An agency has sent you a proposal for “AI search optimisation.” It might be called LLMO, AIO, GEO or AEO, and it comes as a new line item on top of your existing SEO retainer. Another vendor quotes a very different number for what sounds like the same thing. You want to know what fair pricing looks like, and more importantly, what you should actually be paying for.
The useful answer: price AI search work by the deliverables, not the label. Much of what makes a site visible in AI answers is the same work as good SEO, and Google states there are no special optimisations or new files required to appear in its AI Overviews or AI Mode. What is worth paying extra for is a small set of genuinely distinct tasks: measuring whether and how AI systems cite you, closing content gaps in the questions they answer, strengthening how your brand is described across the web, and technical access for AI crawlers where you want it. If a proposal cannot list those deliverables, the premium is for the acronym.
What Google itself says
Google’s documentation on AI features in Search says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no other special optimisations necessary. A page needs to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet. Google also says you do not need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup to appear in these features.
That does not make AI visibility work pointless. Other AI assistants use their own retrieval and sources, and measurement is genuinely new. But it means a large part of any “AI SEO” retainer should overlap with work you may already be paying for. We looked at which parts are truly new in whether GEO is a new skill or SEO rebranded.
Deliverables worth paying for
| Deliverable | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| AI visibility baseline | A defined set of real customer questions, tested across named AI assistants, recording whether you are mentioned, cited or described accurately |
| AI referral measurement | Analytics and log setup to identify visits from AI assistants, with honest caveats about what cannot be tracked |
| Content gap work | Pages created or rewritten to answer the questions where competitors are cited and you are not |
| Entity and reputation work | Consistent company details, accurate descriptions on authoritative sites, earned mentions in relevant publications |
| Crawler access decisions | A reviewed robots.txt policy for AI crawlers based on your business goals |
| Accuracy fixes | Correcting outdated or wrong information about your products that AI answers repeat |
Warning signs in a proposal
- Promises of guaranteed placement in ChatGPT, Gemini or AI Overviews.
- “Proprietary AI ranking signals” with no explanation.
- Selling llms.txt files or special markup as the core deliverable.
- Reports showing only screenshots of a single favourable answer.
- A separate AI retainer that duplicates your SEO retainer’s content work.
- No measurement plan.
How to structure pricing fairly
Rather than comparing monthly fees, compare what the fee buys:
- One-off audit and baseline: a fixed fee for the question set, testing, measurement setup and a gap report.
- Ongoing work: a defined number of pages created or improved, mentions pursued and accuracy fixes each month.
- Quarterly re-testing: the same questions re-run, showing change over time.
If you already pay for SEO, ask your current provider to price only the incremental work. Paying twice for the same content is the most common overcharge.
A hypothetical example: a B2B software company receives a proposal for a separate AI optimisation retainer. It instead agrees a one-off AI visibility audit, then folds the resulting content gaps into its existing SEO plan and adds quarterly re-testing. The spend is lower, and the work is measurable.
How to judge results
AI answers vary by prompt, user and time, so single screenshots mean little. Track a fixed set of questions over months, and look for more frequent and more accurate mentions, citations to your pages, and AI referral visits that turn into enquiries. For measurement methods, see how to measure AI traffic to your site.
AI search visibility, priced by what you get
The right AI search engagement is small, specific and measurable, and it builds on solid SEO rather than replacing it. AB7 Solutions’ SEO, AEO and GEO team offers AI visibility audits with a defined question set, AI referral measurement, content development for the gaps we find, and entity and reputation work, reported against a fixed baseline. If your existing SEO work already covers most of it, we will price only the difference.
Send us the proposal you have received, and we will break down which parts are genuinely new and what they should cost.
Email: ab@ab7solutions.com | director@ab7solutions.com
Phone: +91 9878067778 | +1 321 341 7733
Website: www.ab7solutions.com
Sources: Google Search Central, AI features and your website.