How Do You Choose The Best Shopify SEO Company?
by Justin Smith, CEO
// Updated Oct 01, 2022
Choosing the right Shopify SEO services provider to increase organic traffic to your Shopify store is no easy task. The decision you make will have significant consequences for both your SEO success and your business bank account.
If you choose the wrong company, you can actually see a decline in organic traffic and could incur long-term damage. On the flip side, choosing the right company can cause a significant increase in traffic in conversions in as little as a few months.
So what do you do?
This disparity in the quality and effectiveness of SEO services from agency to agency is why some business owners will tell you SEO is a scam. In contrast, many others will say investing in SEO was the best marketing decision they ever made. It all comes down to working with an established SEO company that knows what they’re doing and isn’t selling results.
While SEO isn’t a perfect fit for every business or industry, every eCommerce store should have an active SEO strategy. Whether B2B, B2C, or something in between, your target audience is searching for your products on search engines like Google whether you realize it or not.
So, now that you understand the importance of choosing the right SEO company or SEO consultant to optimize your Shopify store, let’s discuss what to look for and how to best evaluate potential SEO agencies when making your decision.
Beware of Shady SEO Shopify Companies!
Beware of SEO agencies that guarantee you first page rankings or try to overwhelm you with industry jargon or act like you need Rosetta Stone to discuss SEO. Any company that acts like they have a top-secret way to decipher Google’s algorithm or some other unique advantage is likely trying to scam you.
There are also “black-hat” SEO companies that try to trick or manipulate Google’s algorithm but can cause more long-term damage than short-term gains.
A reputable, established SEO agency will want to operate as an extension of your company. While there are many technical aspects of SEO, you shouldn’t need any expert knowledge to have a conversation about SEO with a salesperson at an SEO agency.
What to watch for in a Shopify SEO company:
- Companies that “guarantee rankings.”
- New companies with little background knowledge or history
- Salespeople that try to overwhelm you with industry jargon
- Companies without case studies, testimonials, or positive reviews.
Identify Your Goals Internally
Before hiring an SEO agency to work on your Shopify store, it’s best to have some specific goals in mind. If you are only looking to “increase organic traffic” or “get more sales online,” SEO can get you there. However, by having more specific goals in mind, like “we want to increase organic revenue by 50% in 2022 compared to 2021,” you will find that you will be taken more seriously by the companies you solicit. More importantly, the SEO company will know right away what your expectations and goals are, and then develop a custom quote for the amount and types of SEO services the agency expects it will take to realize those goals.
Perhaps your main goal with SEO is to drive more traffic to one or two products. Maybe your goal is to drive more leads to an informational piece of content on your blog. Perhaps you are open to suggestions and would like to lean on an SEO agency to develop new strategies and marketing initiatives for the future. The right Shopify SEO agency will have no problem helping you realize those goals, so be transparent with your goals early in the process. Once goals and terms are defined, your agency’s goal is to get your store to the top of the search results.
Ask the SEO Agency About Their Websites Rankings
One of our best selling points at OuterBox is that many of our SEO clients find us by searching for an SEO company in Google. Since these SEO agency-type keywords are incredibly competitive, it’s pretty obvious that we know what we’re doing when it comes to SEO if you take a look at some of OuterBox site’s rankings.
When speaking to potential SEO agencies, ask what keywords they rank for with their agency website. If you are working with an SEO agency that has no organic traffic or authority with their company site, that can be a huge red flag that they don’t know what they’re doing.
Look for eCommerce SEO and Shopify SEO Experience
Look for a Shopify SEO services provider that has experience with eCommerce SEO campaigns. While SEO for eCommerce is similar to other types of SEO, there’s much more at stake when every visitor to your site is a potential customer. With eCommerce websites and SEO, thorough keyword research is needed to identify keywords with eCommerce intent that will also convert once they arrive at your store. Content marketing is also critical for eCommerce stores, but many SEO agencies fall short when it comes time to leverage SEO to bolster a larger content marketing plan.
It’s also vital that you work with an SEO company that understands Shopify and can work with the platform. Shopify is designed to be easy to use for everyday people, but making certain SEO changes often requires the help of a Shopify developer. One huge advantage of working with OuterBox is that we are a full-service eCommerce agency with developers working hand-in-hand with our SEO team. If you have your own Shopify developers, we can work with them as needed. If you don’t, we have everything you need right here in-house to make our SEO visions a reality.
Communication is Key
Established and reputable SEO companies will provide weekly or monthly reports that include all of the pertinent data and KPI regarding your SEO campaign. If your team had time to analyze web metrics and KPI, you likely wouldn’t be hiring an SEO company, to begin with. It is typically your SEO agency’s job to analyze this data and use it to develop ongoing strategies, not yours. The best SEO companies will keep you up-to-date on the latest KPI and stats regarding your campaign while continuously bringing new ideas and strategies to the table based on real, actionable data and insights.
You need to work with an established SEO agency that you trust to provide you with unbiased data regarding their results. This goes back to our earlier point about identifying your goals before hiring an SEO agency. Once you know your business goals with SEO, it will be easier to identify a company that understands those goals.
Exceptional communication is one of our core business philosophies at OuterBox. When you work with OuterBox, you will have access to monthly, dynamic SEO reports that highlight exactly what work was done on your website, what results, and what our plans are for the future. With Shopify SEO stores, the true KPI that matters most organic traffic and organic revenue. We are a results-oriented team that takes pride in what we do.
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