On fit calls where NetPageTwo is not the right fit, we name alternatives. Not “look at the market.” Specific companies. This is the actual list, organized by what kind of prospect we tend to send each one. The list will be wrong in some cases. We update it as we hear back from prospects about what they actually bought.
If the prospect’s job is to track AI search visibility and they have an internal team that can act on insights, we recommend three tools depending on price and use case.
Otterly. $29 a month entry. Best for small marketing teams, agencies that want to track multiple brands at once, and any prospect who wants a quick read on where their brand is cited across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. We covered the comparison in NetPageTwo vs Otterly.
Profound. $499 a month entry, enterprise tiers above. Best for marketing engineering teams at 500-plus employee companies that need proprietary benchmark data (Profound Index), enterprise reporting, and broader engine coverage. We covered the comparison in NetPageTwo vs Profound.
AthenaHQ. $95 a month entry. A middle option between Otterly and Profound. We send prospects here when they have more budget than $29 but do not need the enterprise scope of Profound.
We do not recommend tools to prospects whose actual need is implementation work. Tools surface what is wrong. They do not fix it.
If the prospect needs 15-plus blog posts a month written from scratch, our productized scope does not cover it. We recommend two paths.
A B2B content agency with SEO capability. Our most common referral here is to a content shop with a writer roster and editorial direction. The shops we name on calls are working B2B content shops that ship 8-30 posts a month with SEO awareness, not pure content mills. We do not list specific names publicly because the shops change quarterly. We name them on the call when the fit is clear.
A content shop plus our Visibility tier in parallel. Common pattern for prospects who want both volume and the structural and technical layer. The content shop ships the posts. We ship the schema, the entity work, the answer-first restructure, and the monthly reporting. Total cost typically lands at $2,000 to $3,000 a month. The prospect from the post about turning down a $4K client ended up here.
If the prospect is 500-plus employees, has a multi-region or multi-brand structure, or has 1,000-plus indexable pages, productized service does not work. We recommend traditional B2B SEO agencies with named team structures.
Directive. B2B-focused agency with decade-plus experience and a strong AI search positioning. Good fit for mid-to-large B2B SaaS.
SimpleTiger. B2B SaaS agency that has reorganized around AI search. 30-plus client logos with named metrics. Good fit for B2B SaaS companies that want a productized-feeling agency with deeper resources than we have.
WebFX. Larger, broader agency with the OmniSEO platform. Good fit for prospects whose budget is enterprise-tier and who want a one-shop solution covering SEO, content, paid media, and design.
We name these because we have read their work, we have audited their client sites, and they are not us. We do not earn referral fees. We name them honestly because the prospect not getting their work done by anyone is a worse outcome than the prospect getting their work done by a competitor.
If the prospect’s business is local (single-location service business, multi-location franchise, brick-and-mortar retail) and the SEO need is primarily local search and Google Business Profile, we recommend specialists. Productized service can do local SEO, but specialized local agencies are sharper at the GBP-and-Maps work that drives local-only buyers.
BrightLocal. Tool plus done-for-you services specifically for local SEO. Best for multi-location operators.
Whitespark. Citation building, local SEO consulting, local rank tracking. The specialist’s specialist.
A local-focused agency in the prospect’s geography. Sometimes the right answer is a 5-person agency in the prospect’s city that knows the local market. We name local options when we know them.
If the prospect has never paid for SEO and wants to learn before hiring anyone, the right answer is often a combination of tool and DIY education.
Ahrefs or Semrush for the keyword and audit work, plus the brand’s own internal team handling the implementation. We name Ahrefs specifically because the free AI Visibility Checker is the easiest entry point for a brand new to AI search. Semrush is similar in capability with different UX preferences.
The Search Engine Land newsletter, Aleyda Solis’s content, and the SimpleTiger blog as free education. Specific named sources because the SEO content space is full of low-quality clickbait. Filtering early matters.
We send DIY prospects here without a sales angle. The honest assessment is that most DIY SEO efforts plateau within 6-12 months and the brand eventually hires help. When they do, we are happy to be on the consideration list. But pushing a sale before the prospect is ready is the wrong move.
The five-line filter:
If those five fit, the fit call is 15 minutes and you will know on the call.
If they do not, the list above is where to look.
Related reading:
– Why we say no to 3 in 10 fit calls
– NetPageTwo vs Otterly
– NetPageTwo vs Profound
– NetPageTwo vs a traditional SEO agency
