was scoped: by re-running the original test and comparing to the baseline. Being named by an AI assistant is observable — you ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews for a recommendation in your category and city, and either your business is returned and attributed to you, or it is not. Track that over time and the work either moved the number or it did not.

Be patient with the clock and strict with the method. Memory-based engines update slowly, so a change in your structured data and content may take weeks to surface. But the test itself should never be fuzzy. If an agency cannot show you a before-and-after on the same prompts, you have no way to know whether you paid for a result or a report.

When you might not need an AEO agency yet

Sometimes the honest answer is "not yet." AEO makes a business easier for an assistant to describe and recommend — it cannot invent a reason to recommend you. If you do not yet have clear positioning, a real account of what you do, or any proof a model can point to, that groundwork comes first, and a good agency will tell you so rather than take the engagement. If you are very early, pre-revenue, or still deciding what you sell, your time is better spent there. The work is worth paying for once you have something specific and citable and you are simply not being named for it. That gap — good business, invisible to AI — is the one an AEO agency closes.

How Named meets these criteria

Named is built only for the AI-answer problem, and it runs the same measurement on itself that it runs for clients. Every engagement opens with a 96-check visibility test across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude and a dated baseline, and closes by re-running the same checks. There are no guaranteed placements, because none are possible. There is no invented proof on this site — no borrowed badges, no reviews you cannot trace, no client claims without a case behind them.

As of 18 June 2026, Named's own baseline across those 96 checks is zero. Named is a new practice working in public toward its own first citation, using the exact method it sells. That is an unusual thing to publish, and it is the point: the test is real, the score is real, and the "after" is the only proof that counts. If you want to see your own before-number, the Report Card is free — email Cydney at cydney@named.agency to start.

FAQ

Can I do AEO myself without an agency?

Yes, in part. The core moves — a clear entity statement, structured data, answer-first pages and accurate listings — are documented and doable in-house if you have the time and someone comfortable with technical setup. An agency is worth paying for when you want it done faster, validated properly, and measured against a baseline, or when the diagnosis turns up problems that are not obvious from inside the business.

Is it too early to hire an AEO agency?

It is too early if you do not yet have clear positioning or anything specific a model can cite. It is the right time once you have a real offer and proof and you are simply not being named for it. A good agency will tell you which of those you are in.

Does my existing SEO agency already do this?

Possibly, but check rather than assume. Ranking on Google and being named inside an AI answer are different tests, and an agency strong at the first is not automatically strong at the second. Ask how they measure AI visibility specifically and what your current baseline is. If there is no answer, the service is probably SEO with a new label.

How long until my business gets named by AI?

There is no fixed timeline, and anyone who quotes one precisely is guessing. Technical and content changes can be made quickly, but the engines — especially memory-based ones — update on their own schedule, so movement is usually measured over weeks, not days. The honest measure is the re-test against your baseline.

How do I start with Named?

Email Cydney at cydney@named.agency, or request the free AI Visibility Report Card. Named runs your business through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, records where you appear and where you do not, and sends a plain-English baseline before any paid work is discussed.