10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring AEO Help

Before you hire anyone for AEO (answer engine optimization, the work of getting AI assistants to name your business), ask ten things: what they do each month, how they measure it, what they promise, where the links go, who writes, who owns the work, how you leave, who holds the accounts, how they handle Spanish and your town, and what they need from you. This list is the short version of the complete AEO guide for small businesses, written as a checklist you can hold during a sales call.

It works for an agency, a freelancer or a software tool. Under each question you will find what a good answer sounds like and what should worry you. Growrank sells services in this area too, so every question here applies to us as much as to anyone else. To decide which type of provider fits you first, read what type of SEO agency to hire.

1. What exactly will you do each month, and can I see it listed?

Ask for the work in nouns: three articles, one fixed Google Business Profile, a corrected address on four listings. A good answer is a written list with dates and live web addresses you can open yourself. Google's Search Central page on hiring an SEO suggests asking whether the provider will share all the changes they make to your site.

Be wary of "optimization" and "strategy" with nothing you can click. If you cannot tell what was done in March, you cannot tell whether it was done.

2. How will you measure success if nobody can promise to be named?

AI assistants write each answer fresh, so no provider controls who gets named. A good answer starts with a baseline: the answers ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity give today to the questions your buyers ask, saved so you can compare later. AEO, SEO and GEO explains how the three differ, and checking what ChatGPT says shows you how to take that baseline yourself.

Google's page lists "how do you measure your success" among the questions to ask. Worry about reports that show only impressions or "keywords tracked" and never a call, a direction request or a quote request. Say a roofing company in Weslaco gets a report full of charts but no phone numbers. That report is decoration.

3. Do you promise a ranking or a number of leads?

The honest answer is no. Google's guidance on hiring an SEO says that no one can guarantee the top spot on Google and tells owners to beware of SEOs who claim to guarantee rankings or allege a special relationship with Google. The same logic covers AI answers, which change from one asking to the next.

A good provider promises effort and visibility into results: what they will do, by when, and how you will see the effect. A promise of "page one in 60 days" or "20 new leads a month" tells you the person selling is guessing or hoping you will not check.

4. Where will the links, mentions and articles go, and are those real sites?

Ask for names. A good answer is a list of actual publications, local sites and directories with real readers, and a reason each one fits your business. Good backlinks versus spam links shows how Google's spam policies treat links made to manipulate rankings, and backlinks versus brand mentions explains why a mention on a respected site can matter even without a link.

• Good sign: you can open each placement and see a page a stranger could plausibly read.
• Worrying sign: "a network of sites we own," bulk packages of links, or a refusal to name where anything will appear.
• Worrying sign: link counts offered as the main deliverable. Google's guidance says to avoid SEOs who talk about link popularity schemes.

5. Who writes the content, and who approves it before it goes live?

Your business has facts only you know: which cases you take, which neighborhoods you serve, what you charge for a service call. A good answer is that a named person writes or edits with your input and that nothing is published until you say yes. Writing an article that AI will cite describes what a useful article looks like.

Be wary of anyone who publishes on your behalf without showing you the page first. For a clinic or law office, a wrong sentence on your own site is your problem, not the provider's.

6. Will the work live on my website, and can I keep it if I leave?

Articles, pages and profiles should sit on a site and in accounts you own. Ask who owns the domain and the hosting, and what you walk away with if you cancel next year. A good answer is "everything we publish for you is yours."

Be cautious when your content lives on the provider's own domain, or when your pages sit on a platform that disappears when you stop paying. Picture a taquería in Edinburg that stops paying and finds its articles gone the same week.

7. How long is the contract, and how do I cancel?

Work that is delivered every month should earn its renewal every month. Ask for the term, the notice period and the exact steps to cancel, in writing. Month to month, or a short first term with a clear exit, is a reasonable answer.

A long lock-in with automatic renewal and a cancellation window nobody mentions deserves a pause. Results from this kind of work take months to show, so a review date a few months out is fair, but that is different from a trap. The cost guide for small businesses goes through the contract models.

8. Do I keep control of my own accounts?

Your Google Business Profile, Search Console and website login should stay in your name. Google's help pages say a profile owner can invite other people as owners or managers and remove them later, so a provider should be added as a user, not handed your password. Google's hiring page also says that during an evaluation you should grant only read access to Search Console, and that anyone with server access should be willing to explain every change.

If a provider insists on creating the profile under their own email, or will not explain why they need a login, say no. When the relationship ends, an account you do not own is a hostage.

9. How will you handle Spanish and my local area?

In the Valley, many customers search and ask AI in Spanish, English or a mix. A good answer names how: which pages exist in both languages, who checks the Spanish, and how your service area and neighborhoods will show up (Pharr, Mission, Harlingen, not just "South Texas"). Bilingual SEO for Valley businesses lays out the choices.

Be wary of machine-translated Spanish nobody reads before publishing, or a plan that treats McAllen and Brownsville as the same market. Ask to see one example from another local business.

10. What do you need from me, and how much of my time?

Every provider needs something: photos, answers to questions, approval of drafts, access, a few reviews asked for from happy customers. A good answer is specific, such as "one 30-minute call a month and a same-week reply on drafts." If you run a shop, you can plan around that.

"Nothing, we handle everything" sounds nice and rarely holds, because only you know your business. It also suggests the work will be generic.

What to do first

Before you take any call, see where you stand. The free check shows the answer ChatGPT gives your customers today, and that gives every question above something to measure against. Then put the ten questions in an email and send them to two or three providers. The replies, and how willing each is to put things in writing, will tell you more than any pitch.

Growrank should be able to answer all ten, and you can compare what we offer on the pricing page and the services page. What Growrank is explains the company in plain terms.

Frequently asked questions