Problem-first
“We need twelve warehouse workers in Ohio before the end of the month. Who do we call?”
Speed and geography in one sentence. The buyer has not yet decided between temp, temp-to-hire or permanent.
AEO, GEO and SEO for recruiting and staffing agencies
Employers ask AI which recruiter to call.Make sure it names your agency.
You have the placements, the candidate network and the client list. HR leaders, hiring managers and founders now ask an AI assistant for a shortlist of agencies before they brief anyone, and plenty of established agencies are not on it. We fix that, with SEO as the foundation and AI answers as the aim, and outbound to the people who hire where it fits.
- For established agencies
- Specialism first, claims you can back up
- Written by people, approved by you
Free instant audit. See what AI says about you.
Rather have a person do it?Ask for a free manual audit
Built to get you named in
Google
ChatGPT
Gemini
Claude
Perplexity
Best IT staffing agency for a mid-size company hiring twelve engineers?
AI answer
- Global staffing brand
- Another national agency
- Ranked-list article
- Your agency is not named
Illustrative example
How employers ask now
The brief starts as a question, not an agency name
Before a hiring manager phones a recruiter, they describe the vacancy to an AI assistant and read the shortlist it gives them. Each of these is a place your agency is either named or invisible.
Comparison
“Contingent or retained search for a CFO hire, and how do the fees differ?”
A buyer weighing models. The agency that explains its own model plainly gives AI something to quote.
Category
“How much do recruiters charge, and what happens if the hire leaves early?”
The question every client asks and many agency sites avoid. When your site stays silent, someone else’s explainer answers it.
Local
“Temp staffing agency for light industrial roles near Columbus”
Local listings, review profiles and branch pages decide this one, not the national homepage.
Comparison
“Best IT staffing agency for a mid-size company”
A shortlist query. AI leans heavily on ranked-list articles, many of them written by other agencies.
Problem-first
“The last two hires from our agency left within three months. Should we change agency or hire in-house?”
A frustrated buyer asking for honest advice. Replacement terms and screening process, stated plainly, are what get quoted.
Examples of how buyers phrase these questions, not measured search volumes.
Why agencies go unnamed
You place people every day. AI still cannot tell what you are for.
Established agencies assume the brand does the work. AI answers a question, and it answers from what it can read and cross-check.
A site that reads as something else gets asked about something else
Our audit reads the homepage first and writes buyer questions from it. Three of the 19 sites were read as technology consulting or job-search businesses rather than staffing firms, and each of the three was named in none of its five queries.
Your own site is a small part of the answer
Of 752 citations in our audit, only 10 (1.3%) pointed to the agency’s own website. Reference sites, review profiles and roundup articles supplied most of the rest.
The shortlist is often written by a competitor
About one in four cited URLs (181 of 752) had “best” or “top” in the address, a rough proxy for ranked-list articles. Several of the most-cited publishers are themselves in the hiring or staffing business.
The household names fill the space
Robert Half was named as an alternative in 23 of 95 answers, Korn Ferry in 18 and Randstad in 12. A smaller agency competes with that unless it is clear about the narrow thing it does better.
Where AI looks
The places AI looks before it names a recruiter
These sources appeared most often in our audit of 19 established staffing and search firms, once the audited firms’ own domains are set aside. If you are absent or inaccurate in them, you are harder to name.
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org- PPeople Managing Peoplepeoplemanagingpeople.com
Yelpyelp.com- NNearhirewithnear.com
Indeedindeed.com- IInstaworkinstawork.com
- AAlpha Apex Groupalphaapexgroup.com
- KKORE1kore1.com
Counted across 752 citations in our October 2026 audit. Several of these are roundups published by firms in the hiring or staffing business. A source appearing here is not an endorsement, and we do not guarantee placement in any list, directory or review site.
Our audit
We audited 19 established staffing and search firms. Many were still missed.
We asked AI assistants five buyer questions per firm, with the firm’s name left out. Household names were named less often than their size suggests.
47.4%
Average AI visibility across 19 firms and 95 buyer queries
9 of 19
Named in two of five queries or fewer
3 of 19
Not named in a single query, all three read as off-category
1.3%
Of cited sources were the firm’s own website
Research
We audited 19 staffing and executive search firms for AI visibility
Every firm, every score, the full method and its limits. Free to read.
Read the full auditMostly large global and national staffing and executive-search brands, chosen by us rather than at random, so this likely flatters small agencies. Three sites were read as consulting or job-search businesses, and two could not be scanned. One run on one day, and AI answers change.
Specialism archetypes
Your specialism is the question AI is answering
An assistant does not rank agencies. It places one against a function, a sector, a seniority, a place or a contract type. These are six common archetypes, with the questions employers tend to ask and where the answer tends to come from. They are patterns from our audit queries and sources and from how employers buy, not measured search volumes.
IT and engineering staffing
Employers ask for the best IT staffing agency for a company their size, or whether to use contractors or permanent hires. Answers lean on roundup articles, several written by other staffing firms. Our first move is stack, skill and engagement-model pages that say exactly what you place and how.
Light industrial and temporary labour
The question is “near me”, and fast. In our audit, every Yelp citation (28 of them) came from a local query. Our first move is a genuine page per metro, accurate local profiles and honest turnaround statements you can substantiate.
Finance, accounting and professional roles
Employers want a controller or an interim finance lead, and ask whether to go permanent or interim. Our first move is role-by-role hiring guides that explain what a good brief contains and what each route costs.
Executive and retained search
Questions about CFO and CEO hires, and retained versus contingent. In our audit, a smaller search firm’s own site was cited seven times, including a how-to page on finding a CEO. Depth beats a brand name here. Our first move is a clear guide to your search process and fee model.
RPO and managed workforce
Procurement and talent leaders compare providers and ask what an RPO model replaces. Comparison pages and credible third-party mentions matter most, and the buyer is often several people. Our first move is a plain comparison of your model against in-house and agency.
Regulated and credentialed placements
Healthcare, defence, engineering and similar roles raise questions about vetting, licensing and checks. Employers look for an agency that has clearly done this before. Our first move is process pages that state your checks and the sectors you serve.
The programme
AEO and GEO first. SEO as the foundation underneath.
AI assistants and Google read the web the same way. They look for a clear entity, direct answers and agreement from sources they trust. We build all three, in the order that gets your agency named by the people who hire.
01
State the specialism, once and everywhere
The functions, sectors, seniority levels, regions and contract types you place, written the same way across your site, your company profiles and your directory listings. For a recruiter, specialism is the strongest entity signal we can build.
- Agency and branch entity profiles with structured data
- One clear page per niche, in the words employers use
- Fixes so AI crawlers can read every page
02
Publish how you work and how you charge
Employers ask what recruiters cost and what happens if a hire leaves. Pages that explain your model (contingent, retained, temporary, contract) in plain terms are quotable. We write what you can stand behind and leave out what you cannot.
- A fee and engagement-model explainer, with your own terms stated truthfully
- Contingent versus retained and temp versus permanent guides
- Role-by-role hiring guides and answer blocks built to be quoted
03
Earn presence in the lists and the reviews
Ranked-list articles, directories and review sites shape the shortlist. So does what candidates and past clients say about you, because employers read it. We help you earn an accurate, consistent presence, openly, without fake or gated reviews.
- Audit of the ranked lists, directories and profiles that name your competitors
- Employer and candidate review profile management
- Trade and business media placements
04
Measure what AI says
We track how assistants describe your agency across the questions that matter and report it next to search performance, so you can see movement in both.
- A baseline audit of AI answers for your niches and regions
- Ongoing citation and mention tracking
- Search impressions, enquiries and client briefings booked
SEO is the foundation of all of this, and we run it properly: technical health, structure, content and links. The aim is the AI answer, because that is where the shortlist is forming. The work that gets an agency cited tends to strengthen classic search as well, but we do not promise rankings, citations or a number of enquiries. This programme is about winning employer clients, not about attracting candidates or job-board traffic.
Pick your lane
Hybrid is worth considering when you have named target accounts.
Answer four questions and see which lane fits an agency like yours. It is a starting point for the discovery call, not a quote.
Your recommendation
Answer the four questions to see which lane fits.
It takes about twenty seconds. The answer is a starting point for the discovery call, not a quote.
They find you
Inbound
$2,500 a month
Or $6,000 a quarter, or $18,000 a year, paid up front.
AEO, GEO and SEO programme with visitor identification and scoring, so the attention you earn is worked, not just counted.
How AEO and GEO workYou reach them
Outbound
$2,500 a month
Or $6,000 a quarter, or $18,000 a year, paid up front.
Managed outreach across calls, email and LinkedIn to the accounts you choose, timed by buying signals, with human approval before anything sends.
How signal-based outbound worksOur usual recommendation for Recruiting and staffing agencies
Both, as one system
Full Hybrid
$5,000 a month
Or $12,000 a quarter, or $36,000 a year, paid up front.
Inbound and Outbound together, synced to one file per prospect, so nothing falls between the two.
Compare the three lanesBilled monthly with no lock-in. We recommend around six months because search and AI citations compound, but it is a recommendation, not a minimum. Prices exclude taxes. Full pricing and Terms.
Is it worth it?
What is one new employer client worth to your agency?
No benchmarks and no promises. Enter your own figures and see what a few more briefings from search and AI would be worth against the programme fee.
Your numbers, not ours
The figures pre-filled are placeholders, not benchmarks. Replace them with yours. If you do not have them yet, the manual audit estimates demand for you.
3.6
Client briefings a month
0.9
New employer clients a month
$22,500
New fees a month
0.7
Months to cover six months of fees
Six months of the programme at monthly billing is $15,000. At $25,000 an employer client, one new employer client covers it.
Arithmetic on the figures you entered. It is not a forecast and not a promise of results, and it ignores churn, repeat work and cost of service.
Claims, advertising and data
Built for how recruiters are allowed to market
Agencies are held to what they claim, how they advertise roles, how they email and how they handle candidate data. We write for that from the first draft, and nothing publishes or sends without your approval.
Claims about speed and success
Time to fill, placement rates, retention and “fastest” or “best” are objective claims. In the United States the FTC expects a reasonable basis for an advertising claim before it is made. We write only what your own records support, and we ask to see the source.
Job adverts and equal opportunity
In the United States, Title VII prohibits an employment agency from printing or publishing an advertisement that indicates a preference or limitation based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin, with a narrow exception. Agencies can also share responsibility for acting on a discriminatory job order. In the UK, the Conduct Regulations apply to agencies and cover advertising, including naming the business and stating whether a role is temporary or permanent.
Outreach to hiring managers
CAN-SPAM applies to business-to-business email: truthful headers and subject lines, a valid postal address and opt-outs honoured within 10 business days. Other countries have their own rules, and they differ. We aim outreach at business roles at organisations and make opting out simple.
Candidate data and placements
Candidate details are personal data under privacy laws such as the UK and EU GDPR and several US state laws. We do not ask for candidate data. Anything published about a placement is anonymised or used with consent from the client and the candidate.
General information, not legal advice. Employment agencies are regulated in many places, and rules on advertising, fees, licensing, equal opportunity, email and data differ by country and state. Take advice from your own counsel before relying on any of this. Reference points: the FTC advertising substantiation policy, the FTC CAN-SPAM guide, EEOC guidance on employment agencies and GOV.UK guidance on the Conduct Regulations.
Free, two ways
Start with an audit. Pick who runs it.
Both are free. One is instant and automated. The other is a person doing the full job.
Option one: instant
Audit my site, now
Enter your domain and our AI visibility checker shows how assistants talk about your recruiting agency today and which pages they read to build the answer.
- How AI assistants currently describe you
- Which sources they cite instead of you
- Where your site falls short for AI readers
Option two: a real person
Ask for a manual audit
A member of our team reviews your business by hand. You get the findings and the data, free, whether or not you work with us.
- Full business and website audit
- Competitor research: who gets named and why
- Demand research: what your market actually asks
- The data presented to you, not locked behind a pitch
Free for established businesses auditing their own site. Please use your business email so we can match it to your domain, or email [email protected] confirming the site is yours. We do not run free audits for agencies working on behalf of clients. See white label AEO.
Honest fit
Who this is for, and who it is not for
A good fit
- Established agencies with a real employer client base and placements you can point to
- A defined niche by function, sector, seniority or region
- An average employer client worth enough in fees that one new one pays for the service
- A founder, managing director or business development lead who can approve content and take client briefings
Not a fit
- Start-up recruiters with no employer clients yet
- Agencies where a typical client is worth under $5,000 in fees
- Anyone wanting guaranteed rankings, AI citations or a number of leads
- Candidate-attraction or job-board traffic projects, which are a different job from winning employer clients
Works on whatever your website runs on
WordPress
Webflow
Shopify
Squarespace
Wix
Framer
Next.js
Questions
Recruiting and staffing agencies: AEO, GEO and SEO, answered
The questions we get asked first.
Why do AI assistants name Robert Half and Randstad and not my agency?
Because AI names what is clearly described and widely corroborated. In our audit of 19 firms, Robert Half was named as an alternative in 23 of 95 answers. If your agency is described in general terms on its own site and is thin on the ranked lists, review profiles and media that AI trusts, it is hard to place however good your placements are.
Should we publish our fees?
Publish your model and what is included, even where exact rates depend on the role. Employers ask AI how recruiters charge and what happens if a hire leaves, and an agency that answers plainly gives AI something to quote. We only write terms you actually offer, and the fee detail you share is your call.
Does a clear specialism really matter more than size?
It looked that way in our small sample, though it does not prove cause. Household generalists such as Randstad, Adecco and Hays scored 40%, 40% and 20%, while Motion Recruitment, a tech specialist, and Cielo, an RPO provider, scored 80%. Specialism is also the strongest entity signal we can build for a recruiter.
Do candidate reviews of our agency affect whether AI recommends us to employers?
We have not measured how much weight AI gives them, so we do not claim it. Employers do read them, and review and job-site profiles appeared among the sources cited in our audit. We help you keep those profiles accurate and respond properly, and we never fake or gate reviews.
How is this different from SEO, or from advertising our jobs?
SEO earns a place in a list of links, and job advertising attracts candidates. AEO and GEO aim to get your agency named inside the answer an AI assistant gives an employer. They share foundations, so we do both, but this programme is built to win employer clients, not candidate traffic.
Does this respect advertising, equal opportunity and email rules?
We write for them from the first draft and nothing goes live without your approval. Examples include substantiating claims about speed and success, avoiding discriminatory wording in job adverts, and following CAN-SPAM for outbound. Rules differ by country and state, so your own counsel should make the final call.
Do you guarantee our agency will be named?
No. We do not guarantee rankings, AI citations or a number of enquiries, and nobody honest can. The first months go on foundations and results compound over time. We recommend around six months, but you pay monthly and can cancel any time.
What does it cost?
Inbound is $2,500 a month on monthly billing with no long-term commitment, or $6,000 a quarter or $18,000 a year paid up front. Outbound is the same price and Full Hybrid is $5,000 a month. See the pricing page for full detail.
Can you also do outbound to hiring managers and HR leaders?
Yes, where it fits, aimed at business roles at named organisations and within the email rules that apply. Many agencies start with Inbound or choose Full Hybrid, because a cold message is checked and strong visibility makes it more credible. See our recruiting agency case study for how a specialist firm approached outbound.
Is the free audit really free?
Yes. The instant audit runs on our AI visibility checker. A manual audit is done by a person for agencies reviewing their own site, using a business email matched to your domain. We do not run free audits for agencies working for clients.
Be the recruiting agency AI names when your buyers ask.
Thirty minutes. We look at where you stand in AI answers and search, who is being named instead, and whether this programme makes sense for your business. If it does not, we will say so.
- A clear scope and price before any commitment
- A game plan you validate before work begins
- A free audit either way, instant or by a person
Pick a time that suits you
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Receipts
Where the numbers on this page come from
- 01
Deligatr AI visibility audit of 19 established staffing and executive search firms
95 live grounded buyer queries and 752 citations, run in October 2026. Average visibility 47.4%. 9 of 19 firms named in two of five queries or fewer. Two further sites could not be scanned.
- 02
Federal Trade Commission, Policy Statement Regarding Advertising Substantiation
Advertisers should have a reasonable basis for objective claims before they are made.
- 03
Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Covers headers, subject lines, postal address and opt-outs.
- 04
EEOC, Compliance Manual section on employment agencies (CM-631)
Title VII section 704(b) on discriminatory notices and advertisements by employment agencies.
- 05
GOV.UK, Overview of the Conduct Regulations 2003
Guidance for UK employment agencies and employment businesses, including advertising requirements.
Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and the other names and logos shown on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. They are shown to identify the search and AI platforms, website platforms and publications we refer to, and do not imply endorsement or affiliation. The AI answer mock-up and buyer questions are illustrative.