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Module 11 · Lesson 11.1 · The first client meeting · 3 min

The first meeting with an AEO client: audit and honest expectations

Lesson 11.1 of the free AEO and GEO course, for freelancers and agencies: how to prepare the first meeting with a client. A small audit before the meeting, the five questions to ask, the questions to track approved by the client, honest expectations (no guaranteed citations), read-only access to Search Console and GA4, and a one-page proposal.

The video for this lesson is coming soon to YouTube. Meanwhile, the full transcript is right here.

Transcript

0:00Introduction

Lesson 11.1: the first client meeting.

0:04Before the meeting

This module is for people who offer AEO as a service: freelancers, consultants, agencies. We start with the first meeting. Don't show up empty-handed. First, run a small manual audit, like in Module 2: ten questions from the client's industry, on three engines. Write down where the client shows up, and above all, who shows up instead. That's the first thing the client notices. You arrive with facts about their market, not with promises.

0:35What to ask the client

At the meeting, talk little and ask a lot. Five questions. What do you sell, and to whom? What do customers ask before they buy: the emails, the phone calls, the questions to customer support. Who the competitors are, for the client. Often they're not the ones AI cites. Which pages bring in customers today. And what can't be said: regulated industries have precise limits.

1:00The questions to track

Their answers give you the questions to track: fifteen to twenty, split by type, like in Module 2. The client reads and approves them. So you both measure the same thing, and nobody changes them midway. On those questions, you run the baseline audit, with the date. It's point zero for all the work.

1:20Honest expectations

Now the most important part: expectations. Google says it plainly: no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google. And if someone guarantees it, find someone else. With AI, that's even more true: the answers keep changing, and there's no such thing as a position. So promise the work, the method and the measurement. Never promise that ChatGPT will cite the client.

1:45Access

Then, access. For the audit, Google recommends granting only read access to Search Console. In Search Console, the owner adds you as a user with restricted access. In GA4, as a Viewer. Never the client's personal password. Every access is in your own name, and the client can remove it any time. Access to the site, to make changes, comes later, with the signed proposal.

2:13The proposal

Finally, the proposal. Here too, one page is enough. The starting point: the citation share, and who wins instead of the client. The approved questions, the plan for the first ninety days, and what you measure, and how often. And, in writing, what you don't promise. Google tells clients to ask what results to expect, and how they're measured: answer before they ask.

2:39Your task for today

Your task for today: prepare a first meeting, for a real client, or for your own site as if it belonged to a client. Ten questions on three engines, and the First meeting tab of the course worksheet, filled in.

3:05Next lesson

In the next lesson: the work month by month, with a ninety-day calendar. See you there.

Your task

Prepare a first meeting, for a real client, or for your own site as if it belonged to a client. Ten questions on three engines, and the First meeting tab of the course worksheet, filled in.

Track it in the course worksheet.

Sources

Checked 19 October 2026.

  • Google Search Central, «Do you need an SEO?» (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo, updated 5 June 2026): «No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.»; «If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in search results, find someone else.»; «An SEO audit should be about giving you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved.»; for the audit, «only grant read access to Search Console (at this stage, don't grant them write access)»; among the questions to ask: «What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?», «Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site».
  • Search Console Help, «Manage users, owners, and permissions» (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7687615): «Restricted user: Has simple view rights on most data»; users are added under Settings → Users and permissions, and only an owner can do it.
  • Google Analytics Help, «Access and data-restriction management» (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9305587): the Viewer role, «Can see settings and data».
  • Variability of AI answers: SparkToro, 28 January 2026, the same list of brands less than once in a hundred times (Lesson 9.1).
  • Method: questions and manual audit (Module 2), citation share (Lesson 2.4), the same questions over time (Lesson 9.1). The «First meeting» tab of the course worksheet.
  • CiteProof: audits on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI (Free account: what it includes and when to move to a plan).