In-house vs agency for GEO: what a small business should actually do.
We sell GEO, so read this with that in mind. Here is an honest breakdown of what the work is, what you can do yourself, and when paying someone makes sense.
Disclosure first: Zeevron is a GEO agency. That is exactly why we want to say clearly which parts you don't need us for.
What the work actually is
| Workstream | What it involves | Skill needed |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Let search and AI bots crawl; server-render content | A developer, a few hours |
| Indexing | Google and Bing verification, sitemaps, IndexNow | Technical SEO basics |
| Content | Answer-first pages with original data and sources, published steadily | Subject expertise plus writing; the biggest time cost |
| Mentions | Getting named in lists, comparisons, videos and communities | PR and partnerships |
| Measurement | Prompt panel, AI traffic in GA4, Bing AI Performance | Analytics, a few hours a month |
Do it in-house if
- You have someone who can own content weekly and knows the subject.
- A developer can fix crawl, rendering and indexing issues.
- You are willing to measure monthly and keep going for months.
Start with our free guides: robots.txt for AI crawlers, answer-first content and the 50-prompt tracker. The free AI crawler checker covers access.
Hire help if
- Nobody has the hours to publish useful content every week.
- You need technical fixes your team can't make.
- You want an outside view of where you are cited and where competitors are.
- You sell apps, where ASO and GEO overlap and one team should own both.
What it costs
Pricing in this market is often hidden. Ours isn't: GEO/AEO engagements at Zeevron are $1,500 a month, month to month. In-house, the main cost is time: plan on several hours a week for content and an hour or two a month for measurement.
Red flags in any agency, including us
- Guaranteed placement in ChatGPT or AI Overviews. Nobody controls that.
- llms.txt or special schema sold as the main fix. Google says neither is required; see the evidence.
- No baseline. If they don't measure where you are cited before starting, they can't show change.
- Mass-produced articles. See scaled content abuse.
- Can't explain the work in plain words.
Questions people ask
Can I do GEO myself?
Yes, the basics: allow AI search crawlers, get indexed in Google and Bing, publish answer-first pages with original data, earn mentions and track a fixed prompt panel monthly.
When should a small business hire a GEO agency?
When nobody has time to publish useful content weekly, technical fixes are beyond the team, or you want outside measurement of where you are cited.
How much does GEO cost?
Agency pricing varies and is often unpublished. Zeevron's GEO/AEO engagements are $1,500 a month. In-house, the cost is mainly several hours a week of content work.
Want this mapped onto your product?
See how our GEO work runs, or send your store link and a founder will reply personally.
