SEO Savages

AI SEARCH   AEO · GEO · LLMs

AI SEO agency: Get cited by
ChatGPT, Claude
& Gemini.

Two senior founders get your brand named in the AI answers your buyers read before they talk to sales.

We did it on our own products first. After we built Symptomatik, its daily citations in Bing’s AI answers went from 102 in June to 2,073 (9-15 Sep). After our Prawomat rebuild, daily appearances in Google’s AI answers rose 6.4x in 19 days.

Book a free consult → See the proof

$ no dashboard theater · no guaranteed citations · one client per sector

Still from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: two characters driving through neon-lit Las Vegas at night
~/savages $ ./seed --llms make the machines see your brand in the neon.
AIO / GEO / AEO Get cited

definition

What is an AI SEO agency?

An AI SEO agency gets your brand named and cited in AI answers: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews.

You can’t “rank” inside a language model. You can raise the probability it knows your brand and finds you relevant, and that depends on three things: how often quality sources mention you, how they describe you, and whether you show up in the live sources the model reads (your own pages included).

The method, step by step, is in our guide to generative engine optimization and AEO. This page is about hiring the team that does it: if you are looking for a generative engine optimization agency or an AEO agency, this is the same job.

Still from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: three characters gathered around a table of drinks
brand authority · earned media · AI assets

AI SEO agency vs traditional SEO agency

Aspect AI SEO agency Traditional SEO agency
The goal Your brand named and cited inside AI answers Your pages ranking in the blue links
Where the work happens Your pages, plus the sources models read: press, listicles, communities, research Mostly your own site and its backlinks
What gets measured Presence and framing in AI answers, AI citation reports Rankings, clicks, organic leads
What nobody controls Which source a model quotes on a given prompt Google’s ranking algorithm

We run both, because the AI side sits on the Google side’s foundations.

from our Lab

Ranking #1 no longer means being seen first.

We pulled the results pages for 30 keywords across nine niches. The AI Overview was the default, and commercial-research queries like “crm software” and “project management software”, the ones your buyers type, carried one.

77%

Of 30 SERPs showed an AI Overview

100%

Of those Overviews cite their sources

0 of 30

SERPs were ten blue links

51%

Median share of searches ending in an organic click

Being cited in that box is a separate prize from the top blue link, and you earn it as a source. Method and data: How common are AI Overviews?, The ten blue links are gone and Is search volume real demand? (US, snapshot 28 June 2026).

proof

AI citations we grew on sites we built

Both are our own products, so every export is ours to show: a legal-letter platform and a health platform. The workstreams are the same ones we run for clients; the queries change with the category.

Built by us

Health-tech (D2C) · EN / PL / ES

Symptomatik: 20x the citations in Bing’s AI answers

We built 540 pages in three languages in six weeks, each one sourced and structured so an answer can quote it. Daily citations in Bing’s AI answers went from 102 in June to 2,073 (9-15 Sep): 68,820 in total from 10 May to 16 September 2026. Google is still weighing a four-month-old health site, and the case study shows that too.

10 May 16 Sep
  • pillars live: 31 May
  • AI explainer: 17 Jun
  • 16 Sep: 2,621, record
Read the Symptomatik case study →
Built by us

Legal-tech (D2C) · CEE / Poland

Prawomat: 6.4x the appearances in Google’s AI answers, in 19 days

At launch, with no work aimed at AI search, Bing’s AI answers already cited Prawomat 7,016 times in November 2025. In 2026 we rebuilt it to be quoted on purpose: pages rewritten around one task each, off WordPress onto static pages, half the URLs cut. Result: 6.4x appearances in Google's AI answers, 93% of them on letter pages. Citations in Bing's AI answers: 2.3x.

15 Jun 14 Sep
  • rebuild live 27 Aug
The Prawomat rebuild → The launch →

what we do

Our AI SEO services,
and who owns what

Seven workstreams covering both halves of AI search: being lifted into a direct answer (AEO) and being cited when a model writes the answer (GEO). We pick the two or three that fit you. The founders run every one; nobody hands you to a junior.

  • AI visibility diagnosis

    Where you appear in AI answers today, who appears instead, which sources get cited, and a straight call on whether AI SEO should be a priority for you at all.

    Who owns it
    Us
    What you provide
    Your situation and goals, in one intense onboarding.

  • Answer-shaped pages (AEO)

    Your highest-intent pages rebuilt so an engine can lift a clean answer: one task per page, direct answers, comparison tables, definitions, FAQs and consistent entity signals.

    Who owns it
    Us
    What you provide
    Your expertise, so the answers are accurate.

  • Brand and digital PR

    Mentions of your brand in the authoritative sources models learn from, framed the way you want buyers to hear it.

    Who owns it
    Us
    What you provide
    Alignment on the story and the plan.

  • Rankings and comparison placements

    Inclusion in the “best X for Y” and “X vs Y” listicles models read, in legitimate publications only.

    Who owns it
    Us
    What you provide
    Agreement on placements. Any link-building spend is on top of the fee.

  • Community distribution

    Genuine presence in the Reddit threads, Quora answers and YouTube videos that models retrieve in real time.

    Who owns it
    Us
    What you provide
    Your expertise, so what we publish is accurate.

  • Research, tools and AI apps

    Citable assets built on your data or expertise: original research, calculators, AI tools that other sources cite.

    Who owns it
    Us: research, design, build. Your engineers: integration
    What you provide
    Your product data or expertise to build on.

  • SEO foundation

    Crawlability, structure and authority, the base AI SEO shares with Google SEO.

    Who owns it
    You, or us when technical SEO is in your engagement
    What you provide
    A foundation that is solid, or being fixed in parallel.

how it runs

How an engagement runs

  1. 01

    Diagnose

    We query ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews with the prompts your buyers use, and record whether you appear, how you are framed and which sources get cited.

    in practice: Prawomat: the first read showed 7,016 citations in Bing’s AI answers in November 2025, before any work aimed at AI search. Pages built around one task were already being quoted. Case study →

  2. 02

    Pick the workstreams

    The diagnosis picks the rows from the table above. If answers lean on listicles you are missing from, placements come first. If they cite Reddit, community work does. If your own pages are close, rebuild them.

    in practice: Prawomat: we rewrote the 244 pages that earn traffic around one task each, with the procedure, the legal basis and an FAQ an AI answer can quote. Case study →

  3. 03

    Build and seed

    We run the chosen workstreams with your team, in Slack between weekly calls. You act on the plan with us; we flag the problems you have not noticed yet.

    in practice: Symptomatik: 540 pages in three languages in six weeks, every health page sourced and marked up as a medical page. Case study →

  4. 04

    Re-query and report

    We re-query the same prompts and report presence, framing, AI Overview presence and the mentions feeding the models. Workstreams that move the answers get more of the effort.

    in practice: On our own sites we read Search Console’s Generative AI report and Bing Webmaster Tools’ AI performance report next to the re-queried prompts. No invented score. Case study →

No proprietary “AI visibility score”. You see the actual answers.

savages · bash · 80×24

$ savages aio --check-citations --brand=yourco

[*] querying ChatGPT… 0 citations

[*] querying Claude… 0 citations

[*] querying Gemini… 0 citations

[*] querying Perplexity… 0 citations

[*] scanning AI Overviews… brand absent

DIAGNOSIS: LLMs don’t know your brand exists. fixable

next step: seed + earn citations

$ 

Step one, before a line of work: are the models citing you at all?

the honest limits

What we can influence,
engine by engine

Models answer from their training data and what they retrieve live, and answer engines lift the cleanest block from pages they can parse. We can move the inputs. Nobody controls the output.

  • ChatGPT

    What we can influence
    How often the reference, review and press sources it leans on mention you, how they describe you, and your presence in the communities it retrieves from when it searches the web.
    What we cannot control
    Whether you’re named on a given prompt, how sources get weighed, and the wording of the answer.

  • Gemini and Claude

    What we can influence
    The same inputs: mentions in authoritative sources, the phrases those sources use about your brand (“best”, “leading”, “trusted”), and your presence in the live sources models pull from.
    What we cannot control
    Whether you’re named on a given prompt, how sources get weighed, and the wording of the answer.

  • Perplexity

    What we can influence
    Your presence in the live sources it retrieves for each answer, community threads included.
    What we cannot control
    Which of those sources it cites in a given answer.

  • Copilot and Bing

    What we can influence
    Answer-shaped pages Bing can quote. It is also the engine you can measure best: Bing Webmaster Tools counts every citation, which is how we know Symptomatik’s daily citations went from 102 in June to 2,073 (9-15 Sep).
    What we cannot control
    Whether you’re named on a given prompt, how sources get weighed, and the wording of the answer.

  • Google AI Overviews

    What we can influence
    Answer-first pages on a solid SEO foundation, aimed at the questions in your category that trigger an Overview. In our Lab sample every Overview cited its sources, so the slot is winnable.
    What we cannot control
    Whether Google shows an Overview for a query at all, and which source it lifts when it does.

We raise the probability you get cited, on every engine. Nobody can promise it.

what works in AI SEO in 2026

Forget the 47-point checklist

Nobody knows exactly how models decide what to cite, and we don’t claim a secret formula. This is what produced the curves above, and what any agency’s plan should rest on.

01

Brand signals beat keyword stuffing.

Models capture entities (brands, people, products) and the relationships between them. When authoritative sources keep mentioning your company next to words like “best”, “leading” or “trusted”, models learn the association.

02

The citation loop is real.

Engines with search pull from Reddit, Quora, YouTube transcripts and recent articles in real time. Genuine participation feeds them fresh material. Astroturfing backfires, and this takes consistency over months.

03

Listicles and comparisons still matter.

“Best X for Y” articles are what models read when they answer “best X for Y”. We earn placements in legitimate publications and never pay link farms selling “AIO placements”.

04

Research and tools create citation gravity.

Useful research, calculators and AI tools get cited by other sources, and those citations compound. We design and build them; your engineers integrate them.

red flags when you compare agencies

AI SEO is overhyped

Some of these are sold hard. If an agency pitch leans on one of them, ask what it has moved on a real site, and ask for the export.

Still from Lucy: the title character reaches through falling strands of glowing data
~/savages $ ./pitch --audit · ask for the export

  • “LLM-optimized rewrites”

    Clear structure helps any engine lift an answer, and we build it. Paying for your pages to be run through an LLM with some structured data added is a different product, and it doesn’t work.

  • Schema sold as an AI lever

    We implement good schema because it is SEO best practice. On its own it won’t make a model prefer you, so a premium line item for “AIO schema” is a warning sign.

  • Fake social proof

    Astroturfed Reddit threads, bought reviews and paid mentions on junk sites can flash visibility. Model developers work to discount manipulated content, and it costs you later.

  • Proprietary visibility scores

    There is no standard measure of AI visibility. An agency selling its own score as the industry metric is selling a dashboard.

  • Guaranteed citations

    Nobody controls a model’s output. We raise the probability you get cited. Anyone who guarantees a ChatGPT citation is promising what nobody can deliver.

  • A tool sold as a strategy

    A checker shows you are absent and who is there instead. Then it stops, and the work is still on you. We use tools; the plan and the execution are the service.

honest gating

Do you need an
AI SEO agency?

Often you don’t yet. We’ll tell you on the first call if your budget would do more in foundational, programmatic or product-led SEO. If you have the in-house time to act on what an AI visibility tool shows you, a tool may be enough. If you need the whole B2B search program, organic and AI together, see our B2B SEO service. Planning a site migration? Our SEO migration services keep the rankings you have and make the new site easier to quote.

You’re a good fit if

  • Your buyers research with AI assistants, and “best X for Y” or “X vs Y” queries are common in your category.
  • You have a product with expertise or data worth citing.
  • You can fund brand-building that compounds over 6-12 months.
  • Your SEO foundation is solid, or you are fixing it in parallel.
  • You accept AI search as an emerging channel with no guaranteed ROI.

You’re probably too early if

  • Your brand is brand new, with no web presence yet.
  • You don’t have product-market fit.
  • You need wins in the next 30-60 days.
  • Your total marketing budget is under $3,500 a month.
  • You expect to “rank #1 in ChatGPT” like it is a search engine.

your three options

How much does AI SEO cost?

Do it yourself, hire a typical agency, or hire us. Our price sits close to a typical agency retainer. What you buy with it is seniority and a proven record in AI answers.

Do it yourself

Tool + your time

Fits when

You have a marketer with hours to spare and an AI visibility tool.

Upside

Cheapest in cash. A checker shows where you are absent and who is named instead.

Downside

The tool stops at the diagnosis. PR, placements and page rebuilds are still on you, and they get sidelined when day-to-day business comes first.

Typical SEO agency

~$3,209/mo

Fits when

You want capacity and a monthly report.

Upside

Output arrives, and someone else manages it.

Downside

Check it against the red flags above: rewrites, schema line items, proprietary scores. Often a senior sells it and a junior runs it.

SEO Savages

$3,500-$6,000/mo

Fits when

You want senior people who have already grown AI citations on sites they built.

Upside

The two founders do the work, in your Slack. Our own products are the proof: Symptomatik 20x in Bing’s AI citations, Prawomat 6.4x in Google’s AI answers.

The catch

We are selective: max six clients, one per sector per market, 3-month minimum. Off-page (backlink) work is agreed with you on both tiers; any link-building spend is on top of the fee.

See both tiers → Book a call

Agency: average SEO retainer, Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers, 2024. Ours: $3,500/mo (3-month minimum) or $6,000/mo (4-month minimum). Off-page (backlink) work is agreed with you on both tiers; any link-building spend is on top of the fee.

AI SEO agency, answered

Straight answers

What is an AI SEO agency? +
An AI SEO agency (also sold as an AI SEO company, an AEO agency or a GEO agency) gets your brand named and cited in AI answers: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. You cannot “rank” inside a language model, so the work raises the probability a model knows your brand and treats it as relevant: answer-shaped pages, mentions in the sources models read, community presence and citable research. It builds on Google SEO.
What does a generative engine optimization (GEO) or AEO agency do? +
The same job as an AI SEO agency, under the names the industry uses for it. A generative engine optimization agency works on being cited in AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews); an answer engine optimization (AEO) agency works on being the direct answer in snippets and AI answers. We run both as one engagement, on top of your Google SEO. The step-by-step method is in our guide to generative engine optimization.
What do AI SEO services include? +
Ours cover seven workstreams: an AI visibility diagnosis, answer-shaped pages, brand and digital PR, rankings and comparison placements, community distribution, research and tools, and the SEO foundation underneath. The diagnosis decides which two or three to run first. We own the work; you bring the expertise and approvals.
How much does an AI SEO agency cost? +
Our engagements run $3,500/mo (3-month minimum) or $6,000/mo (4-month minimum). Off-page (backlink) work is agreed with you on both tiers; any link-building spend is on top of the fee. For context, Ahrefs’ 2024 survey of 439 SEO providers found an average retainer of $3,209 a month, so our price sits close to a typical agency retainer. What you buy is seniority: the two founders do the work, and we take one client per sector per market.
Which AI SEO agency is the best? +
Judge them on evidence you can check. Ask for AI citation data from sites the agency has worked on (Bing Webmaster Tools and Search Console now report it), ask who does the work, and walk away from guaranteed citations, proprietary visibility scores and “AI-optimized rewrites”. Ours is public: Symptomatik and Prawomat, both our own products, with the exports in the case studies.
Can SEO be done by AI? +
Parts of it. AI tools draft, cluster keywords and check pages quickly, and we use them. The parts that move AI citations need people: deciding what your category’s buyers ask, earning mentions in sources models trust, and checking that every claim on a page is right. A model can’t earn your brand a reputation on its own.
How long does AI SEO take to show results? +
Page-level changes can show within weeks: after our Prawomat rebuild, daily appearances in Google’s AI answers rose 6.4x in 19 days. Brand signals compound over months: Symptomatik’s daily citations in Bing’s AI answers went from 102 in June to 2,073 (9-15 Sep), about four months after launch. Plan in quarters.
How do you measure AI SEO results? +
We re-query the AI engines with your category’s key prompts and report whether you appear and how you’re framed, alongside AI Overview presence, Search Console’s Generative AI report, Bing Webmaster Tools’ AI performance report and the brand mentions feeding the models. We don’t sell a proprietary “AI visibility score”.
Do AI SEO services replace Google SEO? +
No. AI SEO shares Google SEO’s foundations (crawlability, structure, authority) and adds brand signals on top. The two feed each other: in our Lab sample, 77% of Google results pages already carried an AI Overview above the organic links, and every one cited its sources.

AI SEO fit check

Are the models
citing you?

Send your URL and the question your buyers ask an AI assistant. We’ll reply with who gets named today and the workstream we’d start with, or tell you straight that AI SEO can wait.

  • > Two senior founders, no juniors
  • > One client per sector, max six at a time
  • > From $3,500/mo, 3-month minimum

Prefer to talk live? Book a call →

Rather do it yourself? Read the GEO and AEO guide or get a free AI SEO audit. Pair AI SEO with programmatic or product-led SEO.

30 min · intro, founder-to-founder

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