Picking the GEO agent, the fastest way to get elected is not to hear the proposal so much, but to ask, "What is the rate of mention on ChatGPT? "The ones who can't answer, or go around in a bunch of jargons, most of them haven't actually done the power-generating engine for their clients, but simply repackaged the SEO with a new name.
This article collates the 12 questions that should have been asked before signing, and is divided into three groups: visibility and measurement, content and execution, contract and risk. "What's a good answer?" is attached to each topic, with an evaluation form and a scoring method that can be used directly at the end. You don't need to know the technology. Just ask, the depths of each other will come true.
Why can't most GEO agents afford to ask?
GEO is the new market, offering a different supply. Some of the teams did 10 years of SEO, put the old method on the GEO tag and took the case; others were pure-text farms, with a large number of documents produced by AI, but did not have the ability to track whether these articles were actually captured and quoted by the AI engine. Both of them are very good at the stage of the proposal, but if you ask "how do you prove it?" "how long do you see it?" "What do I get back after the deal"? The next 12 questions are designed to poke these loose spots.
Team 1: Visibility and measurement.
GEO's biggest pit is "unmeasurable." The traditional SEO has a ranking and a little reading, but the answer to the AI engine is different every time and is quoted or not written backstage. A real GEO agent must have a way of tracking his own visibility and showing up on the spot.
- What tools do you use to track the presence of my brand in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini? How often do you report it? – The good answer is a platform and a frequency, not just a "we will monitor."
- What's the rate of mention of my brand in these engines now? Can you show me on the screen? - Find out, it means they're usually chasing, it means nothing.
- How do you define "success"? Is it a key word ranking, the number of times quoted, or the list and diagnostic appointment actually brought in? - Tie success to business results, more reliable than just talking about ranking.
- Have you ever been in the same industry (especially B2B SaaS)? Can you see the numbers before and after running? — There are no cases but, frankly, new areas, not vague ones.
These four questions, if they have two answers, basically put the family back. Visibility tracking is the foundation of GEO, which can't be done, and there's nothing to be done.
Group 2: Content and execution (who does it, how fast, what changes)
GEO's not just writing. To allow the AI engine to quote you, the content should be structured and the answers should be extracted cleanly, and the web technology should be aligned with -- schema tags, robots configurations, llms.txt, internal connections. So let's be clear: where is it going, or just the draft?
- Who actually wrote it? Are you familiar with the editor of my industry, or are you outsourcing it to a writer who doesn't know the field, or is it simply AI? - What people know about the industry, it's the AI engine that determines the degree of expertise.
- How many pieces delivered in a month, how many structural data adjustments? Do you have a promise in black and white? —— 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。 。
- Will you touch my website technology? Or just write and hand over the draft? - It's usually a discount for writing articles without touching technology.
- How do you track the AI engine back on line? How long does it take to see change? -- Good answers describe a tracking process, not ask ChatGPT yourself.
In practice, content and technology are tied together. When we do the GEO content engine for our clients, each article is synchronized with the schema and answer structure of the page, and tracks whether the page has access to the source of the AI engine in Brand Radar. If an agent says "writing" and "technology" are two separate things, it usually represents only half of them.
Team 3: Contract and risk.
GEO takes time, usually for months, to be effective, which makes kidnapping and exit conditions particularly important. It would be much easier to talk about the worst situation before signing a contract than to find a loophole in the contract after that.
- How long is the contract? How long is the minimum kidnapping? If not, what are the exit conditions and the refund mechanisms? — It is usually certain of its delivery that the exit terms are clearly stated.
- The contents, the data and the tracking dashboard. Do I own or you? Can I keep it in its entirety? - It's about the assets you pay to make, and they'll take it back.
- Who actually is the window that connects with me? Is the senior consultant responsible for the whole process, or is the business signed and handed over to the executive team? —See the operator himself, communication costs are much lower.
- What would you do if the AI engine algorithm was modified and the visibility was suddenly down? How long will you give me direction?
It is not the wrong agent that the customer most often regrets, but the "no good" question before signing the contract. It's a professional exercise that is fair to both sides.— Tenten GEO consultant team
How do you score these 12 questions?
It's recommended that this 12 issue be made into a table, that the axis be placed in each of the houses you're comparing, that the theme be placed and that the session be scored. The focus is on two things: one is whether there is a clear bias in the three-set score — a high-visibility, low-level contract, probably a strong technical one, but not a promise; and the other is whether or not any of the issues have been jumped or vaguely taken, which is usually the real short board of this house. Scores are just aid, and the real signal is hidden in a willingness to respond.
If one of them can show you on-the-spot, one of them can tell you the terms of the monthly production, one of the contract's exit terms, they don't have many agents in place at the same time — they've met, they're worth telling.
Next step
With this checklist, you'll soon find that most agents are stuck on the "visibility proof" level. Let's try it with his family, find out what's going on. You can't really answer the questions about being mentioned in the main AI engines, where the gaps are, and which ones. That's exactly what we're doing with the 30-minute GEO diagnosis: we're going to help you check your visibility, point out the biggest gaps, and get you to interview any agent with the problem. I'd like to get to my starting point and welcome an appointment with the GEO.
