Most brands in India do not need an AI SEO agency to start. AI SEO, also called GEO (generative engine optimization) or AEO (answer engine optimization), is the work of getting your brand named when buyers ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews what to buy. A marketer can run it with a tracking tool and regular weekly time. A done-for-you team helps when nobody in-house has that time.
The work is the same whoever does it: track your buying questions on each engine, fix the facts the engines get wrong, earn mentions on the sites each engine reads, keep your listings complete, let AI crawlers into your site, then measure again.
To see where you stand first, the free AI audit asks 5 buying questions on 4 AI engines, with no signup and no card.
What do AI SEO, GEO and AEO services include?
AI SEO services, GEO services and AEO services are mostly names for the same six jobs. A good provider does all six and shows you the numbers before and after. If you want the background on the terms first, read what GEO is and what AEO is.
- 1. Track the buying questions on each engine. Pick the questions your buyers ask, such as "best sunscreen for oily skin under ₹500", and ask them on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews from inside India. Record whether each answer names you, in what position, and which sites it cites.
- 2. Fix the facts. Engines repeat what they read. If your price, ingredients or founding year differ between your homepage, product pages and listings, an answer can quote the wrong one. The fix is one set of facts, stated the same way everywhere, for example in llms.txt.
- 3. Earn citations on the sources each engine reads. A citation is a link an AI answer shows as its source. Each engine leans on different sites: lists, reviews, forums, marketplaces and press. The work is to find the sites cited for your competitors but not for you, then earn a mention there. That is what citation gap analysis shows.
- 4. Complete your listings. For a consumer brand, marketplace and directory listings are often the pages an engine cites. Create or claim your listing so the page exists for an engine to find and cite, and keep its facts the same as your site.
- 5. Let AI crawlers in. An AI crawler is the bot an AI company sends to read web pages. If your robots.txt blocks it, that engine cannot read your pages. Check which bots you allow with an AI crawler checker and the list of AI crawlers.
- 6. Measure again. Run the same questions on the same engines after each change and compare. Without the second measurement, nobody knows what worked.
Can your own team do AI SEO with a tool?
Yes, if one person can give it regular time each week. A tool does the repetitive part: it asks the questions every day, stores the answers, counts the mentions and lists the sites that are cited. Your team does the part that needs judgement: fixing pages, pitching sites, updating listings.
A tool is usually enough when you sell one brand, someone in-house already writes your product pages, and you can act on a ranked list of fixes.
- What the tool does: tracks the questions on each engine, shows visibility by engine, names the rivals that appear instead of you, and lists the sites to get cited on.
- What your team does: writes and fixes pages, keeps facts consistent, asks for mentions on cited sites, and keeps listings complete.
When does a done-for-you team or AI SEO agency help?
A done-for-you team helps when nobody in-house has the hours, or when many pages and listings need the same correction. Ask that you approve each change before it goes live.
- No in-house time: the work is weekly. If it keeps slipping behind launches, a team keeps it moving.
- Large clean-up: broken pages, product facts that disagree, and incomplete listings across marketplaces are faster to fix as one project.
- Several brands: a business with several brands, or an agency with several clients, needs one way of working across all of them. Agencies can read Depra AI for agencies.
| Option | Who does the work | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Tool on your own | Your team, with the tool tracking and ranking fixes | One brand and someone in-house with weekly time |
| Tool with a setup call | Your team, after a specialist sets up the questions and competitors with you | You want the setup right but can run the weekly work |
| Done-for-you team | The provider fixes pages, facts and listings, and you approve each change | No in-house time, a large clean-up, or several brands |
What should you ask an AI SEO agency in India before you hire one?
Ask a GEO or AI SEO agency these five things, in writing.
- Which engines do you track? ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews answer differently. An agency that reports one blended "AI" number cannot tell you which engine moved.
- Which questions do you track, and who picks them? The questions should be the ones your buyers ask, without your brand name in them. For India, ask whether Hinglish questions are tracked too, since many shoppers type that way.
- How are results measured? Ask for the same questions, on the same engines, from the same country, before and after. Ask how many answers sit behind each percentage.
- Who owns the data? The tracked answers, the question list and the reports should be yours to keep and export if you leave.
- What do you promise? No one controls what an AI engine says. Treat a guaranteed ranking or a guaranteed mention in ChatGPT as a reason to walk away.
How do you measure AI SEO results?
Measure the share of answers that name your brand, per engine, on a fixed set of buying questions, and compare it with the same measure before the work started. That share is called visibility.
One answer proves little, because engines vary from one run to the next. Ask each question many times over many days and look at the number of answers behind each figure. A before-and-after view shows what moved; it is not proof that one change caused it. How to measure AI visibility explains the method in more detail.
Where do marketplaces fit in AI SEO for ecommerce brands in India?
Marketplaces are among the sites AI shopping answers in India cite most, so ecommerce SEO in India now includes your Amazon.in, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra and Meesho listings. In the August 2026 wave of the Depra AI Hinglish vs English AI shopping study (480 answers), reddit.com was cited in 106 answers, youtube.com in 100, nykaa.com in 93, and amazon.in and flipkart.com in 79 each. In the October 2026 wave (479 answers), amazon.in was cited in 132 answers, flipkart.com in 82, hindustantimes.com in 76 and nykaa.com in 65.
Depra AI labels every cited site by type and shows which marketplaces AI answers cite in your category, and where rivals are cited and you are not. It does not track rankings inside a marketplace's own search, marketplace sales, Buy Box, ads or Amazon Rufus. See marketplace intelligence for what it covers.
What does Depra AI offer: a tool, a setup call or a done-for-you team?
All three. Depra AI is software from ₹1,999 a month plus GST, with a free 15-minute setup call, and the Depra AI team can run your account end to end on request.
- The software: Depra AI tracks your buying questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, in English and Hinglish. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews are checked daily on every plan; Perplexity weekly on Starter, Growth and Scale, and daily on Enterprise. Plans run from ₹1,999 to ₹25,000 a month plus GST on Depra AI pricing. Starter, Growth and Scale start with 7 days free, no card needed.
- The action plan: the Depra AI action plan ranks the places to get mentioned and the pages to publish, with the evidence for each. It comes from a proprietary method developed by Zia Wasi, co-founder of Depra AI and a GEO researcher.
- The setup call: book a free 15-minute call and the Depra AI team sets up your project with you: brand, competitors, markets and buying questions. The trial still runs its full 7 days.
- Done for you, on request: the Depra AI team runs client accounts end to end: the site, product data and listings, with the client approving each change. Holy Strips is the published example. There is no published price for this service; contact us at team@depra.ai.
- Support: email replies within an hour during working hours in India (IST), on every plan.
Has Depra AI used this method on itself?
Yes. Depra AI ran the same method on its own brand first. The owner says Depra AI reached ChatGPT's answers in India for its category without paid backlinks or paid marketing. The Depra AI case study gives the numbers with their sources, including the engines where Depra AI is not named yet.
The Depra AI software tracks, ranks and reports. It does not write content or edit your website by itself, and it does not guarantee a mention. When the Depra AI team runs an account, the team makes the changes, with your approval. The full method is on how Depra AI measures.