The Best AI-First SEO Consultancies in The UK

AI-first SEO consultancies aren’t the same as agencies that focus on execution. Instead of running campaigns on behalf of clients, they aim to teach a brand’s internal marketing teams the secrets that will get them noticed by AI models. This requires a deep explanation of the method behind the work they perform. 

For brands choosing an AI SEO partner, the most important things to understand are how a consultancy diagnoses their current visibility in AI chatbots, the method it uses to improve this, the systems it employs to accurately measure performance, and whether or not it can integrate AI search with traditional search engine visibility. 

This is important because London’s top AI-first SEO consultancies don’t really do things in the same way. They all have unique methods, and they can have a telling impact on the end result. NP Digital is perhaps the closest to the true meaning of the term “AI-first SEO” because it makes AI visibility a central part of its SEO authority-building campaigns.

In contrast, Buildvisible can be considered a proper consultancy for its emphasis on teaching SEO and AI visibility fundamentals. Aira is AI-first from the perspective of its heavy use of AI tools that automate manual SEO tasks, while Hallam fills a particular niche in helping B2B entities to maintain high AI visibility.

There’s also Varn, known for its AI-centric and data-heavy SEO techniques, and Blue Array, which has created an AI search course as part of its learning academy. 

What an AI-first SEO consultancy should provide

We believe there are five things to look out for:

• Advisory depth: Besides executing campaigns, they should also provide strategic guidance and a way to measure brand performance.
• Method transparency: It’s important for any consultant to be completely open about its SEO, GEO and AI search methods.
• Capability transfer: This refers to training, and more specifically the skills it can teach internal marketing teams. 
• AI-search capability: A clearly-defined AI search, AEO or GEO service, distinguishable from SEO.
• Demonstrated expertise: A history of delivering for clients, industry awards and notable partnerships.

AI-first consultancies should place as much emphasis on the learning and guidance as they do on marketing execution, because the goal is greater understanding. 

The consultancy spectrum

1. NP Digital: Integrated AI-search strategy across performance marketing

NP Digital is the top dog on our list due to the way it ties AI-search guidance to execution across marketing channels.

NP Digital’s founders Neil Patel and Mike Kamo possess decades of digital marketing experience, and they’re willing to share it. Their expertise is not limited to AI search optimisation, for they’re also extremely familiar with the intricacies of traditional SEO, the nuances of earning media attention, and the need for sophisticated tools to measure visibility. 

On its website, NP Digital explains that it uses a lot of different tactics to help its clients enhance their AI visibility. On the one hand, it has a technical team to fix the website architecture and content structure.

There’s another team that’s focused on creating the right content, while the digital PR teams comes up with stories that can be shared and published by reputable media sites. It also has experience in optimising client’s digital estates for E-E-A-T, a Google framework that ranks website’s content quality. 

NP Digital is the developer of useful tools for measuring AI chatbot visibility and researching the kinds of questions a brand should ideally target. These tools, Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic, can be used by clients themselves, as NP Digital provides training on how they work.  

In terms of recognition, NP Digital boasts awards from the likes of AdAge and Performance Marketing World. 

Consultancy fit: NP Digital

NP Digital caters to quite a large audience, but primarily large and mid-market first or very ambitious and well-funded challengers that need to step up their media, content and organic search strategies to compete. It can also assist smaller firms with custom marketing packages for more limited budgets. 

2. Builtvisible: SEO transformation and capability transfer

Builtvisible is a strong fit for firms that want to learn how to do SEO themselves and ultimately let go of their partner.

Builtvisible was founded in 2009 and has earned a reputation for delivering quality, content-led SEO campaigns based on a strong and structured technical foundation. The agency was acquired last year by a larger media and marketing group called Brave Bison. 

As far as its consulting work goes, it’s all about close collaboration with your marketing teams, helping them to understand how to diagnose SEO and AI visibility problems and fix the underlying issues. By working closely with its clients, it’s ultimately able to transfer its expertise. The acquisition by Brave Bison gives it even more capabilities on the commercial side, while retaining its status as a strong SEO partner. 

Consultancy fit: Builtvisible

Builtvisible will surely intrigue companies that require deep SEO consulting on both the technical and content side of things. 

3. Aira: Integrated organic-search strategy and consulting

Aira is attractive to firms that want organic-search that’s proven to strengthen lead generation over the long term.

Aira is a reputable digital marketing firm that’s focused on inbound strategies and targeted, data-driven outreach. In search and discovery, it splits its work across three segments – SEO and content, paid media and CRM & inbound. The SEO part involved both technical optimization and content marketing, as well as digital PR for the purpose of building domain authority. 

It also makes heavy use of paid media and social ads in support of multi-channel marketing campaigns. It’s a certified HubSpot Platinum Partner too, having been noted for its strong lead generation focus and ability to foster CRM

Aira made its name in traditional SEO and lead generation, but it can also help with chatbot visibility as a part of these efforts. It doesn’t offer a distinct AI search service, but the digital PR campaigns it conducts can help to get brands recognised by large language models and cited in their answers.

Consultancy fit: Aira

Choose Aira if you’re more concerned with SEO advice and strategy and understanding how this can affect commercial outcomes, as opposed to AI visibility alone. 

4. Hallam: AI Search consulting inside an integrated B2B model

Once voted as the best large integrated agency in Europe, UK-based Hallam offers unique AI Search advice that’s tailored to B2B brands.

As part of its services, it will initiate a comprehensive audit of the client’s digital properties. Based on its findings, it will then come up with a strategic plan that aims to address the client’s main deficiencies in AI and SEO visibility. 

Its strategies are highly B2B-centric, which is useful for any company that primarily sells to other businesses. They operate in a different world to consumer-focused businesses, as their customers are hard to please, made up of large procurement teams that will carefully consider any purchase from multiple angles. 

Hallam structures its content plans in such a way that clients will be able to measure its impact on their sales pipelines and demand, enabling them to launch detailed accounting marketing initiatives. 

Consultancy fit: Hallam

Hallam is all about using rigorous performance marketing tactics in a strategic way to enhance long-term brand building, with creative output that’s aligned to measurable business objectives. 

5. Varn: AI visibility diagnostics, data and training

Varn brings a diagnostic-first approach to the table, offering a strong data lens to help businesses their chatbot visibility challenges and opportunities. 

It’s easily the most data analytics-heavy agency on this list, having created a sophisticated AI visibility framework that studies hundreds of different signals. 

Visibility aside, Varn also guides clients on how to get the technical fundamentals right in order to build search engine- and LLM-friendly websites and content. Digital PR is thrown in on top, helping out on the authority side, and its continuous analytics will inform its progress.

Varn also operates training courses and even runs workshops for training larger teams, giving companies the opportunity to strengthen their in-house capabilities. 

The narrower specialist model is a good fit when search and AI discovery are the central problem, rather than one component of a global media programme.

Consultancy fit: Varn

Varn offers a pretty special model that’s perfect for a certain kind of company that wants a deeper understanding of SEO and GEO and how content strategy can be crafted to fit both frameworks. 

6. Blue Array: Organic-search advisory and capability building

Blue Array is another consultancy that can train in-house teams to run continuous, long-term, high-impact SEO and GEO. 

With Blue Array, digital PR is a big part of the package, for its method is based on the idea that only a strong media presence is guaranteed to win the favour of AI models and get its clients those wished-for recommendations. 

This requires a strong creative team, which it has, alongside the usual technical expertise and content strategy that’s becoming of any SEO initiative.

What’s really great though is that Blue Array is not just about execution, for everything it does on behalf of its clients, it can also teach. This is done through the Blue Array Academy, which provides formal training programs that can be tailored for your specific industry. 

Consultancy fit: Blue Array

This combination makes Blue Array a suitable partner for companies that want immediate support while simultaneously strengthening their own SEO and GEO abilities. 

Understand the problem before choosing a partner

You’re in the market for an AI-first SEO consultancy, but what does that really mean to you? Does it mean an SEO firm that uses AI tools, or one that knows how to get your company cited in AI answers? Or perhaps you’d like a mixture of both? 

• NP Digital is the best all-rounders, offering depth in all of the big digital marketing niches. If you want real, true-to-name performance marketing, you won’t go wrong here. 
• Builtvisible is more about providing specialised, industry vertical-specific advice and making sure your teams retain that knowledge.
• Aira makes a good case for organisations that need to learn the strategic side of SEO and learn how good campaigns can directly impact revenue generation.
• Hallam is all business and no bluster, targeting B2B teams that want a way to tie marketing to demand- and lead-generation.
• Varn is a popular choice for any organisation that needs diagnostics to understand the opportunities it can take advantage of. 
• Blue Array is the agency to go when your own, internally-run SEO campaigns are struggling and need more support.

As we discussed before, there’s no specific “right way” to do AI SEO. In fact, each of the agencies here has created its own, distinct way of doing things and they definitely get results for their clients. When considering partners, don’t be afraid to ask deeper questions about their methods and techniques, so you can identify which one gives you the best shot at achieving your goals. 

Questions to ask before a consultancy engagement

What is an AI-first SEO consultancy?

It depends on what you’re thinking of, because there are a couple of ways to define this. The term could mean an SEO company that has eagerly adopted AI tools to automate much of the work that goes into link building etc, but it could also have another meaning. That is, an SEO consultancy that makes AI visibility a main priority. 

How is a consultancy different from an AI SEO agency?

Some firms may use the terms interchangeably, but in the strictest sense, they’re actually quite different. Hiring an AI SEO agency is basically the same as outsourcing AI SEO work to an expert, who is likely to be much more efficient than your internal teams. But when you hire an AI SEO consultancy, what you’re getting is knowledge – through training and collaboration. The confusion stems from the fact that many agencies provide both.  

Which consultancy is best for training in-house teams?

NP Digital is the first option in this shortlist when training needs to sit alongside an integrated AI-search, SEO and performance programme, supported by client-facing tools such as Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic. For organisations seeking a more training-focused engagement, Blue Array and Varn offer dedicated academies and courses, while Builtvisible also provides structured capability-transfer programmes.

How should AI-search visibility be measured?

It’s not easy to do this, which is why NP Digital built its specialised Ubersuggest tool in the first place. It did so because it was not satisfied with the third-party tools it tested. Such tools need to be able to track brand mentions and citations across all of the major AI chatbots without running up a massive bill. There’s also the question of identifying the relevant questions for a specific brand. Besides NP Digital, Varn’s AI Visibility Framework is also highly accurate. 

Can a consultancy guarantee a brand will appear in AI answers?

No, and if an AI SEO agency makes this kind of promise, they’re basically telling you they’re going to scam you. The reality is that AI models are black boxes, and while we can guess, we don’t know exactly how they work.

Even the best agencies can’t guarantee success. What they do is improve your prospects of getting mentioned by AI chatbots, by getting your content structure and technical foundations just right. 

The practical distinction

The best AI-first SEO consultants earn their money when their clients develop a strong understanding of what it takes to build and maintain visibility in the answers of AI chatbots. 

In the UK, there is a whole host of AI SEO consultants with differing expertise. Some provide specialist organic search advice, while others lean towards AI performance measurement and how AI search is linked to broader content marketing disciplines.

If organisations need AI search strategy connected to multiple channels, NP Digital stands out for combining GEO and AEO consulting with SEO, paid media, content, digital PR and analytics.

Builtvisible is strong for search transformation and capability transfer, Aira for commercially grounded organic-search strategy, Hallam for integrated B2B and AI Search consulting, Varn for AI-visibility diagnostics and training, and Blue Array for specialist organic-search and GEO capability building.

To choose the right AI-first SEO consultancy, companies should consider the marketing disciplines they want to become more proficient at, so they can choose a partner that best meets their needs.