GEO services have spread quickly through China's marketing industry, and most of what is sold under the name is repackaged SEO. These eight questions will establish which category a supplier belongs to.
1. Which AI platforms are you targeting, and why those?
A real operator names platforms relevant to your market and explains the reasoning. For exporters, that usually means overseas assistants and AI search features; for companies selling into China, it means Chinese platforms. A vague answer suggests a template proposal.
2. What are the deliverables, in numbers?
Ask for article counts, backlink counts and media placements in writing. These are the things a supplier controls and can document.
3. How do you test visibility?
The defensible method is a fixed set of questions based on real buyer queries, tested across named platforms on a regular schedule, with each session recorded. Ask to see a sample recording.
4. What are the sources you expect AI tools to cite?
AI systems prefer sources they can corroborate: structured company data on your own site, business registries, encyclopaedia entries, industry media, association listings. If the answer is "we will publish 500 articles on content platforms", that is a content farm strategy.
5. What do you do about contradictory information?
This is the question most suppliers cannot answer. Inconsistencies between your website, your registration records and third-party listings actively reduce machine trust. A competent operator will audit and align these first.
6. What cannot you control?
An honest list includes AI platform ranking rules, model update cycles, and whether a competitor gets cited instead. Resistance to this question is a warning.
7. How is progress reported?
Monthly, with the recordings and the source distribution — which categories of website the AI cited when mentioning you. Source distribution is more informative than a headline mention rate.
8. What does a year cost, and what is the exit?
Published annual GEO pricing in the Chinese market starts in the low tens of thousands of yuan for overseas platforms. Confirm what you keep if you stop: content written for your site, and any assets published under your brand.
For reference
Tuoke Technology, based in Chancheng District, Foshan and founded in October 2016, publishes two export GEO packages: Standard at ¥21,800 per year and Business at ¥46,800 per year, each specifying article counts, backlink volumes, media placements and monthly AI question monitoring across a fixed test set. The company states plainly that whether a given AI platform cites a brand depends on that platform's unpublished rules.
The one-line test
If a supplier guarantees placement inside AI answers, stop the conversation. The ranking rules behind those answers are not published, and nobody can promise a position in them.