How should a business split its budget between AEO and SEO?

Where do your buyers start?

Start with the questions people ask before they hire you. Look at notes from sales calls, intake forms and client talks. Ask your team which questions come up before a buyer knows your name. Then ask new clients how they found you, and leave room for more than one answer. A person may ask an AI assistant for names, read a search result and return later by a direct visit.

Group those questions by the choice behind them. Someone who asks what a service means has a different need from someone who wants to hire a firm in a city. A buyer who asks for a short list needs to see who fits, what each firm does and how to check its claims. Give more weight to questions that match the work you want and the people you can serve.

Example: A law firm hears that prospects ask an AI assistant for local counsel. Its intake team also sees that service pages bring in useful search visits. The firm can protect those pages while it tests how well its answers address the questions prospects ask.

Check buyer questions in a few ways. Record the date, the prompt and the answer so your team can compare the same questions at the next review.

Sales and intake notes have limits too. People may not recall every step, and your form may force them to pick just one source. Let staff record an AI mention as well as a later web visit. Keep an unknown field so the team does not have to guess. A clear unknown is more useful than a made-up source. Pew Research Center studied browsing by US adults in March 2025: people clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits with an AI summary, compared with 15% without one.

Which SEO work should you protect?

SEO means search engine optimization: work that helps people find and use your pages through search. Start with pages that bring visits tied to real business goals. Look beyond a raw visit count. A page can draw a crowd that never needs your service, while a smaller page can help people take a useful next step.

Check the path from each key page to a call, form or other goal. Ask whether the page is still accurate, whether the next step works, and whether your team can handle the leads it gets. Keep the work that protects those paths in your plan. An old page is not safe just because it did well before; it still needs a reason to earn its place.

Example: A firm's practice page draws search visits and sends some visitors to an intake form. Its team finds that the form works but the service area is out of date. The firm can fund that correction and keep watching the page while it weighs a new answer-focused project.

Separate upkeep from work that has no clear purpose. Ask what each task protects or changes, which page it covers and how the team will judge it. If a proposal only promises more pages, ask why those pages are needed. If two teams plan the same page, agree on one owner and one shared brief. That can free room in the plan without cutting the work that supports existing demand.

Google says its normal search guidance also applies to its AI features. It does not require special changes just to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. That matters for your budget: a useful page and sound search basics can serve more than one path. Do not pay twice for the same page merely because one line says SEO and another says AEO. The budget should show the shared page, its owner and the work needed to keep the path to contact useful.

Where should new AEO work go?

AEO means answer engine optimization: making your business easy for AI tools to find, understand and name in answers. Start with the buyer questions that matter to your work. Then check whether your site gives a clear, accurate answer and enough context for a person to judge fit. A page should say what you do, whom you serve and what a buyer can do next.

A citation is a link to your page or a named source in an answer. A mention can help you learn where your name appears, but a mention alone does not prove a buyer read your page or hired you. Record the question and the answer alongside the result. Check the source if the answer gives one. An answer that names your firm for the wrong service is not the same as a useful match.

Example: A firm wants to be found for a type of legal help it offers in a certain area. An AI answer lists firms but gives no clear reason for its choices. The firm can review its own public service page for clear scope and proof, then check that same buyer question again later.

Give priority to gaps that affect a buying choice. A missing service area, an unclear description of who you help or a stale contact route can make a page hard for a person to use. Have the right subject expert check the facts. For a law firm, agree on who can approve public claims before work goes live.

Put the buyer question, the page that needs work and the expected result in the budget. Give each task a clear owner and cost. Compare that work with your search plan before you approve it. The resulting budget can show which buyer question each page addresses and which gaps will wait.

How do you choose the amount for each?

Use a task-based split. First fund the SEO work that protects pages bringing useful inquiries. Next, price the answer-focused gaps tied to buyer questions. Use the money left to fund the highest-value gaps that fit. Put any task you cannot fund on a list for the next review.

Write down what would change your choice. Strong search leads from a key page may support continued upkeep. Repeated reports from buyers that they used AI to find a short list may support a larger test of answer-focused work. Use them with your sales notes, your service goals and the quality of the pages you already have.

Example: A managing partner has a set budget and two proposals. One covers upkeep for pages that support intake. The other covers gaps in answers to questions prospects ask before a call. The partner can compare the scope, choose what fits, and record the work left for a later review.

Make the tradeoffs visible. List the work that will continue, the work that will start and the work that will wait. Name an owner for the decision and agree on a review date. If the budget cannot cover a task, do not hide that fact in a broad label. Ask what risk comes with waiting and who will watch for it.

If buyers use both routes, a shared page may support both needs. Put its cost under a shared line or agree which team owns it. Keep the full cost in view even if teams use different budget codes. The final budget should show the cost of the shared page once, alongside the separate work each team will handle.

What should you measure before changing the split?

Set a baseline before work starts. For search, record visits to the pages in scope and the useful actions those visitors take, where your data supports that link. For AI answers, save the prompts, dates, places and answers you reviewed. Note whether your business was named, whether the answer linked to you and whether the description was right.

Example: A firm reviews a set of questions tied to its service and area. It saves the answers and also records visits and intake from relevant pages. At the next review, the team can compare like with like and discuss what changed.

Keep outcomes in separate columns. A search visit, an AI mention, a form start, a qualified inquiry and a signed client are not the same event. A qualified inquiry is one your team judges to fit the service and market you serve. Agree on that definition before a report arrives. That way a rise in a broad count will not hide a drop in the leads you need.

Google says traffic from its AI features is included in overall Search Console web search traffic. That figure alone does not separate every AI visit from other search visits. Ask what each report can actually show, and do not add overlapping totals as if they were separate people. Other assistants and direct visits need their own evidence.

Use the Pew finding above as a reason to examine your own path from answer to inquiry. Compare what people tell your intake team with the pages they visit and the questions you track. Those records will not show every step, but they can help you choose which gaps deserve a closer look.

Review lead quality with the people who answer calls and forms. Ask whether the prospect needed your service, fit your area and could be helped. Keep lost or unfit inquiries in the record too. If the team sees a change, check for other causes such as a new offer, a site change or a shift in demand before assigning credit to one channel. Your baseline should list the pages, buyer questions and intake results you will compare at the next review.

Which budget choice fits the evidence?

A search page brings useful inquiries.

Keep the work that protects its accuracy and the path to contact.

Buyers ask AI tools about a service you offer.

Review the public answer to that question and choose a gap to address.

A proposal repeats work another team already owns.

Assign one owner and make the shared cost clear.

The source of an inquiry is unclear.

Record it as unknown and ask a better intake question.

Example: A firm finds overlap in two proposals. It can assign the shared page to one owner and use the saved scope for a distinct buyer question.

How should you compare the work in two proposals?

Put the proposed work side by side before you assign a budget. List each page, buyer question and task. Mark the work that protects a useful search path and the work that fills a gap in an answer. A task can support both goals, so give shared work one line and one owner.

Example: A law firm has a search proposal for its service pages and another plan to improve answers for those same services. The partner finds that both plans include updates to the same page. The firm can fund that update once and compare the remaining tasks on their own merits.

Check what each task costs and what your team expects it to change. A correction to a service area may help a visitor judge fit. A working contact form may help that visitor take the next step. Put those needs beside the buyer questions your intake team hears most often.

Next, match each task to a measure you can review. Search visits can show whether people reached a page. Intake notes can show whether inquiries fit your work. Saved AI answers can show how your firm was described for a given question. Keep these measures in separate columns.

For questions about law firm review, see Questions for an AEO Agency Serving Law Firms. For this budget, record the work you will fund, the work you will defer and the date you will review both lists.

When the review date arrives, compare the same pages and questions with your baseline. Look at the quality of inquiries with your intake team. Move funds when the evidence points to a better use, and keep shared work on a single line. The comparison should show each task, its cost, the need it addresses and the work that will wait.