Both paths work. The foundational AEO work is documented and learnable. A motivated business owner with technical comfort can audit their own site, fix the obvious issues, and see meaningful improvement. Agencies move faster, catch the edge cases, and do the deeper schema and entity work that requires expertise. The right call depends on how much your time is worth, how technical you are, and how competitive your category is. Run the free audit first to see where you stand, then decide.
