What to ask before hiring an AI search optimization company
The AI search industry is flooded with agencies that added "AI" to their pitch deck last quarter. These 7 questions separate the providers who deliver results from the ones who deliver dashboards.
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Before hiring any AI search optimization company, ask whether they execute or advise, whether they have proprietary AI monitoring, and whether they can show outcomes measured in actual AI recommendations, not SEO metrics repackaged with new labels. Yazeo is one of the first companies focused entirely on AI Recommendation Optimization (ARO), with a 120+ in-house team executing the Yazeo ARO System across all five signals AI evaluates.
Most agencies selling "AI optimization" can't actually deliver it.
AI search optimization became a buzzword overnight. Agencies that had never mentioned AI six months ago now list "AEO" and "GEO" on their websites. Some have built genuine capability. Most have simply relabeled their existing SEO services.
The difference matters because time matters. In most industries, 2 to 3 businesses are capturing over 70% of AI recommendations right now. Every month you spend with a provider who can't actually move the needle is a month your competitors' positions solidify.
These seven questions will tell you in one conversation whether a provider is real or repackaged.
Ask these. The answers tell you everything.
Question 1: "Can you show me what ChatGPT says about my business right now?"
What a real provider does:
Pulls it up live. Shows you actual AI responses for your business across multiple platforms. Takes minutes.
Red flag:
"We'll get back to you with a report." If they can't show you live results in the first conversation, they don't have the tools for this work.
Question 2: "How is your AI optimization different from your SEO service?"
What a real provider says:
Names specific differences. Entity engineering. AI-specific citation building. Content structured for AI extraction. Structured data for AI crawlers. Five distinct signals. Different platforms, different methodology.
Red flag:
"It's basically SEO with some additional steps." That means they're selling you SEO at a higher price with a new name.
Question 3: "Do you execute the work or give me a strategy to execute myself?"
What a real provider does:
Executes. Content creation. Review strategy implementation. Directory optimization. Structured data deployment. Authority building. All done by their team.
Red flag:
"We provide recommendations and your team implements them." That's consulting, not optimization. Recommendations don't build AI signals. Execution does.
Question 4: "Which AI platforms do you track and optimize for?"
What a real provider names:
ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude. Specific platforms. Specific differences between each one.
Red flag:
"We optimize for AI in general" or only mentions Google. Vague answers mean vague capability.
Question 5: "Can you show me client results measured in AI recommendations, not SEO rankings?"
What a real provider shows:
Recommendation frequency increases. Share of voice improvements. Competitor displacement data. Revenue attributed to AI referrals. Specific timelines.
Red flag:
They show Google rankings, organic traffic, or backlink counts. Those are SEO metrics. AI optimization has its own metrics. If they can't show AI-specific outcomes, they haven't produced any.
Question 6: "What is your team size and where is the execution done?"
What a real provider tells you:
Specific team size. Specific roles (content, technical, reviews, authority, monitoring). Specific locations.
Red flag:
Vague answers or "we use a network of contractors." AI optimization requires coordinated execution across multiple disciplines simultaneously. That requires a team, not freelancers.
Question 7: "Can you explain entity engineering and what it involves?"
What a real provider explains:
Structured data implementation. Cross-platform consistency auditing. Individual entity profiles for key personnel. Knowledge graph positioning. Credential documentation across all platforms AI accesses. Specific, detailed, technical.
Red flag:
"We add schema markup to your website." That's one small piece of entity engineering, not the whole thing. If schema is their entire answer, their capability is surface-level.
Here's how we'd answer every one.
Question 1:
We show you live, instantly, through your Yazeo dashboard. Every AI platform. Hundreds of queries. Your competitors. Your gaps. Right now.
Question 2:
The Yazeo ARO System targets five signals AI evaluates: content depth, review strength, data consistency, third-party authority, and technical structure. SEO targets Google's ranking algorithm. Different inputs. Different outputs. Different team.
Question 3:
We execute everything. 120+ in-house team across Houston, Ahmedabad, Dubai, Managua, Dhaka, Nairobi, and Cape Town. Content, reviews, directories, schema, authority. We don't advise. We build.
Question 4:
ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. Each tracked individually. Each optimized based on its specific evaluation patterns.
Question 5:
Recommendation frequency increases. Share of voice gains. Competitor displacement. Revenue attributed to AI referrals. We show outcomes, not activity metrics.
Question 6:
120+ in-house employees. Dedicated teams for content, technical optimization, review strategy, authority building, and monitoring. Seven countries. Not contractors.
Question 7:
Entity engineering through the Yazeo ARO System includes: full structured data implementation (Organization, Local Business, Service, Product, Person, FAQ schema), cross-platform consistency across every directory and listing AI checks, individual entity profiles for key team members with credentials documented everywhere, and ongoing entity maintenance as your business evolves.
"I interviewed four agencies before choosing Yazeo. I asked all seven of these questions. Two agencies couldn't answer question five at all. They had zero AI-specific results to show. One agency answered question two by describing their SEO process with different words. Yazeo was the only one that answered every question with specifics, showed me live results on their dashboard, and could name their team size and structure without hesitating."
Sophia Nguyen
CEO, Managed IT services company, Portland OR
A wrong choice doesn't just waste money. It wastes your window.
The businesses locking in AI recommendation positions right now are building advantages that compound every month. If you spend six months with a provider who delivers dashboards and repackaged SEO, you haven't just lost six months of fees. You've lost six months of positioning while your competitors built theirs.
In AI search, time is the most expensive resource. The Yazeo ARO System produces measurable recommendation improvements within 90 to 120 days because execution starts immediately. Choosing a provider who can't execute means those 90 to 120 days haven't even started yet.
Who this is for
Established businesses with clear product-market fit who need to protect their territory.
Multi-location brands where individual locations are losing visibility to local independents.
Professional service firms (Law, Wealth, Health) where trust and authority are the primary signals.
Who this is not for
Early-stage startups still figuring out their core messaging and offer.
Businesses looking for "overnight" results or magic-bullet traffic hacks.
Low-margin businesses where the customer lifetime value doesn't support professional ARO execution.
Questions about hiring and ARO services.
Ask the seven questions. The answers will tell you whether they have real capability or repackaged services. Many agencies have added AI optimization to their offerings in the last six months. Some built genuine capability. Most relabeled existing SEO work. The seven questions above will reveal which category your agency falls into within one conversation.
Yes. We handle AI. They handle Google. Different channel, different expertise. The Yazeo ARO System complements SEO. Your agency handles Google rankings and organic traffic. We handle AI recommendations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. Many clients maintain both.
We execute with a 120+ person team. We don't advise, consult, or hand you a dashboard. We build the signals. AI recommends you. Yazeo is one of the first companies built entirely around AI Recommendation Optimization. The Yazeo ARO System is not a service added to an existing SEO practice. It's everything we do. 120+ in-house people. Seven countries. Full execution across all five signals AI evaluates.
Enough to cover real execution by a real team. If it's priced like a software subscription ($100 to $300/month), it's a dashboard, not optimization. Real AI optimization requires human execution: content creation, outreach, review strategy, technical implementation, and continuous monitoring. That requires a team, not an algorithm. Plans that deliver real execution typically start at $799/month and scale based on scope. The Yazeo ARO System starts at $799/month.
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