Short answer: SEO Engico is the best AEO agency for most service businesses because it judges AI visibility on calls, enquiries and revenue, and includes AI search in its SEO retainer instead of billing it on top. SimpleTiger suits B2B SaaS teams that think in pipeline, Tilio suits UK brands that want a specialist AEO team, AEO.co suits founder-led consumer brands ready for a fixed build, and DoodleWeb suits North American firms that want a printed monthly price and a guarantee.
Hiring an AEO agency in 2026 is harder than it should be, because the label now covers almost anything. Some agencies sell a scored audit and a few page rewrites. Others run a six-month programme of entity work, third-party placements and content. A few are SEO agencies that added a new page to their menu. All of them promise to get you named when buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI features who to choose.
This list is for buyers comparing agencies that sell answer engine optimisation as a defined service, with a clear method and scope, whether on its own or inside SEO. We checked every agency against its own website in November 2026 and judged each one on what it publishes: how it measures AI answers, what work it actually does, who it is built for and what it costs. Where a price is printed, we quote it. Where it is not, we say so.
Disclosure: Kuma SEO is written by the team at SEO Engico, the agency ranked first on this list. No agency paid to appear here. We checked every other entry against the agency's own website in November 2026. Services and prices change, so confirm the details with an agency before you sign. More on how we work in our editorial policy.
At a glance: the 6 best AEO agencies
| # | Agency | Best for | Based in |
|---|
| 1 | SEO Engico | Businesses that want AEO judged on enquiries and revenue, inside one SEO retainer | London, UK |
| 2 | SimpleTiger | B2B SaaS teams that want AEO reporting tied to pipeline in their CRM | Sarasota, Florida, US |
| 3 | Tilio | UK brands that want a specialist AEO team measured against a public index | Near Exeter, Devon, UK |
| 4 | AEO.co | Founder-led consumer brands ready for a fixed six-month build | Fishkill, New York, US |
| 5 | Avenue Z | Brands whose AI visibility problem is really a press and coverage problem | New York, Miami and Orlando, US |
| 6 | DoodleWeb | North American firms that want a published monthly AEO price and a 90-day guarantee | Seattle, Washington, US |
How we picked
- Measures a fixed question set, many times. AI assistants answer the same question differently from one session to the next, so a single screenshot is not evidence. A serious AEO agency agrees the buyer questions up front, reruns them on a schedule and reports how often you are named, cited or described accurately.
- Says exactly what it will change. Ask for the work list. Good answers cover your own pages (direct answers near the top, clear facts, structured data), how AI tools identify your brand, and the third-party sites those tools already trust. Vague talk of signals and authority is a warning.
- Works off your site as well as on it. Assistants lean heavily on reviews, listings, press coverage, forums and comparison articles. An agency that only rewrites your pages is doing half the job, so check how it earns mentions elsewhere and whether it does that work itself.
- Has an engagement model you can live with. Terms vary more than prices. Some agencies run fixed builds, some bill month to month, some need a three or six-month commitment. Match the model to how quickly you need to see movement and how much of your own time it needs.
- Ties visibility to business results. Being named is a means, not the goal. Look for reporting that connects AI visibility to referral visits, enquiries, demos or sales, and for agencies that refuse to guarantee a specific citation, because nobody controls the model.
The 6 best AEO agencies in 2026
Our top pick
1. SEO Engico
- Best for
- Businesses that want AEO judged on enquiries and revenue, inside one SEO retainer
- Based in
- London, UK
- Founded
- 2018
SEO Engico is a London agency founded in 2018 that runs SEO, AI search, links, ads and websites in one team for trades, law firms, ecommerce brands and agencies across the UK, US, Australia and India. Its AEO work starts by checking whether ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude name you for the questions your buyers ask, and who they name instead. The fixes follow from that: pages with the answer near the top in words a model can lift, markup and profiles so AI tools know who you are and where, a site open to AI crawlers, mentions on trusted sites such as reviews, listings and coverage, and monthly tracking of the same questions.
Two published case studies show the content side of that work. For One Planet Migration Law, an Australian immigration firm, it built coverage of the questions migration applicants search, and SEO Engico's published figure is 13,274 organic clicks from Australia between 30 April and 29 July 2026 (Search Console). For Be Cool Refrigeration in London it built fault-code guides and commercial service pages, and its published figures show UK organic clicks per quarter up 127%, from 4,007 to 9,091, comparing August to October 2025 with the quarter to July 2026.
AI search sits inside the $4,500 a month Growth retainer rather than on top of it, after a 30-day Revenue Baseline ($3,499) that traces calls, forms and sales back to the searches behind them. If it cannot show what organic search is worth in those 30 days, you do not pay for that phase.
What stands out
- Checks who ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude name for your buyers' questions, and who they name instead
- AEO included in the SEO retainer, with link building, technical SEO and content in the same team
- Monthly reports open with calls, enquiries and revenue, in a portal where you approve work before it goes live
- Free AI Visibility Checker covering ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews
Worth knowing
- It never promises a specific citation. Page changes can show within weeks, while mentions on other sites take longer to filter through.
- AEO is sold as part of SEO, not as a standalone product, so it suits buyers who want one agency across search rather than an AI-only specialist.
See SEO Engico's AI search service
No. 2
2. SimpleTiger
- Best for
- B2B SaaS teams that want AEO reporting tied to pipeline in their CRM
- Based in
- Sarasota, Florida, US
- Founded
- 2006
SimpleTiger specialises in B2B SaaS and runs SEO and AEO as one programme, with AEO sitting inside what it calls its Pipeline Engine alongside paid acquisition, content and lifecycle work. Its six-step method runs from an AEO audit and competitor benchmark through a phased roadmap, content work, technical AEO (indexing, structured data and linking schema), monitoring and monthly iteration.
Tracking covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok and Google AI Overviews, and monthly reports put citations, share of voice and pipeline side by side from your CRM. Clients also get round-the-clock Slack access and a project portal.
What stands out
- Month to month with 30 days' notice and no minimum first term
- Reports citations and share of voice next to CRM pipeline
- Free AI Search Visibility Audit as the starting point
Worth knowing
- Packages are customised and no price is published.
- Its focus is B2B SaaS, so other sectors should ask how the method carries over.
No. 3
3. Tilio
- Best for
- UK brands that want a specialist AEO team measured against a public index
- Based in
- Near Exeter, Devon, UK
Tilio is a UK answer engine optimisation agency that says it was set up for AI search rather than adding it to an SEO menu. Its monthly programme, Gain, combines four kinds of work: tracking mentions and citations across a prompt set shaped around your market, fixing technical barriers that stop AI crawlers reading your pages, new and improved content every month, and outreach to the third-party sites AI answers cite.
Measurement is its calling card. It publishes Vantage, a weekly index of how often AI answer engines name UK brands in answers to buying questions, and measures client programmes the same way. It also runs the method on itself, and reports its own unbranded AI visibility rising from 3% in March 2026 to a 27% peak in September 2026.
What stands out
- Public weekly index of UK brand visibility in AI answers
- Technical fixes made and checked within an agreed monthly allowance
- Works directly or alongside your writers, developers and SEO agency
Worth knowing
- Gain is quoted to your scope, so the monthly fee is agreed after onboarding rather than published as a single price.
- It focuses on UK markets, so international brands should ask how it handles other countries.
No. 4
4. AEO.co
- Best for
- Founder-led consumer brands ready for a fixed six-month build
- Based in
- Fishkill, New York, US
AEO.co is the answer engine optimisation arm of Smart Marketer, built around its BE THE ANSWER method and B.R.A.I.N. framework, and the thinking behind it is set out in The AEO Blueprint by Julian Lopez and Kasim Aslam. It sells a six-month build rather than an open-ended subscription: a baseline audit and citation benchmark, then foundation work on your entity home, schema and business details, then third-party placements and founder visibility, then a content engine that turns each piece of founder input into a set of connected assets.
The price is printed: $3,000 a month for six months, $18,000 in total, with a cap of ten brands at a time and entry by application.
What stands out
- Published, fixed price and a defined end point
- Sequenced phases from entity work to authority to content
- Case studies on its site keep each figure tied to its engine and measurement window
Worth knowing
- It asks founders to record about two hours a week and to appear on camera.
- It says it is not for agencies, resellers or month-to-month buyers, and is aimed at seven to nine-figure founder-led brands.
No. 5
5. Avenue Z
- Best for
- Brands whose AI visibility problem is really a press and coverage problem
- Based in
- New York, Miami and Orlando, US
Avenue Z is a PR and digital agency with a full AEO and GEO practice, including separate offers for ecommerce, Spanish-language and Latin American markets, and PR. Its AEO for PR service is the distinctive one. Rather than judging PR on coverage, it identifies which publications and listicles influence AI answers in your category, then aims pitching, messaging and executive visibility at those sources.
The work is listed plainly: LLM media intelligence, listicle and placement strategy, PR strategy alignment, then managed placements with performance tracking. It also runs a free AEO readiness quiz.
What stands out
- Joins PR planning to the sources AI engines cite
- Listicle placement strategy as a named part of the service
- Separate AEO offers for ecommerce and Spanish-language markets
Worth knowing
- No pricing is published, so expect a scoping conversation.
- PR-led work suits brands with news to tell. If your own pages are thin, you may need on-site work as well.
No. 6
6. DoodleWeb
- Best for
- North American firms that want a published monthly AEO price and a 90-day guarantee
- Based in
- Seattle, Washington, US
- Founded
- 2019
DoodleWeb is a Seattle web design and development company that sells answer engine optimisation on its own or as part of a site build or migration. Its argument is that a development team owns the page from the schema up, so it can ship content structured to be quoted rather than a blog post with markup added afterwards. The work restructures pages so the answer is easy to extract, keeps schema, llms.txt and robots.txt current, adds directory and listing profiles so your facts match across the web, and measures share of answer prompt by prompt with SiteSonar, a tracking tool it built itself.
The price is printed. Done for you Core costs $1,200 a month for one domain, with up to 20 buyer questions tracked daily, one fact-checked answer page drafted each working day and a monthly citation report. Custom starts from $2,500 a month on a three-month initial term, and every plan carries a 90-day AI Search Visibility Guarantee: if your visibility does not improve, you do not pay.
What stands out
- Published plans, with Core cancellable on 30 days' notice
- Tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google AI Overviews
- Nothing goes live without your approval, and approvals can be given by email
Worth knowing
- It is a web design and development company first, so AEO is one service among several.
- It says it works with clients across North America, so buyers elsewhere should ask how it covers their market.
How to choose an AEO agency
Start with the shape of the engagement, not the pitch. If you are a founder-led brand with a clear position and time to record content, a fixed build like AEO.co's can work. If you sell software and live by pipeline, SimpleTiger speaks your language. If you are a UK brand that wants a specialist team doing the technical, content and outreach work every month, Tilio is built for that. If you want a fixed monthly price and some protection while you test AEO, DoodleWeb publishes its plans and backs them with a 90-day visibility guarantee.
Then test the measurement. Ask which questions will be tracked, on which assistants, how many times each, and what counts as being named. Ask to see a real report. An AEO agency that cannot explain how it separates noise from a genuine change will struggle to tell you whether the work is paying off, and you will be left judging it on screenshots.
Finally, be honest about your website. If it still has technical problems or thin pages, an AEO agency that also does SEO will usually get you further than a specialist bolted on top, because AI tools can only quote pages they can reach and understand.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Which buyer questions will you track, on which AI assistants, and how many runs of each?
- What will you change on our site, and what will you do on other sites?
- Who does the off-site work, your team or a third party?
- How will you connect AI visibility to enquiries, demos or sales?
- What is the minimum term, and what happens to the work and accounts if we leave?
Frequently asked questions
What does an AEO agency do?
An AEO agency works to get your business named and accurately described when people ask AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews for a recommendation. The work usually covers answer-first pages, structured data, consistent business facts across profiles, mentions on third-party sites and regular tracking of a fixed set of buyer questions.
How much does an AEO agency cost?
Published prices on this list run from $1,200 a month for DoodleWeb's Core plan to $3,000 a month for AEO.co's six-month build, and many agencies quote after an audit. SEO Engico includes AI search work in its $4,500 a month SEO retainer. Cost depends on how competitive your category is and how much needs fixing.
Is AEO different from SEO?
Yes, but they overlap heavily. SEO aims to rank pages in search results, while AEO aims to get your brand cited or recommended inside AI-generated answers. Both need a crawlable site and strong content. AEO adds work on how AI tools identify your brand, more emphasis on third-party mentions, and measurement based on how often you are named.
How long does AEO take to work?
Page changes can show within weeks, because AI tools that search the web pick up new content fairly quickly. Mentions on other sites take longer to build and to filter into answers. Most agencies on this list talk in months, not days, and the honest ones measure monthly so you can see whether the trend is real.
Can an AEO agency guarantee ChatGPT will recommend me?
No, and be wary of any agency that says it can. Nobody controls what an AI model says, and answers change with wording and session. Agencies can guarantee their work and their measurement, and some tie fees to a measured visibility score, but a specific citation cannot honestly be promised.
Our verdict
Pick SEO Engico if you want AEO run as part of one search programme, measured against calls, enquiries and revenue, with AI visibility included in the SEO retainer. Choose SimpleTiger if you are a B2B SaaS team that thinks in pipeline, Tilio if you are a UK brand that wants a dedicated AEO team, AEO.co if you are a founder-led consumer brand ready for a fixed build, Avenue Z if your story is best told through press, and DoodleWeb if you want a printed monthly price backed by a visibility guarantee.
Explore SEO Engico's AI search visibility service
