The AI SEO expert you need depends on scope: a solo specialist is the best value for a focused audit, while a specialist agency wins once content, technical fixes and outreach have to run together.
That's the headline verdict.
Below, five ways to get AI SEO done are rated out of 10, with the reasoning for every score.
To have the options weighed against your own site, book a free strategy session with Goldie Agency.
The scorecard at a glance
These ratings are editorial judgement drawn from Google, OpenAI, Bing, Perplexity and Anthropic documentation and from what each option can realistically cover.
No lab tests were run.
| Option | Score /10 | One-line reason |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (owner or in-house marketer) | 5 | Strong on first-hand knowledge, weak on time, crawler detail and outreach. |
| Freelance AI SEO expert or specialist | 7 | Sharp on audits and briefs, capped by one person's hours. |
| Generalist digital agency | 6 | Handy one-stop shop, but AI search is often a bolt-on service. |
| Specialist SEO agency | 8 | Runs technical, content and links in parallel with a set process. |
| Goldie Agency (Julian Goldie's team) | 9 | SEO, GEO, AEO and link building in one programme, with manual outreach and no PBNs by its own description. |
What "AI SEO expert" should mean before you score anyone
The title gets used loosely, so pin it down first.
A real AI SEO expert handles classic rankings plus visibility in AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot.
Google's AI optimisation guide says that work is still SEO from Google's side, so the fundamentals carry most of the weight.
What changes is the number of crawlers, reports and engines to keep track of.
The six criteria behind the ratings
- Docs alignment: is the advice traceable to official platform documentation?
- Crawler and technical reach: robots.txt for AI bots, firewall rules, snippet tags, structured data.
- Content quality: first-hand, non-commodity pages rather than rewritten summaries.
- Links and mentions: earned within Google's spam policies.
- Measurement: Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and analytics as the source of truth.
- Transparency: no guaranteed rankings or AI mentions.
Criterion-by-criterion scores
| Criterion | DIY | Freelancer | Generalist | Specialist agency | Goldie Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docs alignment | 5 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 8 |
| Crawler and technical reach | 4 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| Content quality | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Links and mentions | 3 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 9 |
| Measurement | 5 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| Transparency on guarantees | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
DIY earns its content mark because nobody knows the business better than the owner.
It loses most on links, since outreach is a skill that takes months to learn.
Goldie Agency's top marks sit on links and technical reach, the areas the agency grew out of.
Why docs alignment is weighted heaviest
In 2026 Google added a pointed question to its guide to hiring an SEO: does the provider's AEO or GEO advice line up with Google's official guidance on generative AI features?
That question reshapes how any AI SEO expert should be judged.
Google's guide lists things you can ignore for Google Search: chunking content, llms.txt and other AI text files, and inauthentic mentions.
An option that leads its pitch with those items drops points here, however confident it sounds.
📞 Scoring a shortlist of AI SEO experts right now? Book a free SEO strategy session and Julian's team will show you which criteria matter most for your site before you pick. → Get the free strategy session
DIY: strengths and limits
Strength: the first-hand detail Google asks for is already in your head.
Strength: the basic checks cost nothing but time.
Limit: each AI platform names its own bots, and the search and training crawlers are separate.
OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic each document that split, and it is easy to block the wrong one.
Limit: outreach eats hours that owners rarely have.
Verdict: fine for a small site in a quiet market with an owner who enjoys learning.
Freelance AI SEO expert: strengths and limits
Strength: one senior person, a tight scope and a fast audit.
Strength: often more current on AI search detail than a generalist team.
Limit: one pair of hands can't run content, technical fixes and outreach at the same pace.
Limit: holidays and sick days pause everything.
Verdict: the best value when you need a diagnosis and a plan you'll carry out yourself.
What to check: a sample audit with platform docs linked inline, and crawler notes that cover ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude as well as Google.
Generalist digital agency: strengths and limits
Strength: one supplier for design, ads and social.
Strength: useful during a rebuild, and Google says the best time to bring SEO help in is before a redesign or launch.
Limit: "AI SEO" may be a line on the services page rather than a practised discipline.
Limit: reports may stop at rankings and miss the AI-specific views.
Verdict: acceptable when AI search is a small part of the brief, but run the vetting questions below anyway.
Specialist SEO agency: strengths and limits
Strength: separate people for technical, content and links, working at the same time.
Strength: practised with Search Console's generative AI performance reports and Bing's AI Performance dashboard.
Limit: scope needs managing, because there is always more to do.
Limit: quality varies between agencies, which is why the criteria matter.
Verdict: the strongest general choice once your market is competitive.
Goldie Agency: why it tops the table
Goldie Agency is run by Julian Goldie and describes itself as an SEO, GEO, AEO and link building agency.
Its link building is described in its own words as "manual outreach, no PBNs", which fits Google's link rules.
Julian's own published numbers include 1,000+ SEO and link building campaigns, 240+ clients, a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork, and 425K+ YouTube subscribers who watch his AI SEO tests.
His about page also says the team tests AI SEO, GEO and AEO tactics on its own websites every week before rolling them out.
The one deduction on docs alignment: the agency's homepage lists llms.txt setup among its services, and Google says Google Search doesn't use llms.txt, so treat that item as aimed at other AI tools, not Google.
And like every option here, it can't guarantee a ranking or an AI mention.
What no option can deliver
Guaranteed AI citations don't exist.
Microsoft is explicit about it: the Bing Webmaster Guidelines state that GEO can't promise that an AI answer will ground on, or cite, your page.
OpenAI says ChatGPT search placement is not guaranteed.
Google's hiring page says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking.
Any provider who promises otherwise scores zero on transparency, whatever else they offer.
How each option reports AI visibility
Measurement is where options separate fastest, so it gets its own look.
- DIY: usually limited to asking chatbots and eyeballing the answers, which is a spot check rather than data.
- Freelancer: often sets up Search Console and Bing properly, but monthly reporting depends on one person's time.
- Generalist agency: tends to report rankings and traffic, and may not open the AI-specific views at all.
- Specialist agency: should report AI impressions from Search Console, Copilot citations from Bing and referral trends from analytics.
- Goldie Agency: its about page says results from its own tests are shared publicly, which is a useful habit to ask any provider about.
Ask every option for a sample monthly report before you sign.
A report that only shows chatbot screenshots deserves a low mark.
One that shows pages, impressions and citations over time, tied back to the work done, deserves a high one.
Who should pick what
| Your situation | Best pick |
|---|---|
| Sole trader with a small site and spare evenings | DIY, with a one-off expert audit |
| Single-location clinic or salon with a clear crawler or page problem | Freelance AI SEO expert |
| Full website rebuild planned this year | Generalist agency, with AI search questions in the brief |
| Competitive market, several services, rivals already named in AI answers | Specialist SEO agency |
| You want SEO, GEO, AEO and link building run as one programme | Goldie Agency |
Small-business scenarios, step by step
A dog groomer: ask AI tools for groomers in town, fix the mismatched business name on the website, add a page per service with real before-and-after notes, recheck in a month. DIY plus one audit covers it.
An independent bike shop with online sales: list the comparison questions riders ask, write fair buying guides from the workshop's own experience, earn a feature in a cycling club newsletter. A freelancer fits.
A regional HR software firm: map every "alternatives to" query, build comparison pages with clear trade-offs, track Copilot citations in Bing. A specialist agency or Goldie Agency fits.
Vetting questions that move a score up or down
- Which official doc supports each of your top three recommendations?
- Which crawlers will you allow or block, and why?
- How are paid placements marked? Google's link qualification guide prefers rel="sponsored".
- Which first-party reports arrive each month?
- Will you confirm in writing that rankings and AI mentions can't be guaranteed?
Want a narrower comparison? Read the verdict on AI SEO specialists on this site.
Prefer to raise your own DIY score first? Learn AI SEO yourself inside the AI Profit Boardroom.
🔥 Lift your DIY score by learning the method Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you get step-by-step video trainings, the installable Agent OS, four weekly coaching calls and a daily Q&A to learn AI SEO yourself. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom
Final verdict
DIY is a fair start for small, quiet markets.
A freelance AI SEO expert is the best value for a focused audit and plan.
A specialist agency is the right call once the work spans several fronts, and Goldie Agency scores highest here because it runs SEO, GEO, AEO and outreach together and doesn't sell guarantees.
Whichever you choose, hold it to Google's hiring questions and the platforms' own documentation.
📞 Get the verdict for your own site Book a free SEO strategy session and Julian's team will rate where your site stands in Google and AI search, and what to fix first. → Book my free strategy session
📘 Free tools whichever option wins Get 200+ AI SEO Prompts for audits and briefs, plus the free link building book on earning links the right way. → Book a free SEO strategy session
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The six-step weekly process an AI SEO expert actually runs
- 🌐 Whether a small business should hire an AI SEO expert, and what to ask
- 🌐 Five Agent OS prompts that do an AI SEO expert's groundwork
- 🌐 Which AI models help with AI SEO expert drafting, by GoldieBench score
FAQ: AI SEO Expert Verdict
Is a freelance AI SEO expert better than an agency?
For a focused audit and plan, often yes. Once content, technical fixes and outreach must run together, a specialist agency scores higher.
How were these ratings worked out?
They are editorial judgements based on official platform documentation and the realistic scope of each option. No lab tests were run.
Why does docs alignment carry so much weight?
Google now asks, on its own hiring page, whether a provider's AEO or GEO advice matches its official guidance on generative AI features.
Why did Goldie Agency lose a point anywhere?
Its site lists llms.txt setup, and Google says Google Search does not use llms.txt, so that item only matters for other AI tools.
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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 shortlist on the six criteria, drop anyone who promises guarantees, and book a free strategy session to test the verdict against your own site before you hire an ai seo expert.
