AI assistants recommend agencies when they can match a prospect's brief to a specific agency: the service, the sector, the platform, the budget and the location. Agency websites are often the least specific pages on the internet, so the agencies that write plain service pages, publish case studies with facts they can back up, and hold verified reviews on the directories buyers use give an assistant something real to work with. If you sell SEO or AI visibility, your own presence in AI answers is also your best sales evidence.
Key takeaways
- Prospects ask AI for a specific fit: "Webflow agency for a B2B SaaS startup in London", "PPC agency for a local dental practice". Pages that name services, sectors and platforms match those prompts.
- Case studies are your strongest content, but the CAP Code requires permission, genuine testimonials and evidence for objective results.
- Clutch and DesignRush both verify reviewers through logins, and DesignRush says reviews are its most important ranking factor.
- "Best" and "leading" need evidence. Specific, checkable claims are safer and more useful.
- Google Partner status has published requirements and a public directory. Only claim the status you hold.
The irony, and the opportunity
Agencies sell visibility, so prospects reasonably test it. Someone choosing an SEO or web agency may well ask an assistant "who are the best SEO agencies in Bristol?" and then check whether the agencies they're talking to show up. If you can show a prospect your own agency being named for the prompts you target, that's a demonstration no pitch deck can match. If you can't, fix that before you sell it.
What do businesses ask AI when they're looking for an agency?
They describe their business and the outcome they want. The prompts below are illustrative examples of the kinds of questions people ask, not measured search volumes.
| Intent | Example prompts (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Urgent | "Our website was hacked and Google is showing a warning, who can fix it this week?", "Agency to take over our Google Ads account after our freelancer left" |
| Comparison | "Freelancer or agency for a small business website?", "Specialist dental marketing agency or generalist?" |
| Local | "Web design agency in Nottingham for a restaurant", "SEO agency in Glasgow that works with law firms" |
| Price | "How much does a small business website cost in the UK?", "Typical monthly retainer for local SEO" |
| Trust | "Is [agency] a Google Partner?", "Reviews of [agency] on Clutch" |
Where does AI get its answers about agencies?
From your website and case studies, B2B directories, partner directories, reviews and anything written about your work. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode use pages that are indexed and eligible to show a snippet, with no extra requirements (Google Search Central, 2025).
| Source | What it is | Why it matters for agencies |
|---|---|---|
| Your website | Services, sectors, case studies, team, pricing | The fullest account of what you do and for whom. |
| Clutch | B2B directory with marketing, design and development categories | Reviewers log in with LinkedIn, a Google account or a company email; reviews that can't be fully verified are published as "Not Verified" (Clutch, n.d.). |
| DesignRush | B2B agency marketplace | Ranks agencies on reviews, portfolio, awards and press, team bios and top services, and says "Review points are the most crucial ranking factor" (DesignRush, n.d.). Reviewers log in with LinkedIn (DesignRush, n.d.). |
| Google Partners directory | Public list of Partner and Premier Partner companies that opt in | Shows name, website, region and certified product areas (Google Ads Help, n.d.). |
| Google Business Profile and Trustpilot | Local listing and general reviews | Where local businesses look for a nearby agency and check reputation. |
| Client sites, awards and press | Credits, award entries, articles | Third-party mentions that corroborate your case studies. |
What do advertising rules mean for agency marketing?
The CAP Code applies to your own marketing just as it does to your clients'.
- Superlatives. The ASA judges a claim by "a consumer's likely interpretation of a claim, rather than the marketer's intention", and rule 3.7 requires documentary evidence for objective claims. "Best" claims read as comparisons are likely to need evidence about competitors (ASA, 2025).
- Testimonials. You must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial is genuine and keep the giver's contact details (rule 3.47), must not use one without permission (rule 3.50), and claims within it must not mislead (rule 3.49). Material commercial interests, such as a client who is also an investor, shouldn't be hidden (ASA, 2026).
The 7-step plan to get your agency recommended
Write one page per service, in plain words. "Shopify website design", "local SEO for multi-location businesses", "Google Ads management". Say who it's for, what's included, the platforms you use, typical timelines and how you charge (project fee, retainer, day rate). Give a starting price or a range only if you'll honour it.
Name your sectors, and prove them. If a third of your clients are dental practices, have a dental page that explains what's different about marketing for them, and link the relevant case studies. Don't list sectors you've worked in once.
Rebuild case studies as text, with evidence. For each: client (with permission), sector, location, the problem, what you did, the result with its timeframe and how it was measured, and a quote you have written permission to use. Keep the evidence on file, because the CAP Code requires it. Avoid figures you can't substantiate; "doubled organic enquiries in 12 months, measured in GA4" beats "explosive growth".
Get verified reviews on the directories your buyers use. Claim Clutch and DesignRush profiles if your clients compare agencies there, and keep Google and Trustpilot current. Ask every client at the same stage, such as project launch or six months into a retainer, with no incentive (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.; Trustpilot, 2026). Fake reviews and undisclosed incentivised reviews have been banned in the UK since April 2025 (CMA, 2025); trading reviews with other agencies counts.
Claim only the partner status you hold. Google Partner status needs an optimisation score of at least 70%, a 90-day ad spend of $10,000 across managed accounts, and at least half of account strategists certified; Premier Partners are in the top 3% of participating companies in a country (Google Ads Help, n.d.). If you qualify, opt in to the Partners directory and link to your listing.
Fix your Google Business Profile. Use your real name with no keywords. Google says a co-working office can't be listed unless it has clear signage and is staffed by your team during business hours, and a virtual office isn't eligible (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.). If clients don't visit, set up as a service-area business and hide the address.
Practise what you sell. Add LocalBusiness or Organization markup that matches the page (Google Search Central, n.d.), make sure the words on your portfolio pages are in the HTML rather than loaded by animation scripts, and confirm robots.txt and your firewall allow OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI, n.d.), PerplexityBot (Perplexity, n.d.) and Claude-SearchBot (Anthropic, n.d.).
Mistakes that keep agencies out of AI answers
- Clever copy instead of facts. "We make brands unforgettable" answers no prompt.
- Image-only case studies. Beautiful, and unreadable to anything that relies on text.
- Unsubstantiated superlatives. "The UK's leading agency" needs evidence under the CAP Code.
- Partner badges you no longer hold. Google checks Partner requirements daily, and the directory is public.
- Review swaps with other agencies. They are fake reviews, and they're illegal in the UK.
- Selling AI visibility you can't show for yourself. Prospects can check in a minute.
How do you check whether AI recommends your agency?
Ask the assistants what your prospects ask, and log the answers monthly.
- Pick 10 prompts from the table, using your city, your main services and your top sectors.
- Run each in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Gemini, Claude and Copilot, logged out or in a private window where possible.
- Note whether you're named, which agencies or directories appear instead, and which sources are cited.
- Check how you're described, including services, sectors and partner status, and fix the source if anything is wrong.
- In Google Search Console, AI feature traffic is included in the Performance report under the "Web" search type (Google Search Central, 2025).
SearchCrow runs these checks for you, and for your clients. It asks the major AI assistants the questions buyers ask, shows whether a business is mentioned and which sources they rely on, and suggests what to fix first. Agencies and freelancers use it to track their own visibility and to report AI visibility to the small businesses they serve.
FAQ
Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my agency? Usually because your own site is the least specific thing you've written. Prospects ask for "a Shopify web designer in Manchester for a small fashion brand" or "an SEO agency that works with dentists". If your homepage says "we craft brands that matter" and your case studies are image carousels, an agency that states its services, sectors, budgets and results in words is easier to recommend.
Can I put client results in case studies? Yes, with care. Under the CAP Code you need the client's permission to feature a testimonial, documentary evidence that it's genuine, and evidence for objective claims such as "312% more leads". Results should be presented so they don't mislead, for example by stating the period and what else changed. If you can't substantiate a number, leave it out.
Do Clutch and DesignRush reviews help with AI visibility? No AI platform has said it weights them, but they are public, third-party pages about your agency that buyers and assistants can read. Clutch asks reviewers to log in with LinkedIn, Google or a company email and labels unverifiable reviews "Not Verified". DesignRush says reviews are its most important ranking factor and asks reviewers to log in with LinkedIn.
Can I call my agency "the best" or "leading"? Only if you can prove it in the way a reader would understand it. The ASA judges claims by how consumers are likely to read them, and CAP Code rule 3.7 requires documentary evidence for objective claims. A "best" claim read as a comparison with competitors needs evidence about those competitors. Specific, checkable facts are safer and more useful to assistants anyway.
Does Google Partner status mean anything to AI search? It's a checkable credential rather than a ranking factor. Google sets requirements for Partner status, including an optimisation score of at least 70%, a 90-day ad spend of $10,000 across managed accounts and certified strategists, and Premier Partners are the top 3% in a country. Partners can appear in Google's public Partners directory if they opt in.
Sources
- AI features and your website, Google Search Central
- Local business structured data, Google Search Central
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Get reviews on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help
- About Google Partners, Google Ads Help
- Google Partners directory, Google Ads Help
- How does Clutch verify reviews?, Clutch
- About us, DesignRush
- Methodology, DesignRush
- Types of claims: Best, ASA / CAP
- Testimonials and endorsements, ASA / CAP
- Guidelines for businesses, Trustpilot
- Fake reviews (CMA208), Competition and Markets Authority
- Overview of OpenAI crawlers, OpenAI
- Perplexity crawlers, Perplexity
- Anthropic crawler FAQ, Anthropic