The 12 Best ChatGPT SEO Agencies for AI Search (2026)

The best ChatGPT SEO agencies in 2026 are (1) Searchbloom, (2) Tinuiti, (3) Foundation, (4) NoGood, and (5) Omniscient Digital, with iPullRank, First Page Sage, Onely, and the other names AI cites most today just below them. This guide scores 12 agencies, the publisher included, on the same 50-point scale, so you can see the reasoning instead of taking my word for it. ChatGPT SEO also goes by AI SEO, generative engine optimization (GEO), and answer engine optimization (AEO). The label matters less than the job: getting your brand named, described accurately, and cited when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, Gemini, or Claude a question your business should answer.

Here is the part most of these lists skip. Searchbloom publishes this guide and ranks itself 1st. You should be skeptical of that, and I would be too. So I built the scoring to be checkable, I kept the writeup on every other agency the same length and depth as ours, and I named where we are not the right fit, including that we are not yet the most-cited name in this category. If the reasoning does not hold up when you read it, the ranking has not earned anything. Use the table to shortlist, the profiles to vet, and the breakdown below to see exactly what you are paying a ChatGPT SEO agency to do.

In this guide

• ChatGPT SEO agency comparison
• How we scored these agencies
• Why AI search is probabilistic
• The 12 best ChatGPT SEO agencies
• What a ChatGPT SEO service includes
• How much does a ChatGPT SEO agency cost?
• What results should you expect?
• How to choose a ChatGPT SEO agency
• Best ChatGPT SEO agency by need
• Searchbloom's approach to AI search
• Frequently asked questions
• A note from the author

ChatGPT SEO Agency Comparison

Every agency below was scored out of 50 on the five pillars of MERIT, Searchbloom's framework for AI search, worth 10 points each: Mentions, Evidence, Relevance, Inclusion, and Transformation. Pricing is shown as a tier, not a figure, because most agencies do not publish rates. The cost section below explains what the tiers mean in dollars. Confirm exact pricing with each agency.

Searchbloom (1st) is the publisher of this guide. We scored ourselves on the same MERIT pillars as every agency here, and we rank ourselves first on the framework, not on current citation share. The agencies at 6 and below have more AI visibility for this query today than we do. See the transparency disclosure.

How We Score ChatGPT SEO Agencies: The MERIT Framework

AI search is not one job. It is five, and the agencies worth paying are strong at all of them. We score every agency on MERIT, the five-pillar framework Searchbloom built and published for getting a brand cited by AI: Mentions, Evidence, Relevance, Inclusion, and Transformation. Each pillar is worth 10 points, weighted equally, for a 50-point total. Yes, the framework is ours. That is exactly why we spell out all five pillars and the rubric below, so you can hold us to the same standard as everyone else.

The five pillars of MERIT

• Mentions (10 points). Third-party validation, the review sites, roundups, forums, and press where an AI discovers trusted signals about a brand. This is where most AI citations come from.
• Evidence (10 points). Original, quantifiable assets that make a brand a primary source an AI can reference and attribute, not another page repeating the consensus.
• Relevance (10 points). Intent-aligned content structured for AI retrieval in self-contained, citable passages, across text, video, and structured formats.
• Inclusion (10 points). The technical access and semantic precision that let AI crawlers discover, read, and correctly interpret a brand's content and its entity.
• Transformation (10 points). Systematic measurement and the discipline to sustain the work, so visibility holds up over a multi-year horizon instead of spiking once.

How the scores were sourced

Scores come from each agency's own site and case studies, their public tools and frameworks, named team members, and third-party listings such as Clutch. Where a claim was not verifiable, it did not score, and reported results are attributed to the agency that provided them. This is Searchbloom's assessment against its own framework, which is exactly why every pillar is spelled out. Disagree with a score, and you have the rubric to redo it yourself.

Why ChatGPT SEO is different from regular SEO

ChatGPT SEO is different because the destination changed. Regular SEO competes for a ranked list of links a person clicks. AI search competes to be the source an answer is built from, before anyone clicks at all. That puts more weight on your entity footprint, on content shaped around the questions buyers actually ask, and on the off-site pages a generative engine cites. It builds on SEO fundamentals rather than replacing them, which is why the agencies that win at AI search are usually the ones already strong at technical SEO and content.

AI Search Is Probabilistic, Not Deterministic

Here is the shift most agencies still have not internalized. Old Google was close to deterministic: one algorithm, one ranked list, and everyone searching the same thing saw roughly the same 10 blue links. AI search is probabilistic. Ask ChatGPT the same question twice and you can get a different set of agencies, because the model is sampling from a distribution, not reading off a fixed chart. Even classic Google drifted this way years ago, once machine-learned ranking and personalization meant the results already varied from one person, place, and moment to the next.

The data makes it concrete. We track who AI actually names for AI SEO questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, Gemini, and more. Over the last 30 days, iPullRank showed up in 66 percent of those answers, First Page Sage in 49 percent, Siege Media in 40 percent, then a long tail of a dozen more agencies. No single name is the answer, and even the leader is absent from a third of the responses.

That changes the goal. You do not rank 1st in AI search the way you ranked 1st on Google. You raise your probability of being named, across engines and over time, and you measure it. That is the Transformation pillar of MERIT, and it is why the honest way to read this list is as a distribution you want to sit high in, not a leaderboard with one permanent winner.

It is also why we rank ourselves 1st here while being open that we are still building AI-SEO visibility. The chart above is our track record across SEO: AI already names Searchbloom in most answers for the best SEO agency, and for Utah, Shopify, local, and small business SEO. AI SEO is the newer frontier, at 6 percent and climbing, and MERIT is how we bring it up to match the rest.

The 12 Best ChatGPT SEO Agencies

Each profile uses the same structure: the MERIT score and its five pillars, who the agency is best for, an overview, where they are strong, and where they may not fit. Searchbloom's profile carries the same depth as the rest, and the same MERIT score was applied to every agency.

1. Searchbloom

MERIT score: 47/50. Mentions 9, Evidence 10, Relevance 9, Inclusion 10, Transformation 9.

Best for: Businesses that want to be the answer an AI gives, not just a link it might show, and want the visibility measured instead of assumed.

Why we rank ourselves 1st. Searchbloom is a search marketing agency founded in 2014, fully virtual, run out of South Jordan, Utah, and a Google Premier Partner. We work SEO, PPC, and conversion together, and the AI search practice runs on our own framework, MERIT: Mentions, Evidence, Relevance, Inclusion, and Transformation. It is the map for getting a brand named and cited across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude.

Where we stand today. One honest thing, since this guide argues for transparency. Ask AI for the best SEO agency and we are one of the names it cites most, and the same holds across Utah, Shopify, local, ecommerce, and small business SEO. The AI SEO niche is newer, and for the narrow best ChatGPT SEO agency query a few agencies lower on this list are cited more than we are today. We rank ourselves 1st on MERIT, the framework, and we are using it to bring our AI-SEO visibility up to where our SEO visibility already is. Hold us to it.

Where we are strong:

• MERIT, a named framework for AI search rather than a renamed SEO retainer
• We take our own medicine: AI already cites Searchbloom across most of SEO, from the best SEO agency to Shopify, local, small business, ecommerce, franchise, manufacturing, and enterprise
• Entity and structured data as the foundation, with public tools built on it, not an afterthought
• Content built to add net new information, so it earns a citation instead of restating one
• Off-site mentions and evidence aimed at the pages AI engines actually quote
• Citation share measured in reporting you can read
• SEO, PPC, and CRO run as one system, so AI traffic converts once it arrives

Where we are not the right fit. We are selective about who we take on, and we are a mid-market to enterprise retainer, not the cheapest option. If price is the only variable, we are not it.

2. Tinuiti

MERIT score: 44/50. Mentions 9, Evidence 9, Relevance 9, Inclusion 8, Transformation 9.

Best for: Enterprise brands that want AI search inside a large, full-funnel performance shop.

Overview. Tinuiti is a large performance-marketing agency, founded in 2004 as Elite SEM and rebranded in 2019, led by CEO Zach Morrison. It launched a formal AI SEO offering, which it also calls generative engine optimization, aimed at earning visibility across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, and Amazon's Rufus. Its stated method leans on structured data, citation-worthy content, and causal-inference measurement.

Where they are strong:

• A named, formally launched AI SEO service inside a full-funnel agency, not a bolt-on
• Structured data and citation-worthy content as the stated foundation
• Causal-inference measurement, a rigorous way to tie AI visibility to outcomes
• Enterprise scale across search, social, commerce, and marketplaces

Where they may not fit. The scale and full-funnel model fit enterprise budgets and multi-channel programs. A small business that only needs focused AI search work may be a smaller account here, and reported results are the agency's own.

3. Foundation

MERIT score: 43/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 9, Relevance 9, Inclusion 8, Transformation 9.

Best for: B2B tech and SaaS brands that want AI visibility earned through content and distribution.

Overview. Foundation is a content-led agency founded in 2014 and led by founder and CEO Ross Simmonds, positioning itself as an AI visibility agency for B2B tech and SaaS. It frames the job as getting a brand cited, recommended, and chosen across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and pairs generative engine optimization with earned distribution, including a Certified Reddit Partner status.

Where they are strong:

• A distribution-first read on GEO, earning citations on the third-party surfaces AI reads
• Certified Reddit Partner, useful because AI engines lean on community threads
• Original research and content built to be cited, not just to rank
• A clear B2B tech and SaaS focus

Where they may not fit. The model is content and distribution led, so a brand whose gap is deep technical entity and schema work may want to pair it with a technical shop. Headline citation figures are the agency's own reporting.

4. NoGood

MERIT score: 42/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 9, Relevance 8, Inclusion 8, Transformation 9.

Best for: Growth-stage and enterprise brands that want AEO run by a team that also owns its measurement tool.

Overview. NoGood is a growth-marketing agency founded in 2016 and led by founder and CEO Mostafa ElBermawy, who publicly claims to have coined the term answer engine optimization. Its AEO service aims to build AI search visibility, and it spun out a proprietary platform, Goodie, that tracks citations, sentiment, and brand mentions across a range of LLMs.

Where they are strong:

• An owned AI-visibility platform, Goodie, not just a service, for measurement
• A named partner roster that includes large brands
• A growth-marketing backbone, so AI visibility connects to demand
• Early, vocal positioning in the AEO space

Where they may not fit. Growth-marketing breadth can mean less single-vertical depth than a specialist. The strongest named result is hosted on the sister platform's site, and reported figures are the agency's own.

5. Omniscient Digital

MERIT score: 41/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 8, Relevance 9, Inclusion 8, Transformation 8.

Best for: Ambitious B2B SaaS brands that want AI search as part of a revenue-focused content program.

Overview. Omniscient Digital is an organic-growth agency founded in 2019, with founders David Ly Khim, Alex Birkett, and Allie Konchar, that names AI search alongside SEO and content as a core channel for B2B brands. Its work runs on named content methodologies, including product-led content and a barbell content strategy, oriented to pipeline and revenue rather than traffic.

Where they are strong:

• A revenue-and-pipeline read on content, not vanity traffic
• Named, published content methodologies you can hold them to
• Founders with public track records in B2B SaaS content
• AI search treated as a core channel, not an add-on

Where they may not fit. The focus is B2B SaaS content, so a local business or a non-SaaS brand is outside the sweet spot. The technical entity layer is lighter than at a technical-first shop.

6. iPullRank

MERIT score: 40/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 6, Relevance 8, Inclusion 9, Transformation 9.

Best for: Enterprise and growth-stage brands that want AI search treated as an engineering discipline, not a content add-on.

Overview. iPullRank is a New York City based agency led by founder and CEO Michael King, one of the earliest voices connecting information retrieval to SEO. Its AI search offering is built around a term King coined, Relevance Engineering, which the agency describes as joining technical SEO, information retrieval, embeddings, content strategy, UX, and data science into one practice. It is one of the most-cited names in AI search today.

Where they are strong:

• Relevance Engineering, a genuinely technical frame for generative engine optimization that few agencies can staff
• Deep information-retrieval and embeddings knowledge, the actual machinery behind how AI picks sources
• An Omnimedia approach that pushes visibility across press, forums, reviews, video, and social, not just the site
• Enterprise-grade strategy, segmented from growth-stage up to Fortune 500

Where they may not fit. The public proof is aggregate rather than case-by-case. The site states more than 5 billion dollars in organic results across its work, a portfolio figure without a named study behind it, so weigh it as a claim. The engineering depth here is aimed at large, resourced teams; a small business may pay for horsepower it cannot use yet.

7. First Page Sage

MERIT score: 39/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 6, Relevance 9, Inclusion 7, Transformation 9.

Best for: Established B2B and enterprise brands that want to be the recommended answer through authority content.

Overview. First Page Sage, founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco under founder Evan Bailyn, moved early into AI search. The agency says it was the first to offer answer engine optimization, in May 2023, and it publishes quarterly GEO and AEO studies that are worth reading whether or not you hire them. Its GEO service runs on a stated 6-part framework covering list placement, database inclusion, website authority, review management, achievement publicity, and social sentiment.

Where they are strong:

• A clear, published GEO framework you can hold them to
• Real primary research through the quarterly studies, which signals they are measuring AI engines, not guessing
• Thought-leadership content aimed at getting recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude
• A named enterprise B2B track record

Where they may not fit. The model leans heavily on authority-content production, so if your gap is technical, the schema and structured data an AI reads before it trusts you, that is not the center of this offering. The first-to-market AEO line is a self-claim, not independently confirmed, so ask for the case study directly.

8. Onely

MERIT score: 38/50. Mentions 7, Evidence 7, Relevance 7, Inclusion 9, Transformation 8.

Best for: Enterprise and SaaS sites where rendering, crawlability, and architecture are the thing standing between you and an AI citation.

Overview. Onely, based in Wroclaw, Poland and led by founder Bartosz Goralewicz, grew out of the technical agency Elephate and carries that DNA. Its AI search pitch is direct: when people ask AI for help, Onely works to get your product mentioned and discussed in the answers that shape decisions. Where it stands apart is depth on the hard technical problems, JavaScript rendering, headless architectures, and crawlability, that quietly keep complex sites out of AI answers.

Where they are strong:

• Technical SEO depth that most content-led agencies cannot match, especially on JavaScript-heavy and headless builds
• The structured-data and crawlability foundation an AI needs before it can read you at all
• A named enterprise customer base, with a 5.0 Clutch rating
• A clear 3-step approach across audience discovery, purchase psychology, and AI-optimized solutions

Where they may not fit. The center of gravity is technical, so off-site authority and the digital PR that earns citations is less of the story here than at a PR-led shop. If your site is already technically clean and your gap is getting talked about, you may want to pair this with authority work elsewhere.

9. Siege Media

MERIT score: 37/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 6, Relevance 9, Inclusion 6, Transformation 8.

Best for: Brands already investing in content that want to become the source LLMs quote.

Overview. Siege Media is a content-led agency founded in 2012 by Ross Hudgens, remote-first with hubs in Austin, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Its framing of AI search is sharp: LLMs do not invent answers, they quote sources, so the job is turning your brand into one worth quoting and getting the right publishers and communities to quote it too. The agency runs two named assets, BlueprintIQ for content strategy and DataFlywheel for keeping pages fresh enough to hold citation eligibility.

Where they are strong:

• A content and digital PR engine built to earn citations on pages you do not own, which is where most AI recommendations are decided
• A useful stress test on every asset: will it rank and convert, will it earn links, will it show up when a prospect asks AI about the category
• Strong presence in research reports and community platforms like Reddit, which AI engines read heavily
• A published point of view on the space, including a forthcoming book on generative engine optimization

Where they may not fit. The strength is content and PR, so the technical entity layer, schema, knowledge graph, and fact consistency, is lighter here than at a technical-first shop. Named results are the agency's own reporting, so confirm the case study before you bank on the number.

10. Single Grain

MERIT score: 36/50. Mentions 8, Evidence 7, Relevance 8, Inclusion 6, Transformation 7.

Best for: Growth-stage brands that want an AI content and authority program with a known operator behind it.

Overview. Single Grain, led by founder Eric Siu, runs an AEO and GEO service aimed at getting a brand to show up with authoritative, cited answers across every AI search surface. Siu's own media presence, the podcasts and content he publishes, doubles as a distribution engine, which is part of why the agency leans content and authority.

Where they are strong:

• A recognizable founder actively producing content in the space, which signals a real point of view
• A content-and-authority model built for AI citation, not just Google rankings
• A published case study reporting hundreds of AI citations for one customer, which is a concrete outcome to interrogate
• Comfort across paid and organic, so AI visibility ties back to demand

Where they may not fit. The stated citation value figure is the agency's own estimate, so treat it as a claim to verify, not a guarantee. The technical entity layer, schema and knowledge graph work, is lighter here than at a technical-first shop.

11. Go Fish Digital

MERIT score: 35/50. Mentions 6, Evidence 6, Relevance 7, Inclusion 8, Transformation 8.

Best for: Enterprise marketing teams that want AI search run with proprietary tools and a technical bent.

Overview. Go Fish Digital, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, frames generative engine optimization as structuring content so it is eligible to be retrieved, ranked, and summarized by AI systems like Google's AI Overviews, AI Mode, and ChatGPT. What sets it apart is a built-out tool suite, including a page-level analysis tool called Barracuda and an AI Overview Analyzer, and a method it ties to specific Google patents on neural retrieval and query decomposition.

Where they are strong:

• A proprietary tool suite for page-level AI analysis, which most agencies do not own
• A patent-informed approach to how retrieval and query decomposition actually work
• Enterprise reach across ecommerce, SaaS, B2B, legal, education, healthcare, and finance
• A technical, retrieval-first read on AI search rather than a content-only one

Where they may not fit. The breadth across many industries means less single-vertical depth than a specialist. And a tool-led, technical program fits a resourced in-house team better than a small business that needs the work done for them end to end.

12. Amsive

MERIT score: 34/50. Mentions 7, Evidence 6, Relevance 7, Inclusion 7, Transformation 7.

Best for: Enterprise brands in regulated or data-heavy categories that want AEO run on hard data.

Overview. Amsive is a performance-marketing agency with offices in New York and Chicago that brands its AI search work as answer engine optimization, treating it as the same job as GEO and LLM optimization: being discoverable, cited, and surfaced across AI platforms. Its credibility anchor is named leadership, with a well-known SEO figure leading strategy and research, and a stated partnership with an AI-visibility platform for LLM interpretation data.

Where they are strong:

• Named, well-known SEO leadership in the AEO practice, which is rare to be able to point at
• A data partnership that feeds real LLM interpretation data into the work
• An enterprise, performance-marketing backbone across finance, healthcare, ecommerce, media, and SaaS
• A clear AEO service scope, from crawler discoverability to citation and sentiment monitoring

Where they may not fit. Published, verifiable AI-search outcomes were thin on the public pages, so ask for the case study directly rather than taking the category positioning on faith. And this is built for enterprise budgets, not small-business ones.

What a ChatGPT SEO Service Includes: MERIT in Practice

If an agency cannot tell you which of these it does, that is your answer. The five pillars of MERIT are also the five pieces of the work, and a real ChatGPT SEO service covers all five.

Inclusion: entity optimization and structured data

Getting your brand into the knowledge graph, marking up your pages with schema, and making your core facts consistent everywhere they appear. This is what lets a model say what you are without guessing. It is the least visible part of the work and the part most agencies underbuild. It is the center of Searchbloom's answer engine optimization work.

Evidence: original, citable assets

Original research, data, and quantifiable results that make your brand a primary source an AI will reference and attribute. AI engines have read every generic answer already. A page earns a citation by carrying a number, a method, or a firsthand result the others do not. Restating the consensus gets you nothing.

Relevance: passage-level content

Structuring pages so the answer sits in a self-contained passage a model can lift cleanly. AI engines quote passages, not whole pages. The question goes in the heading, the answer goes right under it, and the supporting detail follows.

Mentions: off-site authority and digital PR

Earning mentions on the third-party pages AI reads before it recommends anyone: review sites, roundups, industry press, and the forum threads people trust. Most AI citations point off your own domain, so this is not optional.

Transformation: measurement in the AI engines

Tracking whether you show up, how you are described, and who gets named instead of you across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude, then sustaining it. If nobody is measuring the engines directly, nobody knows if the work is doing anything. This is the reporting layer of our generative engine optimization service.

How Much Does a ChatGPT SEO Agency Cost?

AI search pricing tracks SEO pricing, because most of the work is SEO done for a different reader. Expect these ranges as monthly retainers.

Small business: roughly 1,500 to 5,000 dollars a month. Enough for entity and schema cleanup, a focused content program, and a starter measurement setup. Real, just narrower in scope.

Mid-market: roughly 5,000 to 15,000 dollars a month. The full five-pillar program, off-site authority included, with reporting against AI visibility.

Enterprise: 15,000 dollars a month and up. Multi-brand or multi-market entity work, heavier digital PR, and custom measurement.

One honest note. Anyone quoting a flat get-cited-by-ChatGPT price without asking about your entity footprint, your existing authority, or your category is guessing. The number depends on where you start, and a good agency prices it after it looks.

What Results Should You Expect, and When

Faster than classic SEO in some ways, slower in others. Entity and schema fixes can change how an AI describes you within weeks, because the model re-reads your grounding fast. Getting named and cited for competitive questions takes longer, usually 3 to 6 months, because it depends on off-site authority you have to earn.

What to watch on the way there: whether AI engines describe your brand correctly, whether you start appearing in answers for questions you should own, and whether that visibility brings traffic that converts. Ranking language does not apply here. Visibility is the metric, and it moves in steps, not a straight line.

How to Choose a ChatGPT SEO Agency

If AI already describes your brand wrong

Start with entity work. The problem is your grounding, not your content, and you want an agency that leads with schema, knowledge graph presence, and fact consistency.

If you are invisible in AI answers for your category

You need off-site authority. Pick an agency that does digital PR and earns the third-party citations AI reads, not one that only optimizes your own pages.

If you serve a local area

Local AI answers pull from reviews, listings, and local sources. An agency with real local SEO and reputation work will move the AI answer, because it is moving the same signals.

If your buyers ask AI first

You want the full program and measurement in the engines. This is the case for a mid-market or enterprise retainer that covers all five pillars and reports against them.

Questions to ask before you sign

• How do you get a brand into the knowledge graph, and what schema do you build
• Which off-site pages will you earn citations on, and how
• How do you measure whether an AI engine names us, and what does the report look like
• What have you not been able to do for a company like ours
• Is this a renamed SEO service, or did you rebuild it for AI search

Best ChatGPT SEO Agency by Need

• Best overall, entity-led AI search: Searchbloom
• Best for enterprise performance and AI search: Tinuiti
• Best for B2B tech content and distribution: Foundation
• Best for AEO with an owned measurement tool: NoGood
• Best for B2B SaaS content programs: Omniscient Digital
• Best for relevance engineering and technical AI search: iPullRank
• Best for B2B thought-leadership GEO: First Page Sage
• Best for technical AI search on complex sites: Onely
• Best for content-led AI citations: Siege Media

Searchbloom's Approach to AI Search

Our AI search practice is MERIT, and the five pillars are the order of the work. Inclusion comes first: we make sure the model can read your brand, the schema is right, the knowledge graph has you, and your facts say the same thing everywhere they appear. That is the grounding an AI reads before it decides what you are.

Then Evidence and Relevance: content built to add net new information, scored for it before it publishes, and structured so a model can quote it at the passage level, instead of another page that repeats the consensus. Then Mentions: we go off-site, to the review pages, roundups, and third-party sources AI actually cites, because that is usually where the recommendation is decided. Transformation holds it together, measuring visibility in the engines so you can see whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude are naming you, and sustaining it past the first spike. If you want the wider view across every AI SEO agency, not just the ChatGPT angle, we keep a separate guide to the best AI SEO agencies.

SEO, PPC, and CRO run as one system underneath it. AI visibility is only worth something if the traffic it brings converts, and that is a conversion problem we work at the same time.

Questions and Answers

What is a ChatGPT SEO agency?

A ChatGPT SEO agency gets your brand named, described correctly, and cited when people ask AI engines a question your business should answer. The work is entity optimization, information-gain content, passage-level answers, off-site authority, and measurement in the AI engines. Some call it AI SEO, GEO, or AEO. It is the same job.

Is ChatGPT SEO different from regular SEO?

It shares most of the foundation and changes the target. Regular SEO ranks pages in a list of links. ChatGPT SEO gets you into the answer itself, which puts more weight on your entity footprint, on content that adds net new information, and on the off-site pages an AI cites. A strong SEO team has a head start. A team that renamed its old service does not.

How do I know if my brand has an AI visibility problem?

Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews the questions your buyers ask, and read what comes back. If you are not named, that is a visibility problem. If you are named but described wrong, that is an entity and grounding problem. The two get fixed differently, so tell them apart first.

How much does a ChatGPT SEO agency cost?

Most engagements run as monthly retainers: roughly 1,500 to 5,000 dollars a month for small business, 5,000 to 15,000 for mid-market, and 15,000 and up for enterprise. Anyone quoting a flat get-cited-by-ChatGPT price without asking about your entity footprint, your existing authority, or your category is guessing.

How long until an AI engine cites my brand?

Entity and schema fixes can change how you are described within weeks. Getting cited for competitive questions usually takes 3 to 6 months, because it depends on off-site authority you have to earn. Anyone promising instant citations is selling.

Does llms.txt help me rank in ChatGPT?

No. It is a nice idea that does not move anything, and we have tested it. The signals that get you named are your entity footprint, your content, and the off-site pages AI reads. Spend the time there.

Why does Searchbloom rank itself 1st when others get cited more today?

Fair question, and here is the honest version. Across SEO in general, from the best SEO agency to Utah, Shopify, local, and small business, Searchbloom is one of the names AI cites most. For the newer, narrower AI SEO niche this list sits in, a few agencies below us are cited more today. We rank ourselves 1st on MERIT, the framework, not on current citation share for this one query, and we say so in the open. Read the rubric, score us yourself, and hold us to closing that gap.

How was this list ranked?

Every agency was scored 0 to 10 on the five pillars of MERIT, Searchbloom's published framework for AI search, weighted equally, out of 50: Mentions, Evidence, Relevance, Inclusion, and Transformation. Scores came from each agency's own site, case studies, public tools, and third-party listings. Where a claim was not verifiable, it did not score.

A Note From the Author