If you run an established Aussie online store, you’ve probably had the email. “We noticed your site isn’t ranking for…” Then a proposal, a monthly retainer, and a promise that page one is just around the corner.
Some of those firms are good. Some aren’t. And from the outside, a good SEO proposal and a bad one look almost the same: both have a keyword list, an audit PDF, and a chart that goes up and to the right.
This is the guide we’d want every store owner to read before they sign. It covers what ecommerce SEO actually involves, which parts you can and should do yourself, the maths to run before you pay anyone a retainer, and how to vet a firm, including what changes (and what doesn’t) when you search for one in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth.
To be clear upfront: this isn’t a pitch for an SEO firm. The aim is to help you buy the right thing, or nothing.
If you want the step-by-step Shopify how-to (titles, collection pages, product pages, technical fixes), that lives in our Shopify SEO playbook. This post is about the decision that sits above it: what to do yourself, what to pay for, and how to check a firm before you sign.
What ecommerce SEO actually is (and what it isn’t)
Search engine optimisation for an online store is the work of making your products and collections easy for Google to find, understand and show to people who are ready to buy. Shopify’s own SEO overview splits it into three buckets:
- On-page: titles, meta descriptions, headings, URLs, internal links, image alt text and the content itself.
- Technical: speed, mobile, sitemaps, robots.txt, HTTPS and structured data.
- Off-page: links from other reputable sites, brand mentions and reviews.
A point that’s easy to miss in a proposal: a lot of the technical bucket is already done for you on a modern platform. Shopify says it automatically adds canonical tags to prevent duplicate content, generates your sitemap.xml and robots.txt, and turns on SSL by default (Shopify SEO overview). Its themes also include product structured data covering price, availability and reviews (Shopify sitemap help). Google’s own ecommerce URL guidance even says that if you’re on an ecommerce platform, “you can most likely skip this section, as the platform has most likely already considered these issues for you” (Google: URL structure for ecommerce sites).
So when a proposal leads with “we’ll set up your sitemap and fix your canonicals” on a Shopify store, ask what’s left once you take out the things the platform already does.
What ecommerce SEO is not
- It isn’t a ranking guarantee. Google says it plainly: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google,” and warns about SEOs that claim a “special relationship” with Google or a “priority submit” (Google: Do you need an SEO?).
- It isn’t bought with ads. The same Google page notes that advertising with Google won’t affect your organic results.
- It isn’t a new trick for AI search. Google says there are no extra requirements to show up in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and you don’t need special AI files or special schema. The normal SEO basics apply (Google: AI features and your website). Treat any “AI search optimisation” add-on with the same scepticism as the rest of the proposal.
Why Australian stores should care, even with ads working
Online is a big slice of Aussie retail now. Australia Post’s 2026 eCommerce Report puts online spend at a record $82.6 billion in 2025, about 24% of all retail spending, with the average online basket down to $96 (Australia Post 2026 eCommerce Report).
Smaller baskets matter for SEO maths. When each order is worth less, paid clicks get harder to make pay, and traffic you don’t pay for per click gets more valuable. But the same smaller baskets also mean an SEO retainer has to produce more orders to pay for itself. We’ll do that maths properly below.
Do it yourself, hire a specialist, or hire a firm?
Google’s own advice is that if you run a small local business, “you can probably do much of the work yourself”, and that a great time to bring in an SEO is when you’re considering a site redesign or launching a new site, “the earlier, the better” (Google: Do you need an SEO?).
Here’s how we’d split the work for an established store.
| SEO job | Who should usually own it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Product titles and descriptions | You or your team | You know the product, the customer and the words they use. Nobody outside will write it better. |
| Collection page copy and structure | You, with a playbook | It’s merchandising as much as SEO. See our collection page SEO playbook. |
| Title tags and meta descriptions | You or a VA, with a template | Repetitive, rules-based work. Shopify suggests titles under 60 characters and metas under 160. |
| Technical audit (crawl errors, redirects, duplicate pages, speed) | A specialist, once, then you maintain | Needs tools and experience, but it’s a project, not a forever job. Our technical SEO audit checklist shows the scope. |
| Replatform or redesign migration | A specialist, before you start | URL mapping and redirects are where stores lose rankings. Google’s site-move guide is clear on this. |
| Links and PR | You, plus a specialist if you have budget | The best links come from real relationships, press and partners. Bought links break Google’s spam rules. |
| Monthly reporting | You, in Search Console | It’s free, and you should never need a firm to tell you how your own site is doing. |
The pattern: most of the ongoing work sits with you, and outside help earns its keep on projects with a clear start and end.
The decision, step by step
Work down these questions in order:
- Is a redesign, replatform or migration coming? If yes, hire a specialist for the migration before work starts. If no, go to question 2.
- Does Search Console show crawl or indexing errors? If yes, pay for a fixed-scope technical audit and fixes, then maintain it in-house. If no, go to question 3.
- Are your product and collection pages written and structured well? If not, do it yourself with the Shopify SEO playbook. If they are, go to question 4.
- Does the break-even maths work for a retainer? If yes, shortlist firms and vet them with the checklist below. If no, keep it in-house and review again in 6 months.
The maths before you sign anything
We can’t give you a trustworthy “average Australian SEO retainer” figure. We looked, and there’s no primary source we’d stake your money on. So instead of a price, here’s how to judge any quote you get.
The formula is simple:
Extra revenue needed per month = monthly fee ÷ contribution margin
Then work backwards to orders and sessions. Use your own numbers. The ones below are examples only.
Worked example: a retainer versus a fixed project
Example store (all figures are illustrative):
- Organic sessions now: 4,000 a month
- Conversion rate on organic traffic: 1.5%
- Average order value: $96 (borrowed from the Australia Post average as a reference point, not your number)
- Contribution margin after product cost, shipping and payment fees: 30%
Option 1: an example retainer of $3,000 a month (ex GST). If you’re registered for GST you’ll generally claim the GST back as a credit, so work in ex-GST figures. If you’re not registered, use the GST-inclusive price, because that’s what it costs you.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Extra revenue needed each month | $3,000 ÷ 0.30 | $10,000 |
| Extra orders needed | $10,000 ÷ $96 | about 104 orders |
| Extra organic sessions needed | 104 ÷ 0.015 | about 6,944 sessions |
| Lift on current organic traffic | 6,944 ÷ 4,000 | about 174% |
So this store needs organic traffic to nearly triple just to break even on the fee each month. SEO also takes time to show up. Google’s starter guide says some changes take effect in hours and others take several months (Google SEO starter guide).
Let’s be generous and say the work adds nothing for three months, then the extra traffic climbs evenly to 3,000 sessions a month by month 12:
- Extra sessions over the year: about 15,000
- Extra orders: 15,000 × 1.5% = 225
- Extra revenue: 225 × $96 = $21,600
- Extra contribution: $21,600 × 30% = $6,480
- Fees paid: $3,000 × 12 = $36,000
On these example numbers, the retainer is $29,520 behind after year one. That doesn’t mean SEO is a waste. It means a retainer this size doesn’t fit a store with this traffic and basket size.
Option 2: an example fixed project of $6,000 (ex GST) for a technical audit plus fixes to your top collection pages.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Extra revenue needed to pay back | $6,000 ÷ 0.30 | $20,000 |
| Extra orders needed | $20,000 ÷ $96 | about 208 orders |
| Extra sessions needed | 208 ÷ 0.015 | about 13,900 sessions |
| Spread over 12 months | 13,900 ÷ 12 | about 1,160 extra a month (about 29%) |
A 29% lift in organic traffic over a year, from fixing real technical problems and your best collection pages, is a much more believable ask than 174%. That’s why we’d start with a fixed-scope project and only move to a retainer once the numbers support it.
If you don’t know your contribution margin, stop here and work it out first. Any SEO firm that doesn’t ask about your margins or your average order value before quoting is selling hours, not outcomes.
How to vet an ecommerce SEO firm
Google publishes a list of questions to ask a potential SEO, and it’s a better starting point than a generic “how to choose an SEO agency” checklist (Google: Do you need an SEO?). Here they are, with what a good answer sounds like for an online store.
The questions Google says to ask
- Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories? For a store, ask for ecommerce examples with a before-and-after in Search Console, not just a rankings screenshot for one keyword.
- Do you follow the Google Search Essentials? The answer should be an easy yes, followed by how.
- What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure success? Watch for guaranteed positions. Good answers talk about organic revenue and orders, not just traffic.
- What’s your experience in my industry? In my country or city? This is where the “Sydney” or “Perth” part comes in. More on that below.
- How long have you been in business?
- How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share all the changes you make to my site, and give detailed information about your recommendations and the reasons behind them? If they won’t tell you what they changed, walk away.
Google also says to check references, and during an audit to give an SEO read access to Search Console only, not write access.
Red flags
- Guaranteed rankings, or a “special relationship” with Google. Google says nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking.
- Cold emails. Google suggests treating unsolicited SEO emails with the same scepticism you’d give “burn fat at night” diet pills.
- A link back to the firm in your footer. “You should never have to link to an SEO,” says Google.
- Link packages. Google’s spam policies class buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. If a proposal has “X backlinks a month” as a line item, ask exactly where those links come from.
- Mass-produced content. “We’ll publish 30 blog posts a month” can cross into what Google calls scaled content abuse: lots of pages made mainly to manipulate rankings.
- Owner-level access requests. Give a staff account with only the permissions they need. Never hand over the owner login.
Contract basics for Australian stores
Two Australian points that overseas SEO guides can miss:
- Unfair contract terms. Since 9 November 2023, the unfair contract terms law covers standard form contracts with small businesses that have fewer than 100 employees or less than $10 million in annual turnover, and penalties now apply (ACCC: Contracts). The ACCC lists examples of terms that may be unfair, like terms that let only one party end the contract or change it. If a 12-month lock-in only works one way, push back.
- Who owns the work. Under Australian law, IP created by a contractor belongs to the contractor unless the contract says otherwise (IP Australia: Who owns IP?). Make sure the content, page copy and any code they create are assigned to you in writing.
When you’ve signed, run the firm like any other supplier: a scoreboard, a weekly or fortnightly rhythm, and a clear owner on your side. Our agency management playbook covers that rhythm, and if you’re comparing full-service agencies instead of SEO specialists, read how to choose an ecommerce agency in Australia.
Ecommerce SEO in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth: does location matter?
People search “ecommerce SEO Sydney” or “ecommerce SEO Brisbane” for one of two reasons. Either they want a firm near them, or they think they need to rank in their city. If you sell online rather than from a shopfront, only the first one matters.
If you sell Australia-wide, your city barely matters for rankings
An online-only store isn’t eligible for a Google Business Profile. Google says Business Profiles are only for businesses that make in-person contact with customers, and lists “online-only businesses” as ineligible (Google Business Profile eligibility). So the “local SEO” package a city-based firm might bundle in only applies if you have a showroom, warehouse pickup counter or retail shop that customers visit.
And don’t build a page for every city. Google’s spam policies call out “having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page” as doorway abuse (Google spam policies). Google’s AI search guidance makes a similar point: making separate pages for every variation of how people search, mainly to manipulate rankings, can breach its scaled content abuse policy (Google: optimising for generative AI features). If a firm’s plan includes “Sydney”, “Melbourne”, “Brisbane” and “Perth” versions of your collection pages with the city name swapped, that’s a red flag.
Where location does matter: working with the firm
Where a local firm can help is in the working relationship: meeting face to face, understanding the Australian market (AUD pricing, GST-inclusive display, AusPost and Sendle delivery promises, Afterpay at checkout), and being on your clock.
| City | What to check when you shortlist |
|---|---|
| Sydney | Large pool of firms, so be stricter on ecommerce-specific examples. Ask for stores with a similar average order value, not just big brand logos. |
| Melbourne | Same as Sydney. Ask who will actually do the work, and whether it’s sent offshore. That can be fine, but you should know. |
| Brisbane | Queensland doesn’t use daylight saving (NSW Government: daylight saving), so from October to April Brisbane is an hour behind Sydney and Melbourne. Set reporting call times with that in mind. |
| Perth | WA doesn’t use daylight saving either, so the time gap to the east coast changes through the year. If your team is east-coast based, agree on a standing meeting time that works year-round. A Perth firm can serve an east-coast store fine, and the reverse. |
The honest summary: hire the best ecommerce SEO you can find in Australia, and treat the city as a tie-breaker, not a filter.
What to do this month if you’re keeping SEO in-house
If the maths says “not yet” for outside help, this is where we’d start:
- Open Search Console’s Performance report and sort by impressions. Look for pages with lots of impressions and few clicks. They’re ranking, just not getting chosen.
- Fix titles and metas on your top 20 collections and products. Stick to Shopify’s suggested limits: titles under 60 characters, metas under 160.
- Check your product data. Make sure prices and stock in your structured data match what’s on the page. Google’s product structured data docs explain how price, availability and shipping can show in results.
- Set up Google Merchant Center free listings. Eligible products can show for free across Google surfaces (Google Merchant Center: free listings). It’s one of the most overlooked organic channels for stores.
- Work through the Shopify SEO playbook for everything else.
- Plan any redesign with SEO in the room from day one. Google recommends a URL map from old to new and permanent (301) redirects, and warns you should expect ranking fluctuations during the move (Google: site moves with URL changes).
Your ecommerce SEO decision checklist
Copy this into a doc before you talk to any firm:
- I know my organic sessions, organic conversion rate, average order value and contribution margin.
- I’ve run the break-even maths on the quote, ex GST if I’m registered.
- I’ve checked Search Console for crawl and indexing problems myself.
- I know which SEO jobs my team will keep (product copy, collections, titles).
- The proposal says what they’ll change, not just what they’ll “optimise”.
- No ranking guarantees, link packages or footer links to the firm.
- No city-swapped duplicate pages in the plan.
- Search Console access is read-only during the audit. Shopify access is a staff account.
- I’ve spoken to two past ecommerce clients.
- The contract assigns all content and code to me.
- Exit terms work both ways, and I’m starting with a fixed project, not a 12-month lock-in.
- There’s a monthly scoreboard: organic revenue, organic orders, clicks and the top 20 pages.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ecommerce SEO cost in Australia?
There’s no reliable published benchmark we’d quote, and prices vary a lot depending on who actually does the work. Rather than comparing quotes to an “average”, divide the monthly fee by your contribution margin to see how much extra revenue it needs to create, then check whether that’s realistic for your traffic. Fixed-scope projects are usually easier to justify than open-ended retainers.
How long does ecommerce SEO take to work?
Google says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months. For a replatform or URL change, Google says it can take a few weeks or more for new URLs to replace old ones in results, and rankings can fluctuate in the meantime. Plan your payback maths assuming little or no lift for the first few months.
Do I need an SEO company in my city, like Sydney or Perth?
Not for rankings, if you sell online Australia-wide. Online-only businesses aren’t eligible for a Google Business Profile, and building near-identical pages for each city can breach Google’s doorway abuse policy. Location matters for meetings and time zones, so treat it as a tie-breaker between good firms.
Can an SEO firm guarantee page one on Google?
No. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and warns against SEOs that claim a special relationship with Google or a “priority submit”.
Does Shopify handle SEO automatically?
Partly. Shopify automatically generates your sitemap and robots.txt, adds canonical tags, turns on SSL, and its themes include product structured data. Your titles, descriptions, collection content, internal links and site structure are still up to you.
Do I need special SEO for Google’s AI Overviews?
No. Google says there are no extra requirements or special schema to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The same SEO basics apply: crawlable pages, internal links, helpful text content and structured data that matches the page.
Before you sign an SEO proposal
If you’d like to talk it through before you sign, book a 30-minute Zoom call with Paul.
