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How to Hire an AEO Consultant or Agency
Hire an AEO consultant when ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews recommend competitors instead of you and nobody on your team owns fixing it. You do not need to hire new people for AEO: a senior consultant can own strategy and execution on your live site, with first results in 2-3 weeks that compound every month. Choose a consultant for senior ownership and speed, an agency when you need a large team across many channels, and an in-house hire only when you need a full-time manager.
This guide covers when to hire, consultant vs agency vs in-house, the questions to ask before you sign, how long an engagement runs, and the proof to demand. Austin Heaton has 12+ years in search, and his engagements are fully hands-off for clients: he owns the strategy and the work.
Proof you can check today: Rise grew AI search traffic 575% and organic traffic 288% in 12 months. iSpeedToLead citation share and Pactvera early visibility wins are documented too, all linked from the portfolio and the results page.
Start here
- AEO consultant vs agency
- AEO consultant vs in-house
- Questions to ask before you hire
- Top 20 AEO agencies and consultants 2026
- SEO and AI search results
- Case studies
- White-label AEO for agencies
How engagements work
Engagements have a 3-month minimum and are fully hands-off for your team. Pricing depends on scope and goals and is discussed on a call. Local AEO is available, and white-label AEO is offered for agencies. See how engagements work, the services list, or estimate the upside with the AEO ROI calculator.
Frequently asked questions
When should you hire an AEO consultant?
Hire one when buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews for a vendor in your category and the answer names competitors instead of you, when Google rankings hold but AI referrals stay flat, or when nobody on your team owns AI search. If AI engines already recommend you for your money queries, you may only need monitoring.
Do I need to hire new people for AEO?
No. A senior AEO consultant can own strategy and execution on your live site without a new hire. Austin's engagements are fully hands-off for clients: he ships the money pages, entity and schema work, technical fixes and citation work himself. Compare the models on AEO consultant vs in-house.
Consultant or agency?
A senior consultant owns strategy and execution with fewer handoffs. Large agencies often retrofit classic SEO. Compare both models on AEO consultant vs agency.
What questions should I ask before hiring?
Ask who does the work day to day, which engines are covered, what the first 90 days ship, how AI citations and referrals are reported, and how long the minimum term is. The full list is in questions to ask an AEO consultant before you hire.
What proof should I ask for?
Ask for published case studies with engine-level metrics, not vanity traffic alone. Rise, for example, grew AI search traffic 575% and organic traffic 288% in 12 months. See the portfolio and the results page.
How long is a typical AEO engagement?
Austin's engagements have a 3-month minimum. First results show within 2-3 weeks and compound every month, and AI recommendations are guaranteed. Pricing depends on scope and goals and is discussed on a call: see how engagements work and estimate the upside with the AEO ROI calculator.
Can my agency hire an AEO consultant white-label?
Yes. White-label AEO is available for agencies that want the work delivered under their own brand. See white-label AEO.
Last reviewed October 20, 2026 by Austin Heaton.
Next step: get a live read of where AI engines recommend competitors instead of you.
Consultant vs Full-Time Hire
The hire, not the definitionIn-house is the right call in some companies. Fractional is the right call in others. Here is the comparison a marketing or growth lead actually has to make.
Cost
Senior work without a full-time seat, scoped to your goals on a call.
Hiring a senior SEO or AEO leader often costs $150,000 - $250,000+ annually after salary, benefits, software, contractors, and content production.
Speed
Starts on the live site. Money pages, entity work, and citations can move in the first month.
Recruiting, offer, notice period, then ramp. You wait before the first commercial page ships.
Seniority
You work with Austin. Strategy and execution sit with one senior owner. See the AEO + SEO strategist page.
You hire a leader. That person still has to prove the AEO skill set and still has to staff the work.
Execution
Austin owns strategy and the work: money pages, technical SEO, mentions, MOFU/BOFU, citations.
A SEO lead still needs writers, PR, and tech. The hire is a manager seat unless you also fund the bench.
AEO vs classic SEO
Built for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, plus Google. Citations, entities, commercial pages.
Most SEO lead job specs are still classic SEO: rankings, content calendar, reporting. AEO is a different skill set.
Time-to-first-citation
The work starts on the pages buyers already ask AI about. Faster path to a citable commercial page.
First citation waits on hiring, then on the production team the hire still has to assemble.
In-house is not the wrong answer. It is a different job.
Be honest about the seatDo not hire a consultant when you need a people manager. Do not hire a SEO lead when you need senior AEO shipped this quarter.
You need a full-time manager inside the building.
- You already have a large content, PR, and eng bench that needs daily people management
- Internal politics require someone in every standup, every week, on payroll
- You are building a multi-year search org, not shipping a citation system
- You have the budget for the $150,000 - $250,000+ fully loaded seat plus the writers and contractors that seat still needs
You need senior ownership of the work, not another org chart.
- You want one senior owner across Google and AI search without a full-time hire. That is fractional SEO
- You need money pages and citations now, not after a six-month search
- You do not have (and do not want) a large SEO-only SEO team to manage
- The gap is AEO skill and commercial execution, not headcount
What Austin Does in the Consultant Seat
Strategy plus the workThis is not a strategy deck handed to a junior team. Austin owns the commercial pages, the entity signals, and the technical foundation that get you cited.
Comparisons, alternatives, and use cases your category already loses to review sites
Mentions, schema, and knowledge-graph signals so models can name you correctly
Crawl access, structured data, and page architecture AI systems can retrieve
Commercial content for buyers already comparing vendors, not another TOFU blog
Citation work across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews
AEO + SEO strategist or fractional search lead: one senior owner
Cases Already on This Site.
Documented on this siteThese are the live case studies. Same numbers as the portfolio.
6,000%+ impression growth, featured next to DocuSign in 11 days
Read the Pactvera case study →310.8% AI search growth and #1 citation share at 7.79%
Read the iSpeedToLead case study →Free AEO Report Card
We review where your site loses visibility across technical, on-site, and off-site, then send the exact fixes.
Get My Free Report Card →Clients & Partners
FAQ
AEO + SEO strategist vs SEO-only team: what is the actual decision?
You are choosing who owns Google and AI search, and whether that person also does the work.
An AEO + SEO strategist or fractional search lead is a senior owner who ships money pages, entity work, technical SEO, and citations. An SEO-only team is a full-time seat. That hire still needs writers, PR, and tech unless you fund those too.
How much does an SEO-only team cost?
Hiring a senior SEO or AEO leader often costs $150,000 - $250,000+ annually after salary, benefits, software, contractors, and content production expenses.
That is the fully loaded seat, not just base salary. If the consultant model fits, we scope it on a call.
When should we hire SEO-only instead?
Hire SEO-only when you need a full-time people manager, a large team already in the building, and someone inside every internal political loop.
Hire the consultant model when you need senior AEO now and one person who owns strategy and execution. Adjacent: AEO for B2B, AEO for FinTech, AEO for Crypto.
Does a SEO lead still need writers and PR?
Yes, in most companies. The title is leadership. The citations still come from commercial pages, entity mentions, and technical access. Austin's consultant seat covers strategy and that work.
What proof do you have?
Documented on this site. Riseworks: 288% organic growth and 575% AI search expansion. Pactvera: 6,000%+ impression growth and placement next to DocuSign in 11 days. iSpeedToLead: 310.8% AI search growth and the #1 citation share at 7.79%. See the case studies.
How do we start?
Book a call. We look at whether you need a full-time SEO lead or a consultant / fractional owner. Book a Call or use the contact page.
Ready to Choose the Hire?
If you need senior AEO ownership and you are deciding between a consultant and a full-time SEO lead, book the call. We will tell you which model fits.