Generative engine optimization (GEO) services: what to expect

What GEO services include

GEO is the work of making your business easy for AI assistants to find, read and recommend. It overlaps with SEO but is not the same thing. If you want the full comparison, see GEO vs SEO.

A good provider covers four areas. Each one matters because assistants pull from different sources: your own site, third-party listings, and the wider web.

• Technical fixes so AI crawlers can read the site. If an assistant cannot load your pages, it cannot quote them. In practice this means clean page structure, fast loading, and text that is not locked inside images.
• Content that answers buyers' questions clearly. Assistants favour pages that directly answer a question in plain language. For example, a dentist in Leeds might need a page that answers 'do you offer emergency appointments on Sundays' in one clear paragraph.
• Listings and mentions on the sites assistants cite. Assistants often quote directories, review sites and industry pages. Being present and accurate on those sites gives the assistant something to cite.
• Regular measurement across assistants. AI answers change. Without a schedule of checks, you cannot tell whether your work is having any effect.

Ask any provider to walk you through these four areas against your own website. If they cannot explain what they would change and why, keep looking.

Deliverables versus results

This is the single most important distinction when buying GEO services. A provider can promise work. Nobody can promise what an AI assistant will say.

Deliverables are things a provider controls: a set number of pages written or rewritten, technical fixes completed, listings created or corrected, outreach emails sent. You can hold a provider to these because they are within their control.

Results are things the market decides: whether ChatGPT names you, who it names instead, and which websites it cites. These should be measured and reported, not promised in advance.

• A provider can promise work: pages, fixes, listings, outreach.
• No one can promise what AI will say; results should be measured, not promised.

A useful contract separates the two. It lists the work in plain terms and states how the work will be measured. For example, a provider might commit to publishing six answer-focused pages a month and to reporting weekly on whether your business appears in a fixed set of customer questions.

That framing protects both sides. You know what you are paying for, and the provider is not stuck promising something no one controls.

Red flags

Most problems in this market come from providers promising outcomes they cannot control. Watch for these three signs.

• Promised rankings or mentions in ChatGPT. No provider can place your business into an AI answer. If someone says they can, that is a warning sign, not a selling point.
• No access to the underlying answers. You should be able to read the full answer each assistant gave, not just a summary score. Without that, you cannot verify anything.
• Changes made to your site without your approval. Your website is your shopfront. Any provider who edits it without asking is a risk you do not need.

There is a fourth pattern worth noticing: vague reporting. If a monthly report shows only a single number with no examples of actual answers, ask to see the raw text. A provider doing real work will have it.

For example, a small hotel in Goa might be told it is 'winning in AI search' with no evidence. A better provider would show the exact question asked, the full answer received, and which sites were cited.

Questions to ask a provider

These questions separate providers who measure from providers who guess. Ask them before you sign anything.

1. Which assistants and languages do you measure? Assistants differ. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and others pull from different sources. If your customers ask in Hindi or Tamil, you need a provider who checks those languages too.
2. How do I approve changes? You want a clear approval step before anything goes live on your site or your listings. Ask what that looks like in practice.
3. What do I see each week? Ask for a sample report. It should show the questions asked, the full answers, who was named instead of you, and which websites were cited.
4. What happens if nothing changes? A straight answer here tells you a lot. Good providers will explain that some assistants react within weeks while others move slowly, and that they will keep measuring either way.

Write down the answers. If a provider is vague on measurement or approval, that vagueness will not improve after you pay.

Vasukai Managed

If you would rather not run this work yourself, Vasukai Managed at /managed is a done-for-you option. It covers fixes, listings and outreach each month.

Two things set it apart. Every change is approved by you before it goes live, and tracking runs weekly across 9 assistants. You see the full answers, not just a score.

You can also start smaller. Vasukai offers a free AI check that needs no card and shows what ChatGPT says about your business. That is a low-risk way to see where you stand before committing to any ongoing work.