If you run an independent accountancy firm and you've realised that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude are now part of how clients shop for an accountant, the next question is practical: what do I actually do about it, and what should it cost me? Broadly, you have three routes. You can do the work yourself for free, you can pay for a one-off diagnosis and plan, or you can hire someone to run it for you month after month. None of these is "the" right answer; the right answer depends on your time, your budget and what your real bottleneck is. This page is meant to help you self-select honestly, and yes, that includes pointing you to free guides or towards an agency when that genuinely suits you better than we do.
The three routes, in one line each
Do it yourself (free, if you have the time and a little technical confidence), buy a one-off Renownly audit (£149, a fast sector-specific diagnosis and a plan, no retainer), or hire a full GEO/marketing agency (a roughly £800–3,500/month retainer to have it done for you on an ongoing basis). Match the route to your bottleneck: time, clarity, or capacity.
Below is each route in plain English: what it costs, the effort it asks of you, what you actually get, and the kind of firm it suits. Prices are indicative ranges drawn from publicly advertised UK pricing in 2025–26 and our own competitor research; the £149 is Renownly's own flat price. Check current figures directly with any provider, as they change.
// Route 1
Do it yourself
Cost: free (your time) · effort: high · ongoing: yes, if you want it
The foundations that help AI assistants find and describe your firm correctly aren't secret. Clear service pages, accurate directory listings, the right schema markup, a complete Google Business Profile and recent reviews are all well documented, and we publish free, copy-paste guides on exactly these. If you're hands-on, or you have someone in the practice who is, you can get a long way without paying anyone a penny.
Good for
- Firms with time and a little technical confidence
- Anyone who likes to understand the detail themselves
- The lowest possible cost: your hours, no cash
Worth knowing
- It takes real time to learn, check and fix properly
- It's harder to be objective about your own firm
- You won't easily see how rivals are winning your queries
Best if: you're hands-on, have the hours, and want to learn it. Start with our free guides (checking whether AI can see your site, adding AccountingService schema and FAQ schema), plus the how AI chooses which firm to recommend explainer.
// Route 2
A one-off £149 Renownly audit
Cost: £149 flat · effort: low · ongoing: no (optional extras if you want them)
The middle route: someone does the diagnosis for you, fast, and hands you a plan, without a retainer. A Renownly audit tests the queries your clients actually ask across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, checks your foundations, maps which rivals are winning and why, and gives you three prioritised fixes in plain English. You get roughly six to ten pages plus a 20-minute walkthrough, in 48 hours, with no lock-in. It's built specifically for UK accountancy firms, so the queries and directories (think ICAEW and ACCA listings) are the relevant ones out of the box.
Good for
- Firms that suspect a problem but have no time to dig
- Wanting clarity and a plan without a monthly commitment
- A sector-specific answer, fast, at a known flat price
Worth knowing
- It's a diagnosis and a plan: you (or someone) still action it
- One-off by design; ongoing monitoring is optional, not bundled
- If you want it all done for you indefinitely, see Route 3
Best if: your bottleneck is knowing what's wrong and what to do first, and you'd rather not learn it all yourself or sign a retainer.
// Route 3
A full GEO / marketing agency retainer
Cost: ~£800–3,500/month · effort: low · ongoing: yes, by design
Agencies do the work for you on an ongoing basis: auditing, content, technical fixes, link building and monitoring, month after month. The trade-off is cost and commitment rather than anything being wrong with the approach: for the right firm, having capacity to execute (not just a plan) is exactly the point. Some are accountancy-aware; many are generalist across sectors, so it's worth asking how well they know your world.
Good for
- Firms that want it done for them, continuously
- Larger practices with broader marketing needs and budget
- Capacity to deliver work over months, not just diagnose it
Worth knowing
- Retainers and minimum terms are a real commitment
- Pricing is often "contact us" rather than published
- Sector depth varies, so ask how well they know accountancy
Best if: your bottleneck is capacity to do the work, you want a hands-on partner over months, and the budget is there.
How do the three routes compare at a glance?
DIY costs only your time but asks the most effort; the £149 audit is a fast, low-effort diagnosis and plan with no commitment; an agency does the most work for you but costs the most and ties you in. The right pick depends on whether your bottleneck is time, clarity or capacity.
| What matters | Do it yourself | £149 Renownly audit | Full agency retainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free (your time) | £149 flat, one-off | ~£800–3,500/mo |
| Effort from you | High; you do it all | Low; we diagnose, you action 3 fixes | Low; the agency executes |
| What you get | Whatever you build, using free guides | ~6–10-page plan + 20-min walkthrough, 3 priority fixes | Ongoing done-for-you work |
| Built for accountants | If you tailor it yourself | Yes: accountancy queries & directories | Varies; ask |
| Typical turnaround | As fast as you work | 48 hours | Weeks to months, ongoing |
| Ongoing? | Only if you keep at it | No; one-off (extras optional) | Yes, by design |
| Commitment | None | None; no lock-in | Often minimum terms |
| Who it's for | The hands-on / technical firm | Wants the picture & a plan, no retainer | Wants it fully managed, ongoing |
| Guarantees rankings? | No one truthfully can | No, and we say so plainly | Shouldn't; treat it as a red flag |
An honest recommendation for each type of firm
If you're hands-on with time to spare, do it yourself with our free guides. If you want the picture and a plan without a retainer, the £149 audit is the fastest way to get unstuck. If you want it fully managed on an ongoing basis and have the budget, a good agency is the right call, and we'll say so.
You're hands-on and have the time → do it yourself
If you (or someone in the practice) enjoy the detail and can spare the hours, you genuinely don't need to pay anyone to make a strong start. The foundations are well understood, and we've written them up for free. Begin with the 10-minute invisibility check, then work through the schema and FAQ guides. This is the right route for plenty of firms, and we'd rather you knew that than felt pushed into spending.
You want the picture and a plan, without a retainer → the £149 audit
This is the spot most firms are actually in: you suspect there's a problem, you don't have time to investigate it properly, and you don't want to commit to a monthly bill to find out. A one-off audit gets you a sector-specific diagnosis and three prioritised fixes for a flat £149 in 48 hours, with no lock-in. It's the honest middle: more clarity and speed than DIY, a fraction of the cost and commitment of an agency. You can then action the fixes yourself, hand them to your web person, or decide a retainer is worth it, but you'll be deciding with the facts.
You want it fully managed, ongoing → an agency (and we'll say so)
If your real need is capacity (you want content written, pages changed and visibility monitored month after month, and you'd rather not touch any of it), then a one-off audit isn't enough, and DIY isn't realistic. That's an agency's job, and a good one earns its retainer. This is genuinely the better fit for larger firms with broader marketing needs and the budget to match. If that's you, hire the agency; it would be dishonest of us to pretend a £149 audit replaces an ongoing team. A sensible sequence many firms use: start with a one-off audit to get an objective, sector-specific picture, then take that plan to an agency so you're commissioning ongoing work against a clear brief rather than a blank page.
The honest through-line: none of these routes, and no one selling any of them, can guarantee that an AI assistant will name or recommend your firm. AI answers change without notice and vary run to run.
So whichever route you choose, judge it on the same thing: does it get the well-understood foundations right, measure properly with dated evidence, and improve your odds, without promising an outcome no one controls?
// Stance applies equally to DIY, audits and agencies. Price ranges indicative, UK market 2025–26.
Still not sure? Start with the evidence, not a purchase
Before you commit to any route, see whether AI actually names your firm or a rival for a question your clients ask. That one piece of dated evidence usually makes the right choice obvious, and it's free.
You don't have to decide between DIY, an audit and an agency in the abstract. The cheapest first step is simply to look at the evidence: ask whether, today, an AI assistant names your firm or the practice down the road for a real client question. If you're clearly visible, you may need very little. If a rival keeps coming up instead, that tells you how much help, and which route, is worth it. Whatever you choose next, choose it with the facts in front of you.