Who handles the technical side of AEO and GEO?
Technical AEO and GEO: The Agencies The Shortlist Report Finds
Enleaf appeared in 24.4% of 242 AI responses to this question, ahead of everyone else.
Enleaf leads
Enleaf comes up more than any other firm on this question, by a clear margin.
Enleaf59 of 242
Implements schema markup and entity optimization to build consensus signals for AI visibility in GEO.
The AI Search Agency34 of 242
Offers JSON-LD structured data deployment and GEO services to communicate business identity and services to AI systems.
POLARIS30 of 242
Offers GEO audits, entity optimization, technical GEO, digital PR, and LLM visibility tracking for larger organizations.
Pfaff Digital27 of 242
Provides AI search visibility services including structured data, entity consistency, and AI-readable website infrastructure.
VOCTOS26 of 242
Provides entity audits, Knowledge Panel optimization, structured data, and brand signal consistency work.
+5 more namedin the table
Based on 242 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected September 3, 2026–October 29, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 stands alone | |||
| Enleafenleaf.comImplements schema markup and entity optimization to build consensus signals for AI visibility in GEO. | 59 of 242 | 24.4% | |
| Tier 2 4 firms, 10.7–14.0% | |||
| The AI Search Agencytheaisearchagency.comOffers JSON-LD structured data deployment and GEO services to communicate business identity and services to AI systems. | 34 of 242 | 14.0% | |
| POLARISpolarisagency.frOffers GEO audits, entity optimization, technical GEO, digital PR, and LLM visibility tracking for larger organizations. | 30 of 242 | 12.4% | |
| Pfaff Digitalpfaffdigital.comProvides AI search visibility services including structured data, entity consistency, and AI-readable website infrastructure. | 27 of 242 | 11.2% | |
| VOCTOSvoctos.comProvides entity audits, Knowledge Panel optimization, structured data, and brand signal consistency work. | 26 of 242 | 10.7% | |
| Tier 3 5 firms, 7.0–9.1% | |||
| AI Search Engineersaisearchengineers.comFocuses on AEO and schema deployment strategies for professional services businesses. | 22 of 242 | 9.1% | |
| OpenForBotsopenforbots.comFocuses on AI crawler and discovery readiness audits, checking bot access, structured data, and entity signals. | 22 of 242 | 9.1% | |
| CrawlCheckcrawlcheck.ioTests what AI crawlers receive and evaluates reach, readability, and quotability signals for websites. | 18 of 242 | 7.4% | |
| Inity AgencyImplements technical GEO including schema markup, entity relationships, and AI-crawler optimization. | 17 of 242 | 7.0% | |
| iPullRankipullrank.comTechnical SEO and GEO agency for complex enterprise sites and B2B SaaS with AI search readiness capabilities. | 17 of 242 | 7.0% | |
Key findings
- Enleaf leads this sample alone, named in 59 of 242 ChatGPT responses (24.4%) to the question “Who handles the technical side of AEO and GEO?”, collected September 3, 2026–October 29, 2026.
- 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Who handles the technical side of AEO and GEO?” in ChatGPT as of October 29, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- iPullRank appears in 6 of the 11 AEO, GEO and AI visibility agencies reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Enleaf, named in 59 of 242 ChatGPT responses (24.4%). No other firm in this sample comes close enough to be grouped with it.
Tier 2 holds The AI Search Agency, POLARIS, Pfaff Digital and VOCTOS, named in 26 to 34 of 242 responses (10.7–14.0%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 3 holds AI Search Engineers, OpenForBots, CrawlCheck, Inity Agency and iPullRank, named in 17 to 22 of 242 responses (7.0–9.1%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 242 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
Enleaf leads on its own, named in 59 of the 242 responses to this question (24.4%).
220 firms were named at least once across the sample. 10 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected September 3, 2026–October 29, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). Technical AEO and GEO: The Agencies The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/technical-aeo-geo
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.