Ask for five concrete deliverables.
A useful review should support a decision even if you choose not to continue. Ask a prospective provider what you will be able to inspect and use.
- A relevant question set. Questions tied to your customers, offer, markets and buying constraints. Each should have a reason for inclusion; a suggested prompt is not evidence of search demand.
- An inspectable baseline. Dated answers, exact prompts, platforms, modes and visible citations. Mentions and recommendations should be distinct. Ask how repeat observations are handled.
- A factual and access review. Incorrect descriptions, missing decision information and evidenced access issues. Observed problems should be separated from hypotheses.
- Priorities with owners. Each proposed change should identify the affected page or listing, its purpose, who will make it and how completion will be checked.
- A measurement plan. Agree which questions to revisit, how available referrals will be examined, what qualifies an enquiry and when to review the next step.
Compare proposals on the same basis
A blank checklist for evidence, responsibilities and scope.
Who will own the work?
| Approach | Useful when | Still needs an owner |
|---|---|---|
| Your team | Someone can run comparisons, interpret sources and make changes. | Question selection, fact checking, publishing and review. |
| Monitoring tool | Repeated collection takes time and the method fits your decisions. | Interpreting observations and implementing changes. |
| Outside support | You need help with investigation, content decisions or execution. | Business facts, approvals and commercial goals. |
Ask whether the provider samples consumer interfaces or APIs, which modes it uses, and what the sample can represent. Keep ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini identifiable in the evidence.
A collection method should be clear enough to explain a change. If prompts, locations or modes changed between reports, those differences belong in the interpretation.
Agree the work before the commitment.
Specify markets, pages, platforms, deliverables, fee and review date. Clarify publishing responsibilities, ownership of outputs, and work excluded from the engagement.
Ask for the evidence behind outcome claims. Google recommends checking third-party AI-search advice against its official guidance and makes clear that using a service does not guarantee ranking success. Read Google’s guidance.
Use the enquiry measurement guide to define commercial progress separately from sampled visibility.
A focused scope. A clear next step.
Share your market, website and the work your team needs help with. Agree the priorities before deciding what to take on.
Talk about your visibility