An agency pitched us 'LLM SEO' — what does this mean, and do we even need it yet?

Every two years agencies come up with some fancy acronym to triple their rates. Three years ago they were selling "voice search optimization" and nobody got anything out of it. Now they slap an LLM label on the exact same content writing service and charge an arm and a leg. Pass on it, 100%.

There's no magic code that forces an LLM to cite you as a source. The whole concept relies on bots understanding your content as clear entities. Adding standard FAQ schema, making author credentials clear, and keeping industry terminology consistent is plenty. All of that is just part of good technical SEO anyway.

We run a consultancy in the UK too. Last month we ran 50 industry-specific queries through different AI engines. Every single time we were cited as a source, it came straight from local forum recommendations or our official Companies House registry data. We got those same results just by gathering real client reviews, without paying an agency a penny extra.

I recommend reviewing the proposed contract terms carefully and asking the agency for clear KPIs. While rankings and clicks can be reported in traditional optimization, concrete performance tracking is not yet technically possible with generative models due to personalized, dynamically changing responses.

Ask the agency one very simple question: which tool will you use to measure the results of your work, and what specific metrics will you show us in our monthly report? If they beat around the bush instead of showing a clear dashboard, take the offer off the table immediately.

classic agency playbook whatever's trendy they immediately package it up and sell it. just having them write decent blog posts and check schemas is plenty 1200 pounds is basically throwing money down the drain at this stage.

edit: I wrote something wrong above, sorry about that.

To protect your money, take these three steps yourself: 1) Add clear, direct definitions and Q&A blocks to your site regarding expat taxation in the UK. 2) Steadily grow genuine customer reviews on your map profile. 3) Keep your office details up to date in trusted industry directories.

The claim that your traffic will drop to zero is just fear-based selling; if you have a solid content foundation, don't panic and simply stick with your current standard optimization.

I felt relieved reading this answer so it's not just me. honestly the answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

If I were you, Id go this route.

Here's how it went for us. If it's your first time, start small; scaling comes later.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

Let me share my experience. If you don't write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

A page with low traffic might be reaching the right people. Look at where sales come from. Correct me if I'm wrong.

There's one point I'm curious about. When making a decision, first look at what data you have on hand.

I agree. Updating an existing page yields faster results than creating a new one.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

We got stuck at the same point for a while. Speed is a threshold issue; if you're already fast, making it faster changes nothing.

When making decisions, write down the worst-case scenario too, not just the best. If I were you, I'd go this route.

Let me summarize what's been said so far. Updating an existing page yields faster results than creating a new one.

Proven by experience.

Saved.

Sorry but this doesn't apply in every case. When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

My questions are cleared up, thanks.