How to use these questions
Ask the same questions of every candidate, and listen for specifics about your store. A good answer names pages, tools and numbers. A bad answer describes a process in general terms, or promises an outcome nobody controls.
You do not need to ask all fifteen. Pick the five that matter most for your situation. If you are hiring an agency, focus on who does the work, what ships and the contract. If you are hiring a freelancer, focus on capacity and continuity. If it is a consultant, focus on advice versus implementation.
Send the questions in writing first if you can. Written answers are easier to compare, and they show how a person communicates when they have time to think. Then follow up on the ones that seem thin.
For each question below, we give you what a good answer sounds like and what a weak one sounds like. You do not need to be an SEO to hear the difference. The good answers are concrete. The weak ones are smooth.
If you are earlier in the process and have not yet decided what kind of help you need, begin with our guide to finding a Shopify SEO expert, then return here.
Questions 1 to 5: who does the work and how
1. Who exactly will work on my store?
Good: Names and roles. The person who will write, the person who will check, and how many other clients each handles. Weak: A department, or a promise that a senior person is involved.
2. What will you look at first on my store, and why?
Good: A concrete first step, such as recording a baseline in Search Console and checking whether your collection pages have real copy, tied to something they noticed. Weak: A standard audit applied to everyone.
3. How many pages or pieces will you publish each month?
Good: A number, with the types named. Weak: A description of an approach with no count.
4. What do you need from me?
Good: A short list: access, approval on certain pages, answers to product questions. Weak: Nothing, which may mean they know nothing about your products, or a long list that suggests you will do much of the work.
5. How do you make changes safely?
Good: A duplicate theme for code changes, a change log, backups and a note on what is reversible. Weak: A shrug, or an offer to just take your login.
These five tell you most of what you need about working style. For the wider hiring process they fit into, read how to hire a Shopify SEO expert.
Questions 6 to 10: the work and the proof
6. Can I see two pages you wrote, live?
Good: Live URLs of real pages, including some from stores like yours. Weak: Only screenshots, or only case-study summaries with no pages to read.
7. What would you do to my collection pages?
Collections are the money pages on most Shopify stores. Good: Copy that answers the buyer's main question in the opening lines, a better title, links to relevant products and guides. Weak: Add keywords.
8. How do you find what to write about?
Good: Real questions from search data, your customers and support emails. Weak: A keyword tool export with no judgment on top.
9. How do you handle duplicate content on Shopify?
Shopify can show the same product under several collection URLs. Good: They know canonical tags point back to the main product URL, and they check filtered and tagged collection pages. Weak: They have not heard of the issue. See Shopify URL structure and SEO for what a good answer involves.
10. What is your view on apps?
Good: Cautious. They check what is installed, because apps add scripts that slow pages, and they prefer fewer. Weak: They sell you an app, or recommend five.
Questions 11 to 13: measurement and results
11. How will I know it is working?
Good: A baseline in Google Search Console, then clicks and impressions on named pages, with a time frame that admits search is slow. Weak: A custom dashboard of numbers you cannot check, or traffic from all sources.
12. What will the first report show?
Good: Pages published or changed, which appear in Google, which earn clicks, what comes next. Ask for a redacted sample. Weak: A report of tool scores.
13. What have you recommended that did not work?
This one reveals honesty. Good: A real example and what they learned. Weak: Nothing has ever failed, or a story that makes them look good anyway.
On reporting, hold providers to the standard in what a monthly Shopify SEO report should show. If a candidate's sample falls short of it, ask why.
One extra thing to listen for. Anyone describing results in terms of position on a date, such as page one in three months, is promising something they do not control. A good expert talks about the work, the measurement and what you should expect to see by when, as a range.
Use these three questions to separate people who measure honestly from people who report whatever looks good.
Questions 14 and 15: terms and AI search
14. What do I own, and how do I leave?
Good: Everything published on your store is yours, along with research and documents prepared for you. Thirty days' notice or less. A written handover. Weak: A year's lock-in, automatic renewals with long notice, or silence on ownership. The page on what to put in a Shopify SEO contract gives the clause list.
15. How do you think about AI assistants like ChatGPT?
More buyers now ask assistants what to buy, and they name only a few stores. Good: A calm, specific answer. Clear pages that answer real questions give assistants something to quote, and reports can show whether assistants currently name you. They will say nobody controls the answers. Weak: Silence, or a guarantee that you will be named.
The same pages that earn clicks from Google tend to be the ones assistants quote, so a good answer ties the two together rather than selling a separate package. For more on the AI side, see Shopify ChatGPT optimization.
Ask question 14 near the end of the conversation, and write down the answer. People are most candid about exit terms when they have already decided you are a likely client, and the answers are most useful when you have them in writing.
Follow-up questions that expose a thin answer
Sometimes the first answer sounds fine and means nothing. Short follow-ups cut through.
Can you show me an example? Works for any claim. An expert with a real example produces it. One without changes the subject.
What would that look like on my store? Forces the answer back to your products and pages.
How would we know if that was not working? Tests whether the claim can be measured. If nothing could prove it wrong, it is not a claim.
What would you not do? Good experts have a list of tasks they consider a waste for stores like yours. Ask for it.
What does that cost, and what is included? Turns vague offers into line items.
Use these after any answer that is long but gives you nothing you could check. Keep your tone curious, not hostile. Good experts like follow-ups, because they show you are serious. People who dislike them are giving you information.
You can also reverse the dynamic. Ask the candidate what they would ask you. A good one has questions about your margins, your best categories and your past attempts. If they ask nothing, they intend to apply a template.
Scoring the answers
After the calls, you will have a pile of answers. A simple method makes them comparable.
Make a small grid with one row per candidate and a column per question you asked. In each cell write one of three marks. A tick for a specific answer with proof. A dash for an answer that was fine but generic. A cross for an evasive or concerning one.
Look at crosses first. Any candidate with a cross on question 6, the live pages, or question 14, ownership and exit, should be treated with caution until they fix it. Those two are hard to forgive.
Then count ticks. The candidate with the most ticks and no serious crosses usually deserves the paid test. You do not have to weigh the questions. The pattern will be obvious.
Keep your own gut feeling in the mix, but as a tiebreaker, not the leader. People who are charming in meetings are not necessarily good at the work, and people who are awkward on a call can be excellent.
If two candidates tie, run the small paid test described in how to hire a Shopify SEO expert, giving both the same task. That breaks most ties cleanly, and it costs little compared with picking wrong.
Questions to ask yourself first
The best answers you get will depend on the quality of the questions you ask, and that depends on knowing your own store. Before you speak to anyone, answer these five for yourself.
What do I want to be different in 90 days? One goal. More clicks to collections, a new range found in search, recovery after a redesign. A candidate can only be judged against a goal.
What have I already tried? Agencies, apps, DIY attempts, and what happened. Candidates will ask, and your answers shape the advice you get.
Who will do the work? If you are not sure, the first call is the time to find out. Decide whether you want advice or implementation before you ask anyone to quote.
What can I check myself? You can see your own Search Console numbers, and you can read a sample page. Know what you can verify, so you are not relying only on what you are told.
What would make me say no? Write down two or three deal breakers in advance, such as no live examples or a lock-in longer than three months. It is much easier to hold a line you set before the conversation.
With those answers on a page, the fifteen questions above become easier to use. You will know which five matter, what a good answer would need to contain and what you will do if you do not get it.
It also changes how candidates respond. People can tell when a client knows what they want, and the pitch tends to get more honest. Vague buyers get vague proposals. Specific buyers get specific ones.
Keep your notes from each call in one document, dated, with the answers verbatim where you can. Memory is generous to whoever you spoke to last. Notes are fairer, and they make the decision much easier when it comes.
Questions that sound smart and tell you little
A few popular questions produce answers that all sound the same, so they do not help you choose.
Can you get me to page one? Every answer is yes or a hedge. Neither tells you anything. Ask what they would change and how you would check it.
How long have you been doing this? Years in the business say little. A person with three years of focused Shopify work can beat one with fifteen years of general marketing. Ask for recent work on stores like yours instead.
What is your process? Every process has a similar shape. Ask what they will do in the first two weeks, which is a concrete version of the same question.
Do you know the latest Google updates? Everyone says yes. Ask how they would know if an update had affected your store, which tests whether they can read the data.
Replace each of these with a question that forces a specific answer, and your calls get shorter and more useful.
How RunOctopus handles this
These questions are the ones we expect to be asked, so here are our answers to the biggest ones.
RunOctopus is a done-for-you service. Its AI, Ollie, researches your business, then writes and publishes pages directly on your own website. A team plans, writes, reviews and publishes alongside Ollie. It works with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and Wix. You install nothing, approve nothing, upload nothing and schedule nothing, and pages go live on their own.
The first week brings 8 long-form articles, 6 pages and a custom interactive tool built for your niche. After that it is 175+ pieces of content a month, written, published and linked. You also get reports on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business. The promise is more visibility on Google and in AI answers within 90 days, measured against the 90 days before you joined, or every dollar back.
For scale, an agency doing this work charges about $3,209 a month (2026 average, 439 providers) and publishes 4 to 12 pieces. You can see what Ollie would do for your store before you decide anything. Paste your address into the free site read. Ollie reads the site and shows the plan. No account, no call.