Due Diligence
Before You Hire a Restoration Marketing Agency, Check Their Own Website
We audited every major agency that markets to restoration companies. What we found will save you from making a $50,000 mistake.
"The cobbler's children have no shoes." — Every agency selling AI readiness to restoration companies has zero AI readiness on their own website.
The 60-Second Agency Credibility Test
Before you sign a contract with any restoration marketing agency, run these three checks on their own website. It takes less than a minute.
Check their llms.txt
Type [agency-website]/llms.txt into your browser. This file tells AI models what a business does and how to recommend it.
If you get a 404 error, they haven't prepared their own site for AI agents. Ask them why they're selling you something they don't use themselves.
Check their WebMCP
Type [agency-website]/.well-known/webmcp into your browser. WebMCP is how AI agents discover and interact with a website's services.
If you get a 404, AI agents cannot interact with their site. But they want to charge you to set this up on yours?
Check their schema markup
Right-click on their homepage, select "View Page Source," and search for application/ld+json. This is the structured data that search engines and AI agents rely on.
If you find generic Organization schema and nothing else, they haven't implemented the structured data they're selling you.
Now run the same test on bodyne.com
We don't sell what we haven't built. Verify everything above right now. Every claim on this page is checkable.
What We Found When We Audited the Market
We reviewed six agencies that actively market AEO, AI readiness, and advanced SEO services specifically to restoration companies. No names — just the facts.
Sell AEO / AI services
Most Agencies
✓ YesBodyne
✓ YesHave llms.txt deployed
Most Agencies
✗ 0 of 6Bodyne
✓ LiveHave WebMCP manifest
Most Agencies
✗ 0 of 6Bodyne
✓ Live (7 tools)Have FAQ schema
Most Agencies
✗ 0 of 6Bodyne
✓ ActiveHave city landing pages
Most Agencies
✗ 0 of 6Bodyne
✓ BuildingPublish pricing transparently
Most Agencies
✗ 1 of 6Bodyne
✓ /restoration/pricingThird-party reviews
Most Agencies
✗ 3 of 6 have zeroBodyne
✓ BuildingBlog active (last 6 months)
Most Agencies
✗ 4 of 6 stalledBodyne
✓ ActiveMethodology: We checked the public-facing websites of six agencies that advertise AEO, AI readiness, or "AI-powered SEO" services to restoration companies. All checks were performed in March 2026 using publicly accessible URLs. No proprietary data was accessed.
5 Questions to Ask Any Agency Before Signing
Print this list. Bring it to your next agency call. The agencies that can answer these confidently are the ones worth hiring.
"Can I see your llms.txt file?"
If they don't know what that is, they don't understand AI agent optimization. llms.txt is the standard for making websites readable by large language models. Any agency selling AEO should have this on their own site before asking you to pay for it on yours.
"Do you have a WebMCP manifest?"
WebMCP is how AI agents discover and interact with a website's tools and data. If an agency doesn't have a manifest at their own /.well-known/webmcp, they can't help AI agents find and interact with your business either.
"Show me a restoration client's schema markup."
Ask them to pull up a client site and view source. Look for FAQPage, LocalBusiness, and Service schema. If they can't show specific, working examples of structured data they've deployed for a restoration company, the deliverable is aspirational, not proven.
"How many of your restoration clients rank in AI Overviews?"
AI Overviews now appear on virtually all restoration-related search queries. If an agency can't point to specific client examples that appear in AI-generated answers, they're selling a theory, not a result.
"What's your refund policy if I see no improvement in 90 days?"
The agencies confident in their work have clear performance guarantees. If the answer is a long pause followed by "well, SEO takes time..." that tells you everything about their confidence in their own deliverables.
Why This Matters for Your Restoration Company
AI Overviews dominate restoration searches
Google's AI Overviews now appear on virtually every restoration-related query — "water damage restoration near me," "how to find a mold remediation company," "emergency fire damage repair." If your company isn't structured to appear in those AI-generated answers, you're invisible to a growing share of homeowners.
Your agency needs to understand the infrastructure
The agencies that help you get cited by AI need to deeply understand AI infrastructure — structured data, agent-readable manifests, machine-parseable content. If they haven't implemented these on their own website, they're learning on your dime.
Selling what you don't use is a red flag
A personal trainer who can't do a push-up. A financial advisor who's broke. A marketing agency that sells AI readiness but has none deployed on their own site. The pattern is the same — and it should give you pause before signing a $50,000 annual contract.
We built our own infrastructure first
Bodyne deployed llms.txt, WebMCP, structured schema, and AI agent readiness on our own site before we offered it to a single client. We believe the only credible way to sell a capability is to prove it works — on yourself, first, where the stakes are real.
The $50,000 Math
The typical restoration marketing agency charges $3,000–$5,000 per month for SEO and digital marketing services. That's $36,000–$60,000 per year, locked into a 12-month contract.
If that agency can't demonstrate AI readiness on their own website — the website they have complete control over — what evidence do you have that they can deliver it on yours?
Run the 60-second test at the top of this page. On every agency you're considering. Then make your decision based on evidence, not sales decks.
Skip the guesswork. See where you stand right now.
Our restoration-specific scorecard checks the same signals we just showed you — llms.txt, schema, local visibility, AI readiness — on your website. Free. Two minutes. No sales pitch.
Get Your Free Score →Same test we ran on every agency. Now run it on yourself.