Do I Need an Agency or Can I Do AI Search Optimisation
Basic AI search optimisation is free. Fix your H1, add schema, allow AI crawlers, submit to Bing. Agencies add proprietary tools and monitoring.
Basic AI search optimisation is free. Fix your H1, add schema markup, allow AI crawlers, and submit to Bing. Agencies add monitoring tools, citation testing, and ongoing strategy. DIY tools cost £25-200/month if you have in-house marketing skills. Agencies start at £1,500/month. Most businesses benefit from an initial audit before deciding.
What you can do yourself (free)
Much of AI search optimisation requires no agency and no budget:
- Fix your H1 - write a clear heading stating what you do, where, and for whom. Our audit found 53% of UK SME websites fail this 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, and submit your sitemap. ChatGPT searches Bing, not Google
- Add Organisation schema - add structured data to your homepage. This tells AI your business name, type, location, and contact details
- Lead with answers - put your definitive answer in the first paragraph of each key page
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 |
These tools combined with the free steps above deliver genuine results for businesses with in-house marketers. Total investment: £25-200/month plus staff time.
What an agency adds
Agencies offer capabilities that are hard to replicate in-house:
- Proprietary methodology - tested across many clients and refined over time
- Cross-platform testing - monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Copilot, and Claude
- Competitive intelligence - tracking what your competitors do and what works
- Technical depth - advanced schema, entity optimisation, and knowledge graph positioning
- Ongoing strategy - adapting as AI platforms change their algorithms
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) |
Do the free steps yourself first. Then get a professional audit to find what you missed. That tells you 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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