AI SEO quotes can be hard to compare because agencies use the label for different services. Some include conventional SEO improvements; others focus on research and monitoring for AI-assisted search. Before comparing prices, establish exactly what each proposal covers.
What AI SEO actually covers
Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, describes work aimed at improving a brand’s visibility in AI-generated answers, including mentions and links to its website. Using AI to write posts faster is a separate task. No agency can control which sources an answer engine selects.
Much of the groundwork overlaps with conventional SEO: accessible pages, useful information and evidence supporting claims. Google’s guidance says there are no special optimisations required for its AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond established SEO practices. Other platforms have their own systems, so ask which ones the agency will examine rather than accepting one explanation for all of them.
An existing SEO retainer may already cover technical fixes and content improvements. Compare its scope with the proposed GEO work before adding a second fee. Extra question research and answer monitoring may warrant a separate budget, but duplicate deliverables do not.
What drives the quote
Quotes move with scope rather than with the label on the proposal. A small site with ten service pages needs less work than a large site with templates in four languages and years of technical debt.
The scope sets the price.
Research is the next driver. Conversational query research maps the actual questions buyers ask, not just head terms. Holding depth and methods constant, a brief covering twenty priority questions needs less research and monitoring than one covering two hundred. Agree the priority set before pricing the work.
Content depth matters as well. Producing original detail and gathering expert input takes time. If your team can’t supply interviews and review time, the proposal needs to account for obtaining that material elsewhere. Agree who checks accuracy before publication. Update frequency also affects the budget: changing product details need a different maintenance schedule from stable explanations.
Outreach and reporting can add costs. If digital PR is included, ask what research, assets and pitching the fee covers. Do not treat press coverage or AI citations as guaranteed deliverables. Reporting also needs a defined method: which questions will be tested, on which platforms and how often?
Review the starting position before buying more work. An agency should distinguish inaccurate brand information, missing content and technical barriers from opportunities to earn relevant coverage. Each calls for different tasks. A vague promise to ‘build authority’ is not an adequate scope or a reliable explanation of the price.
How to judge specialists against generalists
A generalist SEO retainer and a GEO-focused scope often overlap, but they are not the same bid. Either provider may cover technical fixes, content research and citation checks. Compare the actual deliverables, platform coverage and reporting methods rather than assuming the specialist label means more useful work.
Look for an agency that can demonstrate Generative Engine Optimisation capability through audits and case studies, with transparent citation reporting and clear methods. If you search for “best ai seo agency london” to build a shortlist, judge each proposal by its evidence and scope rather than the strength of its sales claims.
Be wary of shortcuts in the pitch. A promise of number one rankings is not proof of AI visibility. Opaque reports that hide which prompts were tested should raise doubts too. So should a fixed price that arrives before anyone has looked at your site and current citations.
One-off projects versus ongoing work
It helps to split the bid into one-off and recurring parts. An audit, question map, content fixes and baseline reporting are often one-off. Monitoring citations, refreshing pages, earning new mentions and tidying internal links are recurring.
Don’t forget internal cost. Someone has to approve briefs and supply expert quotes, while publishing changes and reviewing results also take time. If dev time is tight, technical fixes will sit in a queue. Ask who does what, and cost your side of the hours before you sign.
Most bids arrive as monthly retainers or fixed project scopes. Retainers suit tracking and steady outreach. Projects suit audits and one-off content blocks. Some agencies add performance tiers tied to agreed outputs, so ask what triggers a higher fee.
How to set a budget you can defend
Start from scope, not from a percentage. Ask for an itemised proposal that lists research hours, content pieces, PR outreach and reporting separately. Compare proposals against the same task list rather than looking only at the headline totals. You can then see what happens if you narrow the question set or slow the refresh rate.
Add your own hours to the total. Include subject-matter time and legal review, as well as development time and publishing support. Then agree a bounded pilot with a clear spending limit and review point. Record a baseline for a fixed set of questions, noting platforms and test dates. Review mentions and citations alongside organic traffic, qualified enquiries and implementation progress. At the review, decide whether to continue, narrow the scope or stop; a pilot is a learning exercise, not a promise of revenue within a fixed period.
A realistic budget is one you can explain. If you know what is one-off and what repeats, you won’t overpay for promises.
