Perplexity names specific SEO and GEO agencies as "best" when you ask it plain questions. Across 96 answers logged in September 2026, the named agencies shift between runs, and the pages Perplexity cites as sources are mostly directories and the agencies' own content, not independent rankings.
We ran two small studies on Perplexity: one on local SEO agencies by UK city, one on GEO and AEO agencies directly. Both logged which brands the answer named and which domains it cited as sources. Method and limitations are at the end.
UK local SEO: directories do the talking
We asked "best SEO agency in <UK city>" for 30 cities, most asked twice, on Perplexity on 25–26 September 2026: 76 answers in total. clutch.co appeared among the cited sources in 41 of the 76 answers. No other domain came close.
| Source domain | Answers (of 76) |
|---|---|
| clutch.co | 41 |
| themanifest.com | 16 |
| trustanalytica.com | 8 |
| agencies.semrush.com | 7 |
| designrush.com | 6 |
All five most-cited domains are directories or rating sites, not agencies' own pages. If the answer for your city cites clutch.co or themanifest.com, your profile there is probably doing more of the work than your homepage.
GEO agencies: who gets named
We asked ten GEO- and AEO-related queries, each twice, on Perplexity on 26 September 2026: 20 answers. iPullRank was named in 14 of them.
| Agency | Named in (of 20) |
|---|---|
| iPullRank | 14 |
| Siege Media | 12 |
| First Page Sage | 9 |
| NoGood | 8 |
| Omniscient Digital | 7 |
| Go Fish Digital | 6 |
| Directive | 6 |
| Onely | 4 |
The sources behind these answers look different from the UK set: fewer directories, more of the agencies' own domains, and one repeated keyword study.
| Source domain | Answers (of 20) |
|---|---|
| firstpagesage.com | 7 |
| higoodie.com | 5 |
| thriveagency.com | 5 |
| onely.com | 4 |
| clutch.co | 4 |
| seo.com | 4 |
These are the links visible in the answer text, not each answer's full source list, so the counts understate how often a domain was consulted but left uncited.
Answers move between runs
We ran the ten GEO queries twice each. Between the two runs of the same query, the set of named agencies overlapped by 0.72 on average, measured as Jaccard similarity, where 1.0 would mean an identical list both times. A single screenshot of one Perplexity answer is one run, not a stable ranking.
Why these names show up
Each of the frequently named agencies has something public a source can point to.
- First Page Sage publishes its own lists of top GEO agencies and top SEO agencies, and places itself first on each. Directive appears at #4 on the SEO list and Omniscient Digital at #6 on the AEO list, both on the same site.
- iPullRank is built around founder Mike King's weekly technical blog, its own term "Relevance Engineering", and a free "AI Search Manual". Its Clutch profile shows 0 reviews, so a directory listing is not the only route into these answers.
- Siege Media's CEO Ross Hudgens wrote a book on generative engine optimization, published by Wiley in 2026.
- seo.com published a keyword study on AI Overviews, and the study itself gets cited as a source.
- Go Fish Digital published a whitepaper, "Winning with GEO".
What they share is public, citable content that other pages, and Perplexity, can point to.
What this means if you are not an agency
The pattern holds for any category, not only marketing agencies.
- Find which third-party pages Perplexity cites for the query that matters to your business, and check your listing on each one is correct and complete.
- Publish something citable: a dataset, a named method, a detailed guide.
- Measure more than once. Runs of the same query overlapped at 0.72 on average here; one answer is not a baseline.
Method
- Engine: Perplexity only. We also track Google AI Overviews; this study covers Perplexity.
- UK local SEO set: 30 queries of the form "best SEO agency in <city>", most cities asked twice, 76 answers, 25–26 September 2026.
- GEO/AEO set: 10 queries, each asked twice, 20 answers, 26 September 2026.
- Sources counted are the links visible in the answer text, not each answer's full source list.
- Raw data is available on request.
We run this kind of check for clients on an ongoing basis. If you want to see what Perplexity says about your business today, request a free check.