54 of 129
SEO agency picks had the agency's own website among the sources. That is about four in ten, across all four engines.
All picksResearch / Houston AI Citation Study / SEO agencies
Which Houston SEO agencies
does AI recommend?
Which SEO agencies do AI assistants recommend in Houston? In October 2026 we asked ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Mode "Who is the best SEO agency in [city], TX?" for 8 Houston-area cities. Across 31 answers they named 73 different agencies. The five named most were Actual SEO Media, Thrive, Clear Lake SEO, EWR Digital and Galaxy Growth Media.
This page is part of the Houston AI Citation Study. It reports what the AI answers said. It is not our review of these agencies. Marketing & AI is a Houston SEO agency too, and none of the answers named it.
01 / The five named most
Who AI recommended
most often.
Ranked by how many of the four engines named the agency, then by how many answers named it, then by how often it was named first. Names are as the AI engines wrote them.
| Rank | Agency | Engines (of 4) | Answers (of 31) | Named first | Areas (of 8) | Answers in the second run (of 24) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Actual SEO Media | 4 | 13 | 5 | 6: Katy, Sugar Land, Spring, Pasadena, Clear Lake, Humble | 10 |
| 2 | Thrive | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3: Houston, Sugar Land, Pasadena | 3 |
| 3 | Clear Lake SEO | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1: Clear Lake | 3 |
| 4 | EWR Digital | 3 | 8 | 2 | 6: Houston, Katy, Sugar Land, Spring, The Woodlands, Humble | 6 |
| 5 | Galaxy Growth Media | 3 | 8 | 1 | 4: The Woodlands, Pasadena, Clear Lake, Humble | 8 |
- Counted once: Actual SEO Media and Actual SEO Media, Inc; Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, Thrive Agency and Thrive; Clear Lake SEO, Clear Lake SEO (Dale Ogden) and Clear Lake SEO / Dale Ogden.
- Clear Lake SEO was named only for Clear Lake. All four engines named it there, and it came first in three of its four answers.
- Google AI Mode showed a Business Profile for four of the five: EWR Digital, 4.9 stars from 148 reviews; Thrive, 4.8 from 77; Clear Lake SEO, 5.0 from 19; Actual SEO Media, 4.6 from 10. AI Mode did not name Galaxy Growth Media.
- Next in line: Fair Marketing (3 engines, 5 answers) and TopSpot (3 engines, 4 answers).
02 / What backed the picks
Where the picks came from.
Each AI answer attached sources to the agencies it named. These counts show how often the agency's own website was one of them, in the main run.
7 of 8
Galaxy Growth Media picks were backed by its own website. Actual SEO Media: 9 of 13. Clear Lake SEO: 4 of 4.
Own website2 of 8
EWR Digital picks had its own website among the sources. The rest had directories, a Google page or no linked source behind them.
Other sites27
median Google reviews for the SEO agencies AI Mode picked. Dentists and auto repair shops were over 700.
Google AI Mode- SEO agencies were the industry where AI read business websites most. In the study's breakdown for Google AI Mode and Perplexity, 73% of SEO agency citations went to business sites, 19% to directories and 6.6% to Business Profiles. The directories cited most were Clutch, DesignRush and Semrush.
03 / Our experiment
Marketing & AI:
0 of 31.
We run this study, and we sell SEO and AEO work in Houston. None of the 31 answers named us. We will ask the same 8 questions on all four engines every month for 90 days and log the result here, including the months where nothing changes.
| Questions asked | Answers naming Marketing & AI | Note |
|---|---|---|
| October 30 and 31, 2026 | 0 of 31 | Baseline, from the study run |
- What we are working on: the three things the data rewards for SEO agencies. Our own website, the directories AI cites, and our Google Business Profile.
- How we count: the same 8 questions, all four engines, and a second run on ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, with the method below.
04 / Method
How we ranked them.
Every count on this page comes from the study's published recommendation files.
- Question: "Who is the best SEO agency in [city], TX?" for Houston, Katy, Sugar Land, Spring, The Woodlands, Pasadena, Clear Lake and Humble.
- Engines: Google AI Mode and Perplexity on October 30, 2026; ChatGPT search and Claude with web search on October 31, 2026. Each question was sent alone, with no brand named.
- Main run: 31 answers named at least one agency. Google AI Mode returned picks for 7 of its 8 questions.
- Second run: ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity were asked every question again (24 answers) to see whether the names held.
- Ranking: engines that named the agency, then answers that named it, then times it was named first, all from the main run. Spellings of the same agency were counted once.
- Spread: 56 of the 73 agencies were named in only one answer. 27 of those were named again in the second run.
- What this is not: a review of any agency's work. AI answers change between runs, so a single check proves little.
05 / Data
Check the counts.
The recommendations behind this page are in the study's published files, free to reuse with attribution under CC BY 4.0. Filter the vertical column to seo-agency.
- Google AI Mode and Perplexity recommendations (CSV)
- ChatGPT and Claude recommendations, both runs (CSV)
The full dataset, with the method and analysis scripts, is archived on Zenodo.
Questions
About this list.
Which SEO agencies does AI recommend in Houston?
In our October 2026 test of 31 AI answers for 8 Houston-area cities, the five agencies named most were Actual SEO Media, Thrive, Clear Lake SEO, EWR Digital and Galaxy Growth Media. Actual SEO Media was named in 13 of the 31 answers, by all four engines.
Is this a list of the best SEO agencies in Houston?
No. It counts which agencies ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Mode named. We did not review any agency's work, and the names shifted between runs: 56 of the 73 agencies were named in only one answer.
Was Marketing & AI named?
No. Marketing & AI, the Houston SEO agency that runs the study, was named in 0 of the 31 answers. We are asking the same questions every month and logging the count on this page.