Generative AI SEO Services: Worth It For Your Business?

Generative AI SEO services are worth paying for when your customers already ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI for a recommendation before they call anyone.

If that describes your buyers, the work is about making sure those tools can read your site, understand who you are, and find other websites that back you up.

If it doesn't, a solid local SEO setup may be all you need this year.

Not sure which camp you're in? Get a free SEO strategy session with my team, or go straight to the calendar: Book a free SEO strategy session.

What you are actually paying for

Strip away the jargon and a provider is doing two things for you.

First, they get your business ready to be picked up and quoted by AI answer tools.

Second, many of them use AI tools behind the scenes to write drafts, research and reports faster.

Both are fine, but you should know which tasks a person does and which ones a machine does.

A machine is great at drafts and spreadsheets.

Only a person, ideally you, can say what your business actually does better than the firm down the road.

Google's own guide on generative AI search says this work is "still SEO" from Google's point of view, so a good provider builds on normal SEO rather than replacing it.

The service menu in plain English

Service	What it means for your business	Who documents it
AI crawler access	The robots that feed ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude search are allowed onto your site	OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic
Preview settings check	No hidden setting stops Google or Bing quoting your pages	Google, Bing
Indexing	Your important pages are actually in the search index	Google, Bing
First-hand content	Pages built from your real jobs, photos and customer questions	Google
Business identity	Your name, address, phone and services match everywhere, including your Google Business Profile	Google, Bing, OpenAI
Mentions and links	Other trusted sites talk about you, earned the fair way	Google, Bing
Reporting	A monthly view of where AI tools showed or cited your site	Google, Bing, OpenAI

If a proposal lists services that don't fit one of these rows, ask what problem they solve.

Which businesses get the most out of it

Local service firms such as plumbers, dentists, accountants and cleaners, where people ask an AI tool "who is good near me".
Online shops with clear products, because AI answers can show product details pulled from feeds and pages.
Professional and B2B firms whose buyers research for weeks and compare options in AI chats before booking a call.
Businesses with real expertise to share, since Google says unique, non-commodity content will likely matter most over time.

The common thread is a buyer who asks a question before they pick up the phone.

Google's AI features page says AI Mode is built for questions that need exploring, reasoning or comparing options, which is exactly how people shortlist a supplier.

If your customers compare three firms before booking, you want to be one of the three the answer names.

Which businesses can wait

A brand-new business with no website basics yet: fix the site and the Business Profile first.
A business that gets almost all its work from referrals and has no capacity for more leads.
A firm that can't give a provider an hour a month for interviews and approvals, because first-hand content needs your input.

Waiting isn't failing.

It just means the money goes further on basics this year.

📞 Not sure if your business is ready? Book a free SEO strategy session and my team will tell you whether AI search is worth chasing for your business yet. → Book a free SEO strategy session

What nobody can promise you

Google's page on hiring an SEO says plainly that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

OpenAI's ChatGPT search help article says placement in ChatGPT is not guaranteed either.

Bing's Webmaster Guidelines add that generative engine work doesn't guarantee citations in AI answers.

So a provider that promises you'll be "the answer in ChatGPT" is promising something the platforms themselves won't.

What a good provider can promise is the work: what they'll do, when, and how they'll report it.

The risks worth knowing before you sign

Mass AI pages. Google's spam policies call out scaled content abuse, meaning lots of pages made mainly to game rankings, however they were created.
Paid links passed off as earned. Paid placements need rel="sponsored" or nofollow, per Google's outbound link guide.
Fake reviews or seeded mentions. Google says inauthentic mentions aren't as helpful as people think, and fake reviews break its review rules.
Locking you out. If the provider owns your accounts, leaving becomes painful.
Accidental blocking. One wrong robots.txt line can keep you out of ChatGPT search; OpenAI says opted-out sites won't appear in its search answers.

The ownership rules to put in writing

You own the domain, website, Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, analytics and Business Profile, and you add the provider as a user.
At the audit stage, give read access only, as Google's hiring page suggests.
Every change to your site goes in a shared log with the date and the reason.
Content written for you belongs to you when it is published.
If you claim your business in ChatGPT, OpenAI's Business Hub article says the admin who claimed it can grant an agency access, so claim it yourself and invite them.

Google's hiring page also reminds owners that they are responsible for what the companies they hire do.

What a useful monthly report looks like

A good report fits on one page and answers three questions: where did AI tools show us, which pages did they cite, and did any of it turn into enquiries?

Google now gives you part of that for free: Search Console's generative AI performance reports show how often your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Microsoft's AI Performance dashboard in Bing Webmaster Tools shows how often your pages were cited in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries.

If you've claimed your business in ChatGPT, Business Hub shows mentions and website clicks over the past 28 days.

Then your provider should tie those numbers to calls, forms or orders, because impressions alone don't fill a diary.

If a report only lists keyword positions, it's an old report with a new label.

Questions to ask before you sign

Which of the seven services in your proposal are done by a person, and which by an AI tool?
Do you cite Google, OpenAI or Bing documentation for each recommendation?
Is your advice on AI search aligned with Google's official guidance? (Google added this exact question to its hiring page.)
How will you check our robots.txt and firewall for AI search bots?
Where will links and mentions come from, and how are paid placements marked?
What will the monthly report show about AI citations, not just rankings?
What do we keep if we stop working together?

🔥 Rather learn this yourself first? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you learn AI SEO yourself, with step-by-step video trainings, an installable Agent OS and four live coaching calls a week. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom

The parts you should still do yourself

Ask happy customers for reviews, without offering anything in return, as Google's review tips page requires.
Answer the provider's interview questions directly, including the jobs that went wrong and what you learned.
Take real photos of your work, team and premises.
Tell the provider about every new service, policy or opening-hours change the same week.

Nobody outside your business can fake that first-hand detail, and that is exactly what Google says stands out.

Example: a dental practice, step by step

The owner gives the provider read-only access to Search Console and the Business Profile.
The provider confirms OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot can reach the site and the booking page.
They find the treatment pages carry a nosnippet tag, which stops Google using them in AI Overviews, and remove it.
They interview the lead dentist and turn the answers into pages on the questions patients actually ask.
They match the practice name, address and phone across the site, the profile and the markup.
Each month the owner gets a short report from the Search Console generative AI view plus booking enquiries.

Example: an online homeware shop, step by step

The provider checks the product pages show key details without needing scripts to load.
The owner keeps the Merchant Center feed current, which Google's AI features page recommends.
If eligible, the owner claims the shop in ChatGPT Business Hub and connects the product feed.
The provider writes a buying guide from the owner's own supplier visits and return reasons.
They pitch a design blog a genuine story about the shop's sourcing, and log the placement.
The owner watches visits from chatgpt.com in analytics, which in our own observation is how ChatGPT referrals usually show up.

How Goldie Agency handles it

Goldie Agency describes itself as an SEO, GEO, AEO and link building agency, with "10+ years of results in tough niches" on its homepage.

By Julian's own published numbers on his about page, the agency has run 1,000+ SEO and link building campaigns for 240+ clients and holds a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork.

Its link building is described as "Manual outreach, no PBNs".

Julian also publishes his AI SEO tests for 425K+ YouTube subscribers, so you can watch the approach before you hire.

Like everyone else, the agency can't guarantee a ranking or a ChatGPT mention, and you shouldn't believe anyone who says otherwise.

If you'd like a second opinion on a proposal you already have, compare it with our guides on AI search optimization services and LLM SEO services.

📞 Want a straight answer on your business? Book a free SEO strategy session and bring the questions above; we'll answer each one for your site. → Book a free SEO strategy session

A three-question test before you spend anything

Do your customers already ask AI tools for recommendations in your category? Ask five recent customers.
Can you give a provider an hour a month of real input?
Will the provider let you own every account and show their sources?

Three yeses means it's worth a proper conversation.

Any no means fix that first.

Want to build the skills in-house as well? The AI Profit Boardroom teaches the process step by step.

🎁 Free before you hire anyone Download the 200+ AI SEO Prompts to test your own visibility, and read the free link building book so you can judge any provider's link plan.

Also On Our Network

FAQ: Generative AI SEO Services

Are generative AI SEO services worth it for a small business?

They are worth it when your customers already ask AI tools for recommendations in your category. If most work comes from referrals, fix your site basics and Business Profile first.

Can a provider guarantee my business shows up in ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed, and Google says nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking.

What should I own when I hire a provider?

Your domain, website, Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, analytics, Business Profile and any ChatGPT Business Hub claim. Add the provider as a user rather than letting them own the accounts.

Is it a problem if the provider uses AI to write my content?

Not by itself. Google says AI-assisted content is fine if it meets its rules, but mass-producing pages to game rankings is spam however it is made.

What can I do myself without hiring anyone?

Ask customers for reviews without incentives, keep your Business Profile up to date, take real photos, and share your real experience in your own pages.

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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

Ask the questions, keep your accounts, and book a free SEO strategy session when you want a team to tell you if generative AI SEO services make sense for your business.