# AI SEO Agency — China-Specific GEO + Western-Engine Advisory

Last reviewed 2026-05-10.

Eastbound is an AI SEO agency built around a single specialty: getting Western brands cited and recommended on DeepSeek, Qwen and Doubao — the three Mainland-Chinese AI engines that together address roughly 1.4 billion potential users. We advise on Western-engine GEO (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overview) when bundled with a China engagement. We do not sell standalone Western-engine optimisation. That scope honesty is deliberate.

## What "AI SEO" actually means in 2026

"AI SEO" is the umbrella shorthand for what is more rigorously called GEO (generative engine optimisation) — see /geo-vs-aeo-vs-llmo/. The academic origin is the 2024 KDD paper "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Aggarwal et al. (Princeton + IIT Delhi), https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735, a 10,000-query benchmark across nine optimisation tactics.

Headline measured lifts (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024):
- Authoritative citations: +115%
- Direct quotes: +43%
- Named statistics: +33%

A serious AI SEO agency anchors its work in this measurement framework — selection (does the page enter the engine's source pool?), absorption (does the language shape the answer?), user-visible mention — not in checklist-SEO repackaged with AI-flavoured language.

## Our core: China-specific GEO

The Mainland surface is DeepSeek, Qwen (Alibaba's Tongyi family) and Doubao (ByteDance), with secondary engines including Yuanbao, Kimi and ERNIE Bot. Source ecosystems differ by 70–80% between Western and Chinese engines. Eastbound 540-call panel (May 2026): top-15 source overlap (Jaccard) between any two Chinese engines is 0.20–0.30; Western/Chinese overlap is lower still.

Concretely:

- Mainland-CN consumer prompt panels run in Chinese against DeepSeek, Qwen on DashScope international, Doubao on BytePlus ModelArk international.
- Source-attribution analysis with reliability statistics in every readout (top-5 κ, top-15 κ, Pearson r, ICC).
- On-site crawlability (granular robots.txt, llms.txt, llms-full.txt, sitemap, IndexNow, Markdown alternates).
- Off-site source-graph initiation via regional partners where Mainland publishing accounts are required.

## How we work — audit-first

Every engagement starts with an audit (/ai-visibility-audit/), not a retainer pitch. Free audit returns per-engine selection, absorption and mention scores. Paid audit extends across all three engines with custom panels, source-graph mapping, competitor benchmarking, and a prioritised top-fix list.

Implementation engagements (the GEO Sprint) run twelve weeks: technical hygiene week 1, content design at the 1,000–3,000-word reference-page sweet spot weeks 2–8, source-graph initiation weeks 6–12.

Evidence-led, not checklist-led. Every recommendation labelled measured evidence, prior-knowledge hypothesis, or planned intervention test. Costs us a marketing edge, buys a credibility moat.

## What we don't do as a standalone

Western-engine-only AI SEO work is a poor fit for us. For that, look at:

- Specialist measurement platforms — Profound (https://www.tryprofound.com/), AthenaHQ (https://www.athenahq.ai/), Otterly.AI (https://otterly.ai/). See /profound-alternatives/ for the comparison.
- Western GEO specialist agencies for implementation when no China angle is relevant.
- Bundled SEO platforms (Semrush AI Visibility, SE Ranking AI Search Watcher) if you already use one.

When we do advise on Western-engine GEO, it is bundled with a China engagement — typically because content infrastructure decisions carry across both surfaces.

## Pricing

Engagement-scoped, not month-by-month retainer. Indicative ranges shared on the consultation call. Why fixed-fee: third-party source-graph presence (the highest-leverage layer; ~6.5× more effective than self-citation per Aggarwal et al.) compounds over quarters, not days, and aligns better with scoped engagements than open-ended retainers.

## Who we're a good fit for

- US/UK/Western brands evaluating or expanding into Mainland China (luxury, fashion, beauty, premium consumer, automotive, hospitality, education, B2B SaaS).
- Brands where Mainland-CN AI presence affects revenue.
- Teams wanting diagnosis and execution, not just monitoring.
- Buyers who value evidence over hype.

## Who we're not a good fit for

- Brands with no Mainland-CN exposure looking for pure Western-engine work.
- Buyers wanting "rank in DeepSeek in 7 days" guarantees.
- Teams looking for paid-media management.
- Generic SEO content production at scale.

## How to engage

Free audit at /ai-visibility-audit/, then book a 30-minute consultation at /book-consultation/. Offices in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong; engagements run remote.

## Related reading

- /china-ai-visibility/ — pillar reference
- /china-geo-agency/ — same agency, China-first framing
- /methodology/ — measurement methodology
- /ai-visibility-audit/ — free no-login audit
- /profound-alternatives/ — Western measurement platforms compared
- /blog/three-chinese-ais.html — primary research on source divergence