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Long LeverPartnershipsFictitious example
Fictitious example · real build
Long Lever Interiors
Bringing SEO, content and AI search in-house
An office fit-out business paying £2,500 a month to an agency for SEO and articles, worked through from the true cost to the monthly report once its own team runs it. Eight steps: a Monday keyword scan, a weekly competitor watch, a ranked content plan, AI first drafts with a person signing off, and a weekly check on whether AI assistants mention you. It’s the same weekly system we run for our own website.
Adds up the monthly retainer and content fees, then the true cost of running it yourselves, including your own team’s time.
Normally a retainer nobody questions, here a number you can move. The sample saves £16,550 in year one and £19,550 a year after.
Step 01
What the agency really costs, and the in-house alternative
Most businesses pay an agency every month for SEO, content and now AI search, and few can say what they would lose if they stopped. Move the sliders to your own figures. The in-house side includes your own team’s time, not just the tools.
What you pay the agency now
SEO and AI-search retainer, a month£1,500
Articles and case studies, a month4
Cost per article£250
What it costs to run it yourselves
Tool subscriptions, a month£200
An SEO and AI-visibility tool, an AI assistant and an automation tool.
Your team’s time, hours a week7
Cost of that time, an hour£25
One-off training and set-up£3,000
A fixed build-with-you package, year one only.
A year, side by side
Agency
30,000
£30,000 a year
In-house, year one (with set-up)
13,450
£13,450 a year
In-house, from year two
10,450
£10,450 a year
£16,550
Saving in year one
£19,550
Saving each year after
7 h
Your team’s time a week
Mostly editing and checking, not research.
Long Lever Partnerships · worked example. Organisation names, figures and people are fictitious and used to illustrate real work; no client, supplier or individual is identified. Illustrations only, no photographs.
The PDF button opens your print dialogue. Choose "Save as PDF" for a clean copy of this document.
Long LeverPartnershipsFictitious example
Fictitious example · real build
Long Lever Interiors
Bringing SEO, content and AI search in-house
An office fit-out business paying £2,500 a month to an agency for SEO and articles, worked through from the true cost to the monthly report once its own team runs it. Eight steps: a Monday keyword scan, a weekly competitor watch, a ranked content plan, AI first drafts with a person signing off, and a weekly check on whether AI assistants mention you. It’s the same weekly system we run for our own website.
What the agency really costs, and the in-house alternative
Adds up the monthly retainer and content fees, then the true cost of running it yourselves, including your own team’s time. Normally a retainer nobody questions, here a number you can move. The sample saves £16,550 in year one and £19,550 a year after.
Most businesses pay an agency every month for SEO, content and now AI search, and few can say what they would lose if they stopped. Move the sliders to your own figures. The in-house side includes your own team’s time, not just the tools.
What you pay the agency now
SEO and AI-search retainer, a month£1,500
Articles and case studies, a month4
Cost per article£250
What it costs to run it yourselves
Tool subscriptions, a month£200
An SEO and AI-visibility tool, an AI assistant and an automation tool.
Your team’s time, hours a week7
Cost of that time, an hour£25
One-off training and set-up£3,000
A fixed build-with-you package, year one only.
A year, side by side
Agency
30,000
£30,000 a year
In-house, year one (with set-up)
13,450
£13,450 a year
In-house, from year two
10,450
£10,450 a year
£16,550
Saving in year one
£19,550
Saving each year after
7 h
Your team’s time a week
Mostly editing and checking, not research.
Step 02
Who does what, before and after
Lays out each job the agency did and how it runs in-house with the weekly system. Normally a monthly call and a PDF, here a system your team owns and understands.
The work doesn’t disappear when you bring it in-house. It changes shape: the research, checking and reporting run on a schedule, and your team spends its time on the part only you can do, knowing your customers.
Job
With the agency
In-house, with the weekly system
Keyword research
In the retainer, monthly
A scheduled scan every Monday, 30 minutes to review
Competitor checks
Quarterly report
Weekly list of what changed, 30 minutes
Content plan
Agreed at the monthly call
Gaps ranked automatically, an hour to choose
Articles and case studies
4 a month at £250 each
AI first drafts, about 4 hours a week editing
Technical SEO and AI-search set-up
Hours billed as needed
Sitemap, labels and llms.txt update themselves
Reporting
Monthly PDF
Live report, always up to date
What you keep
Your own know-how, your own data and your own tools. If someone leaves, the system and the written guide stay.
Step 03
The Monday keyword scan
Pulls the questions people search around your services, with volume, difficulty, intent and whether AI tends to answer them. Normally half a day of research, here 30 minutes to review a list that’s already there.
Every Monday a scheduled scan pulls the questions people search for around your services, with how often they’re searched, how hard they are to rank for, and whether AI assistants tend to answer them. Pick a topic, then add the questions worth answering to the plan.
Question people search
A month
Difficulty
Intent
AI search
how much does an office fit out cost per square metre uk
1,900
34/100
Researching cost
Often answered by AI
cat a vs cat b fit out
1,300
28/100
Learning
Often answered by AI
office refurbishment checklist
880
22/100
Planning
Often answered by AI
how long does an office fit out take
480
18/100
Planning
Often answered by AI
office fit out leeds
390
41/100
Ready to buy
Local results
This week
Nothing added yet. Low difficulty with clear intent is usually the best place to start. Sample data, for illustration.
Step 04
Competitor watch
Checks the same competitors every week and writes a short note on what changed and where they’re pulling ahead. Normally a quarterly report, here every week, in plain English.
An agent checks the same competitors every week and writes a short note: what they published, which questions they now rank for, and where they’re pulling ahead. Share of voice is the share of tracked searches where each one appears.
Share of voice across tracked searches
Competitor A
31%
Publishing weekly how-to guides and gaining on planning questions.
Competitor B
24%
Strong product pages, thin on answers to questions.
Competitor C
18%
Launched a hybrid-working hub this month.
Long Lever Interiors (you)
12%
Two articles out, first AI mention this week.
Competitor A
4 new pages this week
Now ranking for: cat a vs cat b fit out; office refurbishment checklist
Competitor B
1 new pages this week
Now ranking for: sit stand desks for business
Competitor C
2 new pages this week
Now ranking for: hybrid office layout ideas
Step 05
The content plan
Ranks every gap by search volume, buying intent and difficulty, then schedules the two a person picks. Normally argued over on a call, here ranked on evidence in seconds.
The gaps from the scan and the competitor watch become one ranked list: how often it’s searched, how close the searcher is to buying, and how hard it is to rank. A person picks two a week; the system schedules them.
Scheduled
2 articles booked: first drafts ready on Tuesday, edited Wednesday, published Thursday.
Step 06
Draft, check and sign off
AI drafts each article in the pattern search engines and AI assistants reward; a checker scores it; a person edits and approves. Normally £250 an article, here about two hours of your team’s editing, and the article is still yours.
AI writes the first draft in your agreed pattern, the one that both search engines and AI assistants reward. The checker scores the draft before a person edits it. Switch the items to see how the score moves.
Draft checker
60/100
Ready-to-publish score
Back to the draft: fill the gaps first.
Never automated
A person reads, edits and approves every article before it goes live. AI drafts; your team decides.
Step 07
Are AI assistants mentioning you?
Asks the main AI assistants the same questions every week and records whether the business is mentioned or cited. Normally nobody is checking at all, here a weekly scoreboard: from none to 9 of 24 in twelve weeks.
The same six questions are asked of the main AI assistants every week. A tick means the business was mentioned or cited in the answer. This is the new scoreboard: being the answer, not just a link.
Question asked
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Gemini
Copilot
How much does an office fit-out cost in the UK?
What is the difference between Cat A and Cat B?
How many desks do we need for hybrid working?
Should a business lease or buy office furniture?
What should an office refurbishment checklist include?
Who are the best office fit-out companies in Leeds?
AI mentions, out of 24 weekly checks
Step 08
The monthly report
Clicks, enquiries, AI mentions and cost, built from the same data, with what to write next. Normally a PDF a month late, here live: clicks up from 410 to 1,310 while the monthly cost fell from £2,500 to £870.
The report builds itself from the same data: visits from search, enquiries, AI mentions and what it all cost. The agency left in August; spend fell while clicks and enquiries kept climbing.
1,310
Search clicks in Nov
From 410 in June
11
Enquiries from search
From 3 in June
9/24
AI mentions
From none in week one
£870
Monthly cost now
From £2,500 with the agency
Search clicks and enquiries
Monthly cost
What to write next
Two of the six tracked questions still get no mention, including the local one. Next month: a Leeds fit-out case study and a Cat A vs Cat B explainer with a diagram.
Long Lever Partnerships · example document. Organisation names in this document are fictitious and used to illustrate real work; no client, supplier or individual is identified. Everything shown can carry your own name, logo and colours.