Should you hire an agency or a consultant?
Choose the delivery model around the work and the people available to do it. An agency can supply several disciplines at once. A consultant can provide direct specialist support. Neither model guarantees senior attention, implementation capacity or better results.
Choose an agency when you need several specialists
A migration involving developers, content writers, analytics and international markets can need a coordinated team. Ask to meet the people assigned to your account. Check whether the fee buys their delivery time or access to advice that your team must implement.
Choose a consultant when you need a named specialist
A consultant can suit an owner-led business or an in-house team with a specific gap. Sunny Patel (my own consultancy) and Tom Riley are the independent consultants in the shortlist above. My listing is clearly labelled because this is my website. Ask either of us about capacity, cover during absence and the work you will need to provide.
Keep implementation in-house when the capacity already exists
An experienced internal team may need a technical audit, training or a migration review instead of a monthly retainer. Buy the missing capability. Paying for a strategy document won't remove a development bottleneck.
The consultant-versus-agency guide explains the practical trade-offs in more detail.
How much should you budget for an SEO company?
Budget for the full programme: agency or consultant fees, implementation, content production and any external costs. A monthly headline price isn't comparable until each proposal covers the same scope.
Pricing status for this shortlist: current like-for-like quotes haven't been obtained from these providers. Ask each shortlisted company for a written proposal. A missing public price isn't evidence of poor quality, and a low price alone doesn't tell you whether a focused service is worthwhile.
Use your budget to define a realistic scope:
- A limited project budget: ask for one specific outcome, such as diagnosing an indexation problem or reviewing a planned migration. Agree whether fixes are included.
- An ongoing single-channel budget: prioritise the pages, technical fixes and content most closely connected to your commercial goal. Ask how much implementation the fee covers.
- A broader growth budget: separate technical SEO, editorial production, digital PR, international work and measurement. Give each workstream an owner and an allowance.
Compare the total commitment, not just the retainer
Illustrative example, not a market quote: a £2,000 monthly fee costs £12,000 over six months. Add £1,500 for setup and £3,000 for development and content outside the retainer, and the total becomes £16,500 before any applicable VAT. Another provider's higher monthly fee could cost less overall if those items are included.
Ask for the setup fee, monthly fee, initial term, notice period, production allowances, software charges and out-of-scope rates in one written breakdown. Include your own team's time in the decision.
The UK SEO cost guide covers the different engagement types. Confirm the actual scope and fee directly with each provider.
What makes an SEO case study useful?
A useful case study explains the starting problem, the work performed, the measurement period and the business outcome. A traffic graph without those details is an invitation to ask questions.
Use these checks before treating a result as relevant to your business:
- Comparable starting point. Match the site type, platform, market and constraints. A large retailer's content budget tells you little about a local service business's options.
- Defined numbers. Ask whether the result measures clicks, estimated traffic, revenue or qualified enquiries. Check the date range, baseline and whether branded searches are included.
- Business relevance. More visits to informational articles may not improve sales. Ask which landing pages and customer actions changed.
- Contribution and context. Check for migrations, seasonality, paid campaigns and other changes during the same period. Before-and-after results alone don't isolate the agency's contribution.
- A reference conversation. Ask for a relevant client reference or an anonymised walkthrough with permission. Confidentiality can legitimately limit public evidence.
A published result is still the provider's claim. This guide checks what providers publicly offer and show. It doesn't independently audit their client analytics or certify their results. Awards and review scores can prompt further investigation; they don't replace a conversation about the team and work you will receive.
What should the first 90 days look like?
The first 90 days should produce an agreed baseline, prioritised work and evidence that changes are being implemented. The sequence below is a planning framework, not a promise of traffic growth by day 90.
Days 1-30: agree the problem and the baseline
Confirm the commercial objective, tracking, priority products or services and access arrangements. Record the important landing pages and current results. Turn the audit into a short backlog with impact, effort, owner and dependencies. Urgent technical problems should have a clear response plan.
Days 31-60: deliver the priority changes
Ship agreed technical fixes and improve the highest-priority pages. Test the changes on the live site. Record what was released and when. Resolve blockers quickly; a report of recommendations is different from a report of completed work.
Days 61-90: review outcomes and revise the plan
Compare performance against the baseline and the implementation log. Look at qualified enquiries, sales and priority-page performance alongside search visibility. Explain what remains uncertain. Agree what to continue, change or stop for the next quarter.
Ask every month: what changed, why did it matter, what evidence do we have, and what happens next? The answer should be understandable without decoding a dashboard.
How should you assess AI SEO, AEO and GEO services?
Assess AI-search services by their specific work and measurement. AEO and GEO describe attempts to improve visibility in answer engines and generative search. The label alone doesn't show what a provider will do or whether it suits your buyers.
Ask the provider to explain:
- Which platforms and buyer questions it will track, including the language, market and dates.
- Whether it measures brand mentions, linked citations, referral visits or enquiries. These are different outcomes.
- How it will improve content accuracy, crawl access and relevant third-party coverage.
- How it will repeat measurements and report variation instead of choosing one favourable screenshot.
- Which tasks are already included in SEO and which incur additional fees.
Google says its existing SEO practices remain relevant to AI Overviews and AI Mode. It doesn't require special AI markup or a new machine-readable file for eligibility. That guidance concerns Google's features; it doesn't establish how every other AI platform selects sources. See Google's AI search guidance.
A provider should be able to explain the work even when the outcome is uncertain. A promise of a permanent position in an AI answer isn't a useful substitute for a measurable plan.
What should you check before signing?
Get the delivery plan and commercial terms in writing before choosing a provider. Use the same questions with an agency, a consultant or me.
- Delivery: who does the work, who approves it and who publishes the changes?
- Scope: what is included, what is excluded and how are extra requests priced?
- Ownership: who controls the domain, analytics, Search Console, content and deliverables?
- Access: can an initial assessment use read-only access? Who receives broader access after appointment?
- Accountability: what is reported, how often do you meet and who handles problems?
- Exit: what are the minimum term, renewal arrangements, notice period and handover process?
- Methods: how are content, outreach and links produced? Can the provider explain its recommendations?
Google's hiring guidance advises checking previous work and references and warns against guaranteed first-place rankings. Read Google's advice on hiring an SEO alongside the proposals.
Pause if the provider won't explain its methods, won't identify the delivery team or promises guaranteed rankings. A polished pitch doesn't resolve those gaps.
How this shortlist was researched
This is an editorial shortlist for UK buyers, based on the linked public service pages and work examples checked on 12 September 2026. It isn't an exhaustive survey of the market or a scored league table. Providers appear alphabetically. The filters reflect my assessment of their published services, not exclusive capabilities or independently tested performance.
The comparison uses four questions: does the provider describe relevant services, is there public work or methodology to inspect, can a buyer understand its delivery model, and does it offer a useful option for one of the needs covered here?
I haven't hired every provider, requested comparable quotes or independently audited their client results. Availability, fees and team assignments need confirmation. Published examples are starting points for due diligence, not guarantees.
Commercial disclosure: I sell SEO services. The comparison and structured list include 16 providers: my own consultancy and 15 external providers. My row and profile identify me as the guide's author. This is my editorial selection, not an independent recommendation of my business. Tom Riley has also featured me in his consultant guides; that connection is disclosed in his profile.
