GEO Vendor RFP & Scorecard: How to Evaluate a GEO Agency

To evaluate a GEO agency, run a real selection: an RFP that states your AI-visibility and measurement requirements, a scorecard that grades vendors on what actually matters, and a set of vetting questions that separate genuine GEO from relabeled SEO. Resonate Labs publishes all three below, vendor-neutral and free to copy, so you can run the process yourself.

What's here

A copy-and-use RFP template, a weighted vendor scorecard, and a vetting-questions checklist for hiring a GEO agency.

Built to be neutral

The scorecard grades on what matters to any buyer, not on what flatters one vendor. Use it on Resonate Labs too.

Where it came from

It distills how Resonate Labs evaluates GEO work into a tool you can run yourself, with deeper reading linked throughout.

How to use this

This toolkit has three parts that work together. The RFP template is what you send to vendors: it states your goals and, critically, your AI-visibility measurement requirements, so responses are comparable. The scorecard is how you grade the responses, on the criteria that actually separate GEO providers. The vetting questions are what you ask on the call, to confirm a real methodology rather than a relabeled one.

One thing to be clear about: the scorecard is built to be vendor-neutral. The criteria are the ones that matter to any buyer, and they're meant to be used on every vendor you consider, including Resonate Labs. A scorecard that only flatters the company that wrote it isn't worth running, so this one isn't built that way. Adjust the weights to your own situation; they're a starting point, not a verdict.

The RFP template

A GEO-agency RFP, structured so responses are comparable. Copy the sections below and fill in the bracketed prompts. The AI-visibility section is the one most generic SEO RFPs miss, and the one that tells you the most.

1. Company background and goals

State who you are and what "winning" looks like, so vendors can tailor their response.

Company, category, and target buyer (industry, role, company size).
The business outcome you want from GEO (pipeline, qualified demand, defending your category in AI answers).
Where you stand today, if known: are you visible, cited, or absent in AI answers?

2. Scope of work

Be explicit about whether you're buying execution or only advice.

Do you need the vendor to execute (build and publish content, structure, and technical changes), or only to measure and advise?
Is this GEO specifically, or a broader SEO-and-content program?
Who owns the content and assets produced?

3. AI-visibility auditing and measurement requirements

The core of a GEO RFP. Require specifics, not a promise to "track AI."

Which engines must be covered (for most B2B buyers: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity), and any others relevant to your market.
How visibility is measured, how often, and whether measurement is an included deliverable or a separate cost.
What counts as a result: a citation or mention, or pipeline and revenue? Who measures it, the vendor's own tool or an independent source?
Whether the set of tracked queries is agreed with you up front.

4. Content production and deliverables

Volume and type of content, and who writes it.
Technical and structural work included (schema, structured data, crawler access).
A sample deliverable or recent example of work.

5. Reporting and cadence

Reporting frequency and format, and which metrics are reported.
Whether reporting ties to AI-answer visibility or only to traffic and rankings.

6. Commercial model and pricing transparency

Pricing model (fixed monthly, tiered, performance-based) and the monthly figure or range.
Minimum term and any lock-in.
For performance-based pricing: what triggers payment, and where that's written (the contract, not the pitch).

7. Timeline and evaluation process

Response deadline, decision date, and start date.
The criteria you'll score against (the scorecard below) and how responses should be submitted.

The vendor scorecard

Grade each vendor's response on the criteria below. The weights are a starting point; raise the ones that matter most to your situation. The point is to compare vendors on what's verifiable, not on whose deck is glossiest.

Criterion	What good looks like	Suggested weight
Execution	Executes the work (builds and ships content, structure, technical), not only measures and advises.	20%
Methodology fit	Built for how AI engines assemble answers, not an SEO and PR playbook with a new label.	20%
Measurement	Recurring AI-visibility measurement, included, across the engines your buyers use.	15%
Engine coverage	Covers the engines that matter for your market, named explicitly.	10%
Proof posture	Results are independently verifiable, with disclosed sample sizes, not only self-reported.	15%
Pricing transparency	Clear pricing model and figure, terms in the contract, query set agreed up front.	10%
Content production	Produces and publishes real content at the quality and volume you need.	5%
Track record	Relevant client results and references, GEO-specific where possible.	5%

Scroll the table sideways on a narrow screen. Weights total 100% and are yours to adjust.

Questions to ask any GEO vendor

Use these on the vendor call to confirm a real methodology rather than relabeled SEO. The deeper reasoning behind them is in the GEO-native vs SEO-extended comparison.

Methodology

Is your method built for how AI engines assemble answers, or is it your SEO and PR playbook applied to a new surface?
Where would our citations come from, and do you publish any of the ranked-list articles you'd place us in?
How do you decide what content to produce for AI answers specifically?

Measurement

Which engines do you measure, and how often?
Is recurring measurement an included deliverable, or a separate cost or one-time study?
What exactly do you count as a result, and who measures it?

Proof

Are your headline results independently verifiable, with a disclosed sample size?
Do you rank yourself in your own "best agency" lists?
Can you share a reference from a client with a similar profile to ours?

Commercial

What's the pricing model and the monthly figure, and what's the minimum term?
If pricing is performance-based, what triggers payment, and is that in the contract?
Is the set of tracked queries agreed with us up front?

Where Resonate Labs fits

Resonate Labs published this toolkit, so it's fair to say how its own model maps to the criteria. Resonate executes the work in done-with-you and done-for-you models, is GEO-native rather than an SEO practice with a GEO label, and includes a monthly visibility audit across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. Pricing is fixed and public, from $5,000 a month. On track record and scale, Resonate is emerging and won't outscore the category's most established agencies, which is exactly why the scorecard weights those rows lightly and execution and methodology heavily.

That's the honest read, not a perfect score. Run the scorecard on Resonate the same way you'd run it on anyone else. If you want help applying it to your category, the measurement methodology and a GEO Snapshot are the places to start.

Frequently asked questions

What should a GEO agency RFP include?

A GEO agency RFP should state your company background and goals, the scope of work, and, most importantly, your AI-visibility auditing and measurement requirements: which engines the vendor must cover (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity), how often visibility is measured, and what counts as a result. It should also cover content production and deliverables, reporting cadence, the commercial model and pricing transparency, the timeline, and the criteria you'll use to evaluate responses. The RFP template on this page from Resonate Labs includes all of these sections, free to copy and adapt.

How should I weight a GEO vendor scorecard?

Start from the suggested weights and adjust to your situation. If you lack in-house capacity, weight execution and included measurement more heavily, since you need the work run, not just advised. If verifiable results matter most to your stakeholders, raise the weight on proof posture. If you're replacing an SEO agency, weight methodology fit to confirm you're buying GEO built for AI answers rather than relabeled SEO. The weights in the scorecard above are a starting point, not a fixed formula.

What questions confirm a real GEO methodology versus rebranded SEO?

Ask whether success is measured against AI answers (actual model recommendations across the engines your buyers use) or against search rankings and traffic. Ask whether visibility is measured recurringly, as an included deliverable, and across which engines. Ask whether results are independently verifiable or self-reported, and whether the vendor ranks itself in its own lists. Ask where your citations would come from. The vetting-questions checklist above groups these so you can run them in a vendor call.

Is this RFP template free to use?

Yes. The RFP template, scorecard, and vetting questions are free to copy and adapt for your own GEO vendor selection. They're written to be vendor-neutral, so the same criteria work for evaluating any GEO agency, including Resonate Labs. Resonate published the toolkit; it isn't weighted to favor any one vendor.

Related resources

Compare GEO Vendors — the comparison hub: honest, model-based comparisons of the GEO landscape, and where to start
GEO Agencies & Tools, Compared — the full B2B SaaS landscape: who runs GEO, who only measures it, and how to choose
GEO-Native vs SEO-Extended GEO — the deeper read behind the vetting questions: how to tell real GEO from relabeled SEO
Technical GEO Readiness Checklist — audit your own site before you evaluate vendors: crawler access, rendering, structure, schema, and freshness, with a quick check for each
How We Measure GEO Results — the measurement requirements, scored every 30 days across the four engines
The Business Case for GEO — for the budget and cost-comparison side of the decision
Request a GEO Snapshot — a free, fast diagnostic of how AI engines describe your company today, and the first step if you want to go further

Next step

Run the scorecard on us.

A free GEO Snapshot maps your category and shows where you stand across the four engines, so you can grade what comes back against the scorecard above.

Which queries your buyers actually ask AI
Where you're visible, cited, or absent today
What the first 30 days would move