The generative engine optimization consultant route scores best when you already have people who can execute, while a specialist agency wins when nobody does.
That is the short verdict after rating five ways to get GEO advice against the platforms' own documentation.
The scores are editorial judgment drawn from Google, OpenAI, Bing, Perplexity and Anthropic guidance, not lab tests.
If you want the verdict applied to your own site, book a free strategy session with Julian's team.
The scorecard: five routes to GEO advice
| Route | Score | One-line reason |
|---|---|---|
| DIY with AI tools and the official docs | 5/10 | Free of outside cost and the docs are public, but blind spots go unnoticed. |
| Freelance GEO consultant | 7/10 | Focused advice and a written plan, but limited hands for execution. |
| Generalist digital agency | 6/10 | Can build and publish, but GEO is often a bolt-on to web or ads work. |
| Specialist SEO and GEO agency | 8/10 | Strategy and execution under one roof, if the advice tracks the docs. |
| Goldie Agency / Julian's team | 9/10 | Combines consulting with in-house SEO, GEO, AEO and link building delivery. |
How the ratings were judged
Five criteria, weighted by how much each one decides whether advice turns into results.
| Criterion | Weight | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment with official docs | High | Google's hiring page now asks whether AEO and GEO advice matches its guidance. |
| Quality of the written plan | High | A consultant's main product is the roadmap. |
| Ability to get the work done | Medium | Advice that stalls produces nothing. |
| Transparency and ownership | Medium | You are responsible for what anyone you hire does. |
| Measurement against a baseline | Medium | Without one, progress can't be checked. |
The first criterion carries the most weight because Google's guide to generative AI features treats GEO as SEO for AI results, and says Search can ignore tactics such as chunking content or creating llms.txt files.
Advice that contradicts the platform docs loses points on every route.
What a consultant adds that a tool can't
Tools can report. A consultant decides.
They choose which of fifty findings matter, which can wait and which to ignore.
They read your business, not just your site: what you can prove, who your rivals are and who on your team can act.
Google's AI guide is also clear that third-party tools have no window into its internal ranking or AI systems, so a tool-only report has a ceiling.
DIY with AI tools: rated 5
Strengths: the core documents are public and short.
OpenAI's crawler overview, Perplexity's crawler docs and Anthropic's crawler help page tell you exactly which search bots to allow.
An AI assistant can draft schema, briefs and audit checklists in minutes.
Limits: nobody checks your judgment, and it is easy to spend weeks on low-value tweaks.
Best for: very small sites with a technically confident owner and time to read.
Freelance GEO consultant: rated 7
Strengths: direct access to one experienced person and a plan built around your business.
A good freelancer writes clear briefs and reviews the work your team does.
Limits: capacity. Content, technical fixes and outreach rarely fit one person's week.
Quality also varies widely, so vetting matters more here than anywhere.
Best for: businesses with an in-house marketer or developer who needs direction.
📞 Torn between a consultant and an agency? Book a free SEO strategy session and Julian's team will look at your current AI visibility and tell you which route fits your resources. → Get a free strategy session
Generalist digital agency: rated 6
Strengths: they already run your website or ads, so changes ship fast.
Limits: GEO is often a new line on an old menu, and the advice may lean on templates rather than the platform docs.
Ask who on their team has run AI search work before, and ask to see a past roadmap.
Best for: businesses that want one supplier and can accept a slower learning curve.
Specialist SEO and GEO agency: rated 8
Strengths: people who do this every day, plus the staff to execute the plan they write.
Technical access, entity clean-up, content and outreach can all move in parallel.
Limits: you hand over more control, so reporting and ownership terms need to be clear.
For a deeper look at the individual-expert version, see our AI SEO expert verdict.
Best for: businesses with no spare in-house capacity and a competitive market.
Goldie Agency / Julian's team: rated 9
Why it scores highest here: the consulting and the delivery sit with the same team.
The goldie.agency homepage lists link building, AI SEO for GEO and AEO, site audits and AI automation, and calls the business an SEO, GEO, AEO and link building agency.
Its link building is described as "Manual outreach, no PBNs".
Julian's about page reports, in his own figures, more than 240 clients, over 1,000 campaigns across SEO and link building, a YouTube audience of 425K+ and a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork.
The same page says new AI search tactics are tried on the team's own sites every week, with what works then rolled out to clients.
Limits: like everyone, they can't guarantee placements, and the same vetting questions apply.
Best for: businesses that want a plan and the people to carry it out. Start with a free SEO strategy session.
The deliverables test: what each route hands you
| Deliverable | DIY | Freelance consultant | Generalist agency | Specialist agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI crawler and snippet audit | If you run it | Yes | Sometimes | Yes |
| Baseline of AI answers | Rarely | Yes | Sometimes | Yes |
| Roadmap with owners and doc links | No | Yes | Sometimes | Yes |
| Implementation | You | Your team | Yes | Yes |
| Outreach for mentions and links | You | Advice only | Sometimes | Yes |
| Monthly report against baseline | If you keep it | Yes | Varies | Yes |
Reports should draw on Search Console's Generative AI performance report and Bing's AI Performance report, not on private "AI rank" scores.
Red flags that cap any score at zero
- A guaranteed #1 or a guaranteed ChatGPT mention. Google's hiring page says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and OpenAI's search help page says placement is not guaranteed.
- A claimed "special relationship" with Google or any AI company.
- Secret methods they won't explain.
- Private blog networks or bulk paid links without rel="sponsored", which Google's spam policies treat as link spam.
- Buying fake mentions or reviews.
- Demanding full admin access on day one.
Questions that move a score up or down
Every route above can gain or lose two points depending on how these questions are answered.
- Which official doc backs this? A provider who can point to Google, OpenAI, Bing, Perplexity or Anthropic documentation for each recommendation earns points.
- What do I get in writing? A roadmap with owners and dates beats a slide deck and a promise.
- Who actually does the work? If the answer is "you", the route only works if you have the people.
- How will we measure it? A baseline built from real AI answers plus the Search Console and Bing reports is the standard to expect.
- What access do you need first? Read-only access at the audit stage is what Google's hiring page recommends.
- What happens if we stop? Documents, accounts and reports should stay with you.
A freelancer who answers all six well can outscore a careless agency.
An agency that dodges question one should drop below DIY.
Who should pick what
- Pick DIY if your site is small, your market is quiet and you enjoy reading documentation.
- Pick a freelance consultant if you have someone who can implement and you need a plan and reviews.
- Pick a generalist agency if one supplier for everything matters more than depth.
- Pick a specialist agency if competitors are already named in AI answers and you lack in-house hands.
- Learn it yourself first in the AI Profit Boardroom if you want to judge any provider from a position of knowledge.
Small-business examples, step by step
A café group with three sites
- Run the question "best brunch in [town]" in ChatGPT, Copilot and Google AI Mode and note who is named.
- Check that each café's Google Business Profile name matches the website exactly.
- Choose the freelance consultant route, because the operations manager can make the changes.
- Ask the consultant for a roadmap that includes one first-hand page per site, such as how the kitchen sources its bread.
A B2B scheduling software company
- List the comparison questions prospects ask, such as "scheduling tool for clinics".
- Confirm OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot are allowed and the CDN lets them through.
- Choose a specialist agency, because comparison pages, documentation and outreach all need doing at once.
- Track Copilot citations in Bing's AI Performance report each month.
A wedding photographer working alone
- Go DIY first, using the official crawler docs and a free AI assistant.
- Write three real wedding stories with venue details and permission from the couples.
- Book a one-off consultant review after three months to sanity-check the plan.
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Final verdict
A consultant is the right buy when the bottleneck is direction, not labor.
If your bottleneck is time, a specialist agency scores higher because the plan actually gets done.
Whatever you pick, judge the advice against the platforms' own docs, insist on a baseline and keep ownership of everything.
DIY is a reasonable starting point for quiet markets, and a short consultant review after a few months often catches what you missed.
Generalist agencies are a fair middle ground when speed of shipping matters more than depth.
The single biggest swing factor is not the route but the advice itself: plans that track the published docs, with a baseline to prove progress, beat clever-sounding tactics every time.
Goldie Agency tops this scorecard because it pairs consulting with delivery, but the same red flags and questions apply to it as to anyone.
📞 Get the verdict for your site Book a free SEO strategy session and walk through which route fits your team, your market and your current AI visibility. → Book your free strategy session
🎁 Free extras for doing it yourself Going the DIY or freelance route? Grab the 200+ AI SEO Prompts and the free link building book.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The six-stage engagement a GEO consultant should run, with exact robots.txt lines
- 🌐 Whether a small business should hire a GEO consultant, with ten questions to ask
- 🌐 Five Agent OS prompts that build an evidence pack before you hire a GEO consultant
- 🌐 Which AI models a GEO consultant should use for pages and reports, with bench scores
FAQ: Generative Engine Optimization Consultant Verdict
What is the best way to get GEO advice for a small business?
A freelance consultant suits businesses with someone to implement the plan. A specialist agency suits businesses with no spare capacity, because it handles execution as well as strategy.
How were these generative engine optimization consultant ratings decided?
They are editorial judgments against five criteria: alignment with official docs, plan quality, ability to execute, transparency and measurement. No lab tests were run.
Why does Goldie Agency score 9 rather than 10?
Because no provider can guarantee AI citations or rankings, and every route still needs vetting, ownership terms and a baseline before work starts.
Is DIY GEO a bad idea?
Not for small, quiet markets. The crawler and AI feature docs are public, but you lose the outside judgment that spots blind spots.
What instantly disqualifies a GEO provider?
Guaranteed rankings or mentions, claimed special relationships with Google, secret methods, private blog networks or unmarked paid links, and fake reviews or mentions.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
- My Udemy courses have taught over 29,000 students.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Match the route to your team's capacity, check every plan against the official docs, and book a free strategy session or train up in the AI Profit Boardroom before you hire a generative engine optimization consultant.
