How to add AI search to an SEO retainer

Start from what the retainer already covers: Google says its core SEO practices also serve its AI features. Then add only what is new: research into buyers’ own questions, regular checks of AI answers, work beyond the website, and reporting against enquiries. Give each addition an owner and a purpose, and start with a baseline you can measure against.

Avouch adds the AI search part to agencies’ retainers under the agency’s own name.

What the retainer covers, and what AI search adds

1. List what is already delivered

Write down what the retainer covers, what has been delivered, what is waiting and what the client’s team handles. Ask what has changed on the website and why. Start the AI search conversation from that record, so existing work is not sold again.

2. Separate shared and added costs

Split the revised scope into three parts: existing work, added work and optional work, each with an owner. Ahrefs suggests one test for every cost: would you still pay for it if the AI search work stopped tomorrow? If not, it belongs to AI search. If you would, it is shared. Include delivery as well as tools: research, model use, analysis and the changes themselves.

3. Start with a baseline that covers everything you will track

Before the first report, ask every question the retainer will track, across the AI tools the client’s buyers use, and keep every answer. We do this on every engagement: the baseline asks everything the weekly tracking will ask, so each week can be compared with it.

Plan for change. About half the websites AI cites for a question change from one day to the next, so AI search is ongoing work, not a one-off audit. Our guides to choosing the questions to track and how often AI answers change their sources explain why.

4. Include work beyond the website

In our research, suppliers’ own websites appeared beside most of their recommendations, but almost never as the only source. A retainer that covers only the client’s website leaves out much of what AI relies on: reviews, directories, comparison sites and coverage. Our guide to delivering GEO for clients shows how findings turn into work on and off the website.

5. Agree how extra requests are handled

A new market, product or set of questions changes the work. Agree in advance whether it replaces existing work, costs extra or waits for the next review.

6. Review against enquiries

Agree the expected results, timescale and measurement before you expand the retainer, as Google suggests when hiring any SEO provider. Report mentions, recommendations and citations separately, beside suitable enquiries, and ask new customers how they found the business. Weak enquiries call for a look at the questions and pages targeted; good enquiries that go nowhere call for a look at sales follow-up. Our guide to measuring the return shows how.

How Avouch can help

Avouch adds the AI search part to agencies’ retainers on a white-label basis: buyer research, the baseline, regular AI answer tracking, work on and off the website, and reporting, under your agency’s name. Your agency keeps the client relationship. Scope, outputs and price are agreed with your agency before work starts. Our guide to white-label SEO and AI search lists the questions to ask any provider.

Other Avouch services, priced separately

These are extra to the retainer work above. Each one is scoped and priced on its own, and you can add any of them without the others. None of them is needed before the retainer work starts.

Want to talk about AI search in your retainers?

Talk to us about the clients you have in mind. To see how AI tools treat one of them, start with a free scan of their market.