What a Shopify SEO package actually is
A Shopify SEO package is a bundle of tasks with a monthly price attached. It is a sales document first and a work plan second. The tasks are usually real. The trouble is that they are described in the vendor's vocabulary, not in things you can count.
Packages come in tiers with friendly names. The jump from one tier to the next is typically a few more tasks or a higher count of something. The higher tier is not necessarily better for your store. It is better for a store with the problem that tier was designed to solve.
This page teaches you to read one. If you are earlier in the process and deciding whether to buy help at all, our guide to how to find a Shopify SEO specialist covers the three kinds of provider. If you are asking what the whole thing should cost, see Shopify SEO cost.
The rest of this page assumes you have a package in front of you, or a few to compare, and you want to know what you would get for the money.
The line items you will meet in almost every package
Nearly every package is assembled from the same six parts. Here is what each one means in practice.
Keyword research
A list of searches your customers type, grouped by page. Good keyword research ends with a map: this search belongs on this page. Weak research ends with a spreadsheet nobody opens again.
Technical audit
A check of how Google reads your store: crawling, indexing, speed, duplicate paths. On Shopify, a real audit knows the platform's fixed habits. It should end in a ranked fix list.
On-page optimization
Edits to titles, descriptions, headings and body copy on existing pages. This is the line that varies most. It can mean rewriting a page properly or swapping a keyword into a title.
Content creation
New articles, guides and pages. The key number is how many go live, how long they are, and who writes them.
Link building
Work to earn mentions and links from other sites. Quality varies from careful outreach to bulk purchases that can do harm.
Reporting
A monthly summary of results. The useful kind names clicks and impressions by page.
The translation test: turn every phrase into a countable thing
Here is a test you can apply to any package in ten minutes. Take each line and try to turn it into something you could count or point at. If you can, the line is real. If you cannot, ask the vendor to do it for you.
"On-page optimization" becomes "twenty collection pages get a new title, a new first paragraph and two internal links each." "Content creation" becomes "six articles of at least 1,500 words, each linked to the products it discusses, live on your blog." "Technical audit" becomes "a ranked list of fixes with the page address for each."
The diagram shows the pairs. Notice that every right-hand item names a page, a number or a document. That is what makes it checkable. You will know at the end of the month whether it happened.
Vendors who deliver real work are happy to translate. They tend to answer with specifics within a day. Vendors who sell labels respond with more labels, like "comprehensive" and "holistic," and the answer never gets more specific. That reaction is worth more than any line in the package.
For a longer list of things worth asking, see our page on questions to ask a Shopify SEO expert.
What packages usually leave out
The most useful part of reading a package is noticing what is not in it. Six omissions come up again and again.
A page count. The number of pages that will be written or rewritten each month is the single best predictor of whether anything will move. Many packages never state it.
Who writes. Is it a person who knows your products, a freelancer working from a brief, or an AI draft lightly edited? Any of the three can work. You have a right to know which.
Who publishes. Some packages deliver a document and leave you to paste it in. That is a cost you will pay in your own time.
Internal links. New pages that nothing links to are slow to earn attention. A package should say how the pages will be linked to your products and collections.
A start-up month. The first month should include a baseline, so you can judge later what changed. Without one, every later claim is unverifiable.
An exit. Notice whether the package states a minimum term and how to leave. Our page on the Shopify SEO contract lists what belongs in writing.
How to compare two packages fairly
Comparing price against price is the wrong comparison. These steps give a fairer one.
Step one: list the countable outputs. For each package, write down what goes live each month in numbers. Pages rewritten, pages created, fixes made.
Step two: divide. Monthly fee divided by pages live gives you a cost per page. It is rough, but it exposes the cheap package that delivers nothing and the expensive one that delivers a lot.
Step three: judge the sample. Ask for two published examples. Read them as a customer. Do they answer a real question? Do they sound like a person who knows the product?
Step four: check the reporting. Ask what the first report will contain. If the answer is clicks and impressions by page from Google Search Console, good. If it is a score from a tool, less good.
Step five: price the extras. Developer time for theme fixes, app fees and your own review hours all belong in the total.
After those five steps, many packages that looked similar turn out to be different products. Some are an audit sold as an ongoing service. Some are writing with no strategy. Some are strategy with no writing.
Which kind of package fits which store
Match the package to the problem, not the tier name.
A new store with few pages needs foundations: clean titles, strong collection pages and a handful of buyer guides. A small package with a clear page count beats a large one with vague breadth.
A store with traffic that stopped growing usually needs a diagnosis first. Our page on a Shopify store with no organic traffic lists the usual causes. Buy an audit before a retainer.
A store with a big catalog needs a package built around process: templates for product pages, rules for titles, and a way to handle hundreds of items. Be wary of packages priced as if every page were written by hand.
A store that wants growth through content needs volume and depth. Look for a stated number of long pieces, linking, and a plan for the topics. Packages that bundle too many other services tend to give each one little time.
If none of the packages fits, ask for a custom scope. A good vendor will write one. A vendor who cannot may be selling a fixed product that does not match your problem.
Four package details that should slow you down
Our page on Shopify SEO red flags goes deeper on proposals. These four show up in the package itself.
Guaranteed ranking or position. No vendor controls Google. A guarantee is either a misunderstanding or a sales line. If it comes with a refund condition, read the condition carefully.
A fixed number of links per month as the headline. Links matter, but a count says nothing about where they come from. Ask for examples of the sites.
Per-keyword pricing. It makes the work look scientific and encourages chasing single phrases. A store wins by covering a topic, not by owning one keyword.
Tiers that differ only by number of keywords. The extra keywords usually mean extra reporting rows, not extra work on your site.
None of these makes a vendor dishonest on its own. Together they describe a package built to be easy to sell, not easy to judge.
Writing your own package and asking vendors to bid
If you are comparing three packages that all look different, change the question. Write your own scope and ask each vendor to price it.
Start with outcomes in plain words. For example: "Rewrite my twelve main collection pages, publish eight buyer guides, fix duplicate and missing titles, and send a monthly report of clicks and impressions by page."
Add constraints: who edits the theme, how changes are backed up, how long the first deliverables take, and what you will provide. Mention how you want to be billed and how you can end the work.
Send the same document to each vendor. You will learn a great deal from the replies. The ones that price your scope directly are easy to compare. The ones that reply with their own package, ignoring yours, have told you how they work.
For the broader menu you might draw from, see Shopify SEO services, which sorts the work into technical, on-page, content, links and reporting.
Reading one package from top to bottom
Here is an invented package, written the way many are, with the reading that follows. It is not from any real vendor.
"Growth package: keyword research for 20 terms, full technical audit, on-page optimization of 10 pages, 2 blog posts per month, 5 quality backlinks per month, monthly report."
Line by line. Keyword research for 20 terms is a short list. Twenty terms can be covered by a handful of pages, so this is a starting point, not a plan for a store with many products. Full technical audit appears once, so it is a start-up task. Ask when it is delivered and whether it ends in a ranked fix list. On-page optimization of 10 pages is countable, which is good. Ask whether that is each month or once, and which ten. Two blog posts per month is the real content line, and it is small. Ask the length and who writes. Five backlinks per month is a count with no quality attached. Ask for sample sites.
Monthly report names nothing, so it needs the Search Console wording added.
After the reading, the package is a decent audit plus a light touch of content and a link line that needs scrutiny. That may be exactly right for a tiny store. For a store of three hundred products wanting growth, two posts a month will not move much. The reading tells you which. For a wider view of how the menu of tasks fits together, see our page on Shopify SEO services.
Six questions to send before you choose a package
Send these by email so the answers are written down. Vendors who reply clearly in writing usually work clearly too.
One: how many pages go live on my store each month, and how long are they? Two: who writes, who edits and who publishes? Three: which exact pages will you change first, and what will each change be? Four: what will the first report show, and can I see a sample from another client with the name removed? Five: what do I need to supply and how many hours a month will that take me? Six: what happens to everything you made if I cancel?
The sixth question matters more than it seems. Pages published on your own store stay. Research files, reports and anything held in the vendor's own software may not. A vendor who has thought about this will answer in a sentence.
Compare the replies side by side. You will often find that the cheapest package gives the vaguest answers and the most expensive gives the most detail, with one in the middle giving the best match to your needs. That pattern is common enough to be worth looking for.
It is also fine to say no to all of them. If none of the packages fits, ask one vendor to scope your own list. A short, specific scope is a better purchase than a tier name.
How RunOctopus handles packages
RunOctopus does not sell a menu of tiers made of tasks. It is a done-for-you service. Its AI, Ollie, researches your business, then writes and publishes pages directly on your own website, with a team that plans, writes, reviews and publishes alongside Ollie. It works with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and Wix.
You get countable output, which is the point of the translation test. 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 do not approve each page, install anything or upload anything.
Reporting covers 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.
As a yardstick, RunOctopus's homepage says: "An agency doing this work charges about $3,209 a month (2026 average, 439 providers) and publishes 4 to 12 pieces." Paste your address for a free site read to see the plan for your store. No account, no call.