How to tell if your agency is doing AEO: 5 checks you can run yourself.

You can check whether your agency is doing AEO in about 20 minutes, without asking them. Search for your business in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Read the first paragraph of your top service page. Test your schema. Review your Google Business Profile. Then look at what your monthly report measures.

Why I run the same checks every time

In Coast Guard Search & Rescue, every distress call started with the same five questions, called the Big 5. Where are you? What's wrong? How many people are aboard? What does the boat look like? Does everyone have a life jacket?

Nobody skipped one because the caller sounded calm. The answers decided where the search started.

When a business owner tells me their agency handles AEO, I ask the same questions every time. Most agencies mean well. Some are still selling the same SEO package they sold five years ago under a new name, and checking is the only way to know which one you have.

1. Ask AI tools about your business

Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Ask each one what your customers would ask: "Who's the best [your service] in [your city]?" Then ask about you directly: "What does [your business name] do?"

Look for two things. Do you show up at all? Is the information right, including your hours, services, and location?

If AI tools skip you or get you wrong and your agency has never brought it up, AEO work probably isn't happening. Anyone doing this work should be checking these answers regularly.

2. Read the first paragraph of your top service page

In a Pew Research Center analysis of March 2025 browsing data, Google users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits, compared with 15% when no summary appeared (Pew Research Center, July 2025). More people are reading the answer and moving on, so the answer is what has to carry your business.

Open your most important service page and read the first two sentences. "We are a family-owned company committed to excellence" answers no customer question. "We repair residential AC units in St. Pete, usually same day" answers three.

If your pages open with the first kind of sentence, nobody has rewritten them for AI search yet.

3. Test your schema

Schema is code that tells search engines and AI tools what your business is, where it is, and what it offers. Visitors never see it.

Paste your homepage URL into validator.schema.org. It lists every type of schema on the page. For a local business, look for LocalBusiness or Organization. If the validator finds nothing, that's a gap your agency should be able to explain. My guide to schema markup for small business covers what should be there.

4. Check your Google Business Profile

Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches, and it lists address, phone number, category, and attributes as examples of what to fill in (Google Business Profile Help).

Check four things: the primary category, a services list with real descriptions, posts from the last 30 days, and hours that match your website. My Google Business Profile checklist covers the full list.

5. Read your last report

If your monthly report only shows rankings, traffic, and clicks, it isn't tracking AI search. Ask where the report shows whether AI tools mention your business and how often.

I cover what a good report should include in what to ask your marketing agency for.

What your results mean

• 0 to 1 checks passed: AEO work isn't happening yet.
• 2 to 3 passed: some of the basics are in place, but nobody is checking how AI tools describe you.
• 4 to 5 passed: your agency is on it.

What to do with your results

Take them to your agency. Specifics get better answers than "are you doing AEO?" Ask what they plan to change and by when.

If you want an outside look first, my Fan-Out Audit shows where your pages rank but aren't getting cited.