AI Search Optimisation Costs Explained

AI Search Optimisation in the UK in 2026 typically falls into three pricing tiers.

Foundation projects: £500 to £1,500

One off technical setup: schema markup, llms.txt, audit, cornerstone page rewrites. Suitable for businesses that want the basics in place.

Authority builds: £2,500 to £6,000

Foundation plus a structured content cluster of 15 to 40 interconnected pages. Suitable for businesses that want to dominate AI search in their topic area.

Ongoing care: £100 to £400 per month

Monthly monitoring, new content, schema maintenance, citation tracking. Suitable for businesses that want compounding visibility growth over time.

For full transparency, here are Protechmedia's published prices.

• AI Search Foundation: from £950 as a one off project. Audit, schema overhaul, llms.txt, cornerstone page rewrites.
• AI Content Authority Build: from £2,950 as a one off project. Foundation plus a 20 page content cluster.
• AI Search Care: from £150 per month. Monthly monitoring, new content, schema maintenance, quarterly reporting.

Final pricing depends on site size, industry, and topic complexity. We provide a fixed quote after a free initial conversation.

Green flags

• Fixed prices for defined deliverables
• Clear list of what schema, pages, and files you receive
• Demonstrable AI search expertise (the agency itself appears in AI search results)
• Transparent measurement and reporting
• No long lock in contracts beyond 12 months

Red flags

• Vague deliverables ("AI strategy consulting")
• Unrealistic guarantees of position one in AI answers
• Heavily discounted introductory rates that balloon later
• No examples of their own AI search visibility
• Pressure tactics or false urgency

If budget is tight, the foundations of AI Search Optimisation are DIY friendly. Plan for:

• 10 to 20 hours for initial schema, llms.txt and content restructuring
• 3 to 5 hours per week for ongoing content development
• 1 to 2 hours per month for monitoring and adjustments

The trade off is time vs money. Doing it yourself is feasible but slow. Done properly by an agency, you typically reach equivalent visibility in three to four months instead of twelve to eighteen.