Switching from an SEO agency to AEO: what changes

Switching from a traditional SEO agency to answer engine optimisation is less of a reset than it sounds. Most of the technical foundation still matters. What changes is what you measure, where effort goes, and which deliverables are worth paying for.

What carries over

• Crawlable, fast pages. Assistants that browse the web still need to fetch and read your pages.
• Clear information architecture. One page per service or question is easier to quote than one page covering everything.
• Accurate structured data. Schema that agrees with visible copy helps both search engines and assistants.

What is new

• The unit of success. SEO earns a place in a list of links. AEO earns a mention inside the answer.
• Measurement. Rank tracking gives way to a fixed set of buyer questions run each month across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. See how to measure AI visibility.
• Corroboration. Directories, roundups and earned coverage carry more weight, because assistants cross-check. See digital PR and AI citations.
• Extractable writing. Direct answers in short passages, not keywords spread across long copy.

What to stop paying for

• Monthly reports that only show keyword positions with no view of AI answers.
• Content produced to hit a word count for terms with almost no search volume in your market.
• Link schemes and bulk placements that no credible publication would carry.

Questions to ask before you switch

1. Will you record a baseline across named assistants before any work starts?
2. Which third-party sources do assistants cite in our category today?
3. What happens to the schema, content and data if we stop?
4. Do you guarantee citations? (The honest answer is no.)

A longer version of this checklist is in how to evaluate an AEO agency.

What we offer

AI SEO & Answer Engine Optimisation is €2,500 per month, flat, with no setup fee and a three-month minimum. It covers the technical foundation from your SEO work plus the measurement, entity and corroboration work AEO adds. Citations are monitored, not guaranteed. Excl. VAT/MVA, none added while we are not registered. Start with the Free AI Audit, delivered within two working days.

Related reading

• AEO and GEO in Norway: a guide for Nordic B2B buyers
• How to measure AI visibility each month
• Digital PR and AI citations belong in one plan
• How to evaluate an AEO agency: seven questions