AI SEO is the thing you’re hearing everyone talk about.
“You need to start optimizing for AI engines! People are using ChatGPT more than ever! AI Overviews are taking over Google!”
But navigating and figuring out how to optimize for AI search can feel overwhelming, so you may be thinking about outsourcing your AI SEO to a freelancer or professional agency.
So, should you do it? And what do you need to consider?
Let’s talk about it.
Should I outsource AI SEO?
Yes, you should outsource AI SEO if you:
- Aren’t sure how to optimize for AI search
- Don’t have time to spend on AI SEO
- Can’t keep up with the changing search landscape
- Lack expertise on AI search
Outsourcing AI SEO allows you to partner with experts that keep up with AI search’s changing landscape and can help continually optimize your strategy for improvement.
But, if you do have the time, resources, and knowledge of AI search, you can handle it in-house with your team.
What should I consider when outsourcing AI SEO?
If you’re thinking you may want to hire a freelancer or professional agency to handle your AI SEO, there are a few things to consider when outsourcing:
1. What’s their experience with AI SEO?
When you look into AI SEO outsourcing, its important to analyze each agency’s experience with AI SEO. Despite AI SEO being a newer strategy, the right agency will have already sucessfully implemented AI search optimization strategies for other businesses.
When you’re looking at AI SEO agencies, you’ll want to see if they have a portfolio or some kind of proof of work that they’ve done for other businesses. Even if they don’t have public-facing case studies, they should be able to show you work they’ve done and results they’ve driven when you book a consultation with them.
2. Does their pricing fit with your budget?
If you want to outsource AI SEO, an important factor to consider is pricing. You want to ensure that you’re working with a partner that will fit with your current marketing budget.
The cost of AI SEO varies greatly — like with traditional SEO, there are cheap providers that don’t provide as quality of services as providers that cost a bit more. The average cost of AI SEO outsourcing ranges from $1,500–$10,000 per month.
Make sure, if you choose to outsource AI SEO, you’re choosing a provider that fits with your budget, but also offers good quality services for the price you pay.
3. Are they familiar with multiple AI engines, or just one?
When you think about AI SEO outsourcing, you need to consider what engines your potential agency is familiar with, as well as what engines you want to target.
Before you start looking at agencies to outsource to, make sure you have a clear understanding of what AI engines you want to focus on. If you know you want to build visibility on ChatGPT and Claude, for example, you need to ensure your agency has done work with both.
Keep in mind that some agencies may specialize in certain platforms, like Google or ChatGPT, so just make sure you consider what platforms an agency is familiar with before hiring them.
4. What kind of tactics do they use for AI search optimization?
Since AI search is so new, it’s important to make sure that the agency you partner with is using good tactics to get you visible in search results.
Some agencies may use shady tactics in an effort to help you gain visibility, but it can end up hurting your AI visibility and your SEO.
Don’t outsource your AI SEO strategy to agencies that use tactics like these:
- Scaled, spammy content production (goes against Google’s spam policy)
- Link farming backlinks
- Fake, low-quality guest posts
- Creating fake, “authoritative” authors to boost E-E-A-T
A good agency will use tactics like:
- Content creation that builds topical authority and trust
- Optimizing for semantic meaning and intent
- Structured data generation
- Restructuring content to answer questions directly and concisely
5. How do they track AI SEO performance?
Like with any strategy, you want to know how it’s impacting your business. When you’re looking to outsource AI SEO, you want to make sure that the partner you choose can track your AI visibility, amongst other metrics.
Something to consider when choosing your partner is whether they offer software to track your performance in AI engines. You want to outsource your AI SEO to an agency that makes it easy for you to see your visibility, citations, and overall performance in AI engines.
Generally, you’ll want to partner with an agency that offers software for tracking, vs. manually tracking. It will allow you to have clear results with your AI SEO investment.
Frequently Asked Questions on AI SEO Services
How much does it cost to outsource AI SEO?
Outsourcing AI SEO varies greatly depending upon the provider, the size of your website, and a few other factors. Typically, it costs anywhere from $1,500–$10,000 per month.
How do I know if an AI SEO agency is legit?
There are a lot of characteristics that indicate a good AI SEO agency. Here are a few to look out for:
- They outwardly share what tactics and strategies they use
- They offer transparent reporting
- They have proof of previous work on AI SEO campaigns
- Their pricing is clear and transparent
Not sure what makes an agency bad? Discover the top AI SEO agency red flags to avoid.
What are the risks of outsourcing AI SEO?
While outsourcing AI SEO is generally beneficial, there are always risks involved , espeically if you don’t have the right partner.
Some of the risks of outsourcing AI SEO to the wrong partner include:
- Generic strategies that aren’t suited to your business or industry
- Lack of control or input on strategy
- No point of contact that you can connect with
- Black-hat tactics that hurt your search performance
What’s the cost difference between in-house AI SEO and outsourced AI SEO?
The cost difference between in-house AI SEO and outsourced AI SEO is vast. As mentioned before, outsourced SEO costs anything from $1,500–$10,000 per month. In-house SEO often costs more than that, as it requires you to pay for things like:
- Employee salaries
- Benefits
- Payroll taxes
- Onboarding costs
- Training and certifications
- AI tracking software
Hiring an in-house AI SEO team can easily add up in cost, into the hundreds of thousands, beyond what outsourcing AI SEO costs.
Outsource your AI SEO to experts
AI SEO is something you can’t ignore.
If you want your strategy to be successful, start by choosing the right partner. The team that backs SEO.com (WebFX) can help give you a custom AI SEO strategy that enables you to improve your visibility in AI engines.
Connect with us today to discover how we can help you grow through AI search!
Beat Your Competitors Tomorrow
Be where your customers are and your competitors aren’t- AI search results. See how with OmniSEO®!
Beat Your Competitors Tomorrow
Be where your customers are and your competitors aren’t- AI search results. See how with OmniSEO®!
Writers
