How to Know If Your SEO Agency Is Doing a Good Job: 8 Questions for Store Owners

What should a monthly SEO report show?

A good report needs to clearly tell you whether SEO made you money last month, and what’s going to be worked on next.

Section	What it shows	Where you can check it yourself
Organic revenue and orders	Revenue and orders from Google search, compared with last month and the same month last year	Google Analytics: Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition, Organic Search row. Or your store’s own analytics, sales by traffic source
Non-brand clicks and impressions	Searches that don’t include your store name, which shows new customers finding you	Search Console: Performance → Search results → add a Query filter, “Doesn’t contain” your brand name
Top collections and products	The 10 pages earning the most organic revenue, and which have gone up or down	Google Analytics: Reports → Engagement → Landing page, filtered to Organic Search and sorted by revenue
Rankings for the searches that sell	A short list of buying searches you agreed together, not hundreds of easy terms	Search Console: Performance, filter each agreed query and check its average position. Or ask for view access to the agency’s rank tracker
Indexing health	How many products Google hasn’t indexed, and why	Search Console: Indexing → Pages, “Why pages aren’t indexed” table
Work completed	The actual pages changed this month, with links	Open each link on your live store and in your store admin to see the change
Next month’s plan	What’s being done next and the reason for it	Compare it with last month’s plan: was each item done?
AI search visibility (optional)	Whether ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers mention your store	Ask ChatGPT and Google your main buying searches yourself. In Google Analytics, check referrals from chatgpt.com

Consider the seasonality of your store when reviewing the data. The best way to review performance is by comparing stats with the same month last year.

What a store’s one-page SEO report looks like

The figures below are made up to show what good reporting looks like.

Section	Example line	Why it matters
Organic revenue and orders	Example: Organic revenue up 18% on October last year, from 212 orders to 251	Sales are the result you’re paying for. Comparing with the same month last year takes seasonal peaks like Christmas out of the picture
Non-brand clicks and impressions	Example: Non-brand clicks 1,240, up from 980 last month	People who search your store’s name would find you anyway. Growth here means new customers are finding you
Top collections and products	Example: Garden furniture moved into the top 10 by organic revenue. Men’s running shoes dropped from 3rd to 7th	It shows which pages make the money and gives the agency a reason to look into any page that’s slipping
Rankings for the searches that sell	Example: “oak dining table” moved from position 9 to 4. “waterproof hiking boots” is unchanged at 6	A handful of searches people buy from tells you more than a long list of easy terms nobody buys from
Indexing health	Example: Products not indexed 34, down from 61 after fixing duplicate collection URLs	Google can’t show a product it hasn’t indexed. A falling number with a clear reason shows technical work being done
Work completed	Example: 6 collection pages rewritten this month, with a link to each	Links let you check the work yourself, instead of reading “on-page optimisation” with nothing to show for it
Next month’s plan	Example: Rewrite the 5 sofa collections, because they’re on page 2 for searches with 3,000+ monthly impressions	A plan with a reason behind each task shows the work is aimed at sales, not just keeping the agency busy
AI search visibility (optional)	Example: Store mentioned in ChatGPT’s answer for 3 of 10 agreed buying searches, up from 1	More shoppers now ask AI tools for recommendations, so this is an early sign of whether your store shows up there

How to check your SEO is working without asking your agency

Make sure you own your Search Console and Analytics

• Both of these are free Google tools, so you should be able to own them, not the agency.
• To access them: in Search Console, go to Settings → Users and permissions and check you’re listed as Owner. In Google Analytics, check you have Administrator access.
• If the agency sets them up under its own account, ask for ownership to be transferred so that you have full control of these accounts.

Check non-brand clicks in Search Console

Searches with your store’s name in them come from people who already know you. They’d find you with or without an agency. Non-brand searches, like “oak dining table” or “waterproof hiking boots”, come from new customers looking for a product you sell. Getting found for those searches is what you’re paying for, so they’re the clearest test of whether the SEO work is paying off.

To check them:

1. Open Search Console and go to Performance → Search results.
2. Click + Add filter, choose Query, then pick Custom (regex).
3. Change the dropdown to Doesn’t match regex and enter your brand name, along with common spellings and misspellings, separated by a | symbol. For example: yourbrand|your brand|yourbrnd
4. Click Apply.
5. Click the date range, choose Compare, and set the last 3 months against the same period last year.

If non-brand clicks are going up year on year, the agency is bringing in new customers. If they’re flat or falling while brand clicks grow, your traffic is coming from people who already know you, not from the SEO work.

This is check 10 in our Shopify SEO check guide, which covers the other checks worth running on your store. On WooCommerce or another platform? Use our UK ecommerce SEO checklist instead.

Check organic revenue in Google Analytics

Traffic and rankings only really matter if they turn into sales for the website. Organic revenue indicates how much money comes in from shoppers who’ve found your store through a Google search result without clicking an ad, so it’s the closest thing you’ll get to the ROI of paying the agency.

To check it:

1. Open your Google Analytics account and go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition.
2. Find the Organic Search row in the table.
3. Look at the Total revenue column, and at Key events, which counts your purchases. If Key events shows more than purchases, click the column heading’s dropdown and choose purchase.
4. Click the date range at the top right, set it to the last 6 months, turn on Compare, choose Same period last year, and click Apply.

You should look for a steady rise across the 6 months. A single strong month can be the result of a sale, a seasonal peak, or a popular product, so a rising trend counts for more than a single jump. If your organic revenue is flat or falling year on year while you’re being told you’ve got better rankings, find out which pages are ranking and whether people are buying from them.

Give it a fair amount of time

SEO results are not instantaneous, so when you judge your agency matters as much as what you choose to judge them on. Different results will arrive at different points:

When	What you should see
1–3 months	early signs, such as more impressions in Search Console and more of your pages indexed by Google.
4–8 weeks after a technical fix	improvements from fixes like broken redirects or duplicate pages, counted from when Google recrawls the affected pages.
6–12 months	business results, meaning more organic traffic, orders and revenue (SEOSLY).

New stores, and stores that have recently been rebuilt or migrated platforms, usually take longer. Google has to find, crawl, and trust the new pages before they begin to rank.

So, if you’re 3 months in, judge the work that is being done, not the revenue just yet. Request to see the pages that have been changed, the fixes that have been made, and the plan for the month ahead. By months 9–12, you should be seeing results, or getting a clear explanation of why not and what’s changing as a result.

8 questions to ask your SEO agency

1. Can I have owner access to Search Console and Google Analytics?

These are the accounts that’ll hold your store’s search and sales data. If the agency holds ownership, you can lose that history when you leave, and you can’t check their reports yourself.

• A good answer sounds like: “Yes, you should own them. We’ll add you as owner today.”
• A warning answer sounds like: Reluctance, delays, or “Don’t worry, we’ll send you the numbers.”

2. How much organic revenue did we make last month, compared with the same month last year?

Revenue is the result you’re paying for. Comparing with the same month last year takes seasonal peaks out of the picture.

• A good answer sounds like: A number, and a reason for the change. For example, “£8,400, up 15%, mainly from the dining table collections we rewrote.”
• A warning answer sounds like: An answer about traffic or rankings only, with no mention of sales.

3. Which collections and products are you focusing on, and why those?

Not every page is worth the same to your business. The agency’s time should go where a higher ranking brings in the most profit.

• A good answer sounds like: Pages tied to your best sellers and best margins, with a reason for each.
• A warning answer sounds like: “We’re targeting a broad set of keywords.”

4. What exactly did you change on my store last month?

You’re paying for work, so you should be able to see the delivery. Links let you check each change on your live store.

• A good answer sounds like: A list of the pages changed, with a link to each and a line on what was done.
• A warning answer sounds like: “Ongoing optimisation,” with nothing specific behind it.

5. How many of my products aren’t indexed by Google, and what’s the plan for them?

A product Google hasn’t indexed can’t appear in search results at all. A good agency checks this regularly and ensures that you’re in the best possible position to get results. Our guide to why products don’t show on Google covers the common causes.

• A good answer sounds like: A number, the reason those products aren’t indexed, and the fix. For example, “34, mostly duplicate collection URLs. We’re fixing them this month.”
• A warning answer sounds like: They don’t know, or they need to “look into it”.

6. Which non-brand searches are we gaining, and which are we losing?

People who search your store’s name would find you anyway. Searches without it come from new customers, and they’re the clearest sign the SEO work is paying off.

• A good answer sounds like: Specific searches with numbers. For example, “‘Women’s trail running shoes’ went from position 11 to 5, and clicks doubled.”
• A warning answer sounds like: Growth in brand searches presented as progress.

7. Who works on my account, and roughly how many hours a month?

Your monthly fee buys someone’s time. Knowing who that is and how much time you get tells you whether the price is fair.

• A good answer sounds like: Names, and a realistic number of hours for your budget.
• A warning answer sounds like: A vague answer, or a different person every month.

8. What’s my notice period, and what do I keep if I leave?

If results don’t come, you need to be able to leave without losing what you’ve paid for.

• A good answer sounds like: Monthly or short notice, and you keep all the content, accounts and reports.
• A warning answer sounds like: A 12-month lock-in, or content and accounts that stay with the agency.

A good agency will welcome these questions.

Warning signs your SEO agency isn’t delivering

One of these on its own isn’t proof of a problem, but if you spot three or more, it’s time to act and figure out the way forward.

• Reports show rankings and traffic, but never revenue
  Rankings for searches nobody buys from don’t pay for SEO. If your monthly report doesn’t mention orders or revenue from Google search, you’re not able to tell whether the work is benefitting you and making money.
• You don’t have access to your own data
  If your current agency owns your Google Search Console or Analytics account, or only sends screenshots, you’re not able to see their actual figures. You’ll also lose your data history if you leave.
• Long contracts
  A 12-month minimum retainer makes it difficult to leave if the results don’t come and you’re unhappy. Monthly contracts with 30 days’ notice are common, so a long lock-in is a choice that the agency made, rather than the industry standard.
• Guaranteed rankings
  No agencies can ever guarantee a position in Google, and Google’s own guidance on hiring an SEO warns against anyone who does. A guarantee in ranking can often lead to tactics that put your store at risk, or rankings for searches that nobody uses.
• Link packages sold by the number
  “20 links a month” sounds like genuine progress, but links that are sold by the number are often low-quality and spammy. These can actually do more harm to your store than good. One relevant link from a respected site within your industry is worth more than dozens from sites that nobody spends time reading.
• The same report every month
  If your report has the same, repetitive wording every month, no list of pages that have been changed, and no set plan for the next month, there may be little going on behind it. Good reports change because the work changes each month.
• Brand growth sold as SEO success
  More of the searches for your store’s name often come from ads, social media, or word of mouth, not SEO. However, SEO can still contribute to this if people find your site for the first time, then leave and come back. Growth in non-branded searches from new customers looking for what you sell is the figure that shows how the SEO work is contributing to your store’s success.

What good SEO looks like for an online store

Here’s what you can expect from an agency that’s doing the job well:

• The work that typically happens is on your collection and product pages. This is where people buy from, so it’s where most of the SEO effort should be going, not only the blog.
• They resolve platform problems rather than just reporting them to you. Duplicate product URLs on Shopify and plugin bloat on WooCommerce get resolved, not just listed in an audit.
• Reports begin with revenue statistics and end with a plan ahead. You can see what the work earned last month and get a clear picture of what is happening next month.
• They find out about your best sellers, product margins, and business seasonality. Their central focus is on what makes your store money, and when, rather than a generic keyword list.
• They explain trade-offs in simple English. If one fix comes at the cost of another, they tell you why, without hiding behind jargon.

How to choose an SEO agency if you decide to switch

If you decide to move to a new agency, use what you’ve learned to choose an SEO agency that will report on the right things from day one. Look for:

• Experience on your platform. Shopify and WooCommerce each have their own SEO problems, so ask for examples of stores they’ve worked on that run on yours. You can see what that covers on our Shopify SEO and WooCommerce SEO pages.
• Monthly rolling terms. You stay because the work is good, not because a contract won’t let you leave.
• You own every account. Search Console, Google Analytics and any other tools are set up in your name, with the agency added as a user.
• Reports tied to revenue. Ask to see a sample report before you sign. It should start with organic orders and revenue.
• A clear plan for the first 30 days. You should know what they’ll look at first, what they’ll fix and what you’ll get at the end of the month.
• Technical fixes done in the theme, not just recommended. A technical SEO agency should make the changes itself, not hand you an audit to pass on to a developer.

How to work well with a technical SEO agency

A good agency still needs a few things from you to get results quickly:

1. Give them developer or theme access, so fixes aren’t held up waiting for someone else to make them.
2. Approve changes quickly. A week waiting for sign-off is a week the fix isn’t working for you.
3. Share your sales calendar, so pages for seasonal peaks and launches are ready before customers start searching.
4. Agree the 10–20 searches that matter most, so you both judge progress against the same list.

To see what different monthly budgets usually buy, read our guide to how much ecommerce SEO costs in the UK.

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