You have an SEO agency on retainer. The reports arrive on time, the rankings look fine. Then one evening you ask ChatGPT to recommend the best firms in your category, and you're not in the answer. Your competitor is. Someone in your network mentions that AEO agencies exist now, and suddenly you're wondering whether this is a second retainer, a second monthly report, a second set of meetings.
It isn't. One team should do both. Here's the reasoning, and the one situation where a second agency makes sense.
The work is the same work
The pages that rank on Google are the pages AI engines cite. When an answer engine decides who to name, it's weighing the same signals a search engine weighs: whether your page answers the question directly, whether other credible sites corroborate you, whether your business reads as a real entity with a real reputation.
So the deliverables overlap almost completely. Content structured so an engine can quote it. Schema and structured data. Third-party mentions and citations. A site that's technically clean. Strip the labels off an SEO campaign and an AEO campaign and you'd struggle to sort the tasks into two piles.
Split that work across two agencies and you get two teams editing the same pages, each optimising for their own report. The SEO agency wants the keyword in the H1. The AEO agency wants the question in the H1. Someone has to referee, and that someone is you. You hired agencies precisely so you wouldn't have to do that.
The question you should be asking instead
The real question isn't whether you need a second agency. It's whether your current one has kept up. Most agencies are still doing 2019 SEO: rankings, keywords, a traffic graph. That work isn't wrong, it's just no longer the whole job. A growing share of your buyers now get their shortlist from an AI answer, and a rankings report says nothing about whether you're on it.
Ask your current agency three questions:
- What do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews say when someone asks about our category?
- What are you doing to change that answer?
- How will we measure it month to month?
If they answer all three with specifics, keep them. You don't need us, and you don't need a second retainer. If you get a pause, or a pivot back to rankings, the gap isn't in your agency count. It's in your agency.
When two agencies does make sense
Rarely, but it exists: a large business with an in-house SEO team or an enterprise agency contract that can't be unwound, where what's missing is measurement and strategy for the AI surface specifically. In that case a second engagement can work, scoped to auditing and directing rather than duplicating the hands-on work. If that's you, say so on the first call and we'll scope it that way.
What it costs
Our Search and AI Visibility retainers run $2,000 to $10,000+ a month depending on how competitive your category is. That covers both surfaces: Google and the answer engines. One team, one report, and the report is written so you can read it without a glossary. The wider market rates are in our cost guide.
What we don't do
- Sell AEO as a bolt-on beside another agency's SEO. The work is too intertwined to share custody.
- Take the retainer if your current agency is doing the job. If your answers to the three questions above check out, we'll tell you to stay put.
- Report on rankings alone. You'll see what the engines say about you, verbatim, every month.
If the fit is right, let's talk.
Related reading: SEO vs AEO, the disciplines compared.
FAQ
What's the difference between SEO and AEO?
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of ranking in traditional search results, primarily Google. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is the work of being named and cited in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. The two share most of their underlying tasks: direct answers, structured data, third-party corroboration, technical health.
Can one agency do both SEO and AEO?
Yes, and it should be one agency. The signals that earn a Google ranking and the signals that earn an AI citation come from the same pages and the same reputation. Splitting them across two teams creates conflicts over the same assets.
Do I have to fire my SEO agency to do AEO?
Not necessarily. If your SEO agency can show you what AI engines say about your business and what they're doing about it, they're covering both. If they can't, the fix is usually replacing the retainer, not adding one.
What does combined SEO and AEO cost?
At GOJI, $2,000 to $10,000+ a month depending on category competitiveness. One retainer covers both surfaces.
