SmartEcomSEO: the Shopify SEO agency built in Shenzhen
We are a Shopify-only SEO and GEO agency. We started as sellers, spent a decade buying traffic, and moved to search because it is the channel that keeps paying after you stop spending.
From Detroit to the factory of the world
I'm Zack Franklin. I grew up in Detroit and I've lived in Shenzhen, China for more than eight years.
Before SEO, I spent about ten years in paid traffic. I ran ads, managed budgets, and watched what happened to revenue the day a campaign was paused. Usually it fell straight to zero. That lesson is the reason this agency exists.
I've sold more than $3M on my own Shopify sites. I've worked with hundreds of Amazon and Shopify brands, and I've been a marketing and operations consultant to Chinese Amazon companies doing nine figures a year. At Valuelink, one of the top five Chinese Amazon sellers, I won the company's "Hardest Worker" award out of roughly 700 employees. I've also spoken at more than 200 live events on marketing, ecommerce and AI, from Beijing and Bangkok to Barcelona.
SmartEcomSEO is what came out of all that: a small, fast team that only works on Shopify stores and treats organic search as a revenue line, not a vanity report. You can read more about me on my profile page.
Eight years next door to the supply chain
Eight years in Shenzhen, next door to 600,000+ Amazon sellers and the factories behind half the products on page one. Zack has spoken at 200+ events on ecommerce, marketing and AI, including cross-border summits here in Shenzhen.
Ten years of talks for sellers
Since 2017 I've given keynotes, workshops and panels at Global Sources Summit in Hong Kong, Cross Border Summit in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chiang Mai, Affiliate World in Bangkok, Barcelona and Dubai, ScaleForEtail in London, EcomHub Summit in Vancouver and the Shenzhen SEO Conference.
Most of my talks were in China: trainings for Chinese ecommerce associations and events with Cifnews (雨果网), Xnurta, KanKanwang, the RISE conference in Hong Kong and JP Zhang's SEO workshops in Shenzhen.
These days I speak about Shopify SEO and AI automation, including a workshop on SEO automation with Claude at SEO Mastery Summit in Vietnam.
- 200+ live events since 2017
- Talks in 9 countries and regions
- Host of The Zack Franklin Show, 19 episodes
We sit next to the people who make the products
Shenzhen is where a large share of the world's consumer products are designed, made and shipped. More than 600,000 Amazon seller companies are based here. Many of them now want their own Shopify store, and they need Google and ChatGPT to take that store seriously.
Being here means we understand how those brands operate: fast product launches, Amazon-first habits, export managers juggling five markets, and English that needs a native rewrite before it earns trust. It also means we work at what locals call "Shenzhen speed". Weeks, not quarters.
- Native-English content for Chinese brands selling to the US, UK, EU and Australia
- Western high-ticket brands get a team that works while they sleep
- Direct experience with Amazon-to-Shopify moves and multi-market hreflang
Three ideas behind every plan we write
Look at page one
Google shows you exactly what it rewards. Before we write a word, we study the pages already ranking: their format, length, headings, products and links. Then we build something better than all of them.
Collection pages are money machines
One product can rank for thousands of keywords. A sofa is also a couch, a sleeper sofa, a sectional and a chesterfield. Each buyer keyword deserves its own optimized collection page.
Learn more 03SEO keeps paying when ads stop
If you turn off your ads, are you still making money? Our top client makes an extra $100,000 a month from organic search. If the work stopped today, they would still make an extra million next year.
Learn moreOne sofa, thousands of searches
More than 234,000 keywords contain the word "sofa", adding up to roughly 4.5 million searches a month. Each group of buyers types something different, and each group needs a page built for them.
An agency run by sellers, for sellers
- 01
Shopify only
We do not split attention across WordPress blogs, SaaS sites and local plumbers. Every template, app conflict and Markets setting we see is on Shopify, so we recognise problems fast.
- 02
We report in revenue
Rankings matter because they sell products. Our monthly report starts with organic revenue from Shopify, then positions, traffic and impressions from GSC, Ahrefs and Semrush.
- 03
Volume with editors
Around 20 articles and 20 money collection pages a month on our standard plan. Drafts start with AI, then at least three people read and fact-check each piece before it goes live.
- 04
Google and AI search together
The same entity signals, structured data and clear product content that help Google also get stores cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
- 05
Month-to-month
No lock-in contract. You stay because the numbers move. Billing runs through Stripe, and you can manage or cancel from the customer portal.
Who we are not for
We turn down work when the math doesn't add up for the client. You'll save time if you know this now.
Small catalogs with low prices#
A store with 12 products at $30 each doesn't have enough keyword surface or margin to pay back a monthly SEO retainer. You'll get more from marketplaces, creators or paid social first.
Brand-new domains in a hurry#
We can grow a new site, and two of our clients did it from a weak start. But a domain with no history and no links takes longer. If you need sales next month, run ads alongside SEO.
Anyone who wants guaranteed rankings#
Nobody controls Google. We guarantee the work: the research, the pages, the fixes and the reporting. Agencies that guarantee position one are either lying or picking keywords nobody searches.
Stores that aren't on Shopify#
We only work on Shopify. If you're on WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce or Salesforce Commerce Cloud and thinking of moving, see our Shopify migration SEO service.
If none of those describe you, see if you’re a good fit or get in touch.
What the work has produced
- Organic revenue in 7 months
- $758,772
- Chinese automotive accessories brand, 30 products
- Organic clicks a day
- 1,000
- Chinese tech brand, from DR 12
- Keywords ranking for one client
- 21,877
- Up against a VC-backed leader
- Single order from one keyword
- $130,000
- Moved from page 3 to page 1
See if your store is a good fit
The free fit score tells you whether SEO is likely to pay back for your catalog.