How to choose an answer engine optimization (AEO) agency
Choose on evidence you can inspect: a run the agency was not paid to do, a straight answer on what its method fails to record, and a price before the proposal. The six questions below separate a disciplined provider from a confident one.
See what an answer engine says about your category
Google AI Overview, 18 October 2026. Query as typed: “Be the business AI recommends in wpb,fl”. A generic-query capture is further down this page.
Ask these six questions.
The questions are not rhetorical. Each has an answer that is easy to give if the work is real and awkward if it is not.
“Show me a run you did for someone who is not a client.”
Any agency can describe what an engine says. Fewer will show you a run nobody paid them to do. Ask for the questions as typed and the full reply: a dashboard score with no underlying text is a number, not a measurement.
“What does your method fail to record?”
An engine’s answer varies by day, by phrasing, by region and by model version. An agency that cannot name its own limitations has not looked for them. Ask which conditions break their measurement.
“What happens when a figure you published turns out to be wrong?”
The honest answer is that it gets withdrawn in public, with the reason. Ask to see one that did. A clean record usually means nothing was checked.
“Do you guarantee placement?”
Nobody can. An agency promising placement in an AI answer is describing something it cannot control. What can be promised is the work: which sources an engine reads about your category, what they say, and what changes when they change.
“Who does the work, and can I speak to them?”
AEO is small. If no named person at the company has a public track record, you are buying a process you cannot inspect. Ask who would run yours, then look them up.
“What do you charge, and for what?”
Ask for the number before the proposal. A provider who needs a discovery call to tell you the price is pricing you, not the work.
This is what question one looks like answered.
Not a diagram of how AI search works. The answer itself, as it came back.
What we do about each of these.
Five questions, in full
Complete runs at /updates: the questions, the engine’s reply, every business named, and what we failed to record. Nobody commissioned them, including the businesses named.
Including what we withdrew
Our method, and the figure we withdrew because we could no longer reproduce it, are both at /methodology.
On the page, not in a call
Our pricing is on /pricing rather than behind a call.
Who would run yours.
Steven Allbright
Founder · Ultimate Elite Solutions · West Palm Beach
“Business owners shouldn’t have to become software experts just to benefit from technology.”
Look him up — or watch the founder’s message on /ai.
Some of the people who hired us, in their words.
“Awesome Service .. My Family and I Appreciate Doing Business With You ❤️ Thanks We Appreciate it Definitely A Life changing experience!!!”
“Great company. Makes running my business super easy. Thankfully to have found them.”
“I highly recommend Ultimate Elite Solutions! They are professional, knowledgeable, truly understand how to help businesses to achieve sustainable growth.”
“Our business was struggling with technical support, customer service, and follow-up… Use UES, and you will not be disappointed.”
“This has simplified so much office busy work that my team finally has time to really talk with our clients.”
See what an answer engine says about your category.
One way to see this work is to read a run we were not paid for.
Request a run Read a published run