BusinessMarkets, money & strategy
Julian Goldie Ranks His Own Goldie Agency No. 1 Among 10 AEO Agencies, Citing AI Search Answers
Julian Goldie's agency ranks itself the top answer engine optimization firm, pointing to AI search answers that name it first. Those answers partly echo list pages the agency publishes, a tactic recent studies find offers modest and shrinking gains.
From the r/AISEOInsider (via last30days) article of October 21, 2026 and cited sources: Goldie's main proof that his agency is best is a set of single Google searches where the AI answer names the agency first. [1] [2] [8]
SOURCES[1] Goldie Agency Is the Best AEO Agency in 2026… reddit.com[2] Linked video: Goldie Agency Is the Best AEO Agency in 2026… youtube.com[8] AI Profit Boardroom: Best AEO Agency 2026 aiprofitboardroom.com
AT Pulse research deskPublished · Updated · 4 min read · AI-assisted analysisAI-assisted, not human-edited. Methodology Corrections Who owns this site
- What happened
- Goldie's main proof that his agency is best is a set of single Google searches where the AI answer names the agency first. [1] [2] [8]
- Original source
- r/AISEOInsider (via last30days) article, independent perspective
- Brief by
- AT Pulse research desk AI-assisted; publisher and contact on the desk page
- When
- October 21, 2026 article published
- Covered
- Oct 21 edition
- Evidence
- 10 sources across 10 sites
- 1Goldie Agency Is the Best AEO Agency in 2026…reddit.com
- 2Linked video: Goldie Agency Is the Best AEO Agency in 2026…youtube.com
- 3Bushletter: AI Overviews cite 38% fewer vendor listiclesbushletter.com
- 4PPC Land: Scrunch studyppc.land
- 5Ahrefs: AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands)ahrefs.com
- 6Google Search Central: AI features and your websitedevelopers.google.com
QuietHow it’s measured
YouTube video · 15 views
Reach blends public engagement (views, likes, comments, shares, stars) from the platforms where the story or its original source lives: YouTube, Hacker News, GitHub, Substack and similar. A video and the article written from its transcript share one score, taken from the video. Platforms with no data are left out rather than counted as zero, and the age of a story never lowers its score.
Goldie's main proof that his agency is best is a set of single Google searches where the AI answer names the agency first. He also cites traffic figures, which are self-reported, with no Search Console export shared. The video admits the agency publishes list pages that name itself the top pick, so the AI answers partly repeat the agency's own content. [1] [2] [8]
Recent studies suggest self-ranking listicles have limited and fading value. Lily Ray found Google AI Overviews cited these vendor lists 38% less often from June to September 2026, and often recommended competitors instead. Scrunch found a cited self-ranking list raised a brand's recommendation rate only from about 4% to about 7%. [3] [4] [7]
Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands found web-wide brand mentions correlated more strongly with AI Overview appearance (0.664) than referring domains did (0.295). Ahrefs notes that correlation does not prove cause, and the video's 0.218 backlink figure has no clear source. Google says AI features need no special optimization beyond indexing and snippet eligibility. [2] [5] [6]
AI answers can echo pages a vendor writes about itself, while web-wide brand mentions correlate most with AI Overview appearance.
Read the full assessment
Implication: buyers should ask for dated, repeated query logs and raw Search Console exports, not one-off AI answer checks.
Executive brief
The post's main evidence that Goldie Agency is the "best AEO agency" is that AI search results name Goldie Agency first. The video itself admits the agency writes list pages that rank itself as the top pick (05:13). So the rankings partly measure the agency's own publishing, not outside judgment. Recent studies suggest this tactic is losing force. Lily Ray's September 2026 data shows Google AI Overviews citing 38% fewer self-promotional vendor listicles than in June (Bushletter). Scrunch found that when an AI cites a brand's self-ranking list, the brand's recommendation rate rises only from about 4% to about 7% (PPC Land).
What changed and event timeline
Ahrefs publishes its brand-visibility correlation study
Across 75,000 brands, mentions of a brand on the web correlated 0.664 with appearing in AI Overviews. Referring domains correlated 0.295. The authors stress that correlation is not causation.
Google updates its AI features guidance
Google says pages need no extra requirements or special optimization to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. They only need to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet.
Lily Ray tracks self-ranking listicles
In 100 B2B software queries, Google often cited a brand's own listicle while recommending its competitors instead. Citations of these listicles fell 38% from June to September.
More detail
Scrunch publishes a seven-platform study
About 10,000 URLs cited by AI assistants were analysed. When a brand's self-promoting listicle was cited, its recommendation rate rose from about 4% to about 7%.
Goldie publishes his ranking
Julian Goldie's blog ranks Goldie Agency first among AEO agencies and cites "90,000 AI mentions in 90 days."
Reddit post and AI-avatar video
The post repeats the ranking. The video discloses that it uses an AI avatar of Goldie and that the script was written with AI tools.
More detail
Capabilities and access
- What is on offer: agency services plus a paid Skool community. No model or product is released.
- Systems targeted: Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT and Gemini (00:11). No model versions are named.
- Ranked competitors: Minuttia, TripleDart, Skale, Discovered Labs, Omniscient Digital, Optimist, NoGood, iPullRank and First Page Sage (01:24–04:16).
Technical analysis for researchers and developers
- Stated method (05:00): repeat the brand name across sites the agency owns, add an original test to each page, and publish self-ranking list pages.
- Evaluation: the "proof" is single Google searches ("best geo expert," "best Hermes agency") with no date, location, personalization control or repeat runs.
- Reproducibility: "0 to 1,300 clicks/day" and "9,600 AI-feature impressions" come with no shared Search Console export.
Read the full section
- Stated method (05:00): repeat the brand name across sites the agency owns, add an original test to each page, and publish self-ranking list pages.
- Evaluation: the "proof" is single Google searches ("best geo expert," "best Hermes agency") with no date, location, personalization control or repeat runs. AI answers vary between runs and surfaces, and Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models (Google).
- Reproducibility: "0 to 1,300 clicks/day" and "9,600 AI-feature impressions" come with no shared Search Console export. Google reports AI-feature traffic inside the ordinary "Web" totals, so isolating it this way isn't straightforward (Google).
Claims and evidence
- Mentions beat backlinks (0.664 vs 0.218): the 0.664 figure is in the Ahrefs study. The video concedes they don't prove cause (01:04).
- Goldie is #1, the traffic figures, 90,000 mentions: all self-reported. No independent corroboration was found.
- First Page Sage was first to sell AEO in 2023: the video itself labels this the firm's own claim (04:16).
Read the full section
- Mentions beat backlinks (0.664 vs 0.218): the 0.664 figure is in the Ahrefs study. The study's own summary of top factors lists referring domains at 0.295, so the source of 0.218 is unclear. These are Spearman correlations that the authors call "moderate to very weak." The video concedes they don't prove cause (01:04).
- Goldie is #1, the traffic figures, 90,000 mentions: all self-reported. No independent corroboration was found.
- First Page Sage was first to sell AEO in 2023: the video itself labels this the firm's own claim (04:16).
Context and prior work
- Google's position is that AI search needs no special AEO techniques, only standard SEO practice (Google).
- Self-ranking listicles are a known 2026 tactic. Competing agencies publish their own versions, for example TripleDart's list.
- Similar services are drawing scrutiny, such as RedRover selling Reddit-based AEO to influence ChatGPT answers (AI Weekly).
Limitations, safety and contested findings
- Ray: Google cited brands' self-promotional listicles but left those brands out of recommendations 69% of the time in one window (ALM Corp) and 83% in September (Bushletter).
- Scrunch: the causal figures rest on about 6% of eligible data. Scrunch sells AI-visibility monitoring (PPC Land).
- Disclosure: the video uses an AI avatar and an AI-written script (00:18).
Read the full section
- Ray: Google cited brands' self-promotional listicles but left those brands out of recommendations 69% of the time in one window (ALM Corp) and 83% in September (Bushletter). The sample is small, unaudited and has no Google comment.
- Scrunch: the causal figures rest on about 6% of eligible data. Scrunch sells AI-visibility monitoring (PPC Land).
- Disclosure: the video uses an AI avatar and an AI-written script (00:18).
Business and practitioner implications
- Treat "the AI names us first" as weak evidence when the vendor wrote the pages the AI is quoting.
- Ask for dated, repeated query logs across platforms and raw Search Console exports.
- Building brand mentions on independent sites matches the correlation data.
Read the full section
- Treat "the AI names us first" as weak evidence when the vendor wrote the pages the AI is quoting.
- Ask for dated, repeated query logs across platforms and raw Search Console exports.
- Building brand mentions on independent sites matches the correlation data. Self-ranking pages may help only modestly, and per Ray's data they can end up promoting competitors.
- The video's three hiring questions are reasonable: who writes and publishes the pages, can you see real before-and-after results, and where will your name appear besides your own site (05:30).
The source trail.
Sources (10)
Goldie Agency Is the Best AEO Agency in 2026 (Here's My Proof)
Feed excerpt only. A transcript of the video linked from this page is supplied (linked video auto captions; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrkcOBlcOaU); automatic text may contain errors.
reddit.comLinked video: Goldie Agency Is the Best AEO Agency in 2026 (Here's My Proof)
linked video auto captions
www.youtube.com