What does a GEO agency actually do?

A GEO agency helps your business improve how it appears in AI-generated answers. The work involves researching customer questions, measuring current visibility, improving your website and developing relevant coverage on other sites.

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. If you are considering an agency, the useful question is what that means in practice: what gets researched, what gets changed and how you know whether the work is helping.

The exact scope varies between agencies. Some focus on audits and advice; others also write content, implement changes and handle outreach. A clear proposal should say who is responsible for each part.

Understand what customers ask

The first job is to understand your business: what you sell, who buys it, which markets matter and what people need to know before choosing you.

That research helps build a prompt universe: a structured map of the questions potential customers could ask AI tools about your category. It covers early research, comparisons, supplier discovery and practical buying questions.

For an office furniture supplier, for example, that could range from “How do mesh and upholstered chairs compare?” to “Which UK suppliers offer office furniture with delivery and assembly?” Those questions represent different needs and call for different information.

Useful inputs include customer conversations, sales enquiries, search data and industry discussions. AI-generated suggestions can expand the map, but should be checked against real customer needs.

At Tilio, we generally recommend tracking 100–500 carefully selected prompts. For a focused programme, that is usually sufficient to monitor the main offers, audiences and buying decisions. The wider prompt universe can be larger, and businesses spanning several markets or product ranges may need more coverage. This is a practical monitoring range, not a measure of total customer demand.

Establish a starting point

The agency then checks how your business appears across the agreed prompts and AI tools. This creates a baseline against which later results can be compared.

A useful review looks at whether your business is mentioned, whether its website is cited as a source, how it is described and which competitors appear alongside it. It also examines the external pages cited in those answers.

Questions that include your brand name should be reported separately from questions that do not. Asking an AI tool about your business tests its description of you. Asking it to suggest suppliers tests whether you appear without being named first.

The findings should lead to priorities. If your business is missing from a relevant supplier comparison, the agency should investigate the answer and its sources, assess whether you are a suitable option and identify what useful information is missing.

Check technical access

A GEO agency should check whether important website content can be accessed and understood by the systems relevant to your programme.

This can include reviewing crawler permissions, indexing restrictions, broken pages, internal links and how key content loads. The findings should identify specific problems and explain who will fix them, whether that is the agency, your developer or your existing SEO team.

Technical requirements vary between platforms. For Google's AI search features, Google's guidance makes clear that established SEO practices remain relevant and that special structured data is not required. Structured data is code that describes a page and its contents.

Technical work can remove barriers to discovery. It cannot guarantee that a page will be selected for an AI answer.

Improve the right content

Research and tracking should inform actual website improvements. That might mean making a service page more specific, adding missing product details, explaining a comparison or publishing a guide that answers an unresolved customer question.

The agency should be able to explain why each change matters. What does the reader need? What does the existing page miss? What experience, evidence or detail can your business contribute?

Consider an illustrative office furniture supplier. AI answers to relevant supplier questions recommend businesses offering delivery and assembly, but leave this company out. The agency checks its website and finds that it offers both services, yet barely explains them online.

After confirming the details with the business, the agency improves the existing delivery and assembly page. It explains the areas covered, how assembly works, any charges and relevant exclusions, then adds useful links from product pages. That gives customers clearer information about an offer the business already provides.

Once the changes are live, the agency records the page and publication date, then repeats the relevant prompt checks. It looks for whether subsequent answers describe the service accurately, recommend the supplier or cite the updated page. The report separates the completed improvement from any observed change in visibility, without assuming the page edit caused it.

Several related prompts can often be answered by one good page. Tracking 500 prompts does not mean publishing 500 articles.

Google calls the related searches its AI systems can generate query fan-out. Understanding those related questions can help identify missing information, but Google warns against creating pages for every variation primarily to manipulate rankings or AI responses.

Content work should include checking business facts, reviewing accuracy and readability, and agreeing who publishes the finished material. At Tilio, we can publish directly or hand completed pieces to your team, then check them once they are live.

Develop relevant external coverage

A GEO agency may also look at what relevant websites say about your business, particularly sources that repeatedly appear in the tracked answers.

An industry article might include competitors but overlook a service you provide. A directory entry might be inaccurate. A publication might have a useful reason to include your team's expertise.

The work involves assessing the opportunity, preparing supporting material, approaching the publisher and following up. Contributions can include expert commentary, research, case studies or factual corrections. The publisher retains editorial control.

Tilio's guide to appearing in the sources AI cites explains how we approach this work.

Any paid opportunity should be clearly identified and agreed in advance. Securing coverage, having that page cited and seeing your business recommended are separate outcomes.

Measure progress and adjust

Ongoing work should include repeated checks of the agreed prompt set, with results separated by AI tool and topic. One favourable answer provides limited evidence of progress.

A useful report distinguishes between brand mentions, citations to your pages, how accurately you are described, and identifiable referral visits or enquiries. Our explanation of how we measure AI visibility sets out those differences.

Comparisons also need a consistent basis. If the agency changes the prompts, platforms or markets being tracked, those changes should be recorded so they are not confused with improved performance.

The report should explain what happens next: which pages need further work, which questions remain poorly answered and which external opportunities deserve attention. That connects measurement to the next month's priorities.

What should you receive?

For an ongoing engagement covering implementation, you should be able to point to tangible work:

• An agreed set of questions, platforms and markets to monitor.
• A baseline showing where your business stands.
• A prioritised plan with reasons for each action.
• Completed page improvements, content and outreach activity within the agreed scope.
• Reporting that explains what changed, what remains uncertain and what comes next.

Ask who owns each task and what your team needs to supply. An audit may stop at findings and recommendations; a programme that includes implementation should make the resulting changes visible.

If you want to understand what this work would involve for your business, talk to Tilio about your customers, your current visibility and the areas you want to grow.

FAQ

How is GEO different from SEO?

GEO focuses on how a business appears in AI-generated answers, including mentions, citations and descriptions. It overlaps with SEO through technical access, useful content and accurate information. Google treats optimisation for its own generative AI features as part of SEO.

Does a GEO agency just write blog posts?

Content can be one part of the work. A broader engagement also includes customer research, measurement, technical checks, improvements to existing commercial pages and relevant external coverage. The proposal should specify which activities are included.

Can a GEO agency guarantee recommendations?

No agency controls what an AI tool will say. It can commit to agreed work, clear reporting and evidence-based decisions, but it cannot guarantee mentions, citations or sales.

How long does GEO take?

There is no fixed timetable. Results depend on the starting point, competition, work completed and whether systems discover and use the changes. Agree a baseline and regular reviews, then assess patterns over repeated checks.