The short answerThe best GEO consultant for B2B software depends on whether you want a person or firm. Aleyda Solís and Lily Ray sell strategy and audits. Kevin Indig advises while you execute. The Advisory tier at Optimist starts from $3,000 a month. Firm programs start from $5,000 per month at LoudFace and full service from $120,000 a year at Omniscient Digital.
GEO (generative engine optimization) means getting your product named and cited inside AI answers on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. The people and firms below sell that work to B2B software companies. Some sell their own judgment by the report, the roadmap or the month. Others run the whole program for you.
GEO consultants for B2B software in 2026, grouped by who you hire
| Group | Consultant or firm | Best for | How you buy it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consultant | Andrii Byzov | B2B SaaS and tech with product-market fit, wanting GEO inside a fractional CMO role | Diagnostic first, then a monthly retainer for a set number of days |
| Consultant | Gaetano DiNardi | B2B SaaS teams that want demand capture through SEO and paid search | Direct work with him, month to month, by waiting list |
| Consultant | Marie Haynes | A traffic drop explained, or a written AI search roadmap | $500 Traffic Drop Diagnostic Snapshot; Site Quality Review and Tactical Roadmap from $5,000; advisory |
| Consultant | Kevin Indig | Teams that want senior SEO and AEO advice and can ship it | SEO/AEO advisory; Sales Narrative |
| Consultant | Lily Ray (Algorythmic) | AI search audits and strategy, or training for an in-house team | Consulting, audits, training and mentoring |
| Consultant | Aleyda Solís (Orainti) | SaaS and marketplaces selling in many countries and languages | Audits, strategy, training, on-demand advice |
| Agency | LoudFace | One program across GEO, SEO, AEO and content, reported per engine | From $5,000/mo, three-month initial engagement |
| Agency | The ABM Agency | B2B teams that want GEO tied to account-based programs | Free AI Agent Optimization Audit; pilots within 21 days in most situations |
| Agency | Breaking B2B | B2B and SaaS teams ready for a six- or twelve-month program | Plans from $4k/mo |
| Agency | Directive Consulting | AI answers as one channel of a wider B2B growth program | DiscoverabilityOS method |
| Agency | Exalt Growth | B2B SaaS from Seed through Series C | Founder-led strategy; Foundation, Growth and Scale tiers |
| Agency | First Page Sage | SEO and GEO without a long-term contract | Agency team, no long-term lock-in |
| Agency | Foundation Marketing | B2B tech and SaaS, including AI, martech, cybersecurity and developer tools | Strategy and production teams |
| Agency | iPullRank | Enterprise and mid-market companies that want GEO as engineering | GEO programs, consulting, training |
| Agency | Minuttia | Established B2B SaaS brands that want content plus AI search | End-to-end content program |
| Agency | Omniscient Digital | B2B software teams with a full-service budget | Full service from $120,000/yr |
| Agency | Omnius | SaaS and fintech companies that need technical GEO | Crawler, citation and schema work |
| Agency | Optimist | Growth-stage B2B tech that wants a priced advisory tier | Roadmap $7,500; Advisory from $3,000/mo; Full Service from $4,000/mo |
| Agency | Siege Media | SaaS and fintech brands that want content-led GEO | GEO and SEO consulting, content, digital PR |
| Agency | Skale | Tech and SaaS teams that want GEO and SEO run as one system | Team-run program reported on new MRR |
For agencies only, see our best GEO agencies for B2B SaaS.
Person or firm: which kind of GEO consultant you need
Decide this before you compare names. A person sells senior judgment and leaves the shipping to you. A firm sells execution capacity and a reporting cadence along with its senior people, and you pay for both.
LoudFace's guide to AEO consultants vs agencies frames the choice by stage: a solo consultant for seed to early Series A teams that already have people to execute, an agency for Series A to roughly $20M ARR, and in-house beyond that.
- Seed to early Series A, with a marketer who ships: a person. Aleyda Solís or Lily Ray for strategy and audits, Kevin Indig for strategy and advisory, or Andrii Byzov if you want GEO folded into a fractional CMO role. The Advisory tier at Optimist is the priced version of the same buy.
- B2B SaaS between Seed and Series C, wanting a specialist firm: Exalt Growth names that exact stage range. Omnius (SaaS and fintech) and Breaking B2B (B2B and SaaS only) state an industry focus instead.
- Series A and up, wanting one program run for you: LoudFace from $5,000 per month, or Omniscient Digital from $120,000 a year.
- Selling in many countries and languages: Aleyda Solís at Orainti.
- Enterprise, with large content or ABM programs: iPullRank, Siege Media or The ABM Agency.
- A traffic drop you need explained fast: Marie Haynes, whose $500 snapshot is a three to four page assessment.
On cost, LoudFace's estimate is about $150 to $300 an hour for a consultant and about $5K to $18K a month for an agency. Published prices are firmer. The lowest published paid offer we found is Marie Haynes's $500 Traffic Drop Diagnostic Snapshot, and her Site Quality Review and Tactical Roadmap starts at $5,000. Optimist charges $7,500 for a one-time Roadmap, from $3,000 a month for Advisory and from $4,000 a month for Full Service. Breaking B2B plans start at $4,000 a month, LoudFace programs at $5,000 per month, and Omniscient Digital full service at $120,000 a year.
What AI engines name when a buyer asks for a GEO consultant
Before you shortlist anyone, know who the engines already put in front of your buyers. LoudFace's study, Who AI names when you ask for an AEO consultant, covers 184 answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, recorded by Peec AI from 6 September to 6 October 2026, on one AEO-consultant prompt and one GEO-consultant prompt. The counts below combine both prompts.
First Page Sage and iPullRank are the only firms in the top three on all three engines. Among people, Mike King leads Google AI Overviews, named in 35 of 62 answers.
The engines disagree about people. Individuals make up 38.5% of the names in Google AI Overviews (245 of 636), 24.1% on ChatGPT (166 of 689) and 22.9% on Perplexity (126 of 551). Google is the engine most likely to hand your buyer a person's name. ChatGPT and Perplexity mostly hand over firms.
The sources they cite lean hard on rosters. By the study's close estimate, which sorts pages by the words in their URLs, listicle or roster pages make up 94.3% of the sources Google AI Overviews cited (396 of 420), 96.5% on Perplexity (249 of 258) and 60.7% on ChatGPT (261 of 430).
Most of the person names in these answers belong to people on the three roster pages the engines cite most. The study calls that overlap and says it does not show that the pages produced the answers. Those pages are where your buyers' engines are reading, so ask every candidate below how they would get you onto them, engine by engine.
How we grouped them
We read each party's own site pages (home, about, services, offering and testimonial pages) on 9 October 2026, and used nothing from a sales call. Every price and result below comes from those pages, and every result is the party's own claim. The fit lines are our read of the same pages.
There are two groups. Consultants and person-led advisories are where you hire one named person's judgment: their own page says you work with that person directly, or that the practice is led by them. Agencies sell execution by a team (writers, strategists, a production team), even where a founder sets the strategy.
Consultants and person-led advisories
You buy one person's thinking here. Your team does most of the shipping.
Andrii Byzov: best for GEO inside a fractional CMO role
Best for: B2B SaaS and tech companies with product-market fit and budget, where marketing is still founder-led.
Andrii Byzov calls himself a fractional CMO for B2B SaaS and tech companies and says you work directly with him. GEO sits inside that role: one listed deliverable is a baseline of how ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews describe and recommend you, with a plan to improve it. He starts with a diagnostic review, and engagements are a monthly retainer for a set number of days. His post on choosing a GEO consultant makes the same call: the first step is an audit, not a retainer. He says he grew revenue 4× in his first year as CMO at AcademyOcean.
Where it may not fit: a company that only wants GEO. You are hiring a part-time marketing leader, and GEO is one line of that job.
Gaetano DiNardi: best for demand capture at B2B SaaS companies
Best for: B2B SaaS teams that want commercial-intent SEO and paid search led by one senior operator.
Gaetano DiNardi titles himself Growth Advisor, and his offerings page is headed "Capturing demand for B2B SaaS companies." He lists money-keyword SEO, a traffic loss analysis, Google Ads optimization, marketing team training, and a fractional growth lead role where you work with him every day. He says you work with him directly and that all projects are month to month. New work goes through a waiting list.
His testimonials page carries results in the clients' own words. The CEO at Aura says he "developed a winning content strategy that took us from 0 to over 200,000 monthly visitors in 1 year". Workvivo's head of growth credits him with 2x pipeline growth from paid search, and HYCU's VP of marketing says he increased organic traffic over 100%.
Where it may not fit: GEO bought as its own service. The work he lists is SEO, paid search, training and the fractional role.
Marie Haynes: best for a fast, priced diagnosis
Best for: teams that need a traffic drop explained, or a written AI search roadmap, from one senior analyst.
Marie Haynes prices her diagnostics in public. The Traffic Drop Diagnostic Snapshot costs $500, a three to four page executive assessment that includes how much visibility you lost to AI Overviews. The Site Quality Review and Tactical Roadmap starts at $5,000. For AI search and the agentic web, she offers private video strategy briefings, customized roadmaps and ongoing advisory for select brands. She says there is no team of junior analysts and that she personally evaluates every site.
Where it may not fit: ongoing execution. You buy her assessment and her roadmap, and your team ships the changes.
Kevin Indig: best for senior SEO and AEO advice
Best for: B2B software teams that want senior strategy and already have people to carry it out.
Kevin Indig calls himself an organic growth advisor and writes the Growth Memo newsletter. He says he led SEO and Growth at Shopify, G2 and Atlassian. His services page lists two services, SEO and AEO advisory plus Sales Narrative, built for companies that need "senior-level thinking, practical recommendations, and advisory support." The advisory page includes measurement across search visibility, AI visibility and business impact. Ramp's head of growth says Indig defined "a strategy that brought SEO to a multi-million Dollar pipeline channel". On ChatGPT, LoudFace's study has Evan Bailyn and Kevin Indig tied at 17 of 62 answers, the most of any person on that engine.
Where it may not fit: a team with nobody to carry out the advice. Advisory only pays back if someone on your side ships it.
Lily Ray (Algorythmic): best for AI search audits from a recovery specialist
Best for: teams that want AI search audits and strategy, or training for an in-house SEO team.
Lily Ray founded Algorythmic, which sells SEO and AI search consulting under her name, and her own site says she also serves as VP, SEO & AI Search at Amsive. Algorythmic lists answer engine optimization consulting, audits and strategy for ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews, algorithm update and GEO recovery, E-E-A-T work, and training and one-on-one mentoring for in-house teams. She claims 15+ years of experience.
Where it may not fit: a team that needs pages written and shipped. The services she lists are consulting, audits and training.
Aleyda Solís (Orainti): best for SaaS selling across countries and languages
Best for: SaaS, marketplace and ecommerce companies, from startup to enterprise, whose search problem spans many languages and markets.
Orainti is an SEO and AI search consultancy founded in 2014 by Aleyda Solís and led by her. Its services cover multilingual and multicountry SEO and AI search advice, audits, enterprise and startup strategy, training and on-demand strategic advice, and it says clients work directly with experienced search consultants. Testimonials on the site come from people at Turo, Trade Republic, Krisp and Sniffspot, and Sniffspot's founder writes that its SEO traffic grew 500% after a year of working with her. ChatGPT names her more often than her firm in LoudFace's study, in 14 answers against 8 for Orainti.
Where it may not fit: a single-market software company that needs writers and page builds more than strategy.
Agencies that run GEO for B2B software
These firms run the work for you. So the question changes from whose judgment you trust to whose people will do the writing and building, and how they will report back.
LoudFace: best for one GEO program reported per engine
Best for: B2B software teams that want GEO, SEO, AEO and content run as one program on a single retainer, with the numbers split by engine instead of blended.
LoudFace is a full-stack organic growth agency for B2B SaaS and fintech, with AI visibility measured per engine. Programs start from $5,000 per month on a three-month initial engagement, with no setup fee, according to the GEO agency service page. Reporting is weekly and split by engine, never blended, and LoudFace declines to guarantee ChatGPT citations. Its SaaS page covers the work for software companies.
On its own site, LoudFace reports non-branded AI visibility of 0.13% in April and 21.5% over 18 to 28 September 2026, a reading taken after a 17 September prompt cut that lifts it. On the 55 prompts tracked since June, the like-for-like climb runs from 11.4% in June to 24.9% over 18 to 28 September 2026, written up in the case study. For a client, it reports Toku at 97.8% AI visibility on "best stablecoin payroll providers", measured over the 30 days to 19 August 2026.
Where it may not fit: teams that only want direction. LoudFace runs the program end to end, so a team with its own writers and developers that wants an hour of advice a month will get more from one of the consultants above. Prices and terms sit on the pricing page.
The ABM Agency: best for GEO inside account-based marketing
Best for: B2B teams running account-based programs, or starting one, that want GEO in the same plan.
You can start with a complimentary AI Agent Optimization Audit from The ABM Agency, which it says shows how your site appears to AI. It says that in most situations it can launch a pilot campaign within 21 days. It describes itself as a full-service agency specializing in enterprise 1:1 and 1:few ABM, and its menu carries a B2B GEO service and an AEO guide. SaaS, fintech, technology and cybersecurity sit on its industry list. Client logos include Verizon, Siemens, IBM and Okta. Teams new to ABM get their own pitch, and so do teams that already run it in-house. LoudFace's study counts the agency's Vincent DeCastro in 23 Google AI Overview answers.
Where it may not fit: a seed-stage SaaS team. The agency says it partners with global enterprises, and its logo wall matches.
Breaking B2B: best for a committed six- or twelve-month program
Best for: B2B and SaaS teams ready to commit to a longer program at a published entry price.
Breaking B2B states "Plans from $4k/mo" and says an average fast-growth program spends $7k+ a month, on six- or twelve-month programs, for B2B and SaaS only. The pitch is senior-led SEO, GEO and AEO, with every engagement run by its senior SEO team, and the menu adds an LLM SEO offering. Its RB2B case study reports +77% non-branded organic traffic. Elsewhere on the homepage it lists 2x organic inbound leads and 5 to 32 demos a month from organic.
Where it may not fit: month-to-month buyers, since terms start at six months.
Directive Consulting: best for AI answers inside a wider B2B growth program
Best for: B2B technology companies buying a broad growth program, where AI answers are one channel among several.
In LoudFace's study, Directive Consulting is third on Google AI Overviews with 26 answers and fifth on Perplexity with 29. The firm is a B2B growth agency with 100+ marketing strategists and 420+ brands served, by its own count. Its Technology vertical promises to help technology companies "stand out and capture demand before the shortlist is built", and there is a Startups capability too. AI answers are one surface of its DiscoverabilityOS method, next to organic search, reviews, comparisons and paid channels.
Where it may not fit: GEO bought as a standalone engagement. The method bundles AI answers with search, reviews and paid media, so get the GEO scope in writing.
Exalt Growth: best for B2B SaaS from Seed through Series C
Best for: B2B SaaS companies from Seed through Series C that want the founder on the strategy.
Founder Jack Boutchard writes that he personally develops each client's strategy at Exalt Growth, an SEO and GEO agency for SaaS companies sold in Foundation, Growth and Scale tiers. The proof leans on AI search. A featured case study is titled "How We Made GoCodes the #1 Cited Vendor in LLMs", and the firm says GoCodes grew new customer sales 164%. A client testimonial credits it with showing up on Perplexity and OpenAI in less than 60 days, and the Dovetail case card claims monthly organic traffic up nearly 900%.
Where it may not fit: companies past Series C. Its FAQ names Seed through Series C as the range it works with.
First Page Sage: best for SEO and GEO without a long contract
Best for: buyers who want combined SEO and GEO and refuse long-term lock-in.
No long-term contract is part of the offer at First Page Sage, which says it does not lock clients in and claims over 17 years of experience. It calls itself an SEO and GEO agency and does the work with a specialized team of writers, researchers and conversion optimizers. Its industry menu lists B2B SaaS, cybersecurity and fintech among others, and its services include B2B SaaS lead generation. Evan Bailyn's speaker page says he has been CEO of First Page Sage for the past decade and started and sold five companies. The homepage shows logos including Salesforce, Logitech and Verizon. First Page Sage is one of the two firms in the top three on all three engines in LoudFace's study.
Where it may not fit: a team that wants one person rather than a team. The homepage sells execution by its specialized team.
Foundation Marketing: best for GEO judged by pipeline
Best for: B2B tech and SaaS brands, including AI, martech, cybersecurity and developer tools companies, that want GEO tied to pipeline.
Over 220M organic visits and AI citations generated for B2B brands is the headline total on the Foundation homepage. The firm describes itself as an AI visibility and GEO marketing agency that helps brands drive pipeline through visibility in LLMs, and its about page calls it the AI visibility agency for B2B tech and SaaS, twelve years in. A production team and a strategy team build the content engine together, and each brand's narrative goes out across search, Reddit, YouTube and earned media.
Where it may not fit: a team that only wants on-site fixes. Foundation's model leans on content production and off-site distribution.
iPullRank: best for relevance engineering at depth
Best for: enterprise and mid-market companies that want GEO handled as an engineering problem, with training for their own team.
Mike King is founder and CEO of iPullRank, which calls itself an AI search and content marketing agency for enterprise and mid-market companies. Its GEO programs span strategy, content, technical optimization and measurement, and its footer says it is "leading the way in Relevance Engineering". The about page adds "consulting, SEO training & hiring solutions" and a rank tracking tool. Its claim is over $5B in organic search results delivered, with case cards for $2.4 billion in incremental revenue at a large bank and $290M in revenue at a global eCommerce marketplace. Many of its Fortune 100 clients sign NDAs, it says, so brand names stay off the case studies. In LoudFace's study, iPullRank is the other firm in the top three on all three engines, and King leads Google AI Overviews among people.
Where it may not fit: seed and Series A software teams. Its positioning is enterprise and mid-market, although it offers its AI search strategy programs "for businesses of all stages".
Minuttia: best for content plus AI search at established B2B SaaS brands
Best for: established B2B SaaS brands that want content marketing with AI search built in.
Minuttia lists a 94% average client retention rate (as of June 2026) and 60+ B2B SaaS clients among the figures on its homepage. The firm says it helps established brands grow with content marketing, and its AI search work sits inside that program. The homepage lists Google and AI search strategy and agent analytics and reporting ("See your website the way AI does."), plus digital PR aimed at mentions by Google and AI search, and Reddit participation. One featured case study is titled "Helping a Technical SaaS Turn AI Search Into an Acquisition Machine". It also says it will work with your existing in-house team without increasing your headcount.
Where it may not fit: a company whose content strategy already belongs to another agency. Minuttia says it is happy to collaborate with other agencies but plays better "in the driver's seat", managing content strategy end to end.
Omniscient Digital: best for B2B software teams with a full-service budget
Best for: B2B software companies that want SEO, AEO and GEO in one full-service engagement and can budget for it.
Full-service engagements at Omniscient Digital start at $120,000 a year, the highest published entry point here. For that you get an organic growth agency for B2B software covering SEO, GEO and content. Two of the four case results on its homepage are AI visibility results. It says OnBoard reached +88% AI visibility, and that Convert grew LLM visibility 81% and AI citations 140% in 60 days. The other two report $400,000 of qualified pipeline through SEO for Teambridge and a 2117% rise in blog organic sessions for Order.co. Omniscient Digital is also one of five firms named in at least a quarter of the answers on every engine in LoudFace's study.
Where it may not fit: seed-stage teams, and anyone who wants advice rather than a done-for-you program. At $120,000 a year, the budget question comes first.
Omnius: best for technical GEO
Best for: SaaS and fintech companies whose GEO problem starts with crawling, schema and citation tracking.
An AI/LLM SaaS going from 0 to 2.7M organic visitors in 13 months is the first case card at Omnius, and a second reports a 64% higher conversion rate for AuthoredUp. The agency says it partners only with companies from SaaS and fintech verticals, and its footer adds AI companies. On the GEO side it lists AI crawler optimization, source citation monitoring, and schema and LLMs.txt work. Its listed locations are London, Dubai and Belgrade.
Where it may not fit: companies outside SaaS, fintech and AI.
Optimist: best for a priced advisory tier
Best for: growth-stage B2B tech companies that want senior advice, a roadmap or full service at a price they can read before the first call.
Optimist publishes the clearest price ladder here. Roadmap is $7,500 one-time and, by its own description, covers your entity, content coverage and AI visibility across five models. Advisory starts from $3,000 a month under the line "You execute, we advise." Full Service starts from $4,000 a month. Both retainers are month-to-month and both list weekly AI visibility tracking. Its GEO service promises "Schema, structure, and fan-out optimization that gets you cited." On its homepage it reports Glide at 14X leads and Stampli at 5X inbound pipeline, and its AEO and GEO case studies page reports 49x LLM revenue and 26x LLM referral traffic for a large B2B tech client.
Where it may not fit: a team without a strong SEO program that wants GEO bought on its own. Optimist says it offers GEO and AEO as standalone services for companies that already have a strong SEO program in place, and that it recommends the integrated approach.
Siege Media: best for content-led GEO at brand scale
Best for: SaaS and fintech brands with a large content program that want it judged by LLM citations.
The Siege Media homepage lists case results including Instacart at 46.5k LLM citations, Zendesk at 98% LLM visibility and Zapier at 96% LLM visibility. It calls itself a full-service GEO agency for brands and lists SaaS and fintech among its industries. The service list runs to GEO consulting, SEO consulting, content, digital PR, affiliate and Reddit work.
Where it may not fit: early-stage B2B software teams. Its named results, Zendesk and Zapier among them, come from established brands.
Skale: best for GEO and SEO run as one system
Best for: tech and SaaS teams that want GEO and SEO run together and reported in revenue terms.
Skale says it reports on new MRR rather than rankings. It calls itself an AI search-first organic growth agency for tech and SaaS that runs GEO and SEO as one system. A Generative Engine Optimization service sits in its menu, next to a case study on how a DeFi bridge became a Hyperliquid AI authority in 90 days, and it reports +176% in revenue for Rezi. Its promise to a buyer is that in a matter of weeks you have a 6+ person SEO growth team.
Where it may not fit: a team that wants advice only. Skale's offer centers on a team that executes, though it also offers insights into why a current SEO strategy may be missing its conversion targets.
Compare the proof each one publishes
Each line below is the party's own claim from its own site.
| Consultant or firm | Published proof or terms (self-reported) |
|---|---|
| Andrii Byzov | Revenue up 4× in a year as CMO at AcademyOcean |
| Gaetano DiNardi | Aura from 0 to 200,000+ monthly visitors in a year, credited to his content strategy; Workvivo 2x pipeline from paid search |
| Marie Haynes | $500 snapshot; Site Quality Review and Tactical Roadmap from $5,000 |
| Kevin Indig | Ramp testimonial on SEO becoming a multi-million dollar pipeline channel |
| Lily Ray | 15+ years claimed; VP, SEO & AI Search at Amsive |
| Aleyda Solís | Orainti testimonials from Turo, Trade Republic, Krisp and Sniffspot; Sniffspot's founder says its SEO traffic grew 500% in a year with her |
| LoudFace | Own non-branded AI visibility 11.4% in June to 24.9% over 18 to 28 September 2026, on 55 prompts tracked since June; Toku at 97.8% AI visibility on its category's top prompt (30 days to 19 August 2026) |
| The ABM Agency | Logos include Verizon, Siemens, IBM and Okta |
| Breaking B2B | RB2B +77% non-branded organic traffic; 2x organic inbound leads; 5 to 32 demos a month from organic |
| Directive Consulting | 420+ brands served |
| Exalt Growth | GoCodes new customer sales up 164%; Dovetail organic traffic up nearly 900% |
| First Page Sage | Logos include Salesforce, Logitech and Verizon |
| Foundation Marketing | Over 220M organic visits and AI citations for B2B brands |
| iPullRank | Over $5B in organic search results; Fortune 100 clients under NDAs |
| Minuttia | 94% average client retention; 60+ B2B SaaS clients |
| Omniscient Digital | OnBoard +88% AI visibility; Convert +81% LLM visibility, +140% AI citations in 60 days |
| Omnius | AI/LLM SaaS from 0 to 2.7M organic visitors in 13 months; AuthoredUp 64% higher conversion rate |
| Optimist | Glide 14X leads; Stampli 5X inbound pipeline; 49x LLM revenue and 26x LLM referral traffic for a large B2B tech client |
| Siege Media | Instacart 46.5k LLM citations; Zendesk 98% LLM visibility; Zapier 96% LLM visibility |
| Skale | Rezi +176% in revenue |
GEO vs SEO for B2B software: what actually changes
On Google, GEO sits on top of SEO. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a "query fan-out" technique, running several related searches for one question. To be eligible as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, it says, a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. It also says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
ChatGPT and Perplexity add a crawl question your SEO team may never have asked. OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. It also says this opt-out is separate from GPTBot, which governs training. Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt so pages can appear in its search results, and says that bot is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models.
What changes in practice is measurement and corpus. You track whether each engine names and cites you on the buyer prompts that matter, one engine at a time, and you work on the roster pages and third-party sources those engines read. For a longer comparison, read AEO vs GEO vs SEO.
Questions to ask a GEO consultant before you sign
Put these to every name above, person or firm.
- Do you have the bandwidth to ship advice? If not, a person who advises is the wrong buy.
- Is this a one-time project or an ongoing program? A roadmap and a retainer solve different problems.
- Does the vendor build all four levers? Structure, schema, entity signals and measurement. Ask who owns each.
- Who writes, and who owns measurement? Get names and a reporting cadence.
- How is citation capture measured? Ask for the prompt set, the engines and the window, split by engine.
- Do you need results within 30 days? Say so up front and see how the answer changes.
- Does your stage match the model? A solo consultant and a full program fit different companies.
- Will the plan keep the right crawlers in? A vendor should never ask you to block OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot if you want to appear in ChatGPT or Perplexity.
- How does the plan differ from standard indexing and snippet eligibility? Google says there are no additional requirements for AI Overviews, so a good consultant can explain what they add on top.
The call: hire a firm unless you can already ship
Most B2B software teams asking for a GEO consultant need a firm. GEO work is pages, schema, third-party placements and weekly measurement across three engines that cite different sources, and advice nobody ships changes nothing in an AI answer. Hire a person when you already have writers and a developer and want a senior second opinion on where to aim them, and buy a priced diagnostic or roadmap first so you see the thinking before you commit. Hire a firm when nobody on your side has the hours. If that is you, start with the GEO agency service, or compare firms side by side in our best GEO agencies for B2B SaaS.
