AIVisCity Weekly #26: How to Choose an SEO Agency for AI Visibility
Welcome to AIVisCity Weekly — a free weekly briefing helping small business owners understand how AI search is changing customer discovery, and what practical steps they can take next.
In this week’s issue:
What’s Happening in AI Search — Google has rolled out new controls and insights for generative Search features, while new analysis shows that AI Visibility involves more than citation counts.
Weekly Insight — three AI-specific checks to make before hiring an SEO agency, plus three red flags that should make you cautious.
Try This Yourself — use one real customer question to test an agency’s proposed baseline before you sign a contract.
Worth Reading — Google’s practical guide to generative AI search and a framework for measuring prompt-level visibility.
AIVisCity Answers — what a brand-new business should publish first so AI tools can understand it.
🔍 What’s Happening in AI Search
Google has rolled out new AI Search controls and insights worldwide
Google says that, as of 31 August, new Search Console controls and insights for generative AI Search features are available to all websites worldwide. The controls let site owners decide whether their content can appear in and help ground AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI Overviews in Discover, while the insights include impressions and which pages appear in responses and countries. For small businesses, first-party observation is becoming more useful: you can see more clearly what your site is contributing to generative Search features instead of relying only on third-party estimates.
AI Visibility is moving beyond citation counts
Search Engine Land argues that being cited in an informational answer is different from being recommended for a buyer’s specific situation. Its examples show that recommendation gaps can reflect product limitations, support experiences, policies or other business factors that content alone cannot fix. The broader lesson is to treat AI Visibility as a cross-business discovery signal, not merely a technical SEO score.
🔮 Weekly Insight: How to Choose an SEO Agency for AI Visibility
In Issue 25, we discussed whether a small business should hire an agency for AI Visibility. You can read that issue here. If you have decided to explore outside help, this issue will help you judge an agency’s approach.
Three checks before you engage an agency
1. Ask what you will receive before any changes are proposed
Ask each shortlisted agency what it would give you before recommending work. It should describe the first review meeting and the written output: how AI currently describes your business, the main gaps and the first priorities. You are not asking for a free audit, only a clear description of its method.
Compare proposals with one test: can you explain how the agency will reach its first recommendation? Look for a starting-point report and priorities tied to customer discovery, not an immediate offer of “AI content”, “GEO” or citations. If the decision process is unclear before you sign, you will not be able to judge its value later.
2. Ask how a recommendation will be justified
Ask the agency to talk through an anonymised example: what it observed, what evidence supported its conclusion and what it proposed. You do not need a diagnosis in the meeting; you need proof that it can separate fact, observation and recommendation. That gives you something concrete to compare across proposals.
Check three things: the evidence, the outcome it aims to improve and who must decide or implement it. A credible agency makes this chain easy to follow and says where it needs your input. That separates a tailored plan from a standard list of tasks.
3. Ask what the report and owner role would look like
Before engaging, ask for a sample report. It should distinguish recommendations, accuracy, cited sources, competitors and enquiries; no single number captures AI Visibility.
Agree roles before work starts. You provide facts and approve claims or changes; the agency handles testing, diagnosis, technical work and reporting.
Three AI-specific red flags
1. A guarantee of rankings, recommendations or permanent coverage
AI systems do not offer a universal position one, and Google says third-party services cannot guarantee performance. Be careful with claims that an agency can “get you into ChatGPT” or secure a permanent recommendation.
2. A dashboard that treats citations as the whole result
Being cited can show that a system found your information, but it does not prove a recommendation. A rising citation score without recommendation wording, accuracy and competitor context is incomplete reporting.
3. A plan built around hacks, volume or manufactured proof
Be cautious if the proposal centres on mass AI-written pages, fake reviews, artificial mentions or a special file presented as a requirement. These create thin or untrustworthy public evidence.
The agency should leave you with a clearer business, a repeatable test and an honest view of what changed. Even a strong agency cannot supply unknown facts, fix an experience or guarantee tomorrow’s response. Stay involved when the sales pitch sounds more certain than the evidence.
💻 Try This Yourself
Ask two agencies this screening question: “What would you check first to understand how AI tools describe a business like mine, and how would you show me what changed?” You are not asking for a full audit before engagement. You are testing whether each agency can explain a sensible first step, the public evidence it would use, the uncertainty that remains and what it would need from you. Be cautious if the answer is only a guaranteed score, citation volume or promised recommendation. Save the answers and use them to compare proposals.
📕 Worth Reading
If you're curious to look deeper into how AI search is changing the internet, these articles are worth a look.
Google’s guide separates practical foundations from GEO myths
Google’s guide says SEO foundations support AI features, while scaled content, inauthentic mentions, llms.txt and special “AI” markup are not Google Search requirements. Use it to question technical shortcuts in an agency proposal.
Prompt-level measurement needs a representative sample
Search Engine Land explains why AI visibility has no universal ranking position and recommends prompt libraries, competitor comparisons and several metric types. Tools cannot observe every real AI conversation, so ask whether an agency presents its dashboard as a sample or ground truth.
✅ AIVisCity Answers
Q: What should a brand-new business publish first so AI tools can understand it?
A: Start with your own website as the main source of business information: clearly publish your business name, services, customers, location and contact details. Then repeat the core information on Google Business Profile, relevant directories and suitable review platforms so customers and AI tools have other places to check it.
Want a more detailed explanation? Check out here.
👋 Until Next Week
If you find AIVisCity useful and want an easier way to keep up with practical AI Visibility updates for small businesses, you can use the button below to add AIVisCity as a Preferred Source in Google Search.
How are you seeing AI affect the way people search for businesses in your industry?
If you have noticed changes — or if you tried the quick check in this issue — we’d love to hear your observations. Feel free to share them in the comments.
See you in the next issue of AIVisCity Weekly
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