"AI SEO consultant" is a title anyone can adopt, and in 2026 many have. Some are experienced SEOs who have added rigorous testing of AI answer surfaces to their practice. Others have rebranded a thin service with new vocabulary. The difference is not visible on a website — it shows up in how they answer specific questions.
Use the twelve questions below as a scorecard. Ask them all, in one call, and mark each as a strong, acceptable or weak answer.
The 12-question scorecard
1. How do you define AEO, GEO and AI SEO, and how do they differ from SEO?
Strong: a clear, consistent definition that acknowledges shared foundations with SEO. Weak: a claim that AI search is a wholly separate discipline requiring a proprietary method. If the terms are new to you, our AEO vs GEO explainer gives you a reference point to test their answer against.
2. What baseline will you establish before starting?
Strong: a documented, dated record of how assistants answer an agreed prompt set today, plus current organic performance. Weak: "we'll show you improvement in reports" with no starting point.
3. How will you build the prompt and query set?
Strong: derived from your real sales conversations, Search Console queries, and category research — and agreed with you before work begins. Weak: a generic list, or prompts chosen after the fact to flatter results.
4. What will change on my pages?
Strong: specific, self-contained answers near the top of relevant pages; clear headings; current facts; comparison and pricing clarity where appropriate. Weak: volume for its own sake, or AI-generated filler.
5. Who writes the content, and how do subject-matter experts get involved?
Strong: a named process for pulling knowledge out of your team and a human editor accountable for accuracy. Weak: unedited generation at scale.
6. What technical SEO is in scope?
Strong: crawlability, indexation, site speed, internal linking, canonical hygiene, rendering — because AI surfaces build on the same index. Weak: "technical SEO isn't relevant to AI search."
7. How do you handle structured data?
Strong: markup that matches visible content, chosen per page type, with no promise of rich results. Weak: a special AEO schema pitch, or markup describing things the page does not show.
8. How will you build local relevance for Vancouver?
Strong: service-area pages with genuine local substance, Google Business Profile work, consistent NAP and local citations, and reviews. Weak: the same page copied with the city name swapped.
9. How will you measure and report?
Strong: prompt re-tests on a fixed cadence, organic performance, and business outcomes — with modelled and observed data labelled separately. Weak: a precise "AI traffic" figure presented as fact when the platforms do not report it in isolation.
10. Who implements the changes?
Strong: a named owner, an agreed workflow with your developer, and a turnaround expectation. Weak: a recommendations document with no path to production.
11. What access and ownership do I get?
Strong: you own the accounts, the content and the data; you can see the work in progress; everything transfers if the relationship ends. Weak: agency-owned properties, or reporting you cannot verify at source.
12. What do you guarantee — and what won't you?
Strong: guarantees about scope, cadence and communication; an explicit refusal to guarantee citations or rankings. Weak: guaranteed AI Overview inclusion, guaranteed ChatGPT mentions, or guaranteed positions.
Scoring the call
- 10–12 strong answers: a serious candidate. Move to scope and pricing.
- 6–9 strong answers: workable if the weak areas are ones you can cover internally — usually implementation or content production.
- Fewer than 6, or any guarantee of AI placement: keep looking.
Before you brief anyone
Two things make every vendor conversation sharper. First, know your site's current condition — run it through our free SEO audit tool so you can tell whether a proposal addresses your actual problems. Second, know what the work costs and why, which we break down in how much AEO costs in Canada.
If you would like to run this scorecard against us, our GEO and AEO teams answer all twelve in a free consultation — and you can see how we approach local search on our Vancouver SEO page first.
