The short answer: serious monthly SEO work in 2026 means four things. That you are technically flawlessly indexed. That content with your own data keeps getting published, giving search engines a reason to cite you. That your Google Profile, directories and registries are tidy and consistent. And that someone regularly checks what Google AI and ChatGPT actually answer when a customer asks about you or your trade. If your agency's monthly report lists nothing but keyword positions, you are paying for a 2019 service.
What has actually changed
Two numbers tell most of the story. First: where an AI summary appears in Google, the click on the first organic result drops by 58 percent [2]. Second: 99.9 percent of these summaries show up on informational searches ("how", "what", "why"), while buying searches ("website development price", "air conditioning installation Koper") still mostly return classic results [3].
From this follows the two-track logic we work by ourselves:
- Sales pages for buying searches. This is where the classic click still lives and where the money is made. Pages for the searches people buy with are built once, thoroughly, with inquiry tracking. That is a project, not a retainer.
- Visibility in AI answers for everything else. Informational questions increasingly get an answer without a click, assembled from sources that keep changing. This is where the monthly work happens: content AI cites, tidy data sources about you, and regular checks of the answers.
Google, meanwhile, officially says there are no special tricks for AI features: AI answers run on the same index and the same quality signals as regular search [4]. Anyone selling you "special AI optimization" as separate magic is selling a placebo; we broke down the three most common ones in The AI SEO Placebo.
What the monthly report should say
| Line item | Why to demand it | The placebo version |
|---|---|---|
| Indexing status and technical errors | without the index there are no clicks and no citations | "we optimized the meta tags" |
| Published content with your own data | AI cites pages that say something of their own | 4 generic "tips for..." articles |
| Google Profile, directories, registries | that is where AI takes its data about you | "we built links" with no list |
| A snapshot of AI answers about you and your competitors | this is the mirror your customers look into | no snapshot, because nobody measures it |
| Inquiries and calls, not just traffic | the only number that pays the bills | traffic graphs with no context |
The AI answers line is new and most often missing. In our study of 89 queries we measured that a third of first-page Google businesses are invisible in AI answers, and for a quarter, AI stated at least one misleading fact. Without a regular snapshot you simply do not know this.
How much does SEO cost in Slovenia?
The realistic range for small businesses is €250 to €500 per month for ongoing work, while one-off projects (a site rebuild, building out sales pages) run from a few hundred to a few thousand euros. Our price list is public: the Visibility Teardown as a one-off measurement costs €290, sales page builds start at €990, and monthly work on AI visibility is €490 per month. More important than the amount: for every amount, you get it in writing what exactly was done.
How long until SEO starts working?
The honest answer: the first movement from tidy data sources (Google Profile, directories, registries) shows within weeks, because AI answers read those sources directly. Sales page positions on buying searches grow over months, typically 3 to 6. Anyone promising the first page in 30 days is promising something they do not control.
Is SEO still worth it when AI answers without a click?
It is, but differently than before. Buying searches, where the money decisions happen, still return classic results [3]. Informational questions get an AI answer in which you are either cited as a source or absent. Both are measurable: since June 2026, Google Search Console shows impressions in AI features, and the answers of AI engines can be catalogued systematically. Work without these two measurements is guessing.
How do I check whether my agency is doing the right things?
Three questions you can ask tomorrow. First: show me the latest snapshot of what ChatGPT and Google AI answer to "who do you recommend for [my trade] in [my city]". Second: what content with our own data was published in the last three months? Third: how many inquiries came through the site last month, and from where? If there is no concrete answer to all three, you have your answer.
If you want to measure where you stand now
The Visibility Teardown is a one-off measurement with no commitment: where you stand in Google and in AI answers, which sources drive the answers in your niche, and what to fix first. It costs €290 and is fully credited if you continue working with us. No sales pressure: a large share of the quick wins you can carry out yourself after the report.
Limits
Cards on the table: the AI summary numbers above come from published Ahrefs research and Google's guidance, dated in the sources; they were measured mostly on English searches and may differ from Slovenian ones in magnitude, though not in direction. Our own measurement of Slovenian businesses (89 queries, June 2026) is a sample, not statistics. Other providers' prices are a market range, not a census.
