SEO & AI Search Strategy
The search landscape has fundamentally shifted. If you're budgeting for SEO in 2026, the figures you used in 2024 are likely out of date—and potentially missing an entire category of services that didn't exist two years ago.
UK SEO and AEO Pricing for B2B Companies in 2026
The Bottom Line
UK SEO costs have risen 15-30% since 2024, with meaningful B2B campaigns now starting at £1,500-£2,500 per month rather than the £500-£1,000 entry points of two years ago. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) has emerged as an essential add-on service, typically priced at a 20-50% premium over traditional SEO. Despite AI disruption, SEO delivers an average 702% ROI for B2B SaaS with a 7-month break-even, while AI search traffic converts at 3-5x higher rates than traditional organic visitors.
The AI search disruption that Gartner predicted in February 2024 is now materialising. Google AI Overviews appear on 30% of desktop searches, driving a 61% decline in organic click-through rates when present. ChatGPT has exploded to over 800 million weekly active users. And UK agencies are scrambling to adapt—61% now offer or plan to offer AEO services.
This guide cuts through the noise with current pricing data, ROI benchmarks, and practical guidance for B2B companies navigating this transition. Whether you're reviewing your existing agency relationship or budgeting for 2026-27, you'll find the numbers you need to make informed decisions.
UK SEO Retainer Pricing Has Climbed Across All Tiers
The 2026 UK SEO market shows significant price increases from 2024, driven by competitive pressures, expanded service scope, and the integration of AI-related deliverables. Multiple industry sources now advise that budgets under £1,000 per month produce minimal results for most B2B companies.
| Business Size | 2024 Range | 2026 Range | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Business | £300-£800/month | £500-£1,200/month | +40-50% |
| SME | £700-£1,500/month | £1,000-£2,500/month | +40-65% |
| Mid-Market | £2,000-£4,000/month | £2,500-£5,000/month | +25% |
| Enterprise | £4,000-£12,000/month | £5,000-£20,000+/month | +25-65% |
Hourly consultant rates have also increased. UK freelancers now charge £40-£150 per hour depending on experience, while agency consultants bill £100-£300 per hour. Top-tier specialists command up to £1,000 per hour for specific expertise. The Backlinko 2025 survey of 300+ SEO professionals found UK consultants average £60 per hour at mid-level and £104 per hour for senior practitioners.
Project-based work remains popular for specific deliverables: comprehensive SEO audits run £1,000-£10,000 (enterprise audits reaching £15,000), website migrations cost £1,000-£15,000, and strategy development ranges from £1,000-£10,000. Individual SEO-optimised blog posts typically cost £80-£300 for 1,000 words.
Looking for a detailed SEO audit? Our SEO services include comprehensive technical, on-page, and content audits with clear, actionable recommendations.
AEO and GEO Services Emerge as Distinct Pricing Categories
AEO/GEO has rapidly evolved from experimental service to essential offering. UK agencies are pricing these services in three primary models: bundled with traditional SEO, standalone packages, and full AI search suites.
What is AEO?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), also known as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), is the practice of optimising content to appear in AI-generated search responses. This includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude. Unlike traditional SEO which aims for clicks, AEO aims for citations and recommendations within AI responses.
The broader UK market shows AEO/GEO services typically starting at £1,500 per month, with comprehensive packages running £2,500-£5,000 per month for mid-sized businesses. Enterprise-level GEO services—covering multiple AI platforms with extensive content operations—reach £10,000-£30,000 per month globally, though UK agencies generally price at the lower end of this range.
New Service Categories Emerging
- AI visibility audits: One-off assessments of brand presence across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
- Citation tracking dashboards: Monitoring AI mentions and share of voice
- Answer-first content structuring: Creating 40-60 word extractable blocks optimised for AI citation
- Entity mapping: Building and strengthening brand entity associations
- llms.txt implementation: Technical setup for AI crawler guidance
- Platform-specific optimisation: Tailored strategies for ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini
Most UK agencies (approximately 70%) bundle AEO/GEO into existing SEO retainers with a 10-30% uplift, positioning AI optimisation as essential rather than optional. The average agency charging specifically for AI Overview optimisation prices it at approximately £937 per month according to the SE Ranking/Duda 2025 survey.
Self-service AI visibility tools for brands wanting to track their own presence cost £29-£500 per month depending on features, with platforms like Peec (€89-€499/month), Otterly (£29-£189/month), and Rankscale ($20-$99/month) leading the market.
New to AI search optimisation? Our AI consultancy services help B2B companies develop and implement effective AEO strategies.
B2B SEO ROI Remains Strong Despite Traffic Disruption
The business case for B2B SEO investment remains robust. First Page Sage's Q3 2025 client data shows impressive returns across industries, with thought leadership SEO content proving particularly valuable.
702%
Average ROI for B2B SaaS
7
Months to Break-Even
14.6%
SEO Lead Close Rate
Industry-specific returns vary significantly: financial services achieve 1,031% ROI (9-month break-even), manufacturing sees 813% ROI (9 months), while thought leadership SEO—which increasingly incorporates AEO—delivers 748% ROI over 9 months.
Conversion Rate Benchmarks
B2B organic search conversion rates average 2.6-2.7% across industries, outperforming paid social (0.9%) and matching paid search (1.5-3.2%). However, these averages mask significant variation: legal services converts at 7.4%, professional services at 6-12%, while B2B tech sees just 1-1.1%.
Critically, SEO leads close at 14.6% compared to just 1.7% for outbound marketing leads—making lead quality the key differentiator. This explains why organic search generates 44.6% of all B2B revenue according to BrightEdge 2025 data, with B2B companies generating 2x more revenue from organic search than any other channel.
Cost-per-acquisition comparisons consistently favour SEO over PPC for B2B. While B2B SaaS keywords cost £4-£40 per click in Google Ads (enterprise software keywords reaching £80+), SEO provides up to 50x lower CPA over time in some campaigns.
AI Search Traffic Converts Dramatically Better—But Volumes Remain Small
The most significant emerging data point for B2B marketers concerns AI search conversion rates. Microsoft Clarity's November 2025 study of 1,200+ publisher sites found LLM/AI traffic converts at 3x the rate of other channels for sign-ups.
| Traffic Source | Conversion Rate | vs Google Organic |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | 16.8% | 6x higher |
| ChatGPT | 15.9% | 5.7x higher |
| Perplexity | 10.5-12.4% | 4x higher |
| Google Organic | 2.8% | — |
However, context matters: AI referral traffic currently represents less than 1% of total website visits across most industries. ChatGPT dominates AI referrals at 77-87% of all AI traffic to websites. While growth is explosive—+155% year-over-year in AI referral traffic—the absolute numbers remain small compared to traditional organic search.
The Strategic Implication
AI search traffic quality justifies investment in AEO/GEO services even at current low volumes, particularly as growth projections suggest these channels will become increasingly significant. The brands building AI visibility now will have compounding advantages as adoption accelerates.
Google AI Overviews Have Fundamentally Altered Organic Search Dynamics
The market disruption predicted by Gartner is arriving on schedule. Their February 2024 prediction that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026 shows partial validation: publisher Google traffic dropped 33% globally in 2025 according to Reuters Institute data.
30%
Desktop searches with AI Overviews
61%
CTR drop when AI Overviews present
58%
Zero-click searches
35%
Higher CTR for cited brands
Google AI Overviews now appear on 30% of US desktop searches (up from 6.49% in January 2025—a 360% increase in under a year). When AI Overviews appear, organic click-through rates drop 61%, and the top organic link's CTR drops 79%.
Zero-click searches have increased correspondingly. Currently 58% of Google searches end without a click to any website, up from approximately 50% in 2023. News-related queries show the highest zero-click rates at 69%.
For brands that do appear in AI Overviews, however, there's a citation advantage: brands cited in AI Overviews see 35% higher organic CTR than non-cited brands, making AEO investment strategically defensive as well as offensive.
ChatGPT and Perplexity Usage Has Reached Critical Mass
ChatGPT now serves 800-900 million weekly active users, with 190 million daily active users. Monthly visits exceed 5.6 billion, making it the 4th-6th most visited website globally. ChatGPT holds 59-81% of the AI chatbot market.
Perplexity AI has grown to 45 million monthly active users processing 780 million queries monthly, capturing approximately 6.2-6.6% of AI search market share. While smaller than ChatGPT, Perplexity's search-first architecture makes it particularly relevant for B2B research queries.
Agency adoption is accelerating in response: 61% of SEO agencies intend to expand offerings to include AI Overview optimisation, with 43% integrating it into existing services and 18% offering standalone packages. Simultaneously, 70% of agencies have raised or plan to raise prices in 2025-2026, citing inflation, improved expertise, and higher service costs.
Strategic Recommendations for B2B Budget Planning
For B2B companies updating their SEO investment strategy for 2026, the data suggests several clear guidelines.
Minimum Viable Investment
The minimum viable investment for meaningful B2B SEO results is now £1,500-£2,500 per month, accounting for both traditional SEO and emerging AI visibility requirements. Budgets below £1,000 per month carry significant risk of poor-quality automated approaches that may do more harm than good.
Recommended Budget by Company Stage
| Company Stage | Monthly Budget | Expected Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| B2B Startup | £1,500-£2,500 | 6-12 months to results |
| Growing B2B SME | £2,500-£5,000 | 4-9 months to results |
| Established Mid-Market | £4,000-£10,000 | 3-6 months to results |
| B2B Enterprise | £10,000-£25,000+ | Ongoing competitive positioning |
AEO/GEO Budget Allocation
AEO/GEO allocation should represent approximately 15-25% of your total SEO budget, either as an integrated service or standalone engagement. This translates to roughly £400-£1,250 per month for SMEs and £1,500-£5,000 per month for enterprise.
The Convergence Strategy
The most effective 2026 strategy treats traditional SEO and AI search optimisation as complementary rather than competing priorities. Strong technical SEO, authoritative content, and robust entity associations benefit both traditional rankings and AI visibility.
The agencies delivering best results are those integrating answer-first content structures, schema markup optimisation, and citation tracking into comprehensive organic search programmes.
What This Means for Your Business
The search landscape is changing faster than at any point since Google's rise to dominance. But the fundamental economics of SEO remain compelling—702% ROI with a 7-month break-even for B2B SaaS is difficult to replicate in any other marketing channel.
The businesses that will thrive are those treating this moment as an opportunity rather than a threat. AI search isn't replacing traditional SEO—it's adding a new dimension that rewards the same fundamentals: expertise, authority, trustworthiness, and genuinely helpful content.
The difference? You now need to optimise that content for extraction and citation, not just clicks. And the window to build competitive advantage in AI visibility is still open—but narrowing.
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- Gartner Newsroom – Search Engine Volume Predictions (February 2024)
- First Page Sage – SEO ROI Statistics 2026
- First Page Sage – B2B Conversion Rates by Industry 2025
- Backlinko – ChatGPT Statistics 2026
- DemandSage – ChatGPT Users Statistics (January 2026)
- Ahrefs – 43 B2B SEO Statistics for 2025
- SeoProfy – SEO ROI Statistics 2025-2026
- OpenAI – How People Are Using ChatGPT