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Shopify articles post themselves →There are five real ways to get SEO content written. All of them can work. They differ in what they cost, who does the work, and what happens when you stop paying attention. Here is the whole picture, including where we are not the right choice.
| Helio SEO | SEO agency | Freelance writer | DIY AI tools | Blog autopilots | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical monthly cost | £29–£49 | £500–£1,500+ retainer | £100–£400 per article | Free–£100, plus your time | Roughly $39–$149 |
| Who does the work | Helio writes, you approve (or autopilot) | Their team, per contract | You brief, they write | You, with a helper | The tool |
| Cadence | Every day, or every other day | Per contract, often monthly | Per article you commission | Whenever you get to it | Varies by plan |
| Publishes itself to your site | Yes, natively or hosted on your domain | Usually | Rarely | No | Usually via a WordPress plugin |
| Matched to your brand's design | Automatic, from a scan of your site | Custom, part of the fee | No | No | Rarely |
| Review before publishing | Every draft, or one-switch autopilot | Yes | Yes | You are the review | Varies |
| AI model quality | The most capable model on the market | n/a (human) | n/a (human) | Depends on your prompting | Usually the cheapest that passes |
| Links & listings work | Journalist quotes + citations on Pro | Often, as an extra | No | No | Some sell link networks Google penalises — we refuse to |
Cost figures are typical UK ranges, not quotes; the autopilot range runs from the cheapest to the dearest of the well-known tools. Full workings in the honest cost comparison.
An agency gives you a human who owns your whole channel: technical SEO, digital PR, paid search. If you have the budget and want that relationship, buy it. We do one job extremely well; they do many.
Interviews, first-party research and opinionated thought-leadership are human work. A good freelance writer beats any AI at it. Many customers run both: Helio for the steady answer content, a human for the flagship pieces.
If you can genuinely publish well, consistently, on top of running your business, a DIY tool and your own voice is the cheapest option there is. The catch has never been ability. It is the calendar.
Every tool in that table sounds identical in its marketing. The output does not read identically. Most autopilots run on the cheapest model that passes, and reviewers describe the results as competent but generic. Helio writes with the most capable model on the market, bans invented facts, and publishes its own blog with the same pipeline you would be buying, so you can judge the writing before you pay: read it here.
Sign up, read your first drafts, and decide with the output in front of you. Three days free, from £29 a month, cancel anytime.