AI SEO Optimization Agency: What The Work Is, Who To Hire, And How The Models Behind The Answers Score

An AI SEO optimization agency is an SEO team that works to get your brand found, cited and recommended in AI answers, or one that uses AI to do the SEO work, and the best ones do both.

The agency I'd hire first is Goldie Agency, and I'm telling you upfront that it's my own agency so you can weigh my bias.

If you want my team to look at your brand, you can book a free SEO strategy session and get a custom AI visibility plan.

The problem it solves is simple, because buyers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI who to hire, and a brand that isn't named never gets the enquiry.

In this post I'll explain both meanings, break down what the optimisation work actually is and show you how to choose an agency.

Near the end, I'll show you how the AI models behind those answers score on this leaderboard, and what that does and doesn't tell you.

What is an AI SEO optimization agency?

The phrase has two meanings, and most agency pages only explain one.

You'll also hear the first meaning called GEO, which is generative engine optimisation, or AEO, which is answer engine optimisation.

The second meaning matters because AI-assisted production lets an agency ship more answer-shaped pages with fewer people.

I wrote a narrower post on the best Claude SEO agency, and this one covers every major AI surface.

Which AI answers does an AI SEO optimization agency work on?

A good agency treats each AI surface as a related but separate job.

I read Google's AI features guide, OpenAI's crawler page and Perplexity's crawler page on 15 October 2026.

What the optimisation work actually is

This is the part most people never get told, so here are the six jobs in the order I'd run them.

1. A baseline of AI answers

The agency writes ten to twenty buyer questions with you and asks each one in every AI tool your buyers use.

It saves every answer with the date, the brands named and the sources cited, because that record is the only fair way to prove progress later.

2. Entity and brand facts

An entity is a clear, consistent picture of who you are, what you sell and who you serve.

The agency makes sure your name, services, locations and proof say the same thing on your site, your profiles and your listings.

3. Brand mentions on trusted sources

My strategy session page says AI platforms don't recommend brands just because those brands publish more on their own websites.

It says they look for consistent signals across the wider web, so the agency earns expert bylines, independent reviews, industry comparisons and research-led coverage.

Communities and video count too, which is why I publish on YouTube every day.

4. Answer-shaped content

Key pages open with the direct answer in the first sentence and then back it up with proof.

My own rule is to keep that first answer under fifty words and add a short FAQ section that uses the questions buyers actually type.

5. Technical access and schema

The agency checks that robots.txt and your CDN let in the crawlers you want, including OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.

It makes sure structured data matches the visible text, because Google lists that among the SEO fundamentals that still apply.

Google also says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

6. Measurement

The agency re-asks the same prompts every month and compares them with the baseline.

Google counts AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic inside the "Web" search type of the Search Console Performance report, so you can see it next to normal clicks.

The number that matters most is still enquiries and sales.

📞 Want to see which of the six jobs your brand needs first? Book a free SEO strategy session and my team will show you your AI visibility, a competitor gap analysis and a roadmap you keep either way.

Who I'd hire as an AI SEO optimization agency

Goldie Agency is the SEO and link building agency I started on my own, and it now has 70+ people.

It's my company, so this is the most biased section on the page.

The strategy session page describes a free AI brand visibility session for Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.

The site also lists link building with manual outreach and no PBNs, a Complete Site Audit and an AI Automation service.

AI runs around 80% of our internal operations through the same Agent OS I teach, so it fits the second meaning too.

Paid work is scoped after the session, so I won't quote a price here.

These are the third-party agencies I'd shortlist, and every detail comes from each agency's own site on 15 October 2026.

I haven't hired these seven agencies, so I'm describing what each one says about itself.

I haven't listed prices, because agencies quote after a call and I won't guess.

How to choose an AI SEO optimization agency

Use this table on every sales call.

• Walk away from any agency that guarantees ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI will recommend you.
• Walk away from any agency that sells special schema or an AI text file as the secret, because Google says neither is needed.
• Walk away from any plan built on thousands of AI pages with no human review.

Nobody can guarantee what a model says

Nobody can guarantee what a model says, and that includes me and Goldie Agency.

None of the companies behind ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Claude publishes a formula for which brands get recommended.

An agency controls the footprint a model reads and the honesty of its reporting, and it doesn't control the answer.

Nobody can promise you a timeline or a revenue figure either, so treat any fixed promise as a warning sign.

📞 Want a straight answer about your own brand? Grab a free SEO strategy session with my team, and we'll show you why competitors get mentioned more often and where you can build a stronger presence.

Which AI models sit behind the answers, and how do they score on GoldieBench?

Now for the GoldieBench part, and I need to be clear about what it measures.

GoldieBench scores models on one-shot builds such as landing pages, apps, games and visuals, on a 0 to 10 scale.

It doesn't measure which brands an AI recommends, and it doesn't measure SEO results.

An AI SEO optimization agency doesn't ship its own model, and none of the agencies above has a model on the board.

The assistants your buyers use are built by model makers, so this is how those makers' models score on their live pages.

Claude Opus 5 is the highest-scoring of these on the board at 8.27, with GPT-5.6 Sol close behind at 8.16.

Gemini 3.6 Flash averages 7.08, and it is the only Gemini model on the board, so it is the closest view I have of the Gemini family.

Perplexity has no model on GoldieBench, so I can't give you a score for it.

The board also can't tell you which exact model version a consumer app is running at any moment, because the makers change that themselves.

So please don't read these scores as a ranking of which AI is easiest to get mentioned in.

What the model scores mean when you hire an agency

The scores matter more for the second meaning of the phrase, where an agency uses AI to produce the work.

An agency doing SEO with AI has to choose a model for briefs, drafts, page builds and checks.

A model that follows a detailed brief well first time makes fewer mistakes for a human editor to catch.

Even so, the system around the model matters more than the model itself.

A cheaper model with a clear brief, a source of truth and a human editor can produce very good pages.

A top model with no fact checking still produces confident mistakes.

So ask every agency what it does before and after the model writes, and not just which model it uses.

Related reading on GoldieBench

My King of AEO post looks at answer engine optimisation from the model side.

My AI backlink building services post covers the link side of the same job.

In the same batch as this post, I also wrote about the best backlink building service, which covers how I'd judge a link provider.

If you'd like my team to look at your brand, you can book a free SEO strategy session and leave with a plan for traffic, mentions and leads.

Also On Our Network

• Agent Operatorsthe six jobs an AI SEO optimization agency should run
• AI Income Deskhow a business owner should hire an AI SEO agency
• AI Tool Verdicteight AI SEO agencies compared on one scorecard
• agentos.guidea seven-step quick start for hiring one from your Agent OS
• aiprofitboardroom.commy step-by-step process for ranking in Google AI Mode

Record your baseline, insist on all six jobs, judge the system around the model, and you'll be ready to choose the right AI SEO optimization agency.