The best AI SEO specialist is Goldie Agency. You get Julian Goldie's 10+ years of SEO experience plus a delivery team, and the agency reports a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork with 240+ clients and 200+ five-star reviews. This page covers the choice most buyers get stuck on, hiring one specialist or hiring an agency, and gives you a scorecard to vet either.
📺 Watch: Claude AI SEO: 0 to 450 Clicks a Day
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Specialist or agency: the short answer
Hire a solo specialist when you have one clear problem and someone in-house to make the changes. Hire an agency when you need the problem found, fixed and kept fixed, across content, links and technical work at the same time.
Most businesses chasing AI visibility fall into the second group. Getting cited in AI answers touches crawling, page quality, links and measurement. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode run on the same core ranking and quality systems as normal Search. That means you can't fix one corner and expect AI answers to change.
Not sure which group you're in? Claim your free SEO strategy session and we'll tell you on the call.
When a solo specialist makes sense
- You have a developer and a writer in-house, and you need direction, not hands.
- The problem is narrow: a migration, a crawl issue, a schema clean-up.
- You want training for your own team. Google lists SEO training as one of the useful services an SEO can provide.
- You're a small local business. Google says you can probably do much of the work yourself, starting with its SEO Starter Guide.
If that's you, start by learning the systems. The AI Profit Boardroom is where Julian teaches AI SEO step by step, with the prompts, agents and workflows his team uses.
📺 Watch: Claude Opus 5.5 AI SEO: 0 to 1,300 Google Clicks!
When an agency makes more sense
- You need links. Google's spam policies class bought links for ranking as link spam, so outreach has to be done by hand on real sites. That takes a team.
- You need content at a steady pace that still adds first-hand value. Google warns that producing many pages mainly to manipulate rankings breaks its scaled content abuse policy, however they're made.
- You don't have anyone to make the changes a specialist recommends.
- You want one owner for results across Google, ChatGPT and other AI tools.
Goldie Agency covers those jobs. goldie.agency lists link building through manual outreach (no PBNs), site audits and AI automation. Ready to talk it through? Book your free SEO strategy session.
Narrower roles: AEO and GEO specialists
You'll also see people sell themselves as AEO or GEO specialists. Google's own guide defines AEO as answer engine optimization and GEO as generative engine optimization, and says that from its point of view this work is still SEO. The labels describe a focus, not a different rulebook.
If you want the detail on each role, read our guides to hiring an AEO specialist and a GEO specialist. For the GEO angle from a practitioner's side, see generative engine optimization specialist.
📺 Watch: How I Get My Websites Ranked #1 in Google AI Overviews!
The AI SEO specialist vetting scorecard
Score each candidate, specialist or agency, from 0 to 2 on every line. Most rows come straight from Google's "Do you need an SEO?" page and its guide to optimizing for generative AI. A total of 12 or more out of 16 is a strong hire. Under 8, keep looking.
| Check | Score 2 if they... | Score 0 if they... |
|---|---|---|
| Proof | Show dated results on sites they run or worked on | Show only screenshots with no dates or URLs |
| Guarantees | Give a realistic estimate and timeframe | Promise #1 in Google or a ChatGPT citation |
| Sources | Cite Google or OpenAI docs for their advice | Can't say where a tactic comes from |
| AI tactics | Focus on crawling, content and links first | Lead with llms.txt files or "chunking" pages |
| Links | Explain manual outreach and label paid links rel="sponsored" | Sell link packages from networks |
| Access | Ask for read-only Search Console access for the audit | Want full admin on day one |
| Interest | Ask about your customers, rivals and what makes you different | Talk only about their tool |
| Reporting | Use Search Console data and show every change they make | Report a private "AI score" you can't check |
Two rows are pass or fail. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and if someone does, find someone else. Google also says you should never have to link to an SEO.
What to get in writing before you start
A good scorecard result still needs a clear scope. Before you sign with a specialist or an agency, get these points written down.
- The first 30 days. Which audit, which fixes, which pages. Google says an audit should give realistic estimates of improvement and of the work involved.
- Who makes the changes. If the specialist only advises, name the person on your side who ships the work.
- How links get built. Manual outreach, the kind of sites, and how paid placements are labeled.
- What gets reported. Search Console clicks and impressions, plus the AI prompts they will track each month.
- Who owns the work. Your content, your accounts and your data stay yours if you part ways.
Google also reminds site owners that they are responsible for the actions of any company they hire. Written scope is how you stay in control.
How Goldie Agency scores on the same sheet
Run the scorecard on us. On proof, Julian's own Search Console data for aiprofitboardroom.com shows 328 clicks a month in October 2025 and 22,443 clicks a month in October 2026. His page for "best AI SEO community" hit #1 on Google on its first day, 22 September 2026.
On guarantees, we don't make any. On sources, we work from Google's published docs and OpenAI's crawler docs, which say a site must allow OAI-SearchBot to appear in ChatGPT search answers. On tools, we run research and reporting through the free Agent OS we use to automate SEO tasks. And we pick models by testing them in Goldie Bench, where we test AI models, not by habit.
Want the full picture first? Read what a broader AI SEO agency covers. Then book a free SEO strategy session and bring your scorecard.
Verdict: who to hire
Pick a solo specialist for one narrow problem when you have hands in-house. Pick an agency when you need strategy and delivery under one roof. For most businesses that want to show up in Google and in AI answers, the second option wins, and Goldie Agency is the AI SEO specialist team we'd put first.
Claim your free SEO strategy session to get our read on your site, or book a free SEO strategy session straight into the calendar.
FAQ
What's the difference between an AI SEO specialist and a normal SEO?
The base skills are the same. Google says optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO. An AI SEO specialist adds two things: they use AI tools to do the work faster, and they track how your brand shows up in AI answers as well as in rankings.
Should I hire in-house instead?
An in-house hire makes sense once you have steady work for a full-time person and someone senior to manage them. Before that point, a specialist or agency gives you more range for the same effort. Some teams do both: an agency for links and strategy, and an in-house writer.
How do I check a specialist's past work?
Ask for URLs and dates, then check the pages yourself in Google. Google also suggests asking past clients if the SEO was useful, easy to work with and got positive results.
Do I need llms.txt or special schema for AI search?
Not for Google. Google says its Search ignores llms.txt files and there's no special schema needed for AI features. Structured data still helps with rich results, so a specialist should keep using it where it fits.
Free resources
Start with 200+ AI SEO prompts, free, for research and audits. Then read Julian's free link building book, Link Building Mastery.
Want to learn the systems with other business owners? Join the AI Profit Boardroom. Want the work done for you? Book a free SEO strategy session or claim your free SEO strategy session with the AI SEO specialist team at Goldie Agency.
