Choosing an SEO agency is hard because the work is slow and the results arrive months after you sign. Most bad hires look fine for the first quarter. This guide is the checklist we would use if we were hiring an agency for an online store or a software company, written by an agency, so read it with that in mind.
SEO for an online store is different from SEO for a law firm or a local plumber. Stores have collection pages, product variants, filters and apps that create duplicate URLs. Software companies need feature, comparison and alternatives pages. Ask which of those the agency works on every month, and ask for an example of each.
Ask: what is the most common technical problem you find on stores like mine, and how do you fix it?
A traffic chart with no source is easy to make. A good agency can show the client's Search Console or analytics data, explain what they changed, and say what didn't work. If results come from a third-party tool estimate, they should say so.
Ask: can you walk me through the Search Console data for this case study, and what share of the growth came from your work?
"Ongoing optimization" is not a deliverable. A useful proposal lists what happens each month: how many pages get optimized, how many articles get written, what technical work is planned, and what the report contains.
Ask: what exactly will you ship in the first 30, 60 and 90 days?
You should own your Google Search Console, analytics, domain and every piece of content the agency writes. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO suggests giving an agency read access to Search Console at first, not write access (Google Search Central).
Ask: if we stop working together, what do we keep?
SEO pricing varies widely. In an Ahrefs poll of 439 SEO providers, agencies averaged $3,209 a month and freelancers $1,348 (Ahrefs, updated August 2024). A lower price is fine if the scope is clear. A higher price is fine if it buys more work. What matters is that you can see what you are paying for. Our ecommerce SEO pricing guide breaks this down in detail.
The lowest-risk way to judge an agency is a paid audit or a short first term. A good audit is useful on its own: any developer can work from the fix list. If the audit is vague, the retainer will be too.
| Option | Good for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | Smaller budgets, one clear task | Limited capacity; depends on one person |
| Agency | Ongoing technical work, content and links together | Costs more; check who actually does the work |
| In-house | Large sites with constant SEO needs | Salary plus tools; hard to hire for every skill |
We work only with ecommerce brands and software companies. Our prices are on our packages page, plans run month to month with 30 days' notice to cancel, your accounts stay yours, the content and pages we make are yours once paid (see our terms), and we report on one page each month. Our proof comes from two Shopify stores our team runs, not from client logos. See how we work on our Shopify SEO page.
Judge the work at 90 days: was the audit done, were fixes shipped, is new content live? Judge traffic and leads over six to twelve months, because rankings take time to move.
It helps. An agency that works on Shopify every month will know its URL structure, apps and theme quirks, and won't need to learn them on your budget.
Want to see how we'd approach your store? Book a call. No deck.