If you're being pitched AI SEO services, most of what's on the list is ordinary SEO with a new name, plus one job that really is new. I did this work on my own business before I sold it to anyone, so here is what's real and what I'd skip.
AI SEO services are regular SEO plus the work that gets a business named in AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. The real part is a website AI tools can read, consistent listings on Google Business Profile, Bing Places and Yelp, steady reviews, and pages that answer customer questions. The hype part is AI-written pages by the hundred and anyone who promises a spot inside ChatGPT.
It's a label for two different things, and the pitch rarely tells you which one you're buying.
I call the second one AI visibility. Some agencies call it GEO (generative engine optimization). Same work. Here's how I handle AI visibility for local businesses.
Here's what the real work looks like. The first three are setup work, and the last three run every month.
The step by step for ChatGPT is in how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT. Here's the shape of the monthly log. The businesses are made up for the example:
| Question asked | ChatGPT named | Gemini named | You |
|---|---|---|---|
| "emergency plumber Mesa" | Plumbers A, B, C | Plumbers B, D | Not named |
| "water heater replacement Gilbert" | Plumbers B, E | You, Plumber B | Named in Gemini |
| "plumber open Sunday Chandler" | You, Plumber C | Plumber C | Named in ChatGPT |
Most of what works is ordinary SEO done well. Here's how I'd sort the usual line items.
| The pitch | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Show up in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews | Real | Mostly the same groundwork as local SEO. Google's own AI features guide lists keeping your Business Profile up to date as one of the basics. ChatGPT also uses Yelp reviews: Yelp says its "ratings and reviews recently began powering ChatGPT's local experience in relevant categories". |
| Let AI crawlers into your site | Real | OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links". Check this first. |
| Monthly check of what AI tools say about you | Real | Ask the questions your customers ask, every month, and write down who gets named. Cheap and hard to fake. |
| Hundreds of AI-written pages a month | Skip | Google's spam policies name "using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users" as scaled content abuse. |
| A paid add-on of special AI markup that "gets you cited" | Skip | Basic schema markup and an llms.txt file are cheap housekeeping, and this site has both. Neither is a shortcut worth paying extra for. Google says "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features. There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add." |
| Guaranteed placement in ChatGPT | Skip | Nobody controls what a model says, and there's no way to buy a guaranteed spot in an answer. ChatGPT now shows labeled ads on its Free and Go plans, but OpenAI says ads don't influence the answers. A guarantee is one of the SEO company red flags I'd walk away over. |
Not on its own. I use AI tools every day for first drafts and code.
They can't ask your customers for reviews, fix the wrong category on your Google Business Profile, or know which jobs actually make you money. Those jobs need a person.
The useful setup is AI doing the first draft and a person who knows your trade deciding what ships.
Yes, but clicks are harder to earn, so being the business an answer names matters more.
In a March 2025 study of 900 U.S. adults, Pew Research found Google users who saw an AI summary clicked a regular result in 8% of visits, against 15% when no summary appeared. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary.
Those summaries still pull from websites, so a site that answers questions well still gets picked. There's less room for an average one.
I tested it on my own Breathwork business first: I rebuilt the site and structured its content so AI search could cite it. Liquid Breathwork went from 17 to 1,647 clicks a month (Google Search Console), lowest month to best month. That's one business, not a promise for yours. Read the Liquid Breathwork case study.
Reviews for this kind of work are thin because the category is new, so ask for proof instead.
When not to buy it yet: if you don't have a Google Business Profile, or your name, address and phone don't match across your listings, fix that first. The profile is free, and everything else builds on it.
For the general questions, see what to ask an SEO company before hiring.
I quote my own work on a free call, and much of it overlaps with SEO you may already pay for, so watch for paying twice. For context, one agency's published pricing (Mission Ctrl, a Canadian firm that doesn't state a currency) puts ongoing work at $500 to $3,000+ a month and one-time projects at $1,000 to $5,000+. The full breakdown is in how much does AI search optimization cost.
Not as a second retainer. Ask your current provider whether AI crawlers can reach your site and whether they check what AI tools say about you. If the answer is no to both, that's the gap. Whether it should be a separate bill is covered in how much does AI search optimization cost.
It can make you a stronger candidate. Nobody can guarantee it. I cover the specific steps in how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT.
Ask ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your customers would ask, with your city in them, and note who gets named. My free Website + AI Audit does this for you and shows the results.