Fiverr says 67 percent of its search freelancers report more GEO work this year, and 56 percent more Google-ranking work

Getting hired to make a page rank on Google, and getting hired to make it show up in an AI answer, are now two separate lines on a freelancer's invoice. Search Engine Journal reports that Fiverr's 2026 Holiday Marketing Index, published 21 September 2026, found more of its top-rated search freelancers seeing a rise in generative engine optimization work than in Google-ranking work over the past year.

What the survey reported

According to Search Engine Journal's write-up by senior news writer Matt G. Southern, published 22 September 2026, Fiverr's survey found that 67 percent of its top-rated search freelancers reported a rise in client requests for GEO in the past year. Requests to improve Google rankings rose for 56 percent of the same group. When asked which channel is the stronger long-term investment, 61 percent still named Google SEO, and Fiverr's report advises funding both. On price, 61 percent of the surveyed search specialists said clients expect lower prices when AI is involved, and search specialists were the group reporting the greatest pricing pressure across the categories Fiverr surveyed.

What Fiverr said clients are paying for

Fiverr's report frames the shift as clients wanting expertise over execution. Eighty-three percent of surveyed search specialists said clients are hiring them for advice and expertise rather than simple task execution, higher than the 79 percent in e-commerce and 76 percent in user-generated content. Sixty-one percent reported typical project costs in the $150 to $300 range. The report also cites internal Fiverr marketplace data showing GEO services grew by 29 percent from November 2025 to April 2026.

What SEJ said Fiverr did not report

Search Engine Journal noted that Fiverr's report page and its 21 September press release omit the total sample size, the number of search specialists inside that sample, the survey period, the exact question wording, and whether the results were weighted by country. The press release describes the survey as run in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia ahead of the 2026 holiday season, with no further detail. SEJ pointed out that earlier Fiverr surveys, including its 2024 holiday survey run with Censuswide, had disclosed sample sizes and collection dates, and that Fiverr had not answered SEJ's request for methodological detail before publication.

SEJ also set the Fiverr numbers alongside its own State of Search 2027 report, published 18 September 2026, where 43 percent of surveyed search professionals said they plan to invest in or prioritize GEO in the coming year and 14 percent named optimization for AI answer engines as one factor behind their best results. Those two surveys polled different groups, so the numbers are directional signals about the same movement rather than comparable measurements.

For a team building software, the practical read is that a marketing page last audited for Google alone is now being asked to earn two kinds of visibility, and the client asking for it may already have a freelancer proposal in hand naming both. A site that has never been checked for whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Mode can quote a passage from it is missing whichever share of demand has moved to those surfaces. The Fiverr survey does not measure that share, but it does show the market is paying for the work now.

Source

Reported by Matt G. Southern in GEO Requests Rise Among More Search Freelancers Than Google SEO at Search Engine Journal, 22 September 2026. Underlying survey: Fiverr's 2026 Holiday Marketing Index, published 21 September 2026.