Your last SEO agency ran the checklist. Meta titles updated and backlinks built. Did you see the increases in revenue that you were expecting?
We understand Authority SEO offers Shopify SEO Services. This is why you should read this with some skepticism. However, everything in this article still applies if you end up hiring someone else.
The problem is that checklists don’t account for how someone finds and buys the products your store sells. This article covers what separates a Shopify SEO agency that moves revenue. We share the specific questions to ask before you sign.
What’s the difference between a SEO marketing agency and a Shopify SEO specialist?
A general agency runs the same SEO playbook on a Shopify store that they’d run on a law firm’s WordPress site. You find the same title tag formula and same backlink outreach.
Shopify has its own failure points. If you have never personally owned a Shopify store than it is tough to put into words all the things you have to become an expert on.
- Collection pages that duplicate themselves through Shopify’s own URL structure
- Product variants competing against each other for the same keyword
- A theme update breaking canonical tags
- Blog content that ranks but never handles a buyer’s question
Shasta Pool Supply offers example of Shopify SEO performance. Organic keyword rankings went from 653 to 9,374. Citations in AI Overviews jumped 422% year over year. That is the result of working together with the Shopify owner to build a better store that coverts to sales. Migrated the store in February 2025 to new Shopify and first month increase revenue 224% YOY.
Ask an agency. Have you ever run SEO on a Shopify store you owned or operated?
Are you interested in hiring a Shopify expert? Learn about what makes Authority SEO a different kind of service. Checkout our Shopify SEO Services.
Why didn’t my last SEO agency increase revenue?
Your rankings may or may not have went up. Your traffic report looked very professional. However, your revenue stayed flat, or grew slower than it should have for the money you were paying. What happens when an agency optimizes for the report instead of the sale.
Checklists vs. the buyer’s journey
A checklist treats every visitor the same. Optimize the title tag and publish the blog post, Now, move to the next line item. A buyer researching a pool heater isn’t the same as one comparing two products side by side at 11pm, ready to check out.
SEO only works when it’s built around where that specific person is in their decision.
- First-time visitor needs content that answers a question.
- Returning visitor comparing options needs specifics. They need real data and real tradeoffs. They type of content only your team could provide.
- A visitor two clicks from checkout needs a different CTA than the one who just landed on your blog.
Matching content and the call to action to the buyer’s journey separates SEO that coverts to sales. This fixes all content no matter how a future customer enters the website and can increase sales from Google Ads and Social Media.
Bryan Ashbaugh, Authority SEO Founder
What “doing the tasks” leaves out for Shopify stores?
Paying an agency to check boxes, and later doing the work myself. The tasks get done. The store still doesn’t convert better. Nobody connected the dots between what ranks and what a buyer needs to trust before they purchase.
It takes multiple visits to convert now. Every one of those visits either builds trust or wastes it. A checklist doesn’t know the difference. Someone who’s run the buyer’s journey on their own store does.
Do you want to see how your Shopify store is performing? Checkout our free Shopify SEO Health Check.
What should a Shopify SEO agency be doing for my store?
The question really is what is an Shopify agency going to do that you can’t do already. What are the key improvements that covert sessions into sales. (Read Google’s Own Hire SEO Tips)
Finding how customers search for your specific products
The phrases a buyer types when they’re trying to solve their specific problem. Compare two specific SKUs by part number. Generic keyword research misses this because it’s built for volume. We need to build for your specific niche.
A Shopify SEO agency finds what your niche’s buyers are asking. Now, customers are searching Chatgpt. So, Google isn’t the only player.
Building content that answers buyer questions with your team’s expertise
Anyone can write a blog post about benefits of your specific product. Almost nobody can explain why your team recommends one model over another. That second version is what earns trust. That second version is also what AI search engines are starting to cit. It’s specific instead of generic.
- Content should come from what your team already knows
- Generic “SEO content” that could run on any competitor’s site does almost nothing for trust
- The advice has to be something only your business could say
Do you want to learn how a SEO agency can work with your existing team? Checkout How SEO Agencies Boost ROI.
Matching CTAs to where the buyer is
A blog reader isn’t ready to buy yet. Someone comparing two products on a collection page might be. The same CTA pushed on both — “Shop Now,” every time ignores where each person stands.
Seen one generic “buy” button across an entire site. It performs worse than it should. It’s asking for a decision the visitor isn’t ready to make yet.
Earning trust across multiple visits
It rarely converts in one visit anymore. Most buyers come back a few times. Every one of those visits either builds a little more trust or erodes it.
An agency chasing a single session’s conversion rate is optimizing for the wrong number. The right question is whether someone who visits three times over two weeks trusts your store more on visit three than visit one. (Read Shopify’s AI Guide to Chatgpt)
Are you interested in how much to spend for SEO? Learn the different budgets based on business model and competition. Checkout our SEO Budge Calculator.
What questions should I ask an SEO agency before hiring them?
| Question to Ask | What a Good Answer Sounds Like |
|---|---|
| Have you actually run SEO on a Shopify store you owned or operated? | A specific example — not “we’ve worked with Shopify clients.” |
| How do you measure success — rankings, traffic, or revenue? | Revenue and ROI, tied back to your store’s actual numbers. |
| Can you show me results from a real project, not just a case study slide? | Willingness to walk through the data, not just the highlight reel. |
| How do you handle Shopify-specific issues like collection page duplication or canonical tags? | A direct technical answer — not a vague “we optimize your site.” |
| How does your content strategy account for where a buyer is in their decision? | Different content and CTAs for a first-time visitor vs. someone close to buying. |
| Do you look at how AI search engines like ChatGPT are citing — or missing — my store? | A real answer about AI visibility, not just Google rankings. |
| What happens if results don’t show up in the first few months? | Honesty about timeline — no guarantees of a #1 ranking. |
Do you want to know who effective SEO costs? Checkout How Much Does Effective Google and AI SEO Cost in 2026.
Where should you start if your last agency didn’t work?
Did the SEO agency map content to your buyers and tie it to revenue? Start by moving past monthly checklist and focus on measurable outcomes and revenue.
Every month the same SEO playbook, a competitor beats your store in search results. Time to start taking market share back.
The first step is viewing your last agency’s reporting and checking whether a single metric on it was tied to revenue. All rankings and traffic with no line connecting either one to a sale.
We have owned and optimized Shopify stores. We have made mistakes and learned more by fixing them. It is the hands on solutions that make a difference in creating revenue-focused results.
