If you have three proposals for AI search work in front of you, they probably describe different things at different prices with no common structure. This is a reference scope you can map each of them onto.
Discovery and baseline
- Prompt set built from your buyers' actual questions, reviewed and approved by you.
- Baseline measurement across the major assistants, with raw responses retained.
- Source analysis identifying which domains supply answers in your category.
- Entity audit across your site, listings, directories and social profiles.
- Technical check covering crawler access, rendering and structured data validity.
Implementation
- Entity corrections on properties you control, and requests to those you do not.
- Structured data added or corrected, validated as JSON.
- Content restructuring for extraction on agreed priority pages.
- New content, if any, aimed at measured gaps rather than keyword lists.
- Technical fixes arising from the check.
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Ongoing
- Monitoring on the agreed cadence with the frozen prompt set.
- Representation and outreach work against the source list.
- Monthly reporting including citation rate with sample size, share of voice, sources gained or lost, and accuracy issues.
- Quarterly review against baseline.
What to check in any proposal
Whether the prompt set is yours or theirs. Whether raw responses are retained and exportable. Whether reporting states sample sizes. Whether entity work is included or assumed. And what happens to your data and baseline when the engagement ends.
A proposal that covers discovery, implementation and ongoing work with those five points answered is comparable to another one. Proposals that do not are not really proposals.
Frequently asked questions
What should AI search optimization services include?
Discovery and baseline (approved prompt set, measurement, source analysis, entity audit, technical check), implementation (entity corrections, structured data, content restructuring, technical fixes), and ongoing monitoring, outreach and reporting.
How do I compare AEO proposals?
Map each onto a common scope, then check five things: whose prompt set it is, whether raw responses are retained and exportable, whether reporting states sample sizes, whether entity work is included, and what happens to your data at the end.
What is usually missing from AEO proposals?
Entity work, which is frequently assumed rather than scoped, and any statement about data ownership at the end of the engagement. Both are worth asking about explicitly.