Rank Dough compared 6 AI SEO agencies working out of Dublin, ours included, and charted 8 of their client sites in Ahrefs. Over the last 12 months 3 of the 8 sites grew and 5 fell, and only 3 of the 6 other-agency clients came with a dated start.
TL;DR
Six AI SEO agencies working out of Dublin are compared here on 8 client sites charted from Ahrefs. BeFound’s and Arekibo’s claims hold up in the data, Webjuice’s 400% for Pure Green does not show, and Mater Private, Arekibo’s award winner, is down 46% on a year ago. A case study tells you what went well once, so ask for the domain and the dates and check the chart yourself.
Not sure which client story is closest to your business? Take the quick check. Pick one and the matching section opens, with a question to put to any agency.
How this was researched
The work behind the numbers, so you can judge them for yourself.
EFFORT
8 client sites, pulled 2 Nov 2026
We pulled monthly organic traffic from Ahrefs Site Explorer for 8 client domains, with 23 to 73 months of data each, read the case studies of 5 Dublin agencies and checked 13 agencies in total.
ORIGINALITY
Charts nobody publishes
The traffic charts are our own Ahrefs pulls, set against each agency’s own claim. The Aer Lingus and Hostelworld records come from my own work.
SKILL
Written by someone who did the work
Roman Sadowski ran SEO for Aer Lingus at iProspect and was SEO Lead at Hostelworld, two Dublin brands.
ACCURACY
What this does not prove
Ahrefs traffic is an estimate for a whole domain and cannot show what an agency did. Start dates are unknown for 3 of the 6 other-agency sites, sales and leads were not measured, and one Ahrefs pull is a snapshot.
Which Dublin AI SEO agencies did we compare?
We compared 6: BeFound SEO, Arekibo, Hatch Digital, Wolfgang Digital, Webjuice and Rank Dough. Rank Dough is ours and based in Loughrea, Co. Galway, not Dublin, so it is disclosed and checked on the same evidence as the rest.
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BeFound SEO
Dublin
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Arekibo
Dublin 2
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Hatch Digital
Dublin
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Wolfgang Digital
Dublin
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Webjuice
Castleknock, Dublin 15
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Rank Dough
Loughrea, Co. Galway
That’s Us! |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basics | ||||||
| Founded | 2009 | 2002 | Not found | Not found | 2014 | 2025
Roman in search since 2004
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| Years trading | 17 | 24 | Not found | Not found | 12 | 1 |
| Team named on pages read | 4
Roles not given
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2
CEO and project director
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1 | 5
With roles
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1
Founder
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2
Named on our site
|
| Euro pricing on site | Not shown | Not shown | €499+
A month, to €800+
|
Not shown | €1,497+
A month, to €3,500
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Not shown |
| Recognition | ||||||
| Awards | Not found | Bronze, Best Use of SEO
Digital Media Awards 2026
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Not found | Silver, Best Use of SEO
Digital Media Awards 2026
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Not found | Listed on our site, winners-list links pending |
| Client evidence | ||||||
| Clients charted below | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2
Earlier roles, not agency clients
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| Agency’s own claim | Capcon 4x since May 2022
First Accounts clicks 4x in 10 months
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Mater Private +117%
Mid 2023 to early 2026
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Beacon 10.3x clicks
vs first 28 days
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Millies +58% sessions
Year on year, no dates
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Pure Green +400%
In 12 months, no dates
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Aer Lingus 5.0x
Jan 2021 to Mar 2022
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| Ahrefs shows | 4.4x
Capcon, 3-month averages
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3.0x
Jun 2023 to Feb 2026
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485
Visits, Oct 2026, from 1
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1.9x
Jan 2023 to Jan 2024
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1.6x
Best 12 months, Jun 2024 to Jun 2025
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5.0x
Travel reopened too
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| Last 12 months | +192%
Capcon, Oct 2025 to Oct 2026
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-46%
Mater Private
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41 to 485
Visits, Oct 2025 to Oct 2026
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-4%
Millies
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-52%
Pure Green
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-41%
Aer Lingus; Hostelworld -23%
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| Evidence status | Backed | Backed, now falling | Partly | Partly | Not shown | Partly |
Source: agency websites and case study pages, read 29 October and 2 November 2026; Ahrefs Site Explorer, estimated organic visits a month, pulled 2 November 2026. Awards as published by Arekibo on 21 October 2026.
BeFound SEO
Dublin SEO agency since 2009, B2B and professional services
BeFound publishes full case studies with start dates, which most agencies here do not. Capcon Engineering has worked with it since May 2022 and First Accounts since December 2025. Both show in Ahrefs the way BeFound describes them.
Arekibo
Dublin 2 digital agency, Bronze for Best Use of SEO 2026
Arekibo won Bronze for Best Use of SEO at the Digital Media Awards 2026 for Mater Private Network. Its claim of 117% more whole-site traffic between mid 2023 and early 2026 is smaller than what Ahrefs shows. The same site has fallen since March 2026.
Hatch Digital
Dublin web, SEO and AI search studio
Hatch built the brand and website for Beacon Recruitment, a new business, and has run its SEO for two years. It reports 10.3x organic clicks against the first 28 days and 146% more traffic from AI sources over 90 days. Ahrefs backs the direction; it cannot see AI traffic.
Wolfgang Digital
Dublin agency, Silver for Best Use of SEO 2026
Wolfgang’s Millies case study reports 58% more sessions year on year and 138% more organic revenue from AI-assisted content. It gives no dates. Ahrefs shows a step up between early 2023 and early 2024 that fits the claim.
Webjuice
Castleknock SEO agency with prices on its site
Webjuice is the only agency here with full prices on its site: €497 one-off, then €1,497 to €3,500 a month. Its headline case is Pure Green, a US juice bar franchise with 40+ locations, at +400% organic in 12 months. Ahrefs does not show that rise for puregreen.com.
Rank Dough
Small team, founded 2025, Irish record from earlier roles
Rank Dough is based in Loughrea, Co. Galway and was founded in 2025. Our site names 2 people. Our Irish record is my earlier work at two Dublin brands, Aer Lingus through iProspect and Hostelworld in-house. Neither was a Rank Dough client.
What happened to their clients’ organic traffic?
We pulled estimated monthly organic visits for each client’s whole domain from Ahrefs Site Explorer on 2 November 2026. Every chart runs to October 2026, so the last 12 months compare October 2025 with October 2026.
Source: Ahrefs Site Explorer, estimated organic visits a month, subdomains included, pulled by Rank Dough on 2 November 2026.
3 of the 8 sites grew over the last 12 months. First Accounts went from 20 to 277 visits, Beacon Recruitment from 41 to 485 and Capcon Engineering from 153 to 446. The other 5 fell: Millies by 4%, Hostelworld by 23%, Aer Lingus by 41%, Mater Private by 46% and Pure Green by 52%.
The three that grew are small sites that started from under 160 visits. The five that fell are the bigger ones. That is a pattern in 8 sites, not a finding, and I have not tested why.
| Client | Agency | Start | First month in chart | Oct 2026 | Last 12 months | Does Ahrefs back the claim? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capcon Engineering | BeFound | May 2022 | 151 | 446 | +192% | Yes, 4.4x on 3-month averages |
| First Accounts | BeFound | Dec 2025 | 18 | 277 | 20 to 277 | Yes, Ahrefs shows more than 4x |
| Mater Private | Arekibo | Mid 2023 | 18,214 | 31,710 | -46% | Yes to Feb 2026, falling since |
| Beacon Recruitment | Hatch Digital | New site, Dec 2024 | 1 | 485 | 41 to 485 | Direction only |
| Millies | Wolfgang Digital | Not published | 32,426 | 59,783 | -4% | Fits a 2023 to 2024 step, undated |
| Pure Green | Webjuice | Not published | 5,962 | 4,658 | -52% | No, best 12 months is 1.6x |
First month in chart is January 2022, or the first month the site had traffic (Beacon Recruitment, December 2024). Estimated organic visits a month, Ahrefs Site Explorer, pulled 2 November 2026.
One method note. Ahrefs estimates traffic from rankings and search volumes for the whole domain, so it can disagree with a client’s own analytics. Where the two differ, the agency’s figure may still be right, but it needs dates and a domain to be checked.
What do BeFound’s clients show?
Capcon Engineering is an Irish firm that designs and installs siphonic drainage for data centres, hospitals and airports. BeFound took on its SEO in May 2022, when the site had 151 visits a month. It had 571 in August 2026 and 446 in October. On three-month averages that is 111 to 488, 4.4 times, so BeFound’s “about 4x” holds.
It was not a straight line. Capcon fell from 369 visits in March 2025 to 119 in November 2025, then climbed back. In a niche this small, a few rankings move the whole chart.
First Accounts is an online accountancy in Maynooth. BeFound started in December 2025, when the site had 18 visits a month after more than two years of decline. It had 277 in October 2026. BeFound says Google clicks rose 4x in 10 months and that AI assistants now name the firm for “best online accountant in Ireland”. We did not test the AI claim.
151 in May 2022, 571 in Aug 2026, 446 in Oct 2026. Dipped to 119 in Nov 2025.
Fell from 102 in Apr 2023 to 18 in Dec 2025, then 277 in Oct 2026.
What do Arekibo’s clients show?
Mater Private Network is a private hospital group. Arekibo built a Medical Conditions Hub with content attributed to its consultants. Arekibo reports 117% more whole-site traffic, 620% more hub traffic and 500+ AI Overview appearances between mid 2023 and early 2026.
Ahrefs shows more than the claim for that window: 18,214 visits in June 2023 and 54,198 in February 2026, 3.0 times. The site peaked at 58,383 in October 2025. It has fallen every month since March 2026 and had 31,710 in October, 46% below a year ago.
The award covers the rise, not what came after. I have not tested why the fall happened. AI Overviews answering health questions on the results page is one candidate, and it is a hypothesis, not a finding.
18,214 in Jun 2023, peak 58,383 in Oct 2025, 31,710 in Oct 2026.
What do Hatch Digital’s clients show?
Beacon Recruitment is a new recruitment and hospitality consulting business. Hatch named it, built the site and has run SEO and content for two years. The domain first shows traffic in Ahrefs in December 2024, with 1 visit. It reached 589 in August 2026 and had 485 in October.
Hatch’s 10.3x is measured against the first 28 days of a new site, so almost any working site would show a large multiple. The useful part is the shape: under 200 visits for its first 19 months, then a jump from 189 in June 2026 to 468 in July. Hatch’s 146% rise in AI-source traffic can’t be checked in Ahrefs.
1 in Dec 2024, under 100 until Apr 2026, 589 in Aug 2026, 485 in Oct 2026.
What do Wolfgang Digital’s clients show?
Millies is an Irish beauty retailer up against multinational sites. Wolfgang paired a custom GPT with Millies’ in-store beauty staff to write mid-funnel content and reports 58% more sessions and 138% more organic revenue year on year. It gives no dates.
Ahrefs shows a clear step up: 31,942 visits in January 2023 and 60,481 in January 2024. Since then the site has held between 42,407 and 64,328 outside November to January, with peaks of 78,190 in November 2024 and 108,547 in December 2025. October 2026 had 59,783, 4% below October 2025.
Christmas peaks every year. 32,426 in Jan 2022, 108,547 in Dec 2025, 59,783 in Oct 2026.
What do Webjuice’s clients show?
Pure Green is a US juice bar franchise with 40+ locations. Webjuice says templated location pages, Google Business Profiles and content lifted its organic traffic 400% in one year. No dates are given.
Ahrefs does not show a 400% year for puregreen.com. The best 12 months in our chart is June 2024 to June 2025, 6,949 to 11,053 visits, 1.6 times. The site had 4,658 in October 2026, 52% below a year earlier. The gain may sit in Google Maps or on location pages Ahrefs does not count, but the case study does not say.
5,962 in Jan 2022, peak 11,053 in Jun 2025, 4,658 in Oct 2026.
What do Rank Dough’s results show?
Rank Dough has no Irish client we can chart yet. The two sites below are my work before Rank Dough, at two Dublin brands, so I do not count them as agency clients.
At Aer Lingus I worked through iProspect from January 2021 to March 2022. Traffic went from 88,779 to 440,720 visits a month, 5.0 times. Travel reopened over the same months, so I do not credit that to SEO alone. At Hostelworld I was in-house from May 2022 to January 2025. Whole-site traffic went from 801,048 to 956,300, up 19%.
Both sites are down on a year ago: Aer Lingus by 41% and Hostelworld by 23%. I left both long before that, and travel sites in our UK comparison fell in the same months.
Travel reopened over the same months. Peak 896,838 in Jun 2024.
Whole site. 801,048 to 956,300 while I was in-house, up 19%. Peaked May 2025, after I left.
What do these charts tell an Irish business?
Read together, the 8 charts show five patterns an Irish business should expect from SEO and AI search work. Each comes from the charts above. They are my reading of the data, not tested rules.
01Seasonal retailYour sales and traffic peak at Christmas or another season.From the data: Millies, Wolfgang Digital.▼
How does seasonality change what a result looks like?
Millies peaks every November and December: 53,950 in November 2022, 67,564 in December 2023, 78,190 in November 2024 and 108,547 in December 2025. October to December comparisons are meaningless unless they are year on year.
A fair report compares the same month across years. Millies’ October 2026 is 4% below October 2025, which is flat for a retailer heading into its peak.
From the data: Millies, Wolfgang Digital.
02Niche B2B, small numbersFew people search for what you sell, but each sale is large.From the data: Capcon Engineering, BeFound.▼
What does a good result look like in a small B2B niche?
Capcon has never had more than 571 visits a month in our chart. Its buyers are architects and engineers working on data centres and hospitals, so a single enquiry can be a large project.
Small numbers swing hard. Capcon lost two thirds of its traffic between March and November 2025 and won it back by mid 2026. Judge a niche site on enquiries and over 12 months, not month to month.
From the data: Capcon Engineering, BeFound.
03New brand, new siteYou are launching or have just launched.From the data: Beacon Recruitment, Hatch Digital.▼
How long does a new site take to get traffic?
Beacon Recruitment stayed under 100 visits a month for its first 17 months, then went from 189 in June 2026 to 468 in July. That is one site, and it is the only new launch here.
Any multiple on a new site looks big, because the starting point is close to zero. Ask for the visits, not the multiple.
From the data: Beacon Recruitment, Hatch Digital.
04Crowded professional servicesYou compete with big firms, directories and official guidance.From the data: First Accounts, BeFound.▼
Can a small firm win in a crowded Irish market?
First Accounts is a small accountancy in a market where big firms, directories and Revenue’s own pages answer the same questions. It had lost most of its traffic by December 2025, down to 18 visits a month.
BeFound rewrote and pruned the content and built town pages. Ahrefs shows 277 visits in October 2026. Ten months is short, so this is a start, not a settled result.
From the data: First Accounts, BeFound.
05Big site, falling marketYou already have a large site and traffic is slipping.From the data: Mater Private, Aer Lingus, Hostelworld.▼
What happens when a large site starts to fall?
The three largest sites here all fell over the last 12 months: Mater Private by 46%, Aer Lingus by 41% and Hostelworld by 23%. Mater Private won an SEO award in October 2026 for growth that ended in March.
At this size, the market and Google’s results page move the chart as much as any agency. I have not tested what caused these falls. Ask how an agency separates its work from the market before you judge a chart, up or down.
From the data: Mater Private, Aer Lingus, Hostelworld.
Which of these client stories is closest to your business?
Pick the story closest to your business. The matching section opens below, with a question to put to any agency.
Which story is closest to yours?
These 5 stories come from the 8 charted sites. They are a shortlist, not an audit.
How should you choose an AI SEO agency in Dublin?
Four checks follow from the data above. They are my judgement. I have not tested whether they predict results.
- Ask for the client’s domain and the month the work started. BeFound gave both for its two clients; 2 of the other 4 agencies gave neither.
- Check the claim in Ahrefs or ask for a Search Console export. Pure Green’s 400% does not show in Ahrefs, while Capcon’s 4x does.
- Ask what happened after the case study ended. Mater Private is 46% down on a year ago, after the window its award covers.
- Match the client to your business. A US franchise, a hospital group and a Maynooth accountant need different work, and the closest client tells you more than the biggest number.
Price matters too. Only Webjuice and Hatch publish euro prices, from €499 to €3,500 a month. Ask the others for a range before the first call.
What do people ask about AI SEO agencies in Dublin?
What does an AI SEO agency in Dublin do?
It works on how a business shows up in Google and in AI answers such as Google’s AI Overviews. The work is technical fixes, content and links, plus tracking whether AI tools name the brand. Four of the five Dublin agencies here name the AI platforms they work on.
How much does an AI SEO agency in Dublin cost?
Only 2 of the 5 Dublin agencies publish prices. Hatch Digital lists €499 to €800+ a month and Webjuice €1,497 to €3,500 a month, plus a €497 one-off option. The others quote after a call.
How long does an AI SEO result take?
In our charts it ranged from 10 months to close to 3 years. First Accounts went from 18 to 277 visits a month in 10 months, Beacon Recruitment took 17 months to pass 100, and Mater Private grew for close to 3 years. Each is a single case.
Can I trust the percentages in an agency’s case study?
Only with a domain, a start date and an end date. Capcon’s 4x and Mater Private’s 117% hold in Ahrefs. Pure Green’s 400% in 12 months does not show, and its case study gives no dates to check.
How many people search for an AI SEO agency in Dublin?
Ahrefs shows about 150 searches a month in Ireland for “ai seo agency dublin”, checked on 29 October 2026. It is the only Irish city with measurable search volume for AI SEO in Ahrefs.
Who is Rank Dough, and what are the limits of this list?
Rank Dough is a small team. Our site names 2 people, Roman Sadowski and David Mason. We trade as Fortunata and work from Loughrea, Co. Galway, not Dublin. We put ourselves in this list because Dublin businesses compare us with Dublin agencies.
I have worked in search since 2004. My Irish record is Aer Lingus at iProspect from January 2021 to March 2022 and Hostelworld in-house from May 2022 to January 2025. Neither was a Rank Dough engagement, so I do not count them as agency clients. This article is published by Rank Dough, which appears in the table, so check every claim against the named domain in Ahrefs.
The limits are clear. Traffic is estimated at domain level from one pull on 2 November 2026. We did not measure sales, leads or AI citations. There is no before-and-after test, start dates are unknown for 3 of the 6 other-agency sites, and each agency is judged on the one or two clients it chose to publish. We also checked Riordan SEO, Wasper Media, VooDoo Digital, Cian Murphy Digital, Dotsquares, Web Tonic and SeoProfy and left them out, because we could not read a named client with a result, or a Dublin base, on their pages.
Sources
- Ahrefs Site Explorer, estimated monthly organic traffic for 8 client domains, pulled by Rank Dough on 2 November 2026
- Arekibo, Best Use of SEO, Digital Media Awards 2026, Mater Private figures
- Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?
