Quick answer: The top AI engine optimization agencies in 2026 are SERP Forge, iPullRank, Siege Media, Omniscient Digital, First Page Sage, NoGood, Kalicube, Avenue Z, Minuttia and Seer Interactive. Pick by your main gap. Choose a content-led agency if AI engines don’t cite your pages. Choose a PR-led agency if AI doesn’t know your brand. Choose an entity specialist if AI describes you wrong. Choose a technical agency if AI crawlers can’t read your site.
Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode which vendor to pick. If your brand is missing from those answers, you lose deals you never see. AI engine optimization fixes that. This guide compares 10 agencies that do the work, what each one is good at, and how to choose.
What is AI engine optimization?
AI engine optimization is the work of getting your brand mentioned, cited and recommended in AI-generated answers. It goes by several names:
- AEO (answer engine optimization): shaping content so AI tools use it as a direct answer
- GEO (generative engine optimization): earning mentions and citations in answers from large language models
- AI SEO: the umbrella term for both, plus the technical work that lets AI crawlers read your site
The goal is the same in each case. When a buyer asks an AI tool for a recommendation in your category, your brand should appear, be described correctly, and link to your pages.
AI engine optimization is not a replacement for SEO. AI tools with web search pull from pages that already rank and from sites they trust. Strong SEO is the base. AI engine optimization adds prompt tracking, citation-source work and brand mentions on top.
New to the topic? Our guide to what AI SEO is and how it works covers the basics.
AI engine optimization vs traditional SEO
Both aim to put your brand in front of buyers. They differ in what you track and what wins.
| Traditional SEO | AI engine optimization | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank pages in search results | Get named and cited inside AI answers |
| What you track | Keywords | Buyer prompts |
| Main metrics | Rankings, clicks, traffic | Visibility, share of voice, citations, sentiment |
| Key off-site signal | Backlinks | Brand mentions on pages AI trusts |
| Where buyers see you | A list of links | Inside the answer itself |
| Speed of change | Weeks to months | Days to weeks for search-enabled AI |
Strong programs run both. Pages that rank well are more likely to be retrieved by AI, and brand mentions help both channels.
AI engine optimization agencies compared
| Agency | Best for | AI search proof | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| SERP Forge | B2B SaaS that want AI SEO and SEO in one team | Publishes its own live AI visibility data | $1,500/month |
| iPullRank | Enterprise and technical sites | Relevance Engineering framework | Custom |
| Siege Media | Content-led AI visibility at scale | Zapier 96% LLM visibility | Custom |
| Omniscient Digital | B2B SaaS content and AEO | Convert +140% AI citations in 60 days | $120,000/year |
| First Page Sage | B2B lead generation and authority | Salesforce, Verizon, US Bank as clients | Custom |
| NoGood | Growth brands that want AI traffic to convert | SteelSeries 23x AI search traffic | Custom |
| Kalicube | Brand and entity accuracy in AI | 73 million entities in its data | Custom |
| Avenue Z | PR-led AI visibility | Earned media for Verizon, Adobe | Custom |
| Minuttia | Technical and B2B SaaS | 94% client retention | Custom |
| Seer Interactive | Enterprise teams with data needs | Original AI Overviews CTR research | Custom |
How we picked these agencies
We started with the agency’s AI engines already named when buyers ask this question. We then checked each one against what an AI engine optimization program needs:
- Prompt tracking: Do they measure your visibility across real buyer prompts, with a baseline?
- Citation-source analysis: Do they find which pages AI cites for your competitors but not for you?
- Technical AI access: Can they fix AI crawler access, JavaScript rendering and structured data?
- Content restructuring: Do they rewrite pages into clear, answer-first sections AI can lift?
- Off-site mentions: Do they earn mentions on the listicles, reviews and media AI trusts?
- Entity consistency: Do they align your brand facts across your site, schema and profiles?
- Proof and reporting: Do they publish results and tie AI visibility to traffic, leads or pipeline?
No agency here is a fit for every company. Each profile below ends with a “Good to know” note to help you match the agency to your situation.
1. SERP Forge
Best for: B2B SaaS companies that want AI SEO, classic SEO and link building from one team.
SERP Forge is a SaaS marketing agency with a dedicated AI SEO service. It covers ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot, plus Google and Bing.
What they do:
- AI visibility audit and prompt mapping across your buyer questions
- Technical AI SEO: open AI crawler access, fix JavaScript rendering, add structured data and llms.txt, strengthen Bing indexing for ChatGPT search
- AEO and GEO content: answer-first sections, comparison tables, TL;DRs and FAQ schema
- Entity optimization: one set of brand facts across your site, schema, G2, Capterra, Crunchbase and LinkedIn
- AI citation building and digital PR, backed by 10,000+ white-hat links placed since 2022
- Tracking of citation frequency, share of voice, sentiment and AI referral traffic in GA4
Proof: SERP Forge runs the same program on its own brand and publishes the data. It tracks 45 buyer prompts across 6 topics. In its first tracked week it appeared in 0 of 1,428 unbranded AI answers. Five weeks later it was earning about 20 unbranded AI mentions a week (case study).
To compare tracking platforms before you hire anyone, see our review of AI search visibility tools.
Pricing: AI SEO Growth Plan from $1,500 a month. Enterprise strategy on custom pricing.
Good to know: Built for B2B SaaS. Retrieval changes can show within weeks; traffic and pipeline impact usually shows in 3–6 months.
See SERP Forge’s AI SEO services
2. iPullRank
Best for: Enterprise brands and technically complex sites.
iPullRank is a New York agency founded in 2014 by Mike King. Search Engine Land named King its Search Marketer of the Year in 2020 and 2025. The agency combines technical SEO, content strategy and its Relevance Engineering approach to AI search.
What stands out: Deep work on how retrieval systems pick and rank passages. A strong option if you need strategy grounded in how AI search systems work, not just more content.
Good to know: Scope and pricing are built for enterprise. Smaller teams may not need this depth yet.
3. Siege Media
Best for: Brands that want content-led AI visibility at scale.
Siege Media now positions itself as a full-service GEO agency. Its services cover GEO consulting, content marketing, digital PR, affiliate content and Reddit marketing. Clients include Zapier, Zendesk, HubSpot, Zoom and Airbnb.
Proof: For Zapier, Siege reports 96% LLM visibility and a $6.1M increase in traffic value. For Zendesk, it reports 98% LLM visibility. For Instacart, it reports 46,500 citations in LLMs.
Good to know: Its strength is content and linkable assets. Pricing isn’t published, and its client list leans toward large, established brands.
4. Omniscient Digital
Best for: B2B SaaS companies that want content, SEO and AEO run together.
Omniscient Digital is an organic growth agency founded by Alex Birkett, Allie Konchar and David Ly Khim. Its team has in-house experience at HubSpot, Workato, Shopify and CXL. Services cover SEO, AEO, content and digital PR.
Proof: Omniscient reports that Convert grew LLM visibility 81% and AI citations 140% in 60 days. It also reports OnBoard grew AI visibility 88%. Clients include SAP, Adobe, Loom, Hotjar and Retool.
Pricing: Full-service engagements start at $120,000 a year.
Good to know: The budget suits funded companies. Early-stage startups may find the entry price high.
5. First Page Sage
Best for: B2B companies that want SEO, GEO and thought leadership tied to leads.
First Page Sage is a US agency offering SEO, GEO and AEO, with a focus on lead generation and authority building. Its client list includes Salesforce, Logitech, Verizon, US Bank and Cadence. It also publishes a large volume of industry research, which AI engines often cite.
Good to know: Pricing isn’t on its homepage. Ask how much of the work is AI-search specific versus classic thought-leadership content.
6. NoGood
Best for: Growth-focused brands that want AI discovery to turn into conversions.
NoGood is a growth marketing agency with a full AEO service. It covers LLM visibility audits, prompt research, AEO content, technical AEO, schema, digital PR and citation strategy. It works with a technology partner, Goodie AI, for AI search monitoring. Clients include Nike, TikTok, Intuit, MongoDB and Chime.
Proof: NoGood reports a 23x increase in AI search traffic for SteelSeries and 27x year-over-year growth in conversions from AI platforms.
Good to know: NoGood also offers agentic commerce work, which suits consumer brands more than B2B.
7. Kalicube
Best for: Brands that AI describes inaccurately or inconsistently.
Kalicube, led by Jason Barnard, calls its team “Digital Brand Engineers.” It focuses on how Google and AI systems understand your brand: Brand SERPs, Knowledge Panels and AI visibility. Its Kalicube Pro platform draws on 25 billion data points and 73 million entities, with weekly data collection since 2015.
Good to know: Kalicube is an entity and brand specialist. Pair it with a content or SEO partner if you also need pages that rank and get cited.
8. Avenue Z
Best for: Brands that need earned media and third-party mentions to show up in AI.
Avenue Z combines earned, owned and performance media, with dedicated AEO and GEO services. Its approach is PR-first: earn coverage on trusted sites, which AI engines then use as sources. Clients include Verizon, Adobe, Bank of America and Williams-Sonoma.
Proof: Avenue Z reports 600+ media hits in under three days for one client, Better.
Good to know: Many of its clients are consumer and fintech brands. B2B SaaS teams should ask for software-specific case studies.
9. Minuttia
Best for: Technical and B2B SaaS companies.
Minuttia focuses on Google and AI search strategy, human and AI content creation, digital PR, Reddit marketing and agent analytics. It works with 60+ B2B SaaS clients, including Toggl, Docebo, ServiceTitan and Sitecore.
Proof: Minuttia reports a 94% average client retention rate (as of June 2026) and an average client tenure of 24+ months.
Good to know: Pricing isn’t published. Its strength is content for technical products.
10. Seer Interactive
Best for: Enterprise marketing teams that want data-led AI search work.
Seer Interactive was founded in 2002 in Philadelphia by Wil Reynolds. It has 250+ people and 130+ enterprise clients, with a 92% retention rate. It covers SEO, paid media, analytics and GEO, and has a Chief AI Officer, Alisa Scharf. Its original research on how AI Overviews affect click-through rates is widely cited.
Good to know: Seer is built for enterprise and is not SaaS-specific.
What an AI engine optimization program includes
Whatever agency you choose, a complete program follows roughly these six steps:
- Audit: Measure how often AI engines mention you, cite you or leave you out across your buyer prompts.
- Prompt strategy: Choose the prompts that match real buying questions, then map the sub-queries AI runs behind them.
- Technical fixes: Make sure AI crawlers can reach and render your pages, and add structured data.
- Content and entity work: Rewrite key pages into clear, citable sections. Align brand facts across the web.
- Citations and mentions: Get listed on the third-party pages AI already cites in your category.
- Track and refine: Re-measure every week or two, then double down on what moves.
Step 5 is often the biggest lever. When we track AI answers, most cited pages for “best agency” questions are third-party listicles. If you aren’t on those lists, AI rarely names you.
You can check step 3 yourself today. Our free AI crawler checker shows whether your robots.txt blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot. For step 5, see how digital PR link building earns the brand mentions AI relies on. We also analyzed 500 queries to learn how AI chooses what to cite.
How much does AI engine optimization cost?
Published prices vary widely. SERP Forge’s AI SEO Growth Plan starts at $1,500 a month. Omniscient Digital’s full-service work starts at $120,000 a year. Most others quote custom pricing after an audit.
Cost depends on how many prompts you track, how much content needs rewriting, and how many third-party mentions you need. Ask every agency what is included: tracking tools, content, technical fixes and outreach are often priced separately.
How long does it take to see results?
Some changes show within weeks. AI tools with live web search can pick up a new or updated page quickly. Gains in traffic, leads and pipeline usually take 3 to 6 months. Changes in what models “know” without search take longer, since they depend on training updates.
8 questions to ask before you hire
- What is our visibility today across our top buyer prompts, and on which AI engines?
- Which pages does AI cite for our competitors but not for us?
- Will you fix technical issues yourselves, or only recommend them?
- How will you get us mentioned on third-party listicles and reviews?
- How do you keep our brand facts consistent across the web?
- Which tool do you use to track prompts, and how often?
- How will you link AI visibility to traffic, leads and revenue?
- Can you show a before-and-after case study with dates and methods?
Red flags: a promise to make you “number one in ChatGPT,” tracking only branded prompts, no baseline before work starts, or a plan built on mass-produced AI content.
Want AI engines to recommend your brand?
SERP Forge tracks your buyer prompts, finds the pages AI trusts, and gets your brand cited on them. You get one team for AI SEO, SEO and link building, with reporting tied to pipeline. Get a free AI visibility audit or see our AI SEO services.
FAQs
What does an AI engine optimization agency do?
It gets your brand mentioned, cited and recommended in AI answers. Work includes prompt tracking, technical fixes for AI crawlers, content restructuring, entity alignment and earning mentions on trusted sites.
Is AEO different from GEO?
The terms overlap. AEO focuses on being the direct answer. GEO focuses on mentions and citations in AI-generated responses. Most agencies offer both under one program.
Do I still need SEO if I invest in AI engine optimization?
Yes. AI tools with web search draw heavily on pages that already rank and on trusted sites. Strong SEO makes AI visibility easier to earn.
Which AI engines should I optimize for?
Start with the ones your buyers use. For most B2B companies, that means ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini.
Can a small company compete in AI search?
Yes. AI engines often cite niche, specific pages. A focused set of strong pages plus mentions on the right listicles can beat larger brands on specific prompts.
How do I measure AI engine optimization?
Track visibility (share of answers that name you), share of voice, position, sentiment and cited sources across a fixed prompt set. Then track AI referral traffic and conversions in GA4.
Should I hire an AEO agency or a SaaS SEO agency?
If you sell software, look for one team that does both, so content, links and AI work share one plan. Our checklist for choosing a SaaS SEO agency shows what to compare. Product-led teams can also see our list of SaaS SEO companies for PLG startups.
