The pitch for a separate AEO agency is that this is a new discipline requiring new expertise. There is some truth in it and a lot of commercial convenience, and the practical answer depends less on the theory than on how much of the underlying work is already happening.
Where the work genuinely overlaps
Crawlability, site speed, structured data, content quality, internal linking and authority building are shared. So is local profile work. That is the majority of both scopes.
Two agencies working this list independently will duplicate audits, contradict each other on implementation, and both bill for the same structured data deployment. Development teams caught between them tend to do neither set of recommendations.
Where it genuinely differs
- Entity consistency work, which SEO scopes have historically underweighted.
- Citation building on non-link sources, which is outreach with different targets from link building.
- Assistant monitoring, which requires a routine nobody was running before.
- Passage-level content structuring, which differs from writing for rankings.
That is a meaningful list, and it is smaller than a second retainer implies.
Want a baseline before deciding anything? Our free AI Visibility Report gives you one, with no obligation. Request one.
How to decide
If your current agency is doing the fundamentals well, ask them to add the four items above and pay for the increment. Most competent agencies can, and the ones who cannot will tell you.
If your current agency is not doing the fundamentals well, changing agency solves more than adding one. Two agencies neither of whom has fixed your technical foundation is the worst available outcome.
A second specialist makes sense mainly at enterprise scale, where the volume of entity and citation work genuinely fills a separate team's time.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need separate SEO and AEO agencies?
Usually not. The majority of both scopes overlaps, and splitting them across two agencies produces duplicated audits, contradictory recommendations and double billing for the same work. Adding the AEO-specific increment to a competent existing agency is normally better.
What is genuinely unique to AEO work?
Entity consistency, citation building on non-link sources, assistant monitoring, and passage-level content structuring. Everything else is shared with sound SEO.
When does a separate AEO specialist make sense?
Mainly at enterprise scale, where entity and citation work across many brands, regions or product lines genuinely fills a separate team's time.