# How to choose an AI SEO agency *AEO, SEO · The Litebox team · Last updated: September, 2026 · 13 min read* This is for a buyer who has a shortlist of agencies selling AI SEO and no way to tell them apart. Below are nine companies, each checked against its own public page on September 16, 2026 and listed alphabetically, plus the four checks that separate them. ## Key Facts - The label covers two different jobs. [SimpleTiger](https://www.simpletiger.com/ai-seo-agency)'s own FAQ defines an AI SEO agency as one that uses "artificial intelligence tools and machine learning to accelerate and enhance traditional SEO processes." [Enleaf](https://enleaf.com/services/ai-seo/)'s page defines it as "the discipline of getting your brand named when an AI system answers a question in your category. It is not a rebranding of traditional SEO." Both were read live on September 16, 2026. - Two of the nine say out loud what much of the category is selling. [Searchbloom](https://www.searchbloom.com/ai-seo/)'s own AI SEO framework page states that "most of what is sold as AEO, GEO, or AI SEO is repackaged traditional SEO with a new label," and Enleaf's page separately states: "Most AI SEO offers we see in the market are entity tagging plus a schema audit. That is not a program." - The search results mix agencies with software. Three of the four People Also Ask questions DataForSEO returned for this query on US desktop on September 16, 2026 are about software tools and agents, and none is about agencies. - Nothing here is ranked, because a ranking needs one number that means the same thing at every firm, and none of the nine publishes one. We publish this blog and we occupy one of the nine rows; the list says which of the three criteria we clear and which we don't. ## How we picked the nine companies below Three criteria decided who appears. First, the company sells AI SEO, or the equivalent its own page names, as a service a team delivers; software products are out of scope. Second, its live page says what it means by the term, confirmed by direct fetch on September 16, 2026. Third, it is not already described in our sibling piece. The third criterion is why this list looks different from the one next door. [Top answer engine optimization companies in 2026](https://litebox.ai/blog/top-answer-engine-optimization-companies) covers eleven firms selling AEO or GEO, and AEO sits inside what the market calls AI SEO, so the two lists could have been the same eleven names with a new title. They are not, and the search results explain why. Neither of the two companies that rank for the sibling's keyword appears in the nineteen organic results DataForSEO returned for this one on US desktop, September 16, 2026. Grow and Convert, an entry on the sibling's list of eleven, is the only one of those eleven to surface in this query's results at all, ranking last of those nineteen in that same DataForSEO pull, with a listicle of its own. Different label, largely different population. Two entries are exceptions to that third criterion. [Rise at Seven](https://riseatseven.com/services/ai-seo-agency/)'s service page lives at the URL /services/ai-seo-agency/, so leaving it out of a piece on choosing an AI SEO agency would be a hole. Litebox is the other, because our format puts us in every list we publish about our own category, and ours is also the one entry here that fails the second criterion: our page names the work without defining the term. Alphabetical order is the whole ordering rule, and nothing hides behind it. What these nine publish are outcomes they measured themselves, on their own clients, over their own windows, with nobody outside checking the arithmetic. Ours would be no different, which is why we use none of them. Candidates came from the DataForSEO organic results for "best ai seo agency" on US desktop on September 16, 2026, plus four Exa sweeps covering more than seventy domains, neither of which admits anyone automatically. Each candidate still had to clear the three criteria against its own page, and roughly forty-five from those sweeps were never verified one by one, so this piece says nothing about them. We wrote this list, and our own row comes from that same process: our public service page, with no client names, no logos and no figures attached. ## Agencies mean two different things by "AI SEO" The first reading is a process upgrade: the agency points AI at its own workflow to do classic search work faster. [Opace](https://opace.agency/services/ai-seo/)'s page puts the whole idea in one heading: "We Use AI to Make Your SEO Smarter, Not Just Faster." The goal is still a ranking, and the AI sits in the agency's toolkit. The second reading is a different goal. The work aims at getting your brand named inside the answer ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews composes. Enleaf rules out the first reading in the same breath: "The mechanism is different." Two pages treat the term as an umbrella over that second job. Searchbloom and Enleaf both use that exact word, covering answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization as workstreams underneath, and Searchbloom published a framework to sort which deliverables belong to which. This matters commercially. A buyer who signs the first kind expecting the second bought a faster version of work they already had. Ask any vendor which of the two they mean, in writing, before scope is agreed. There is a third thing hiding in these results, and it is software wearing an agency's name. [Ryze AI](https://www.get-ryze.ai/seo) markets itself as an "AI SEO Agent" that runs autonomously, telling buyers "you don't lift a finger," though the same page sells a month-to-month flat fee with a weekly human review written into the contract. [Frank](https://www.frankseo.ai/) calls itself "your tireless SEO & AEO agent" and sells to agencies as a tool. Both read like agencies in a results page. ## Enleaf publishes the case for not hiring it yet Enleaf runs AI SEO on Authority Engineering, a framework from the 2026 book of that name by its founder Adam Chronister. Its page names four workstreams (knowledge infrastructure, entity authority, distributed visibility, original research) and a five-step engagement from an AI visibility audit to monthly measurement. The section worth reading is titled "We tell you what AI SEO will not do," and states that if your organic foundation is broken, fixing AI visibility first is wasted spend. Best fit for a buyer who wants the sequencing argued before the contract. Scope note: its page's location cards list Spokane, Seattle, Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint, a footprint centered on the Spokane and Inland Northwest region it names. ## Foundation Marketing puts its weight on the surfaces outside your website [Foundation Marketing](https://foundationinc.co/services/ai-visibility-agency) labels its page "AI Visibility Agency" and enters under the first criterion, which accepts the equivalent term a page names. Much of its offer is the third-party surfaces models read, with Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn named, and its page calls the Reddit and YouTube roadmaps the most popular. It sells three shapes: a full strategy and roadmap, channel-specific AEO or GEO roadmaps, and a retainer covering both onsite and offsite work. Best fit for a B2B software company that needs the offsite surfaces built out, since the roadmaps its page calls most popular are the offsite ones. Scope note: developer tools appear in its "Who We Serve" list, alongside several categories outside software. ## Litebox bundles AI search work into a DevTools growth program [Litebox](https://litebox.ai/services/growth)'s page names five deliverables under what it calls the Growth Acceleration Program: a diagnostic report and setup, "SEO and AEO strategy," an experimental portfolio, result analysis and recommendations, and a long-term product-led growth strategy. Two office locations are listed, Miami and Buenos Aires. Best fit is a developer tool company that wants one team owning AI search alongside its analytics and experiment work. Scope note: there is no live standalone AI SEO or AEO service page yet, so today the work runs as part of the broader engagement described above. The company lists four service lines in total, growth plus branding, websites and product, and the declared DevTools focus rules it out for most other categories. ## Opace points its AI at its own SEO process Opace names six capabilities on its AI SEO page. Two are answer engine work (GEO, and AEO combined with what it calls AI interaction optimisation). The other four are machine learning applied to its own process: predictive ranking analysis, large-scale content gap analysis, automated schema deployment, and search intent clustering. That split puts most of its weight on the first reading, and the page says so. Best fit for a large site where the bottleneck is analysis volume. Scope note: Opace is based in Birmingham in the UK, and the twelve sectors it lists are mostly outside software. ## Rise at Seven runs the most literal URL in this category Rise at Seven runs six named service lines: AI visibility strategy, onsite technical and entity building, digital PR for AI discovery, Reddit and community, social search and creators, and AI content and category strategy. Its page argues the label covers more than search, calling AI SEO "integrated search and content marketing." It is one of two companies on both this list and its sibling, and the facts are deliberately rendered the same way in both. Best fit here is a consumer brand that needs to show up across forums, press and creator content. Scope note: its offices are in Manchester, London and New York, and its named cases are consumer brands. ## Searchbloom published a framework that sorts the jargon Searchbloom runs its AI search work on MERIT, a five-pillar framework whose initials spell the name: mentions, evidence, relevance, inclusion, transformation. Behind the five pillars sit three chapters each, fifteen in total. Its page dates the work: the whitepaper published October 2025 and updated April 2026, the playbook published May 16, 2026 and updated August 19, 2026. The framework maps every deliverable to a pillar, so a buyer can check a proposal item by item against its evidence. Best fit for a mid-market buyer comparing several proposals at once. Scope note: AEO and GEO are two lines inside a search marketing agency listing more than twenty services. ## SimpleTiger sells both readings on the same page SimpleTiger holds both definitions at once. Its FAQ defines an AI SEO agency purely as the process upgrade, while the same page's body describes it as "a specialized GEO agency/AEO agency" working on placement in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. It publishes its own expected timeline, which few here do: as of September 16, 2026 its FAQ puts initial improvements at three to four months and significant results at six to twelve. Packages run from an early-stage tier through two larger ones, plus a three-month GEO project. Best fit for a SaaS company wanting search and AI search as one workstream. Scope note: the page sells to SaaS only, and every industry in its navigation is a software category. ## Single Grain sells the service and the software side by side [Single Grain](https://www.singlegrain.com/agency/ai-seo-services/) organizes AI SEO around four surface groups: search engines, social platforms, AI platforms, and forums and communities. Its page states its position on AI-written output, saying "we don't just hit publish on AI drafts," and describes pairing AI with senior strategists. Its scope note is worth pausing on: the same page carries a banner for ClickFlow, Single Grain's own software product, with a free trial. Best fit for a buyer who wants one team covering owned content and community surfaces. Worth asking early which parts of the engagement the software delivers. ## Thrive is the only one here ranking on its own service page [Thrive Internet Marketing Agency](https://thriveagency.com/ai-seo-services/) names nine services under AI SEO: research and analysis, content writing, keyword work, media production, review generation, link building, behavior analytics, experience testing and technical SEO. Its page also separates SEO, search generative experience and GEO into three definitions. It is the only company here whose own service page ranks organically for this query, at position four in DataForSEO's US desktop results on September 16, 2026. Searchbloom also ranks twice in that same pull, at positions six and fourteen, both times with a listicle; its service page does not appear. Best fit for a buyer who wants AI search work alongside paid, social and web from one vendor. Scope note: AI SEO is one line inside a full-service agency whose menu also covers PPC, marketplaces, media production and reputation management. ## Four checks that narrow this list to a shortlist **Ask which of the two jobs they mean.** It takes one email. The pages above do not agree, and the disagreement is visible in their own language: Opace's central heading is about its own process while Enleaf's definition is about your brand being named. SimpleTiger's page holds both definitions at once, and Opace splits its six capabilities two ways. A vendor who cannot answer this in one sentence has not decided either. **Ask what sits outside your website.** Answer engine work leans on third-party surfaces. Foundation Marketing names Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn; Rise at Seven runs three of its six lines off your domain; Single Grain lists forums and communities as one of four surface groups. An offer that is entirely onsite is solving a narrower problem. **Ask them to map the proposal to something.** Searchbloom built MERIT for exactly this, and its page says the point is letting buyers test proposals against evidence. You do not have to use their framework, but you do have to make the vendor say which deliverable produces which outcome, because the alternative is a list of tactics with no stated mechanism. **Ask what they will not do.** Enleaf publishes the answer up front, saying it will tell you when AI SEO is the wrong first investment because the organic foundation underneath is broken. That is a good test for anyone, as is asking whether software could do the same job, which for some buyers is the honest answer. The four checks tell you what a vendor sells. Where you stand today is a separate question, and [an AI visibility audit](https://litebox.ai/blog/ai-visibility-audit) answers it, which is what turns pitches into a comparison you can score. ## FAQ ### What does an AI SEO agency actually do? Two different things, depending on the agency. Some point AI at their own workflow to run classic SEO faster, through automated auditing, gap analysis at scale and intent clustering; others work on getting your brand named inside AI-generated answers, through entity work, structured content and third-party citations. Several sell both, so ask which one you are buying. ### Is an AI SEO agency the same thing as an AEO or GEO agency? Often, but the labels are not reliable. Searchbloom treats AI SEO as the umbrella covering both AEO and GEO, Foundation Marketing calls the same work AI visibility, and Rise at Seven files it under AI SEO. The deliverables list tells you what the label does not, and [how AEO and SEO differ](https://litebox.ai/blog/aeo-vs-seo) covers the underlying distinction. ### Should you hire an AI SEO agency or use an AI SEO tool? It depends on which job you need. Software handles volume work well, and Ryze AI describes an agent that builds pages and fixes technical issues under weekly human review, while getting a brand cited by AI systems leans on earned media, community presence and original research, which is people work. Ask the vendor which of the two your budget is buying. ### What should you ask an AI SEO agency before signing? Four things: which definition of AI SEO they work to, what portion of the plan happens outside your own website, which deliverable produces which outcome, and what they would refuse to promise. Treat any promise of a guaranteed placement inside an AI answer as a signal to stop, because no vendor controls what a model says. Cut the list to the two or three whose answer to the first check matches your actual problem, then put the other three checks to each of them. For developer tool companies, our [AEO program](https://litebox.ai/services/growth) is where we do this work. [All articles](https://litebox.ai/blog) · [Talk to the team](https://litebox.ai/contact-us) --- HTML version: https://litebox.ai/blog/how-to-choose-an-ai-seo-agency · All pages: [sitemap.xml](https://litebox.ai/sitemap.xml) · Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://litebox.ai/llms.txt)