SEO and GEO for startups: how to choose an agency

Why most SEO advice does not fit a startup

The usual advice is that SEO takes six months to a year. That is true for crowded searches like "best CRM software", where large, old sites hold the first page. It is not true for every search. A new site can reach page one quickly for a specific search where the competition is thin: a use case, an industry, a city, or a problem described in the buyer's own words.

A startup also has a second audience now: the AI tools that buyers and investors use to make shortlists. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Overview about your category, the answer is built from pages that already rank. So the first job is the same either way: rank for the searches that matter, with pages that describe you clearly.

What the first three months can look like

Medha AstroTarot started where most startups start: no website and no history on Google. These are her real numbers, from her own Search Console.

1. 29 May 2026Her first website goes live.
2. 28 days to 12 July7,735 impressions and 137 clicks from Google.
3. 28 days to 9 August16,108 impressions and 292 clicks, more than double.
4. Late AugustGoogle's AI Overview names her first for "online tarot delhi".
5. 6 OctoberGoogle's AI Overview names her for "best tarot card reader".

Questions to ask an agency before you sign

• Can I see a client's live Search Console? Google's own advice is to judge search work in Search Console, its own tool. Screenshots can be cropped; a live account cannot.
• Which searches will you target first, and why those? A good answer names specific searches and explains why a new site can win them.
• Who will I talk to every week? At a startup, things change every week. You want the person doing the work on the call, not a messenger.
• What will you change in the first month? Expect a plan you can check week by week.
• How will we know if AI tools mention us? Search Console now has a report for Google's AI features, and the rest can be checked by hand. Be wary of a single "AI visibility score".

Red flags Google itself warns about

In June 2026 Google published advice on choosing SEO help. It warns about guaranteed rankings, about tools that claim to see Google's own data, and about services promising results in AI search, which it calls "AEO" or "GEO" tools. Google approves none of them.

• A guaranteed ranking. No one can promise what Google decides.
• A secret method for AI answers. Google's May 2026 guide says the work that ranks a page is the same work that gets it into AI answers. There is no separate trick.
• Special AI files sold as a shortcut. Google says Search ignores llms.txt and similar files. They do no harm, but they are not a way in.
• Hundreds of near-identical pages. Pages that only swap a city or a keyword can break Google's spam rules on scaled content.

Sources: Google: Third-party SEO tools, services, and advice (June 2026); Google: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search (May 2026); Google: Spam policies for Google web search.

Why we do SEO and GEO as one job

For a startup, splitting SEO and GEO between two vendors usually means paying twice for the same pages. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode find pages through the same ranking systems as ordinary search, so we do both together. More on that in SEO vs GEO.

What your first month with us looks like

1. 1Week 1

   We read your data

   We connect your Google Search Console and Google Analytics, read up to 16 months of history, and find the searches that already bring people to you.

2. 2Week 2

   We fix what confuses Google

   A page named differently from what people type. Two pages chasing the same search. A homepage showing up where a service page should. These are the quickest wins, so they come first.

3. 3Week 3

   We write the answers customers look for

   Clear pages that answer what your customers ask, with your name, what you offer and how to reach you. Every fact matches everywhere, so neither Google's AI Overview nor ChatGPT gets you wrong.

4. 4Week 4

   You see it, and we talk it through

   Your DataPls dashboard shows every search, ranking and lead, updated daily. Every week we call you to go through it, and we message you the day something important changes.

Questions people ask