Choosing a service
SEO, AEO and GEO in Singapore: what should you pay for?
Buy a clear programme of work tied to your customers and website. SEO, AEO and GEO describe overlapping ways to improve discovery. The useful question is which pages, technical issues and customer questions the service will address, and how you will inspect the work.
What do the three terms mean?
In this guide, SEO means improving discovery through search. AEO describes work on content that answers questions. GEO describes work aimed at visibility in generated answers. These are working definitions used in the industry, not three independent ranking systems or compulsory subscriptions.
Google says optimisation for its generative search features remains SEO. It does not require special AI markup and does not use llms.txt for ranking. Those statements concern Google Search, not every AI provider. Google's current AI optimisation guide.
| Buyer need | Useful work | Evidence to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Find a suitable service | A clear service page with fit, scope, area served and next step | The improved page and its search-query evidence |
| Understand cost | A precise pricing answer with inclusions and exclusions | Current approved terms and the published answer |
| Check a recommendation | Verifiable business details and useful first-hand evidence | Sources, case-study method and dated observations |
Do AI crawlers need separate access?
Review each provider's documented controls. OpenAI distinguishes its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, from its training crawler, GPTBot. You can make different choices for search and training. Allowing a crawler still does not promise that an answer will cite you. OpenAI's crawler documentation.
For a small business, the practical starting point is a permission review: can the appropriate search systems access the public service pages, and do those pages accurately answer a buyer's questions? Your agency should explain any proposed access change before making it.
What about FAQ schema?
Google retired FAQ rich results in May 2026 and removed the associated documentation in June. A useful FAQ can still help a reader. Selling its markup as a way to obtain that retired Google display is outdated. Google's documentation changelog.
A purchasing checklist you can use
- Name the customer. For example, a Singapore business owner comparing monthly agency support. Do not accept “everyone searching for AI” as the audience.
- Name the pages. Ask which existing pages will improve and why new pages are needed.
- Define the work. Separate original research, a content refresh, a technical fix and outreach. Agree on what each includes.
- Open the evidence. Ask for the proposed sources, before-and-after change and reviewer.
- Separate delivery from results. A published page is work delivered. A search impression, citation and qualified enquiry are different outcomes.
- Confirm the exit. Establish who owns the content, what can be exported and how cancellation works.
How should you compare proposals?
Take one question your customers actually ask. Ask each agency to explain the proposed page, evidence, approval process and measurement for that same question. That makes scope easier to compare than a list of SEO acronyms.
Our recommendation is to pay for clear ownership of useful work and its evaluation. A promise of a fixed AI position does not tell you either.
Sources and review
- Google AI optimisation guide. Google-specific implementation guidance.
- OpenAI crawler documentation. Search and training crawler controls.
- Google Search documentation updates. FAQ rich-result retirement, May and June 2026.
References checked on 6 September 2026. Provider guidance can change. Our checklists and illustrative examples are recommendations, not observed client results. Send a correction.
Revision note
6 September 2026: initial researched version. No claim of historical client results.