Do I Need an Agency or Can I Do AI Search Optimisation Myself?
Basic AI search optimisation is free — fix your H1, add schema, allow AI crawlers, submit to Bing. Agencies add proprietary tools, cross-platform testing, and monitoring. DIY tools cost £25-200/mo.
Basic AI search optimisation is free — fix your H1, add schema markup, allow AI crawlers in robots.txt, and submit to Bing. Agencies add proprietary monitoring tools, cross-platform citation testing, and ongoing strategy. If you have in-house marketing capability, DIY tools cost £25-200/month. If not, agencies start at £1,500/month. Most businesses benefit from at least an initial audit before deciding.
What you can do yourself (free)
A surprising amount of AI search optimisation requires no agency and no budget:
- Fix your H1 — write a clear heading stating what your business does, where, and for whom. Our audit found 53% of UK SME websites fail this basic step
- Allow AI crawlers — update your robots.txt to allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and OAI-SearchBot
- Submit to Bing — go to bing.com/webmasters, verify your site, submit your sitemap. ChatGPT searches Bing, not Google
- Add Organisation schema — paste structured data into your homepage so AI knows your business name, type, location, and contact details
- Lead with answers — restructure key pages to put the definitive answer in the first paragraph
What DIY tools add
| Tool type | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| AI visibility monitoring | £25-100/mo | Tracks how often you're cited across AI platforms |
| Schema generators | Free-£50/mo | Creates structured data without coding |
| Content optimisation | £50-200/mo | Analyses content for AI-readability and citation potential |
| Crawler testing | Free-£25/mo | Checks which AI bots can access your pages |
For businesses with a competent in-house marketer, these tools combined with the free steps above can deliver genuine results. The total investment is £25-200/month plus staff time.
What an agency adds
Agencies justify their fees with capabilities that are hard to replicate in-house:
- Proprietary methodology — tested across multiple clients, refined over time
- Cross-platform testing — systematic monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Copilot, and Claude simultaneously
- Competitive intelligence — knowing what your competitors are doing and what's working
- Technical depth — advanced schema implementation, entity optimisation, knowledge graph positioning
- Ongoing strategy — adapting as AI platforms change their algorithms and behaviour
Decision framework
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Small business, tight budget, some marketing skills | DIY the free steps + basic tools (£25-100/mo) |
| Growing business, no marketing team | Start with a one-off audit (£500-2,000), then decide |
| Established business, competitive market | Agency retainer (£1,500-3,000/mo) |
| Enterprise or high-stakes market | Specialist agency (£3,000-25,000/mo) |
The smartest approach for most businesses: do the free steps yourself first, then get a professional audit to identify what you've missed and whether ongoing agency support is worth the investment.
Read our full Agency vs Tool comparison · Get a free audit
Related questions
Oliver Mackman
AI Search Analyst, SEOCompare
Oliver leads SEOCompare's editorial and comparison research. With over a decade in digital marketing, he oversees agency evaluation, tool testing, and AI search data analysis.
Last reviewed: 7 April 2026
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