Comparisons · No. 08 / 13
Should you hire a GEO agency, use your existing agency or build in-house?
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Choose an operating model that gives someone responsibility for publishing changes and someone responsibility for evaluating them. Our proposed comparison is below.
| Operating model | When we would consider it | Main advantage to seek | Procurement risk to control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Existing SEO agency with a revised scope | The team understands the site and can demonstrate suitable measurement | Continuity and integration with existing work | Paying twice for unchanged work under new terminology |
| Specialist GEO/AEO agency | The problem crosses technical, editorial and external-source work | A clearly staffed programme with implementation ownership | Vague mechanisms, proprietary scores and unclear subcontracting |
| In-house team plus monitoring | Product expertise and publishing capacity already exist internally | Close connection to product facts and priorities | Underestimating analysis, QA and maintenance effort |
| Specialist contractors | The diagnosis is narrow and implementation can be specified | Bounded deliverables and acceptance tests | Gaps between technical, editorial and reporting responsibilities |
| Hybrid delivery plus independent evaluation | Renewal or budget allocation needs stronger scrutiny | Separation between execution and assessment | Duplicated work unless responsibilities are explicit |
| No new supplier | Evidence is weak or the team cannot act | Preserving budget while resolving the prerequisite | Allowing a documented accuracy issue to remain ownerless |
A concrete agency example illustrates the difference in purchase scale: Omniscient Digital’s current AEO service page positions its work around B2B discovery and consideration and states that full-service engagements start at $120,000 per year. That is one supplier’s published starting point—not a GEO-agency market average, a monthly-cancellation offer or evidence of effectiveness. (beomniscient.com)
What should an agency statement of work specify?
Ask for separate lines covering:
- Baseline and measurement design.
- Technical investigation and implementation.
- Product-content research, approval and publication.
- External-source research and outreach.
- Analytics and commercial-evidence collection.
- Reporting and independent access to raw results.
- Client responsibilities, including developer availability and subject-matter review.
For each line, require a named owner, delivery date, acceptance criterion and dependency. “Improve AI visibility” is an objective, not a sufficiently specified deliverable.
Sources cited on this page
- beomniscient.com beomniscient.com/services/generative-engine-optimization/