Prominence vs hiring an SEO agency
Small businesses often pay SEO agencies several hundred dollars a month.
A common complaint about retainers is that it is hard to see what was done. Ask any agency how you will see the work. Here is the honest comparison.
| An SEO agency | Prominence | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | An SEO agencyRetainers vary widely; many small-business quotes run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month (estimates), often on a contract. | Prominence$49 or $99 a month, cancel any time |
| Who does the work | An SEO agencyHumans, on their schedule, across all their clients | ProminenceOn Pro, Prominence drafts each fix; on Core you get the exact correction. |
| What you can see | An SEO agencyA monthly report and a strategy call | ProminenceA live dashboard, before and after AI answers, and a receipt after every scan of exactly what was done |
| AI search coverage | An SEO agencyOften sold as a separate service line | ProminenceThe entire product: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, scanned weekly on Pro and monthly on Core |
| Whether AI can read your site | An SEO agencyOften audits keywords, links, and rankings. Ask whether they also check that AI is allowed to read your site. | ProminenceEvery scan checks that AI is allowed to read your website, and gives you the exact lines to unblock it if it is not |
| Proof it worked | An SEO agencyRankings reports. Ask how you will see the work. | ProminenceEvery fix is re-checked by the next scan and marked verified only when AI actually changed |
| Risk | An SEO agencyOften a contract; ask about setup fees | ProminenceOn Pro: in 90 days AI states your core facts (name, address, phone, website) more accurately, or we refund every dollar. |
Where an SEO agency is the better choice
A good agency gives you things software cannot: custom strategy, content written by humans who know your market, link building, and someone to call. If you have the budget for a retainer and found an agency with real references in your industry, that is a legitimate choice.
See what AI says about you.
If what you want is the AI-visibility line item without the retainer, the contract, or the opacity, that is exactly what Prominence is.
Free. About 90 seconds. No card. The free scan checks ChatGPT and Perplexity. The full scan adds Gemini.
Competitor details from public sources, last checked July 2026 (Profound 15 Oct 2026). Prices and features change; email support@tryprominence.com if any are out of date and we will correct them.