China GEO agency for US and UK brands.

What is a China GEO agency, and what we do differently

A China GEO (generative engine optimization) agency helps brands get cited and recommended inside Mainland-Chinese AI answer engines — DeepSeek, Qwen, Doubao — when consumers and decision-makers ask category-relevant questions in Chinese. Unlike traditional Baidu SEO (which targets blue-link search rankings) or generic Western AI visibility (which targets ChatGPT and Google AI Overview), China GEO operates on a different source ecosystem and requires a different measurement framework.

Eastbound is positioned at one specific intersection: Hong Kong-based, China-AI-specialised, US/UK/Western-buyer-focused. We are not a full-service China digital agency, not a Baidu SEO shop, and not a generic AI-visibility tool. We are the agency you hire when you need rigour about what shows up when DeepSeek, Qwen or Doubao answers a Mainland-CN consumer asking about your category.

Our differentiation, in plain language:

• Evidence-led, not checklist-led. Every recommendation we make is labelled measured evidence, prior-knowledge hypothesis, or planned intervention test. We do not collapse the three.
• China-specific, not generic AI SEO. Our prompt panels run in Mainland Chinese against DeepSeek, Qwen on DashScope international, and Doubao on BytePlus ModelArk international.
• Source-substrate focused, not on-page-only. The biggest leverage in China AI visibility is off-site — Baidu Baike, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, SMZDM, Bilibili, Mainland vertical media. On-site work has a hard ceiling without the source graph.
• Conservative in claims, deliberately. We do not promise "rank in DeepSeek in 7 days" or "guaranteed mentions". The category is full of overclaim; we trade a marketing edge for a credibility moat.

What we do

Free audit (no login)

The Eastbound AI visibility audit runs against a stratified zh-CN consumer prompt panel and reports per-engine selection (whether your domain enters the source pool), absorption (whether the page shapes the answer language), and user-visible mention. Three layers, separately reported. Free, browser-rendered, no signup.

Paid audit (multi-engine, deep)

The paid audit extends across DeepSeek, Qwen, Doubao with a custom Mainland-CN consumer prompt panel for your specific category and ICP, source-graph mapping at the platform level (Baike / Zhihu / Xiaohongshu / SMZDM / Bilibili / vertical media coverage scoring), competitor benchmarking, and a prioritised top-fix list with effort estimates and layer-of-impact tags.

GEO Sprint (multi-week implementation)

Twelve-week engagement: 1-hour technical hygiene work in week 1 (granular robots.txt, llms.txt, llms-full.txt, sitemap, IndexNow, Markdown alternates), multi-week content design work in weeks 2–8 (definitive reference pages at 1,000–3,000 word sweet spot, encyclopedia-style explainer structure, evidence-density optimisation), and source-graph initiation in weeks 6–12. We work with regional partners for Mainland source-graph publishing where local accounts are required.

Ongoing visibility monitoring

Quarterly re-audits with delta tracking, prompt-panel refresh, source-graph maintenance, and intervention-test readouts. We measure pre/post lift on a stable 30-prompt panel with reliability discipline (top-5 κ, top-15 κ, Pearson r, ICC reported in every readout — never selectively).

Who we work with

We are most useful to global brands where the answer to "do Mainland-CN consumers and decision-makers find us when they ask their AI assistant?" actually affects revenue. Three buyer profiles dominate our engagements:

• US and UK luxury, fashion, beauty and premium consumer brands evaluating or expanding into Mainland China. Categories where Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, SMZDM and Bilibili surface heavily — but where the source mix collapses at ultra-luxury price tiers and the replacement stack (The Purse Forum, Vogue Business, WWD, Sotheby's / Christie's archives, Baghunter) takes over. We disclose these tier-specific shifts explicitly.
• Travel, hospitality and destination marketing teams tracking inbound Mainland-CN demand. Our prompt panels are multi-turn because travel queries are multi-turn — first turn is "where to go", follow-ups dig into accommodation and authenticity.
• B2B technology, SaaS and developer-tools brands with China or APAC GTM. DeepSeek's developer-corpus weight is more pronounced for technical questions; we separate consumer-facing and developer-facing prompt pools.

Eastbound's offices are in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Our typical engagement is remote with quarterly in-person reviews if helpful. We do not require Mainland-CN client offices.

How to engage

Most engagements start with the free audit (linked at the top of this page). After reviewing the report, US/UK brands typically book a 30-minute consultation to discuss whether the GEO Sprint or an extended audit fits the situation. We do not run on a "monthly retainer with vague deliverables" model — every engagement has scoped work, measurement dates, and explicit before/after tests for any intervention hypothesis.

Pricing is engagement-scoped. We do not publish per-month pricing because it varies materially with category complexity, source-graph depth, and Mainland publishing scope. Indicative ranges are shared on the consultation call.