--- title: "GEO Agency vs SEO Agency: Which Do You Need? | Underneath" description: "An SEO agency ranks pages in search results; a GEO agency gets a brand cited and recommended in AI answers. What each does, what they cost, and which you need." canonical: "https://underneath.agency/resources/geo-agency-vs-seo-agency" published: 2026-09-25 updated: 2026-09-28 publisher: "Underneath (https://underneath.agency/agent)" entity: "https://underneath.agency/.well-known/entity.json" --- Guide · AI search # GEO agency vs SEO agency An SEO agency improves how your pages rank in Google and Bing; a GEO agency, a generative engine optimization agency, gets your brand mentioned, cited and recommended inside the answers ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot give. They share a foundation but differ in what they optimize, where the results show up and how they are measured. This guide compares the two, including cost, and helps you decide whether you need one, the other or both. Underneath teamGuide On this page 1. [The difference in one table](#the-difference-in-one-table) 2. [What an SEO agency does](#what-an-seo-agency-does) 3. [What a GEO agency does](#what-a-geo-agency-does) 4. [Where the two overlap](#where-the-two-overlap) 5. [Where they differ, measured](#where-they-differ-measured) 6. [Do you need an SEO agency, a GEO agency or both](#do-you-need-an-seo-agency-a-geo-agency-or-both) 7. [Frequently asked questions](#frequently-asked-questions) Related service Generative Engine Optimization Get mentioned, cited and recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and described correctly when you are. [How we do it](https://underneath.agency/services/generative-engine-optimization) ## The short version 1. An SEO agency earns positions on a results page; a GEO agency earns a place inside an AI-generated answer. The first is measured in rankings and clicks, the second in mentions, citations and share of voice. 2. On Google’s AI surfaces the two jobs overlap heavily, because pages that rank near the top are cited about twice as often as pages lower down. On Perplexity and ChatGPT they are different jobs, because those engines cite mostly from outside the top 10. 3. Most companies need both, measured together: SEO as the foundation, GEO on top of it to turn ranking pages into cited ones, plus the third-party work the AI engines depend on. Ask any of the engines we tested “GEO agency vs SEO agency” and you get a definition of each, a side-by-side table and a section titled “do you need both”. This guide follows the same shape, then adds what measuring the engines shows about the difference. ## The difference in one table | | SEO agency | GEO agency | | --- | --- | --- | | Goal | Rank pages and earn clicks | Be the brand the AI answer names, cites and recommends | | Where you win | Google and Bing results pages, map results | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot | | Unit judged | The page | The passage, the brand’s entity, and the third-party pages that mention it | | On-page work | Keywords, titles, content depth, internal links, speed | Definition-first openings, question headings, complete FAQ answers, comparison tables, structured data for AI engines | | Off-page work | Backlinks | Mentions and listings on the roundups, directories, forums and publications the engines cite | | Technical work | Crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals | The same, plus AI crawler access, server-rendered text, schema completeness, one canonical URL | | Measurement | Rankings, organic traffic, conversions | Mentions, citations, share of voice by engine, AI referral traffic and leads | | Time to results | Months | Weeks on Google’s AI surfaces for indexed pages; months for third-party citations and ChatGPT | | Typical retainer | Agencies average about $3,209 a month (Ahrefs survey, 2024) | About $1,500 to $50,000 a month (2026 price guides) | ## What an SEO agency does A search engine optimization agency improves how a site ranks and converts in traditional results: keyword and intent research, technical health (crawling, rendering, indexation, speed), information architecture, content that targets queries, and links from other sites. Its output is positions, and the traffic and conversions that follow. In 2026 a good SEO agency also reports on AI Overviews, because the Overview sits above the results it ranks for, but its levers are still the page and the link. ## What a GEO agency does A generative engine optimization agency works on the inputs an AI answer engine uses when it composes an answer: pages that can be quoted passage by passage, structured data the engine can read, a brand entity it can recognize, and the third-party pages it already trusts. Its nine activities, from audit to training, are set out in [What does a GEO agency do?](https://underneath.agency/resources/what-does-a-geo-agency-do). Its output is a place in the answer: the brand named, the page cited, the description accurate. Its measurement is per engine, because the engines do not share sources. ## Where the two overlap - Technical foundations. Both need a crawlable, fast, well-structured site. GEO adds rules for the AI crawlers and more thorough structured data. - Content quality. Google’s guidance for its generative AI features says the usual SEO fundamentals apply and no special optimizations are required. Helpful, specific, well-structured content serves both. - Entity clarity. Consistent facts about the brand across the site, profiles and directories help ranking systems and answer engines alike. - Authority. Links serve SEO; mentions on cited pages serve GEO; the same publications and directories often provide both. ## Where they differ, measured We ran the query “GEO agency vs SEO agency” 22 times on the five engines between 15 and 25 September 2026, and a related service keyword daily for ten days. The numbers show where the two jobs part ways. - On Google, ranking helps a great deal. For the service keyword, the AI Overview cited 75% of the pages ranked 1 to 3 in the same search and 42% of those ranked 4 to 10. For this comparison query, about half of the Overview’s citations came from the top 10. A single keyword overstates the overlap, though: across 481 AI Overviews, [only 28.7% of citations ranked in the top 10](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-overview-citations-study), and on searches that showed both, [19.9% of Google AI Mode’s citations were top-10 pages](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-mode-vs-ai-overviews-study). On Google, ranking gets you much of the way to a citation, but not all of it. - Perplexity and ChatGPT do not. ChatGPT took 26 of 28 citations for the service keyword from outside Google’s top 10, and cited academic research and official documentation before any vendor. Perplexity cited pages with a median length around 3,700 words against 1,500 for pages it retrieved and skipped, regardless of rank. Here an SEO agency’s levers do not reach. - The source sets are small and stable. For this query, one agency explainer was cited in 18 of 18 AI Overviews, 22 of 22 Perplexity answers and 20 of 22 AI Mode answers, and named inside 49 of 110 answers, in the daily runs and again in the single-afternoon batch. Reddit was named in 42. Entering a set like that is GEO work: matching the page’s shape, and being mentioned where it is mentioned. - The engines want the expanded term. ChatGPT’s own searches for this query began “geo generative engine optimization agency vs seo agency definition” and added “2026”. A page that says “GEO” without the expansion, or carries no year, is missing the query the engine runs. - Buyers still ask about SEO. The People Also Ask box under the result asked “is SEO still worth it in 2026?” (15 times), “has GEO replaced SEO?” (13), “is SEO dead now with AI?” (10) and “are SEO and GEO the same?” (10). The questions at the end of this guide answer them. ## Do you need an SEO agency, a GEO agency or both - SEO first if you do not yet rank for the questions your buyers ask. On Google’s AI surfaces there is no shortcut past ranking: pages in the top three are cited about twice as often as pages at positions 7 to 10. - GEO now, alongside SEO, if your pages rank but the AI answers name competitors, if your buyers use ChatGPT or Perplexity, or if the engines describe your brand inaccurately. Those are problems ranking does not fix. - Both, coordinated, for most companies. One measurement framework (rankings alongside citations, mentions and share of voice), one technical foundation, one content standard that serves both, and one owner for the off-site sources, whether that is one partner or an SEO partner plus a GEO specialist. - Two agencies only if your SEO partner cannot show per-engine measurement or a third-party citation plan. Ask before you add a second retainer; some SEO agencies can add the GEO layer, and the [criteria for choosing a GEO agency](https://underneath.agency/resources/how-to-choose-a-geo-agency) apply to either. Underneath does GEO only. Every program works on the passages, the entity and the third-party sources that decide whether the AI answer names you, and runs alongside your SEO team or agency, which keeps the ranking side. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the difference between a GEO agency and an SEO agency? An SEO agency ranks pages in Google and Bing results and is measured in rankings and traffic. A GEO agency gets a brand cited, mentioned and recommended in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity, and is measured in mentions, citations and share of voice by engine. ### Are SEO and GEO the same? No, but they share a foundation. Both need a crawlable, well-structured, authoritative site; GEO adds quotable passages, structured data for AI engines, a consistent brand entity and mentions on the third-party pages the engines cite, and it is measured per engine. ### Has GEO replaced SEO? No. Ranking is still the main route into Google’s AI surfaces. GEO works on whether the ranking page is also the one the answer quotes, and covers Perplexity and ChatGPT, where ranking matters far less. ### Is SEO still worth it in 2026? Yes. In our study of 486 searches, [41.7% of the pages ranking in Google’s top three were cited by the AI Overview](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-overview-cited-pages-study), against 20.1% at positions 7 to 10. Ranking earns the position and raises the chance of the citation. ### Can one agency do both SEO and GEO? Some can. Whether you use one agency or two, check that whoever owns GEO measures AI visibility per engine, has a technical checklist for AI crawlers, and has a plan for the third-party pages the engines cite. ### How much do GEO and SEO agencies cost? In [Ahrefs’ survey of 439 SEO providers](https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-pricing/), agencies charged an average of $3,209 a month (2024). For GEO, published 2026 price guides range from about $1,500 to $50,000 a month, with mid-sized companies typically at $5,000 to $25,000 ([WebFX](https://www.webfx.com/blog/ai/generative-engine-optimization-cost/)). Underneath’s GEO programs are priced in three bands, $5,000 to $10,000, $11,000 to $20,000 and $20,000+ a month. ## Keep *reading.* [All resources](https://underneath.agency/resources) - Guide · AI search ### [What does a GEO agency do?](https://underneath.agency/resources/what-does-a-geo-agency-do) The nine things a generative engine optimization agency does, what it costs, and how the AI engines describe the job. Underneath team - Guide · AI search ### [How to choose a GEO agency](https://underneath.agency/resources/how-to-choose-a-geo-agency) Eight criteria, the red flags, and the questions to ask on the first call, checked against what the AI engines themselves tell buyers. Underneath team - Guide · AI search ### [Is a GEO agency worth it?](https://underneath.agency/resources/is-a-geo-agency-worth-it) When hiring one pays back, when it does not, and how to decide with numbers rather than fear of missing out. Underneath team Free strategy call ## Ranking but not cited? On a free 30-minute call we show you where you rank, where you are cited, and where the gap between the two is costing you. [Book a strategy call](https://underneath.agency/contact)[How we work](https://underneath.agency/approach) --- This is the Markdown twin of https://underneath.agency/resources/geo-agency-vs-seo-agency. The HTML page is canonical. Publisher: Underneath, https://underneath.agency/agent. Site index: https://underneath.agency/llms.txt.