# Our Shopify SEO process, start to finish Source: https://www.smartecomseo.com/how-we-work/ Updated: 2026-09-29 No mystery retainer. Here is exactly what happens after you sign up, what we need from you, what you get each month, how billing works and how to leave if it stops making sense. ## The first 30 days 1. **Kickoff call** (Week 1): We learn your margins, best sellers, markets, seasonality and what has already been tried. You tell us which products you most want to sell. 2. **Access** (Week 1): You give us a Shopify staff account and Google Search Console access. We confirm everything works the same day. 3. **Keyword research** (Weeks 1–2): More than 10 hours of research: we typically start with around 10,000 keywords and narrow them to about 60 targets for the month. 4. **Technical baseline** (Weeks 1–3): We crawl the store, log duplicate URLs, broken links, missing schema, thin collections and Markets issues, and start fixing the ones that block growth. 5. **First pages live** (Weeks 2–4): The first collection pages and articles go live, each logged in your live Google Sheet. ## Two logins, and nothing else required We need two things to start. Everything else is optional. **Shopify.** A staff account with permission to edit products, collections, pages, blog posts, navigation, URL redirects and themes. We never need access to payments, payouts or customer billing data. We work in a duplicate theme for anything risky and tell you before we publish theme changes. **Google Search Console.** Full user access on the domain property, so we can read queries and pages, submit sitemaps and inspect URLs. If you have GA4, Merchant Center or an Ahrefs or Semrush account, read access helps. If you don't, we use our own tools. - Shopify staff account (no payment permissions) - Google Search Console full user - Optional: GA4, Merchant Center ## The rhythm once we are running ### Weekly Shopify report check Best sellers, new products and inventory levels. We point new pages and internal links at products that are selling and in stock. ### Monthly keyword plan 10+ hours of research each month, from about 10,000 candidates down to about 60 target keywords. ### Articles Around 20 articles a month on the standard plan, roughly 100,000 words, usually 1,500 to 3,500 words each based on what ranks. ### Money collection pages About 20 new or rebuilt collection pages a month, each aimed at a buyer keyword. ### Technical work and schema 15+ hours a month of technical fixes, structured data and Merchant Center clean-up. ### Internal links Between 500 and 3,000 internal links a month, depending on catalog size. ### Existing content We update and improve pages you already have, since that is often the fastest win. ## What you see, and when ### The live Google Sheet Every URL we publish or update goes into a shared Google Sheet the day it happens: the page, its target keyword, the date and what changed. You can open it any time. There's no waiting for month end to know what we did. ### The monthly report Once a month you get a report built from Shopify, Google Search Console, Ahrefs and Semrush. It leads with organic revenue, then keyword positions, traffic and impressions, and what we plan next. See the [sample monthly SEO report](/sample-monthly-seo-report/) for the layout. ### Calls We keep meetings short. We offer a monthly review call, and you can message us between calls when something comes up. ## Stripe billing, month-to-month All plans are billed monthly through Stripe. You get access to the Stripe customer portal, where you can download invoices, update your card and cancel. There's no lock-in contract. If you want to stop, cancel before your next billing date and you won't be charged again. Work paid for in the current month is completed and stays on your store. The full terms are in our [payments policy](/payments-policy/) and [terms of service](/terms/), and there's a plain-English [sample service contract](/sample-service-contract/). Link building and digital PR are optional extras, quoted and billed separately. ## Questions about working with us ## Ready to see what we would do first? Request a free mini audit and we will send the three to five fixes we would start with. [Get a free audit](/free-audit/) ## Frequently asked questions ### How long before we see results from Shopify SEO? Technical fixes and updates to existing pages can show movement in Search Console within a few weeks. New collection pages and articles usually take two to four months to settle into stable positions. Established stores with some authority move faster than brand-new domains. Our monthly report shows impressions first, because impressions rise before clicks and revenue do. ### Do you need our Shopify admin password? No. We ask for a Shopify staff account with the permissions we need to edit products, collections, pages, blog posts, navigation, redirects and themes. We do not need payment or payout permissions. You can remove the account at any time from Settings, Users and permissions in your Shopify admin. ### Is there a minimum contract length? No. All plans are month-to-month and billed through Stripe. You can cancel from the Stripe customer portal or by emailing us before your next billing date, and you will not be charged again. We recommend giving SEO at least three to six months to judge it properly, but that is advice, not a contract term. ### Who approves content before it goes live? You choose. You can approve every page for the first month and then let us publish directly, or ask us to publish straight away. Either way, at least three people on our side read and fact-check every article, and every published URL is logged in your live Google Sheet the day it goes live. ### What happens to our content if we cancel? It stays on your store. Articles, collection pages, schema and technical fixes live in your Shopify account, not ours. Once you have paid for the month, the work delivered that month is yours to keep. We remove our staff account and hand over the Google Sheet so your team can carry on.