Most small businesses need one of three things: their current SEO agency adding AI checks, a specialist for a defined project, or a few hours of their own time. You need dedicated AEO help only when AI tools are naming competitors or getting your details wrong, and nobody on your side can fix it.
What each option actually does
An SEO agency works to get your pages ranked in Google's list of links. Good ones handle site structure, page speed, content, and local listings.
An AEO specialist works to get your business named inside the answer when someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview a question. That means rewriting pages so they answer questions directly, adding a hidden, machine-readable layer that describes your business, and checking what each AI tool says about you.
Doing it yourself means you make those changes and run those checks. For a lot of local businesses, that's a realistic place to start.
A lot of the groundwork overlaps. The difference is what gets measured, and whether anyone actually reads the AI answers.
AEO agency vs SEO agency vs DIY, side by side
| Option | What you're paying for | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Your time, plus a monitoring tool if you want one | Tools start around $29 a month | Local businesses with a handful of competitors and someone who can edit the site |
| SEO agency | Ongoing rankings, content, and reporting | $1,500 to $10,000 a month, with a median near $3,000 (Clutch) | Businesses that need several channels managed every month |
| AEO specialist | Defined fixes to pages, profiles, and AI accuracy | Flat project fees | Businesses missing from AI answers or described wrong |
When doing it yourself is enough
You can handle AEO yourself if three things are true:
- You can edit your own website without breaking it.
- Your Google Business Profile is complete and you keep it current.
- You'll spend an hour a month asking AI tools the questions your customers ask, and writing down what they say.
Start with your top service page. Make the first paragraph answer the question a customer would type, in plain words, with your city in it. If that page reads like a brochure, fixing it will do more than any tool.
When your SEO agency is enough
Keep your SEO agency if they can show you three things: pages rewritten to answer questions directly, the hidden business details on your site set up and tested, and a report that shows what ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI say about you, tool by tool.
If they can show all three, you don't need a second vendor. If they can't, ask them to run these 5 checks before you add AI work to their scope.
When you need an AEO specialist
Bring in someone who does this specifically when:
- AI tools name your competitors for questions you should own.
- They get your hours, services, or location wrong.
- Your agency's report gives you one "AI score" with no answers behind it.
- Your site was built before any of this mattered, and the pages don't say clearly what you do or where.
This is usually project work, not a forever retainer. Once the pages and profile are fixed, the ongoing part is a monthly check.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
Ask these of any option, including yourself:
- Which questions are you tracking, and would a paying customer actually ask them?
- Can I see the actual AI answers, not just a score?
- Is it broken out by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google separately?
- What gets built or changed, and by when?
- What happens if I stop paying for a month?
If the answer to number 5 is "nothing changes," the fee is paying for a project on a loop. More on that in what you should and shouldn't pay a retainer for.
Sources: Retainer range and Clutch median from Marketing retainer fees: what you should and shouldn't pay for.