SEO agencies: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank seo agencies by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. SEO agencies that help brands improve organic visibility through technical SEO, content strategy, link building, local search, and enterprise search optimization. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 18, 2026Download this ranking as a PDF
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At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
First Page Sage leads the SEO agencies category with a composite score of 27.5, well ahead of the next two brands, Ignite Visibility and WebFX, which both sit at 8.8. That gap matters because all three share identical visibility of 12.5 percent, yet First Page Sage converts that presence into a 62.5 percent citation rate while Ignite Visibility and WebFX record 0.0 percent citations each. The category average citation rate is just 4.4 percent, making First Page Sage's citation performance an extreme outlier rather than a modest lead.
OuterBox presents the sharpest divergence between visibility and citation in the dataset. It holds zero visibility yet earns a 25.0 percent citation rate, producing a composite score of 7.5 and a rank of 4. This pattern shows Google AI Mode is referencing OuterBox as a trusted source in answers without surfacing it as a named brand in direct responses. Brands ranked 5 through 10, including Victorious, Directive, and NP Digital, show composite scores of 0.0, indicating they are effectively absent from AI-generated answers.
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in the dataset, confirming the audit is anchored entirely on that single engine. The top cited sources list includes third-party directories such as clutch.co, agencies.semrush.com, and reddit.com alongside brand domains like firstpagesage.com and outerboxdesign.com. Searchbloom is the steepest faller, dropping from rank 1 to rank 6 with a visibility delta of minus 25.0 and a citation delta of minus 25.0, while First Page Sage rose from rank 4 to rank 1 with equal and opposite gains.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
First Page Sage 0% → 12% · rank #4 → #1+12pp
Biggest visibility fallers
-
Searchbloom 25% → 0% · rank #1 → #6-25pp
-
Ignite Visibility 25% → 12% · rank #2 → #2-12pp
-
WebFX 25% → 12% · rank #3 → #3-12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
firstpagesage.com
|
12% | 62% | Google AI Mode |
First Page Sage scores 27.5 composite, driven by a 62.5 percent citation rate that is more than 14 times the 4.4 percent category average, despite matching peers on 12.5 percent visibility. |
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| 2 |
ignitevisibility.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Ignite Visibility matches the 12.5 percent visibility of First Page Sage but records 0.0 percent citations, leaving its composite score at 8.8 and signalling a named-but-not-trusted dynamic in AI responses. |
||||
| 3 |
webfx.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
WebFX shares the same 12.5 percent visibility and 0.0 percent citation rate as Ignite Visibility, producing an identical composite score of 8.8 with no differentiation between the two brands in AI output. |
||||
| 4 |
outerboxdesign.com
|
0% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
OuterBox achieves a 25.0 percent citation rate with zero visibility, ranking 4th overall at 7.5 composite, appearing as a cited source in AI answers without being surfaced as a recommended brand. |
||||
| 5 |
victorious.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Victorious sits at rank 5 with a composite score of 0.0, matching six other brands in the top 10 that record no visibility and no citations in Google AI Mode responses. |
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| 6 |
searchbloom.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
directiveconsulting.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
stellarseo.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
delante.co
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
npdigital.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
straightnorth.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
siegemedia.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
highervisibility.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
seoworks.co.uk
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
bluearray.co.uk
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
re-signal.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
builtvisible.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
impressiondigital.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
studiohawk.com.au
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
semetrical.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on seo agencies, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own seo agencies brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about seo agencies AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in the SEO agencies category?
First Page Sage leads with a composite score of 27.5, reaching 12.5 percent visibility and a 62.5 percent citation rate. No other brand in the dataset comes close to that citation figure.
What is the average AI visibility for SEO agencies?
The category average visibility is 1.9 percent and the average citation rate is 4.4 percent, indicating that most of the 20 brands audited have minimal presence in Google AI Mode answers.
Which SEO agency brand has fallen most in AI visibility?
Searchbloom dropped from rank 1 to rank 6 with a visibility delta of minus 25.0 percent and a citation delta of minus 25.0 percent, the steepest decline in the dataset.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for SEO agency research?
The most cited sources include clutch.co, youtube.com, firstpagesage.com, reddit.com, and agencies.semrush.com, showing AI answers lean heavily on third-party directories and community platforms alongside brand-owned domains.
Can a brand be cited by AI without appearing in direct AI responses?
Yes. OuterBox records zero visibility but a 25.0 percent citation rate, meaning Google AI Mode references its domain in answers without naming it as a recommended agency.
Which SEO agency brand rose most in AI visibility in this audit period?
First Page Sage rose from rank 4 to rank 1, gaining 12.5 percent in visibility and 25.0 percent in citation rate compared to the previous period.