The right AEO specialist setup depends less on job titles and more on who can cover five things at once: crawler access, strong answers, consistent business facts, genuine link building and reporting from the platforms' own tools.
We rated five ways to get that work done, from doing it yourself to hiring a specialist team.
The ratings are editorial judgements built from what Google, Bing, OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic say the work requires.
If you want your own situation scored on a call, book a free SEO strategy session with my team.
The scorecard
| Option | Score /10 | One-line reason |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | 6 | Free access checks and owner knowledge, but schema, firewalls and consistent publishing trip most owners up. |
| Freelance AEO specialist | 7 | Focused and hands-on, though one person rarely covers content, technical fixes and links at the same time. |
| Generalist marketing agency | 6 | Broad services and steady capacity, but AEO is often a bolt-on without deep crawler or citation knowledge. |
| Specialist SEO and AEO agency | 8 | Covers all five lanes with a fixed process, if it follows official guidance and reports plainly. |
| Goldie Agency (Julian Goldie's team) | 8.5 | SEO, GEO, AEO and link building under one roof, with "manual outreach, no PBNs" and weekly testing on its own sites. |
Nobody on this list can promise a top ranking or a citation, and the scores reflect that.
The five criteria behind the scores
Each option was judged on the same five areas.
- Technical access: can they keep search crawlers unblocked across robots.txt, CDN rules and preview tags?
2. Answer quality: can they turn your expertise into pages Google would call "non-commodity content"?
3. Entity facts: can they align your name, address, services and markup across the web?
4. Links and mentions: can they earn real coverage within Google's link spam rules?
5. Reporting: do they report from Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and analytics, rather than a private score?
Why technical access weighs so heavily
Access is the cheapest fix and the most common failure.
OpenAI's crawler documentation says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not appear in ChatGPT search answers.
Perplexity says the same for PerplexityBot in its crawler guide, and adds firewall setup notes.
Anthropic warns that blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce visibility in Claude's search results.
On Google, a nosnippet tag removes a page from AI Overviews and AI Mode as well as normal snippets.
Any option that cannot check these settings starts with a handicap, which is why DIY and generalist agencies lose points here.
Each option, rated in detail
Do it yourself: 6/10
Strengths: you know your customers' questions better than anyone, and the first checks cost nothing.Google's hiring guidance says small local businesses can do much of the work themselves after reading the starter guide.
Limits: firewall rules, structured data and steady weekly publishing are where owners stall. Pick it if: your site is small, you have a few hours a week, and you are comfortable in Search Console.Freelance AEO specialist: 7/10
Strengths: one focused person, quick to start, usually close to the latest platform changes.A good freelancer will interview you properly, which is how answer pages get first-hand detail.
Limits: capacity; developer fixes, content and outreach compete for the same hours. Pick it if: your main gap is answers and access, and you already have a developer on call.📞 Weighing a freelancer against a team? Book a free SEO strategy session and we will show you which of the five lanes your site actually needs covered. → Get your free strategy session
Generalist marketing agency: 6/10
Strengths: one invoice for ads, social, web and content, with account managers and fixed timelines. Limits: AEO is often rebranded content writing, without crawler checks or platform reporting.Ask whether the advice matches Google's generative AI optimisation guide; Google's hiring page now asks exactly that about AEO and GEO services.
Pick it if: search is a small part of your marketing and you mainly need consistency.Specialist SEO and AEO agency: 8/10
Strengths: technical, content and link people working from one plan, with a reporting rhythm.Because Google sees AEO and GEO as "still SEO", an agency that is strong at core SEO usually carries that strength into AI answers.
Limits: quality varies, and some sell gimmicks; Google lists llms.txt files, chunking and special markup as things its search ignores. Pick it if: you need several pages a month, technical fixes and links at once.Goldie Agency: 8.5/10
Strengths: Goldie Agency positions itself as an SEO, GEO, AEO and link building agency, so the five lanes sit under one team.Its homepage cites "10+ years of results in tough niches", and its link building is described as "manual outreach, no PBNs".
Julian Goldie's about page says the team tests AI SEO, GEO and AEO strategies on its own websites every week and shares the results publicly.
Julian's own published numbers include 1,000+ SEO and link building campaigns, 240+ clients and 425K+ YouTube subscribers for his AI SEO videos.
Limits: those numbers are self-reported, so ask for examples you can check, as you should with anyone.Its service list mentions llms.txt setup; Google says its own search does not use llms.txt, so treat that as useful for other systems only.
Pick it if: you want access, content, entity work and links handled together by one team.🔥 Want the DIY score closer to a 9? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you get step-by-step video trainings, the installable Agent OS and four live coaching calls a week, so you can learn AI SEO yourself and close the gaps that cost DIY owners points. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom
Where every option falls short
No option controls the outcome.
Bing's Webmaster Guidelines state that GEO does not guarantee grounding or citations in AI experiences.
OpenAI's ChatGPT search article says placement is not guaranteed.
Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking.
So the scores measure how well each option does the work, not whether a citation is promised.
Reporting: the tiebreaker
When two options score close, pick the one that reports better.
Good reporting uses Google's generative AI performance reports in Search Console, available to all sites since 31 August 2026.
It adds Bing's AI Performance report, which shows citations across Copilot.
It also includes referral data from analytics; in our own accounts, ChatGPT visits typically appear with chatgpt.com as the source.
Google is blunt that outside tools cannot see inside its ranking or AI systems, so a private "AI score" on its own does not count as reporting.
What the day-to-day work looks like, whoever does it
The options differ in who does each task, but the task list barely changes.
- Checking that robots.txt, CDN rules and meta tags still let search crawlers through after site updates.
- Collecting buyer questions from calls, reviews and support emails.
- Writing or editing answer pages that open with the plain answer and add first-hand detail.
- Comparing business facts across the website, Business Profile and directories.
- Drafting structured data that matches the visible page, which both Google and Bing require.
- Pulling AI impressions and citations from the platform reports into a weekly log.
When you compare quotes, ask each option to show you who does every line on this list, and how often.
Skills that separate an 8 from a 5
Across all five options, the same skills explain most of the gap in our scores.
- Reading crawl evidence: server logs and firewall events, not just a crawler tool's summary.
- Knowing the bot split: search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot versus training crawlers such as GPTBot, which OpenAI says are set independently.
- Interviewing: pulling real stories and numbers out of a busy owner.
- Editing hard: cutting AI drafts down to what is true, specific and useful.
- Citing sources: backing each recommendation with official documentation, as Google's hiring page suggests you ask for.
A provider strong on all five earns its score regardless of size.
Who should pick what
- A sole trader with a simple site: DIY, with a one-off audit from a specialist.
- A local service firm with two or three locations: a freelancer or a specialist agency, depending on how many pages you need.
- A firm that already pays a generalist agency: keep them for ads, and add a specialist for AI search.
- A business that needs links, content and technical work together: a specialist agency such as Goldie Agency.
A small-business example, step by step
Take a family-run dental clinic choosing between options.
- The owner asks an assistant about emergency dental care in the area and notes which clinics are cited.
2. The receptionist lists the ten questions patients ask most on the phone.
3. The owner checks the site against that list and finds only three questions answered.
4. The developer confirms the firewall blocks unknown bots, which a DIY owner would not have spotted.
5. With access, content and markup all needing work, the clinic chooses a specialist team over DIY.
Because health topics carry extra weight for accuracy in Google's helpful content guidance, the clinic also insists every page is checked by a dentist.
The red flags that drop any option to zero
- A guaranteed #1 ranking or a guaranteed mention in ChatGPT.
- Claims of a "special relationship" with Google or a "priority submit".
- Link schemes or paid links without rel="sponsored" or nofollow, against Google's spam policies.
- Hundreds of near-identical pages built for query variations.
- Refusal to list the changes made to your site.
The final verdict
For most small and mid-sized businesses, a specialist SEO and AEO team is the strongest choice because the work spans five lanes that rarely sit with one person.
DIY is a sound start for simple sites, and a freelancer works well when the gap is narrow.
Whoever you pick, demand official sources for every recommendation and reporting from the platforms themselves.
📞 Want a verdict on your own site? Book a free SEO strategy session and we will score your current setup against the same five criteria. → Book your free strategy session
🎁 Free tools to raise your own score Grab the 200+ AI SEO Prompts for audits and answer pages, and the free link building book for the links lane. → Learn AI SEO yourself in the AI Profit Boardroom
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The weekly operating routine an AEO specialist runs, with exact settings
- 🌐 Whether hiring an AEO specialist is worth it for a small business
- 🌐 Five Agent OS prompts that do an AEO specialist's groundwork
- 🌐 Which AI models an AEO specialist should draft with, using live Page scores
FAQ: AEO Specialist Verdict
Which option scored highest in this verdict?
A specialist SEO and AEO team scored highest because it covers access, content, entity facts, links and reporting together. Goldie Agency is one example of that model.
Is DIY AEO a realistic choice?
Yes for small, simple sites. Google says small local businesses can do much of their own SEO, and the access checks and question list are free to run.
How were the ratings decided?
They are editorial judgements built from Google, Bing, OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic documentation about what the work requires, not from lab tests.
What is the biggest red flag in any AEO offer?
A guarantee of a #1 ranking or a ChatGPT mention. Google, Bing and OpenAI all say these outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
Does a freelancer or an agency report better?
It depends on the person, but agencies usually have a fixed reporting rhythm. Ask either one to show reports built from Search Console and Bing exports.
📺 Video notes + links to the tools 👉
🎥 Learn how I make these videos 👉
🆓 Get a FREE AI Course + Community + 1,000 AI Agents 👉
About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
- My Udemy courses have taught over 29,000 students.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Score your own options against the same five criteria, ignore anyone who guarantees a citation, and book a free SEO strategy session if you want a second view before you choose an AEO specialist.
