Ask ChatGPT a question about the best agency in your industry, and there's a decent chance your business never comes up, even if you rank on page one of Google. That gap between traditional search rankings and AI-generated answers is becoming the thing marketing teams lose sleep over in 2026, and it's why a new crop of agencies has started splitting its services between classic SEO and what's now called answer engine optimization, or AEO.
Picking the right partner means understanding who actually builds for both. Some agencies are still purely search-first. Others have pivoted hard into AI visibility but dropped the fundamentals along the way. Below are nine agencies worth knowing if you're trying to improve how your brand appears across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI-driven search experiences.
Best for Combined SEO and AI Visibility – GOJI Agency
GOJI Agency is a Melbourne agency that works on two fronts at once: traditional search rankings and how a business shows up when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews a buying question. The team designs brands, builds websites, runs search campaigns and ships AI automations, backed by strategy, SEO, AEO and reporting work under one roof.
What sets this one apart is the research behind it. GOJI publishes the Australian AI Visibility Index, a study that scored 1,459 AI answers across 100 businesses and found most brands show up in only around 5% of the AI responses relevant to them. That's a specific, measurable problem, and it's the same problem the agency's search and AI visibility service is built to fix. The agency also produces an AI Visibility Guide, which gives it a documented point of view on a space most competitors are still feeling their way through.
Because the same team handles both the SEO side and the AEO side, a business doesn't have to brief two separate vendors or reconcile two different reporting dashboards. That combination is worth a look for any business that wants its Google rankings and its AI-assistant presence managed as one connected effort rather than two disconnected projects.
Best for Thought Leadership Content That Ranks – First Page Sage
First Page Sage builds its pitch around getting qualified leads through SEO and what it calls GEO, generative engine optimization. The agency runs thought leadership content marketing campaigns designed to answer the exact questions a prospect is typing into Google, then backs that up with a custom SEO and GEO plan built around a client's brand, audience, and goals.
The content itself is produced in-house rather than farmed out, and campaigns get measured against actual KPIs rather than vanity metrics. The trade-off is that this model leans heavily on content production as the growth engine, so a business looking for a broader mix of services, like paid search or web design, will find the scope narrower than a full-service shop.
Best for Award-Winning Web Design Paired With SEO – Boston Web Partners
Boston Web Partners is a digital marketing agency best known for its website design work, paired with branding, SEO consulting, and Google paid search. It's a fit for a business that wants its site rebuilt and its search strategy handled by the same team, rather than juggling a design shop and an SEO shop separately.
The design-first identity is also the limitation. A brand hunting purely for aggressive SEO or AI-visibility specialization may find design sits at the center of the offering more than search depth does.
Best for Bundled SEO Pricing With Hosting Included – SmartSites
SmartSites keeps its pricing off its website, so every engagement starts with a custom quote after a consultation. Third-party sources put its SEO services in the range of $1,800 to $2,200 per month, which reportedly includes web hosting as part of the package, a detail that can matter for a smaller business trying to consolidate vendors and invoices.
The agency also covers PPC, web design, ecommerce and broader digital marketing support, so SEO doesn't have to sit in a separate silo if a business needs help across several channels at once. That bundled, lower-cost model tends to suit small and mid-sized businesses more than an enterprise brand chasing a highly custom AI-visibility strategy, but it can be a practical fit for companies that want fewer vendors to manage.
Best for SEO and PPC for Small to Medium Businesses – Searchbloom
Searchbloom is a digital marketing agency built specifically for small to medium-sized businesses, running SEO, PPC, conversion rate optimization, website development, and local SEO under a single pay-per-click management and organic search umbrella. Its own positioning leans on consistency, promising steady SEO and PPC performance rather than one big swing.
Engagements typically run from $5,000 to $150,000, with specific projects landing in the $10,000 to $49,999 band or the $50,000 to $199,999 band depending on scope. That range puts Searchbloom well above the budget end of the market, which makes it a better match for a business with real marketing spend to commit than one testing the waters.
Best for Full-Service Digital Marketing – Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency positions itself as a full-service digital marketing agency, covering SEO, paid search, web design, social media, content marketing, and conversion-focused services under one roof.
That breadth makes it a practical option for businesses that don't want to hire a separate specialist for every channel. The trade-off is that search and AI visibility sit within a much wider marketing offering rather than being the sole focus, so it makes more sense for companies looking for broader digital support than for those chasing a narrowly specialized AEO strategy.
Best for Data-Driven Growth Marketing at Scale – Power Digital Marketing
Power Digital Marketing calls itself an award-winning digital marketing agency serving clients across the U.S. and globally, built around data-driven marketing strategies aimed at making profit predictable. It reads as a fit for a business that wants growth marketing tied tightly to revenue metrics rather than SEO alone.
The agency works across areas like paid media, SEO, content, influencer marketing, and conversion strategy, with an emphasis on using performance data to decide where budget should go next. That makes it more relevant for established brands with multiple acquisition channels and enough spend to benefit from a broader growth strategy rather than a standalone search campaign.
Best for Proven Results Across Traffic and Leads – Ignite Visibility
Ignite Visibility is a digital marketing agency pitched around driving more traffic, leads, and sales, with an award-winning track record it points to as proof of results. It's a broad digital marketing offering rather than an AI-visibility specialist, which makes it a reasonable option for a business chasing general growth across several channels at once.
Its services extend beyond SEO into paid media, social media, email marketing, conversion optimization, and broader digital strategy. That range gives businesses room to connect organic search with other acquisition channels, though teams looking specifically for deep AEO or AI-search specialization may still prefer an agency built more directly around that problem.
Best for Consolidating Marketing and Sales Under One Agency – Pipeline Velocity
Pipeline Velocity markets itself as an all-in-one marketing and growth agency, aiming to be the only marketing vendor a business needs by covering end-to-end strategies across marketing and sales. That all-in-one promise suits a business trying to cut down on vendor count, though it also means less room for the kind of narrow AI-visibility specialization a search-first buyer might be after.
If you're mapping out a broader marketing budget alongside any of these agencies, it's worth reading up on proven online business models before committing spend, since the right agency partner often depends on what stage the underlying business is actually at.
Which One Is Right for You
The right pick here comes down to what you're actually trying to fix. If your issue is pure content production feeding Google, First Page Sage's in-house thought leadership model is a reasonable match. If it's design, Boston Web Partners covers that ground. If budget and simplicity matter most, SmartSites' bundled hosting-plus-SEO pricing is worth a look, and if you've got real marketing spend to deploy, Searchbloom's structured PPC and SEO packages give you a defined range to plan around. Thrive, Power Digital, Ignite Visibility and Pipeline Velocity make more sense for businesses looking for broader digital marketing or growth support rather than a narrowly focused search strategy.
But most of these agencies are still built around Google rankings as the finish line, and Google is no longer the only place buyers get their answers. If the real question keeping you up is whether ChatGPT or Perplexity even mention your business when someone asks a buying question, that's a different problem, and it's the one GOJI Agency built its research and its service around. A business that wants its Google rankings and its AI-assistant visibility managed by one Melbourne team, with an actual measured baseline like the Australian AI Visibility Index behind it, has a harder time finding that combination anywhere else on this list.