Start here: a handful of Dubai agencies sell generative engine optimization (GEO) as a dedicated service, a few publish prices, and almost none explain the actual crawler mechanics behind ChatGPT or Perplexity. Pick based on published pricing, a defined scope, and whether they can show you a prompt panel before you sign anything.
Who actually does this work in the UAE
GEO agencies in Dubai and the wider Gulf generally offer some mix of: prompt research, answer-ready content, structured data, review and citation groundwork, and monitoring of what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot say about a brand. Some lead with broad growth marketing and treat GEO as one line item inside a bigger retainer. Others sell GEO as a standalone product with its own scope and reporting.
What to check before you shortlist anyone:
- Does the agency's own site sell GEO, AEO or AI search optimization as a named service, not just a paragraph buried in an SEO page?
- Will they show you a baseline: what AI assistants currently say about your category, before any work starts?
- Do they separate being cited (a source link in an answer), being mentioned (named without a link), and being recommended (suggested as a choice)? These are different outcomes and a credible agency will not collapse them into one score.
- Do they publish a price, or is everything "custom scope, book a call"?
- Can they work in Arabic if your buyers search in Arabic, or is that an unstated assumption?
What it actually costs
Pricing in this market is inconsistent. Some agencies quote everything on request. Others publish a fixed-price entry tier. One Dubai-based GEO service lists a starting retainer of AED 5,500 per month for a program that includes monthly prompt audits, a fifty-plus prompt baseline, citation and review groundwork, and a documented crawler policy including an llms.txt file.
Iyara Labs, based in Dubai, publishes starting prices for its own packages, listed as starting prices in USD with the exact quote confirmed after a scoping call:
| Package | What's included | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | The Answer Engine fitted to the website you already have | from $1,500 setup + $300/month |
| Presence | A new website with the Answer Engine built in from the start | from $3,500 setup + $350/month |
| Engage | A chatbot, FAQ, and better customer handoff on your current website | from $3,700 setup + $400/month |
| Autopilot | Website, Answer Engine, chatbot, and measurement as one platform | from $7,500 setup + from $1,500/month |
| Transform | Autopilot plus workflow automation and organization-wide implementation | from $12,000 setup + from $2,500/month |
When comparing quotes, ask what the monthly fee actually covers: reporting only, or active content and citation work. A monthly number with no deliverables attached is not a scope, it's a placeholder.
How ChatGPT actually selects sources
ChatGPT's search feature does not cite a page because it exists. It retrieves and selects sources the way a search engine selection process works more broadly: by crawling, indexing, and matching content to a query, with an emphasis on pages that clearly answer a specific question. OpenAI's search crawler identifies itself and respects standard robots.txt controls, so a page that blocks crawling or hides behind a login will never be eligible, no matter how well written it is. If an agency promises guaranteed citations, ask how they account for retrieval varying by model version, phrasing, and region, because reputable agencies will tell you plainly that nobody can guarantee a specific answer from ChatGPT.
How Perplexity crawls and cites
Perplexity runs its own crawler and publishes guidance on how it respects robots.txt and how publishers can participate in its program for attribution and, in some cases, revenue sharing. A GEO agency working on Perplexity visibility should be able to tell you whether your site currently allows that crawler, and whether your content is structured so an answer engine can lift a clear fact or comparison from it without ambiguity. This is a technical check, not a content strategy exercise, and it takes minutes to verify.
Does this work outside Dubai, in Saudi Arabia too
If your buyers are in Riyadh, Jeddah or elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, ask any Dubai-based agency directly whether they have done GEO work for Saudi clients and whether their prompt research accounts for Saudi search behavior specifically. Some agencies serving the UAE also list GCC-wide or Saudi project work; others are Dubai-only and will say so if asked plainly. A Dubai procurement question and a Riyadh procurement question are not the same audience, and pooling them produces a false picture of visibility.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Buying a program that reports only citation counts, without separating citations, mentions and recommendations.
- Assuming Arabic content is automatically included in an English-language engagement; confirm this upfront.
- Accepting a fixed waiting period or publication cadence as a guarantee of results; no agency can honestly promise that.
- Hiring based on a client logo wall alone, without permission-based evidence that the results are real and current.
- Skipping the technical check on whether your site even allows AI crawlers to access it.
If you want a scoped look at where your business currently stands in ChatGPT and Perplexity answers, and what a fixed-price package would look like for your site, Book a call.