21. What should a GEO agency proposal and statement of work contain?

Require a contract for observable work, evidence access and review decisions—not a promise to control an assistant’s recommendations. Separate supplier obligations from outcomes that depend on platforms and publishers.

FTC policy requires advertisers and agencies to have a reasonable basis for objective advertising claims before dissemination. That makes evidence behind a supplier’s performance promises a substantive procurement question, not just a negotiation preference. (ftc.gov)

Our proposed statement-of-work checklist:

• Exact objective and excluded claims.
• Prompt taxonomy, surfaces, geography and collection schedule.
• Definitions of mention, citation, recommendation and accuracy.
• Treatment of failures, missing data and methodology changes.
• Named implementation owners and required client approvals.
• Specific deliverables: pages, technical changes, research or outreach.
• Raw-answer, citation and historical-export rights.
• Data handling, subcontractors and permitted collection arrangements.
• Fees, usage limits, overages and renewal terms.
• Change-control and cancellation provisions.
• Pre-agreed review dates and continuation criteria.

Ask for one completed example with redacted raw evidence. A glossy case study is not a substitute for showing the original denominator, changed pages and comparable follow-up observations.