What does an AI SEO agency do?
An AI SEO agency makes your website easy for AI tools to find, understand and quote, so your business gets named when someone asks ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode, Perplexity or Copilot for a recommendation. You'll also hear it called LLM SEO, after the large language models behind these tools.
The aim is the same as normal SEO: show up when a customer is looking. What's changed is where they look. Google's AI Mode started rolling out in Australia in October 2025, and plenty of searches now end with an AI written answer that names a few businesses instead of a page of links.
We're based in Perth and work with businesses across Australia. I do the audit, the fixes and the reporting myself, with no outsourcing and one point of contact.
How do AI tools decide which businesses to recommend?
They search an index, pick pages that answer the question clearly, and cite some of them. Which index they use, and which crawler you have to let in, depends on the tool:
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google's normal index and ranking systems. Your page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet.
- ChatGPT search relies on OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler. OpenAI says sites that block it won't show up in ChatGPT search answers.
- Perplexity uses PerplexityBot and asks site owners to allow it in robots.txt and any firewall.
- Copilot is built on Bing's index, so Bing indexing matters more than most businesses realise.
That's what each company says publicly as of November 2026. The details shift often, so we recheck them on every audit. For the longer version, read our guide to generative engine optimisation.
What's included in AI SEO and LLM SEO work?
Most of the work is technical access, page structure and clear facts. Here's what an audit checks and what implementation fixes:
| Work | What it means | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| AI crawler access | Checking robots.txt, hosting and firewall rules for Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot | If they can't read the site, nothing else counts |
| Answer-first pages | The first two sentences of each page answer the main question, with a real number | AI tools quote short, specific answers |
| A page per service and area | Each service you sell gets its own page, mapped to real searches | One catch-all page is hard to cite for anything |
| FAQ and business schema | Structured data that matches the visible page | Helps search engines read your facts correctly |
| llms.txt | A plain text summary of your business and key pages | Optional. Google doesn't use it, some other AI tools may |
| Business listings | Google Business Profile, Bing Places and directories with matching details | Conflicting facts make you harder to recommend |
| Tracking | Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance and GA4 AI referrals | So you can see what's changing |
How much does an AI SEO agency cost?
Our AI SEO work starts with an AEO audit from $1,500 ex GST. Full implementation across a site is $3,000 to $8,000 ex GST, depending on how many pages you have and how complex they are. Ongoing SEO and AEO is from $950 a month ex GST.
| Service | Price (ex GST) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| AEO audit | From $1,500 | Knowing exactly what to fix, in order |
| Full AEO implementation | $3,000 to $8,000 | Getting the fixes done across your whole site |
| Ongoing SEO and AEO | From $950 a month | Publishing, monitoring and improving month after month |
| New website built for AI search | From $3,250 | Sites that cost more to patch than to rebuild |
GST is added on top. Every quote is fixed and in writing before work starts, and there's no lock-in contract on the monthly work.
Where you stand in Google and AI search, and what to fix first.
- Checked against 30+ AI search factors
- Who AI tools cite instead of you
- Quick wins identified
- A prioritised action plan
Ongoing work for businesses that want to be found.
- Service and suburb pages
- Google Business Profile work
- Schema and AI search setup
- A monthly report
A full AI search build across your current site.
- Answer-first page rewrites
- FAQ, schema and entity setup
- llms.txt and AI crawler access
- Initial monitoring
When the current site is holding you back.
- 5 to 8 pages, one per service
- Written for local and AI search
- Schema, analytics, Search Console
- Live in 2 to 4 weeks
Prices exclude GST. No lock-in contracts. Every quote is fixed and in writing before work starts.
Can an AI SEO agency guarantee you'll be cited?
No. Any agency that guarantees ChatGPT mentions or AI Overview spots is promising something it doesn't control. AI answers are written fresh each time and change with the person's wording, location and history.
Google's guide to its generative AI features, updated July 2026, is also clear that there's no special trick: no required AI files, no special schema, no need to chop content into chunks. Its advice is to keep doing solid SEO with first-hand, useful content.
That's why our work is mostly fundamentals done properly, and why I report on things you can actually measure: citations in Bing's AI Performance report, AI referral visits in GA4, Search Console data and the enquiries that follow.
AI search work on recent builds
Here's what AI search readiness looks like on three sites we launched in September 2026:
- Nailed It Creations, a Brisbane custom home builder: 87 questions in FAQ schema across 19 pages, an llms.txt file and one clear call to action site-wide.
- Perth Ceiling Contracting: 12 pages, each mapped to a real search from live keyword data, 79 FAQ schema questions and prices published, which gives AI tools a real figure to quote.
- Calabreeze, a Perth aircon, refrigeration, electrical and security contractor: an 8 page site built from live search data, structured for AI search, with GA4 and Search Console from day one.
Every site we build allows the main AI crawlers and ships with an llms.txt file. If you're not sure what that file does, here's our plain guide to what llms.txt is and who reads it.
Is AI SEO different from regular SEO?
Less than the sales pitches suggest. Most of the work is the same: crawlable pages, a page per service, useful content and consistent business details. What AI SEO adds is extra attention to non-Google crawlers, answer-first writing, real numbers and checking how AI tools actually describe you.
If you want the answer engine side in depth, see our AEO services in Australia.
Who it's not for: if you don't have a website yet, or your Google Business Profile has no reviews, put your money there first. AI tools lean on the same signals as Google. A brand new business with no footprint won't get cited because of a few technical fixes.
