Issuing an RFP (Request for Proposal) for LLM SEO services is more complex than RFPs for traditional marketing services — because the evaluation criteria are less established, the claims are harder to verify, and the methodological differences between providers are more consequential. A well-designed RFP filters out the repackagers and identifies the firms with genuine capability. Here’s what yours should include.

RFP Structure Overview

An effective LLM SEO RFP has five sections: company and background information, methodology and approach, evidence and case studies, team and delivery model, and commercial terms. Each section is designed to surface specific capability signals that differentiate serious providers from those who are less equipped to deliver.

Section 1: Company and Background

Ask for: company history and founding context (how long have they specifically focused on LLM/AI search, as opposed to traditional SEO?), current team size and composition (how many people work specifically on LLM optimization versus traditional SEO?), and their own LLM visibility — do they appear in AI-generated responses to relevant queries about LLM SEO agencies?

That last question is revealing. A firm that claims LLM SEO expertise but doesn’t appear in relevant AI searches has a credibility gap worth noting.

Section 2: Methodology and Approach

This is the most important section. Ask providers to explain: their specific approach to entity optimization, their process for building citation footprint, how they handle technical LLM optimization (structured data, semantic architecture), how they approach content development specifically for LLM citation (not just general content quality), their methodology for tracking AI citation appearance, and how they approach optimization differently across major AI platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity).

Serious providers will give specific, differentiated answers. Less serious providers will give generic content marketing answers dressed in AI terminology.

Section 3: Evidence and Case Studies

Ask for: three case studies from comparable clients (similar industry, size, or goal), including specific evidence of LLM citation impact (not just content metrics). Ask for client references who consent to being contacted. Ask if they can demonstrate current LLM citation for any of their clients — this is a live test, and agencies confident in their work should be willing to run it.

For enterprises asking hire best LLM SEO agency for enterprise level questions, ask specifically for enterprise-scale case studies — the workflow and coordination complexity of large engagements is meaningfully different from small engagements.

Section 4: Team and Delivery Model

Ask for: the specific team structure that would be assigned to your account (names, roles, backgrounds), the seniority of the person who would be your primary strategic contact, how account teams are staffed and what prevents understaffing mid-engagement, and how the agency handles knowledge transfer if key team members change.

Understanding how to choose an LLM SEO agency at the team level is as important as evaluating the methodology — the best methodology in the world underdelivers with the wrong team executing it.

Section 5: Commercial Terms

Ask for: pricing structure (retainer vs. project vs. hybrid), what specific deliverables are included at each pricing tier, what is explicitly excluded, payment terms and contract length options, what success metrics are built into the contract and what happens if they’re not met, and exit terms including what intellectual property the client retains.

Evaluation Rubric

Score each RFP response on: methodology specificity (1-5), evidence quality (1-5), team credibility (1-5), commercial terms reasonableness (1-5), and overall communication quality (1-3). Invite the top two or three scorers to presentation meetings before making a final selection.

The RFP process is not just about identifying the best response on paper — it’s about identifying the agency that can deliver in practice. The presentation meeting is often where that distinction becomes most clear.