Best GEO Agencies: Who Wrote the List You're Reading?
Seven of nine "best GEO agency" lists I checked were written by an agency on the list. How to compare GEO agencies without trusting anyone's ranking.
Who wrote the best GEO agency list you're reading?
Table of Contents9 sections
I searched "best GEO agencies in Bali" from Bali. The one Bali list on Google's first page was written by an agency, and it put itself first.
Then I asked Perplexity who could get a business recommended by ChatGPT in Bali. It gave me the same six names, the author on top, and cited that list. So who do you trust?
The short version: there's no independent ranking of GEO agencies in Bali.
Seven of the nine "best GEO agency" lists I checked were written by an agency on the list.
So compare sellers on what you can check: what they track, how often, what work is included, and a price in writing.
This page ranks nobody. It counts what the sellers serving Bali publish, sorts them into six kinds, and gives you a card to make your own list.
I run a digital marketing agency in Bali and sell one of these services, so I'm the last person you should trust with a ranking. Mersa gets scored on the same card, misses included.
Key Takeaways
- Most "best GEO agency" lists are written by an agency on the list. Seven of the nine I checked, and six of those put themselves first.
- Only one said so at the top, and it was also the only one that refused to rank.
- AI assistants read these lists. Perplexity repeated one almost name for name, its author on top.
- Use a self-ranked list as a list of names to check, and skip its order.
- Compare GEO agencies on what you can check yourself, and score them on one card.
Who Wrote the "Best GEO Agency" Lists?
Here are the nine lists I checked on 25 October, and again on 4 November. I've left the publishers' names out, since several of them sell what I sell.
| # | The list covers | Written by | On its own list? | Placed first? | Says so where? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali, 6 agencies | A Jakarta agency | Yes | Yes | In the last FAQ |
| 2 | Indonesia, 10 agencies | An Indonesian agency | Yes | Yes | Nowhere |
| 3 | Singapore | A Singapore agency | Yes | Yes | Nowhere (says the list isn't sponsored) |
| 4 | Global | A US agency | Yes | Yes ("Best Overall") | Nowhere |
| 5 | Global | An AI SEO company | Yes | Yes ("Editor's Pick") | Nowhere |
| 6 | Global | A B2B agency | Yes | Yes | Nowhere |
| 7 | Belgium, 19 agencies | A Belgian agency | Yes | First row, but "explicitly not a ranking" | Before the list |
| 8 | Global | A CRM software company | No | Its #1 is the agency named in its footer | Footer: "Proudly brought to you by" |
| 9 | Indonesia, 10 agencies | A news site | No | n/a | n/a |
Notice who wrote them?
Seven of the nine were written by an agency on its own list, and six of those put themselves first. One more first place went to the agency named in the publisher's footer.
Only the Belgian list said it up front. Its author wrote that the agency "has an interest in you choosing us", and then declined to rank anyone at all.
The Bali list does admit it, in the last of its six FAQs. Most readers won't scroll that far. I nearly didn't.
But I'm not saying the agencies on these lists are bad. Some are good.
A self-ranked list is still a list of names someone took the time to find. Read it like a phone book. Just skip the order.
Still, say you run a villa in Canggu and you're hunting for someone who can get you named when guests ask ChatGPT where to stay.
You'd never guess from these pages that the ranking was done by a contestant.
The trouble is that the assistants read these lists too. On 24 October, logged out from Bali, I asked Perplexity "who can get my business recommended by ChatGPT in Bali?"
It named six agencies. They were the Bali list's six, the first four in the same order, with that list as its only source.
Does it matter if you never open a list yourself? It does.
A list you'd skip on Google can still reach you inside an AI answer, author first. When I asked eight hiring questions in three assistants, the names moved with every question.
The one list here not written by a seller came from an Indonesian news site. And it scored ten agencies out of 15 and published its weights, which is the part worth borrowing.
What the Assistants Read When You Ask Them
On 24 October I put eight hiring questions to three assistants, logged out, from Bali.
Perplexity and Gemini showed 37 sources across 11 of their answers (ChatGPT's weren't logged), so I sorted them by who wrote them.
| Who wrote the source | Times cited |
|---|---|
| A seller, about itself (service page, prices, blog) | 29 |
| A directory or freelancer marketplace | 4 |
| A seller's "best agencies" list | 2 |
| A press release | 1 |
| Off topic (a land surveyor) | 1 |
| A news site or an independent review | 0 |
About four in five sources were a seller describing itself. Nobody between that page and the answer checked a word of it.
The directories aren't neutral either.
Perplexity cited Sortlist for "AI SEO agency Bali", and Sortlist says one of three things behind its ranking is "the budget allocated on the visibility module".
Clutch sells sponsorship tiers that "determine directory page placement". So a top spot can be bought, at least in part.
The two answers that read a list followed it closely. You saw Perplexity's above. Gemini, asked for a "GEO specialist Canggu", tagged its first names with that same Bali list.
Fair enough, you might say. Describing yourself well to an assistant is the job you'd hire them for.
But an answer like that shows who has done it for themselves. It says nothing about who has done it for a villa like yours.
The Bali GEO Market, Counted
On 4 November I went through every agency those answers and Google's page one named.
I kept the ones with a live GEO or AI SEO page that serves Bali. 15 made it, and Mersa sits outside that count.
| On the seller's own pages | Sellers (of 15) |
|---|---|
| A price for the AI search work | 8 |
| What's included | 14 |
| Which assistants they check | 14 |
| How they measure (which questions, how often) | 9 |
| A dated AI answer, with the question and the assistant | 0 |
| English and Bahasa, both stated | 4 |
| A minimum term | 5, all six months or longer |
| A promise of results or a placement | 4 |
| "No guarantee", said plainly | 6 |
| A Bali office | 9 |
Notice the zero? Not one shows a dated answer on its pages, and ours doesn't either. Ask for one on the call.
Eight publish a price. The monthly ones run from IDR 600,000 to IDR 50,000,000, so the number says more about the scope than about the seller.
Two tie the fee to results. One keeps working at no extra cost until you improve.
The other doesn't charge for a quarter when you're named less than agreed. Read what each one counts as "named" before you sign.
Two more just say it in the sales copy: AI will recommend you, with no terms attached.
Six say plainly that nobody can guarantee an AI answer. The other five say nothing about it.
How I Checked
- The names: every agency ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's page one named for the eight questions, 36 in all. Freelancers and marketplace profiles were left out.
- The test: a live GEO, AEO or AI SEO page, and Bali served. 15 passed.
- Each seller's own pages were read on 4 November 2026, never a list about them. Every price was checked a second time at the seller's page.
- "Not found" means it isn't on the public pages. It doesn't mean they don't do it.
- A price "on request" counts as no price. Mersa was scored the same way, below, and isn't in the 15.
Six Kinds of GEO Seller You'll Meet
Most of the 15 are the first kind on this table. 9 are SEO agencies that added GEO to what they already sold.
| Kind | Published price | Suits | Check first |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO agency that added GEO | IDR 4,700,000 to 15,000,000/month, where shown | A business already paying for SEO | Whether the AI part has its own questions and report |
| Web studio adding AI search | From IDR 3,000,000/month | A new or tired website | Whether anyone checks the answers after launch |
| GEO specialist | From US$499/month | A villa or retreat selling to guests abroad | What a "guarantee" counts, and the term |
| One-off check or fix | IDR 1,500,000 check, IDR 4,500,000 fix | Seeing where you stand first | What happens after the report |
| Low-cost package | From IDR 600,000/month | A small budget testing the idea | How many questions, and who writes the pages |
| Foreign agency with a Bali page | From $1,900/month | A clinic whose patients fly in from Australia | Who tests your WhatsApp and booking path in Bali |
The kinds overlap. One Denpasar agency sells a one-off check and a monthly plan on the same page.
We're a GEO specialist too, on a monthly check: AI Visibility. The scorecard below rates us like everyone else.
Say you run a six-room villa in Canggu, and most guests book from Australia. Two proposals arrive in one week.
The first is an SEO agency at IDR 15,000,000/month for six months. The second is a specialist at US$499/month that only bills a quarter if you're named often enough.
The first buys you SEO with a look at ChatGPT. The second counts prompts, so you'd want to know which prompts, and who picked them.
Which kind fits depends on who books you.
A clinic needs the answers its patients see in Perth, in two languages. A retreat selling to Europeans can skip the Bahasa.
So one proposal can score high for one business and low for the next.
Make Your Own List: a 10-Point Scorecard
Put the proposals side by side and give each a point for every line it answers in writing. Half a point if it's there but vague.
| # | The proposal says | 1 point if it names |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which questions get asked | Your customers' questions, in their words, as whole sentences |
| 2 | In which languages | English and Bahasa, if your customers use both |
| 3 | Which assistants | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews, or the ones your customers use |
| 4 | How often | Every month at least, with each answer dated |
| 5 | Which sources | The sources each answer cited, so you can see what to fix |
| 6 | What work gets done | Changes to your own pages and listings, not only a report |
| 7 | Who does it | A person you can meet or message |
| 8 | What it costs | The price and the minimum term |
| 9 | What it promises | No placement or ranking promised |
| 10 | What they've shown you | A sample report, a case study, or the check run on their own business |
Eight or more, and it's worth a call. Under five, and you'd be paying for a label.
The news site's rubric from the first section gave price 1 of its 15 points. Here the price and the term get a full point, because you're the one paying the invoice.
On the call, take the eight questions to ask before you pay. Before it, a five-minute test shows whether their own site passes.
And check every proposal covers the same job before you compare prices.
What Counts as Proof
Three words get mixed up in GEO sales pages. Keep them apart.
| Word | What it means | What it's worth to you |
|---|---|---|
| Named | The assistant says your business in its answer | A start |
| Cited | Your page or listing sits in its sources | The part the work can change |
| Booked | A guest who asked an assistant books with you | The part you pay for |
A screenshot of ChatGPT naming a client is one run of one question.
SparkToro and Gumshoe had 600 volunteers ask the same 12 prompts, about 3,000 answers in all. The same brand list came back less than once in 100 runs.
Then there's the "up to 40%" on sales pages. It comes from the paper that named GEO, published at KDD in 2024, and it's a lab benchmark measured on a set of test questions.
Your villa wasn't in the test.
Be wary of "special GEO setup" too. Google says its AI features have no additional requirements.
And if the main line on the invoice is an llms.txt file, read this first. Google says you don't need "AI text files" to appear in its AI features.
Where Mersa Fits, Scored on the Same Card
We run Mersa from Bali, and AI Visibility is IDR 4,800,000/month.
On the card, from our own page, we score 8.5 out of 10. Here's where we lose points.
- Bahasa: 0. It isn't on our page.
- Who does the work gets half a point. It's the two of us, and the page doesn't say so.
- We pass point 10 on a sample report. That shows you the format, but no result yet for a villa like yours, and we'd rather say that than round it up.
Inside the plan, every month your questions go into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews, and the sources they cite get fixed.
One answer page gets written and three competitors get compared. Then a one-page report shows what the assistants said, the misses included.
It starts with one month, then runs on 30 days' notice.
So who should pick another kind? If you want your website rebuilt, a web studio fits better. If you only want to know where you stand, a one-off check costs less than one month with us.
Every price we charge is on one page.
Follow me on LinkedIn if this helped. And if you write one of these lists, put the disclosure at the top.
Common Questions
Is there an independent ranking of GEO agencies in Bali that a business owner can trust?
No. Of nine "best GEO agency" lists checked in October 2026, seven were written by an agency on the list, and six of those put that agency first. Directories such as Sortlist and Clutch rank partly on what agencies pay.
Why do so many "best GEO agency" lists put the agency that wrote them in first place?
Because the list is marketing. A list that ranks for "best GEO agencies" gets read by buyers and repeated by AI assistants, and first place costs its author nothing. Only one of nine lists said so at the top.
What should a GEO proposal for a villa, clinic or retreat in Bali include in writing?
At least five things: the customers' questions it will ask, in English and Bahasa where needed; the assistants it checks; how often; the work on the business's own pages and listings; and the price with the minimum term.
Is a GEO agency different from an SEO agency, and does a small business in Bali need both?
Mostly it's the same work with a new check on top. GEO adds asking ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, but their answers still come from websites, Google Business Profiles and listings. A small business rarely needs two agencies for it.
What should a GEO agency's monthly report show a villa or clinic owner?
The questions asked, each assistant's answer and its date, whether the business was named, which sources were cited, and what was changed that month. It should include the months the business was not named, too.
Can I trust one screenshot of ChatGPT naming an agency's client as proof that the work works?
Rarely. When SparkToro and Gumshoe had 600 volunteers ask the same 12 prompts, about 3,000 answers in all, the same brand list came back less than once in 100 runs. Ask for dated answers from several months.
