Asked by someone who sells this service and puts them to his own clients: seven questions that separate a method from a pitch, including the one about price.
Guillaume Bleau, CEO, UPentreprise·17 October 2026·12 min read
I sell these engagements, presence work inside the answer engines. That is exactly why I can write this article: every question below is one I want my own prospects to ask me, because each one separates a method from a pitch. This article does not serve our sales pipeline. An agency that fails these seven questions should not be signed, ours included, if we ever fail them. This guide protects the buyer, not the seller. That is deliberate.
If the answer contains no public protocol, a named engine panel, a fixed number of queries, a decision threshold, a measurement frequency, there is no measurement. There is a dashboard. What matters is not the score on the screen but the method a third party can reproduce. Ask to see a real report (anonymized if needed): it should state the panel, the raw counts, and what the sample cannot prove. A report that shows only rising percentages is hiding its method, the most reliable sign that it has none.
The question nobody dares to ask, and the most revealing one. An honest seller gives three things: a horizon in months beyond which a movement should have been observable, a definition of “observable movement” agreed before the work starts, and the list of what he does not control, the engine, its updates, competition on your queries. “It depends” is not an answer. It is a non-answer shaped like a sentence.
The locked query panel, the measurement history, the engine access accounts, the reports. All of it has value that outlives the engagement, it is your measurement estate. Ownership must be written into the agreement, not promised out loud. Ask the test question: “If we left tomorrow, what would we take with us?” The answer should be: everything. An agency that hesitates is counting on your dependence, not on your results.
The answer should be a fixed, named panel: which engines, which versions, locked from one measurement to the next. “All the engines” is not an answer, it is an absence of method dressed up as generosity. A panel that changes between two reports makes the two reports incomparable: you will never know whether your presence moved or the instrument did. It is the difference between a scale and the impression of a scale.
The answer should be in months, with an explicit limit attached. Our own benchmarks, published on our GEO Presence page: a first citation movement is generally observed between three and four months of continuous work, and progress at six months is roughly double the starting point. These are trajectories observed on documented engagements, not a guarantee. An agency that promises “results in three weeks” is selling you a different product than the one you think you are buying.
6, “What share of the work touches my site, my brand, my content?”#
The split of responsibilities must be written down: what the agency does, what you do, what your teams must produce, and what each side signs off on. An agency that only talks about “structured data” without saying what it touches on your site produces a report you cannot correct yourself. You are then buying a subscription to a black box. Ask for the count: how many pages, which changes, who writes them, who approves them.
The final question, and the one that says it all. No agency can guarantee a citation in an engine that changes its answers without notice. None controls which sources a generated answer selects. An agency that answers this question with silence, or with “we can do anything”, is selling something other than what you think you are buying.
Nobody publishes prices in this market, of the 36 domains we measured, none displays a range. Here is what we observe, so you can place any proposal: an initial GEO audit, roughly $1,500 to $8,000, depending on the depth of the catalogue and the number of queries measured; a recurring program for an SME, roughly $2,500 to $10,000 a month, depending on the volume of content produced and the measurement frequency. These ranges are observed benchmarks of the Quebec market, not a rate card and not a commitment, they vary with your starting point. What is certain: an agency that refuses to name a range, even a wide one, has no quoting method; it has a negotiation method. Our own six-month program, audit, optimization, measurement, everything our GEO Presence page describes, sits below the $1,000-a-month mark. That is written there, with the rest of the method.
You do not need to know what an answer engine is to ask these seven questions. They are about method, ownership, timelines and limits, subjects any leader knows how to assess, because they are the same in any professional engagement. You need to ask them. A serious agency will welcome them.
These are the seven questions we put to our own program. Présence GEO sets out what that program covers, how it measures, and what it costs.
Seven questions to ask before you sign, for each one, what the agency must be able to name, and what remains yours to verify.
Question
How do you measure your results?
What it delivers
A written protocol: a named engine panel, a fixed number of queries, a decision threshold and a measurement frequency.
To clarify
That the report shows the raw counts and what the sample cannot prove, not only an upward trend.
Question
What happens if it doesn't work?
What it delivers
A horizon in months beyond which a movement should have been observable, and a written definition of “observable movement”.
To clarify
That the list of what the agency does not control, the engine, its updates, competition on your queries, is named before the work starts.
Question
Who keeps the data and the accounts?
What it delivers
A written ownership clause: the locked query panel, the measurement history, engine account access and the reports.
To clarify
That at the end of the engagement everything is transferable, the answer to “what do we take if we leave?” should be “everything”.
Question
Which panel do you work on?
What it delivers
A fixed, named panel: which engines, which versions, locked from one measurement to the next.
To clarify
That a stable panel makes two reports comparable, a panel that changes between reports makes them incomparable.
Question
How long before a first movement?
What it delivers
An answer in months, with an explicit limit, framed as an observed trajectory rather than a guarantee.
To clarify
That no duration is promised without its limit, a promise measured in weeks is selling a different product.
Question
What share of the work touches my site, my brand, my content?
What it delivers
A written split of responsibilities: what the agency does, what you do, what your teams produce.
To clarify
The exact count: how many pages, which changes, who writes them and who approves them.
Question
What can you not do?
What it delivers
An explicit answer about limits: no guarantee of citation, no control over which sources a generated answer selects.
To clarify
That silence, or “we can do anything”, is a signal, a serious agency names its limits.
Next step
A 30-minute exploratory conversation
If this article raised questions about your own presence, the next step is a short exploratory conversation, not an audit, a proposal, or a booking. Thirty minutes to compare your situation with what we described, and to decide together whether anything more is warranted.
Framing the conversation around your situation, not a sales script.
Explaining in plain language what GEO Presence and ISOD actually do.
Telling you honestly when a lighter option, or no engagement, is the better fit.
Agreeing on clear next steps only if both sides see a reason to continue.
No purchase is made on the call.
Nothing is booked or confirmed automatically, a time is agreed by reply.
You decide, after the conversation, whether to go further.
Submitting this form starts a conversation, not an audit, a purchase, or a confirmed booking.
The first sign is that it publishes its method before its result. An agency that explains how it measures, a named panel, a query count, a threshold, a frequency, is an agency that can be audited. An agency that shows only a score has nothing to show.
Observed benchmarks from the Quebec market: an initial audit between roughly $1,500 and $8,000, a recurring program for an SME between roughly $2,500 and $10,000 a month. These are market ranges, not a rate card, they vary with your starting point and the depth of your catalogue. Our own six-month program sits below the $1,000-a-month mark, everything our GEO Presence page describes included.
Refuse, and look for the reason behind the promise. An answer engine changes its outputs without notice, and no agency controls which sources a generated answer cites. A citation guarantee is a sales signal, not a method signal.
Yes, and it is a question to ask before signing, not after. What must be transferable: the locked query panel, the measurement history, access to the engine accounts and the reports. If an agency refuses to write that clause, it is counting on your not leaving.
