Reject any agency that guarantees a ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google AI recommendation, promises a fixed ranking date, sells paid organic inclusion or hides its prompt and scoring method. A credible provider can improve crawler access, content, evidence and measurement. It cannot control which sources an AI system selects or how long a recommendation lasts.
AI visibility has created a new sales script for old SEO theatre.
The agency changes the labels, adds ChatGPT screenshots and presents a score with two decimal places. The buyer still cannot inspect the prompts, sources, crawler access or business result.
South African companies should demand a better standard before signing a GEO, AEO or AI-search retainer.
Guarantee 1: “We will make ChatGPT recommend your business”
No agency controls ChatGPT’s answer.
OpenAI gives publishers technical guidance for search discovery. Public pages can appear in ChatGPT search, and sites that want summaries and snippets should allow OAI-SearchBot.
That guidance creates eligibility, not a guaranteed recommendation.
The answer can change with:
- Prompt wording.
- Account context.
- Location.
- Product mode.
- Available web sources.
- Competing evidence.
- Model and search-system updates.
A provider can improve the business’s public evidence and test the result. It cannot reserve a recommendation.
Acceptable promise: “We will improve the pages and evidence available to ChatGPT search, then test a fixed prompt set and report what changed.”
Guarantee 2: “You will rank number one in AI search”
ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity do not offer one stable organic ranking that works like a fixed blue-link position.
An answer may list three providers without numbering them. Another answer may cite a source without naming the company. A third may ask the user a follow-up question.
The provider must define what “number one” means.
Ask:
- Number one for which exact prompt?
- In which product and mode?
- Under which account and location?
- How many repeated tests?
- Is the result a mention, citation or referral visit?
- How long must it remain stable?
A ranking claim without those conditions has no measurable meaning.
Guarantee 3: “We have an inside submission route”
Google, OpenAI and Perplexity publish crawler and website guidance. None offers a general paid form that places a small business into organic AI recommendations.
Perplexity has publisher partnerships, but those are not a public small-business listing service.
A provider may help with:
- Search Console.
- Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Sitemaps.
- Crawler access.
- Structured data.
- Business profiles.
- Legitimate directories.
Those systems can improve discovery and verification. They do not buy recommendation placement.
Ask the provider to name the submission product and link to the platform’s official documentation.
Guarantee 4: “Our proprietary AI score proves your ranking”
A private score can help organise work. It becomes misleading when the agency hides the formula.
A 72.4 AI visibility score may combine:
- Branded prompts.
- Non-branded prompts.
- Mentions.
- Citations.
- Crawler visits.
- Social profile appearances.
- Estimated search volume.
- Referral traffic.
Those signals do not carry the same business value.
Require:
- The prompt list.
- Engine and mode.
- Test date.
- Account and location conditions.
- Raw answer captures.
- Citation URLs.
- Formula and weights.
- Missing data.
- Repeat-test volatility.
A score should summarise evidence, not replace it.
Guarantee 5: “An llms.txt file will make AI engines find you”
Google’s official generative AI search guidance says Google Search does not use llms.txt or other special AI text files for inclusion.
Perplexity publishes an llms.txt index for its own documentation. That shows one possible documentation format. It does not establish a universal business ranking signal.
An llms.txt file can act as an optional directory for people or agents. It cannot replace:
- Crawlable pages.
- Clear service information.
- Original evidence.
- Trusted external sources.
- Consistent business facts.
- A useful landing page.
Do not pay a strategy fee for one small text file.
Guarantee 6: “Schema will make AI understand everything”
Structured data helps machines interpret page information when it matches the visible content.
Schema cannot create a missing price, case study, service area, founder biography or project result.
A page that says little and carries extensive JSON-LD remains a thin source.
Ask to see the visible content change alongside the schema work.
Guarantee 7: “We will publish 100 AI articles a month”
Volume can make a weak website harder to maintain.
Google’s July 2026 guidance warns against creating separate pages for every possible query variation. It recommends unique, non-commodity content and says a high quantity of pages does not make a site more relevant.
A service business rarely needs one hundred articles each month.
It may need:
- One definitive pricing pillar.
- One strong service page.
- One case study.
- One comparison.
- One local checklist.
- Corrections to outdated profiles.
Ask which business decision each article supports and which existing page it strengthens.
Guarantee 8: “We can create authority without your input”
An agency can research public facts. It cannot manufacture first-hand experience.
The client must contribute:
- Project decisions.
- Methods.
- Limits.
- Industry observations.
- Approved examples.
- Real prices or pricing factors.
- Client permissions.
- Factual review.
A provider that never interviews the team will produce content competitors can reproduce.
The article may sound polished and still contribute nothing worth citing.
Guarantee 9: “A mention equals revenue”
A business can appear in an AI answer and receive no visit.
It can receive visits and no qualified enquiries.
Measure the full path:
- Prompt tested.
- Business named.
- Website cited.
- User clicked.
- User engaged.
- User enquired.
- Lead qualified.
- Sale assisted or completed.
A provider should report where the evidence stops.
OpenAI says ChatGPT referral links include utm_source=chatgpt.com, which supports traffic measurement. That still does not assign every later conversion to one answer.
Guarantee 10: “Results are permanent”
AI answers change.
Competitors publish new evidence. Engines update retrieval systems. Business information changes. A previously cited page can become outdated or disappear.
A credible provider uses repeated tests and update cycles.
The contract should explain:
- Testing frequency.
- Core prompt retention.
- Content refresh rules.
- Error correction.
- Reporting limits.
- What happens when visibility falls.
Permanent guarantees ignore the system being sold.
What a credible AI visibility proposal contains
Use this checklist before approving the work.
- The target audience and services are named.
- The engines and modes are named.
- A fixed prompt baseline is included.
- Branded and non-branded prompts are separated.
- Crawler and indexability checks are included.
- The provider will show raw answers and citations.
- Content requires client evidence and approval.
- Service-page implementation is included or assigned.
- Third-party profile corrections are considered.
- Referral traffic and enquiries are measured where possible.
- The provider states what cannot be guaranteed.
- The client owns the published content and accounts.
- Exit and handover terms are clear.
A proposal can be credible without offering every item. It must show which items are excluded and who owns them.
Questions to ask during the sales call
- Show me the exact prompts you will test.
- Which results count as a success?
- How do you separate branded discovery from non-branded recommendations?
- Which technical changes will you implement?
- How will you get first-hand evidence from our team?
- Can we inspect the raw answers and citations?
- How do you measure qualified enquiries?
- Which platform rule supports this tactic?
- What result can you not guarantee?
- What do we own when the contract ends?
The eighth question exposes copied tactics quickly.
IDJOY’s position
IDJOY sells implementation and measurement, not access to a hidden ranking system.
The work can improve:
- Crawler access.
- Site structure.
- Service clarity.
- Original evidence.
- Internal links.
- Business-fact consistency.
- Prompt coverage.
- Referral and enquiry measurement.
IDJOY cannot guarantee a recommendation, a first position, a fixed date or permanent visibility.
That limit does not weaken the service. It defines the part the provider can control.
Read how to improve AI search visibility for a South African business and use the AI recommendation measurement scorecard before comparing proposals.