Key Takeaways
- Send the questions in writing before any call. Eight questions cover how a provider measures, what work they do, what they promise and what it costs. A written reply is the first piece of evidence you get.
- Ask to see the question list. Every AI visibility number comes from a set of questions put to assistants. If you cannot see the questions, you cannot judge the number.
- Find out who does the publishing. Some providers research and hand you the work, others publish for you. Neither is wrong, but the price and the access they need are very different.
- Test the guarantee against who controls the result. Nobody controls what an assistant says. An honest guarantee covers the provider's own work and money, not a mention by a date.
- Start with the smallest thing on offer. A provider confident in the work will sell you a small first step. A long commitment before anything is delivered is the thing to slow down for.
Hiring someone for AI visibility is awkward, because the field is new and you cannot easily judge the work. Every provider uses the same words. The pitches sound alike, and the prices vary widely.
What should you ask before hiring anyone for AI visibility? Eight questions, in four groups: how they measure, who does the work, what they promise, and what it costs to start and to stop. Send them in writing before any call.
These are the questions to ask an AI visibility agency, a freelancer or a software company alike. We sell in this field ourselves, so the last section puts the same eight to us.
What should you ask before hiring anyone for AI visibility?
Ask eight questions before hiring anyone for AI visibility: three about how they measure, two about who does the work, one about what they guarantee, and two about price and leaving. Send them by email first, so the answers arrive in writing.
ToAny AI visibility provider you are considering
SubjectEight questions before we talk
- 1 Which questions will you ask the AI assistants, and can I see the list before you start? Measure
- 2 How many times do you run them, and on which assistants? Measure
- 3 Can I see the answer behind every number in the report? Measure
- 4 Who writes and publishes the changes, you or me? Work
- 5 What access to my website and accounts do you need? Work
- 6 What exactly do you guarantee, and what happens if it does not arrive? Promise
- 7 What is the price, in writing, and what is the smallest thing I can buy first? Money
- 8 If I stop, what do I keep? Money
A reply in writing is the first answer. Whether one arrives is the second.
Asking a provider direct questions before you hire is old advice. Google's own page on whether you need an SEO tells business owners to interview candidates, ask for examples of past work, and ask how success is measured and over what timeframe. The eight above are that same habit applied to a newer service.
They are meant to be used alongside a list of warning signs, not instead of one. The signs are in red flags in AI visibility vendors. This post is the other half: what to ask, in what order, and how to read what comes back.
Three questions about how they measure
The three measurement questions are: which questions do you ask the assistants, how many times and on which assistants, and can I see the answer behind every number. Together they tell you whether a score can be checked or only believed.
Start with the list. Every AI visibility number is a count of how often a business was named across a set of questions. If the questions are not the ones your buyers ask, the number describes somebody else's market. Ask to see them before work starts.
Then ask about runs. Assistants do not give the same answer twice. Google's guidance on its AI features describes a system that may run several related searches behind one question, and different assistants draw on different sources. One run on one assistant is a single sample.
Last, ask for the evidence. A report that says a competitor was named should be able to show the answer it was named in. What a complete report contains, part by part, is set out in what a real AI visibility audit should include.
Two questions about who does the work
The two work questions are: who writes and publishes the changes, and what access to my website and accounts do you need. They decide what you are buying, which is either advice you carry out or work done for you.
Both models are legitimate. A research-only provider tells you what to change and hands you the page; you or your web person put it live. A provider who publishes for you costs more and needs a way into your site. The trouble starts when a buyer assumes one and has paid for the other.
Access follows from that. Measuring what assistants say about you is done from the outside and needs no login at all. If a provider asks for one, ask what it is for, who will hold it, and whether it can be removed when the work ends.
Three questions about promises, price and leaving
The last three questions are: what exactly do you guarantee, what is the price in writing and the smallest first purchase, and what do I keep if I stop. They show where the risk sits if the result does not arrive.
On the guarantee, listen for who controls the thing being promised. Nobody outside the company that runs an assistant decides what it says. The same Google page states plainly that no one can guarantee a top ranking in its results, and the same holds here. A guarantee about the provider's own work or money can be kept. A guaranteed mention cannot, for the reasons in what AI visibility services cannot promise you.
It also helps to ask what the work will consist of. The Princeton-led study GEO: Generative Engine Optimization found that what raised a source's visibility in generated answers was what the page itself contained, such as statistics, quotations and cited sources. That was measured on the researchers' own benchmark of queries, not on your market, but it is a fair reason to be wary of a plan priced by the number of pages.
| Question | Group | What it protects you from | A straight answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which questions will you ask the AI assistants, and can I see the list before you start? | Measure | A score built on questions your buyers never ask | Here is the list, and here is how we chose it |
| How many times do you run them, and on which assistants? | Measure | One lucky or unlucky answer reported as fact | A stated number of runs on named assistants |
| Can I see the answer behind every number in the report? | Measure | Competitor names with nothing behind them | Yes, each figure opens the answer it came from |
| Who writes and publishes the changes, you or me? | Work | Paying for advice when you expected work, or the reverse | A plain statement of who does what |
| What access to my website and accounts do you need? | Work | Handing over logins that are not needed | None to measure; named, removable access to publish |
| What exactly do you guarantee, and what happens if it does not arrive? | Promise | A promise about something the provider does not control | A commitment about their own work or a refund |
| What is the price, in writing, and what is the smallest thing I can buy first? | Money | A number set during the call | A published price and a small first step |
| If I stop, what do I keep? | Money | Losing the report, the pages or the baseline when you leave | Everything delivered stays yours |
How to read the answers, including ours
Read the answers for three things: whether they came in writing, whether they are specific, and whether they match what is on the provider's own website. A vague reply to a direct question is itself an answer.
Here are ours, so you can hold us to the same list.
- Measure. The free check asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche. The $500 audit runs 125 checks across five AI tools as two independent passes, and shows the sentence behind each name.
- Work. We measure and research the AI-answer side and tell you what to change; your site, your agency or you publish it. If you want the publishing done as well, that is done-with-you work, quoted on request.
- Promise. We do not guarantee a mention, because nobody can. If a $500 audit shows you already out-place every competitor it checked, we tell you so and refund the $500 before you ask.
- Money. The prices are published: $0 for the free check, $500 for the audit, and $399 a month for the Watch, or $300 a month when it is added with the audit. The report you are sent is yours to keep.
The damaging admission: for some practices the right answer to all of this is to hire nobody. A solo coach with a full calendar and a web person on hand can do most of this work without a provider, and the Google page linked above says much the same about search.
If you want a baseline before you email anyone, the free check gives you one. It asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche at $0 and emails a plain-English readout: your score, who got named in your place, and the one fix to start with. It runs as soon as you ask for it, and the report lands within the hour between 7am and 5pm Central, or by 10am the next morning outside those hours.
Questions we hear the most
What should I ask before hiring anyone for AI visibility?
Ask eight things: which questions they put to the assistants, how many runs and which assistants, whether you can see the answer behind each number, who publishes, what access they need, what the guarantee covers, the price in writing, and what you keep if you stop.
What questions should I ask an AI visibility agency on the first call?
Ideally none that you have not already sent in writing. Email the eight questions first and use the call to go through the replies. A provider who will only answer out loud has told you something before the call starts.
Is it a bad sign if a provider will not show me their question list?
Yes. The question list is what the whole measurement rests on. A score built from questions you cannot see cannot be checked, repeated or compared later, so there is no way to know whether it reflects what your buyers ask.
Should an AI visibility provider need my website login?
Only if they are publishing changes for you. Measuring what assistants say about you needs no access at all, because it is done from the outside. If access is requested, ask what it is for and whether it can be removed afterward.
Can anyone guarantee I will be recommended by ChatGPT?
No. Nobody outside the company that runs an assistant controls what it says, so a guaranteed mention is not a promise anyone can keep. A guarantee can honestly cover what the provider does, or refunds, if a result does not arrive.
What does AnswerHalo answer to these eight questions?
In short: the free check asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche and the $500 audit runs 125 checks across five AI tools as two passes. You publish the changes, the prices are published, and we do not guarantee a mention.
What is the smallest thing I can buy from AnswerHalo first?
Nothing. The first step is the free check at $0: 25 real buyer questions from your niche put to ChatGPT, with your score, who got named in your place and the one fix to start with emailed within the hour between 7am and 5pm Central, or by 10am the next morning.
Your buyers are already asking. Find out what AI tells them.
The free check asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions about your niche and sends you the report within the hour, at $0. If it shows you are already getting named everywhere, we will say so in plain words.
Get my free check →