What does an SEO agency actually do?+
A full-service SEO agency handles three interlocking workstreams: technical SEO (crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, site architecture), on-page and content SEO (keyword strategy, content briefs, editorial production, internal linking), and off-page SEO (authoritative link building, digital PR, brand mentions). Conversion runs all three under one senior team, plus a fourth workstream most agencies still treat as an afterthought — AI search optimization for AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity citations.
How much does an SEO agency cost?+
For a single ecommerce or SaaS site with one senior strategist covering technical and content, expect $3,000–$8,000/month. Multi-workstream programs running technical, content, and link building in parallel typically run $8,000–$20,000/month. Enterprise, multi-site, or multi-region programs run $20,000–$50,000+/month. One-off technical SEO audits run $3,000–$12,000 depending on site size. Conversion also offers a pay-on-results option tied to organic revenue growth for qualifying accounts — ask on your first call.
How long until SEO results show up?+
Technical fixes (indexation, crawl errors, Core Web Vitals) can move rankings within 4–8 weeks on sites with existing authority. Content and topical authority plays typically show meaningful movement in 3–6 months and compound from there. Link building and domain authority gains are the slowest lever — usually 6–12 months to materially shift competitive rankings. We set a 90-day baseline and a 6-month revenue target on day one so you know what 'working' looks like before we start.
Do you guarantee first-page rankings?+
No, and any agency that guarantees a specific ranking position is either lying or gaming a search engine in a way that will eventually get your site penalized. Google's algorithm weighs hundreds of signals we don't fully control — including your competitors' own SEO investment. What we do guarantee is a documented, senior-led strategy, monthly reporting against agreed KPIs, and — for qualifying accounts — a pay-on-results structure where our fee is tied to organic revenue growth, not ranking screenshots.
Should I hire an in-house SEO person or an agency?+
An in-house hire makes sense once you need someone embedded daily in product and content decisions — but one person rarely covers technical, content, and link building at a senior level, and a single point of failure is risky. An agency gives you a full team — technical SEO engineer, content strategist, and link-building lead — for less than the fully-loaded cost of one senior in-house generalist. Many of our clients run a hybrid: an in-house content owner paired with our technical and off-page team.
Do I need both technical SEO and content SEO, or just one?+
Almost always both. Technical SEO without content is a fast, well-indexed site with nothing worth ranking. Content without technical SEO is great writing that Google can't crawl, render, or trust — bad Core Web Vitals and crawl budget waste routinely suppress rankings on content that would otherwise perform. We run a technical audit before any content engagement so we're not producing content the site can't actually surface.
How are AI Overviews and ChatGPT changing SEO?+
Google's AI Overviews now answer a large share of informational queries directly in the SERP, and a growing share of research and purchase journeys start in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude instead of a search box. Ranking #1 in classic blue links no longer guarantees visibility or traffic. We optimize for both simultaneously: structured, extractable content and schema for AI Overviews, and clear entity signals, citations, and llms.txt implementation to earn citations inside AI chat answers. This is a standard deliverable in every engagement, not a paid add-on.
What's the difference between ecommerce SEO and local SEO?+
Ecommerce SEO optimizes collection and product pages, faceted navigation, structured data, and content for high-intent commercial and transactional search at national or global scale. Local SEO optimizes Google Business Profiles, location pages, and local citations for 'near me' and map-pack visibility for a physical location. Most of our clients are ecommerce, DTC, SaaS, and multi-location healthcare brands competing nationally — if you need pure local SEO for a single-location business, we can point you to the right specialist.
What does SEO reporting look like month to month?+
Every account gets a monthly report covering organic sessions, organic revenue and conversion rate, ranking movement on priority keyword clusters, technical health (crawl errors, indexation, Core Web Vitals), new content published, and links acquired — plus a running log of AI Overview and AI-chat citation appearances. We hold a monthly call to walk through the data and the next month's priorities. No vanity-metric decks — everything ties back to traffic and revenue.
How is this different from your Shopify SEO Agency service?+
This SEO Agency service is platform-agnostic — built for brands on BigCommerce, WooCommerce, headless commerce, custom stacks, or SaaS marketing sites. Our Shopify SEO Agency service (/services/shopify-seo-agency) is purpose-built specifically for Shopify and Shopify Plus theme architecture — Liquid template SEO, Online Store 2.0 section constraints, Shopify's native URL structure and pagination handling, and app-stack conflicts unique to that platform. If you're on Shopify, start there. If you're on any other stack, this is the right page.
Do you handle enterprise or multi-region SEO?+
Yes. We run multi-site and multi-region programs covering hreflang architecture, international content strategy, subdomain vs. subfolder decisions, and migration-safe consolidation across regional properties. We've also handled platform migrations (replatforms, domain consolidations, CMS moves) without the ranking loss that typically follows a rushed migration — URL mapping, 301 redirect chains, and 90-day Search Console monitoring are standard on every migration.
Do you build backlinks, and how?+
Yes, through digital PR, original data studies, expert contribution placements, and targeted outreach to sites with genuine topical relevance and traffic — not PBNs, link farms, or bulk directory submissions. Every link we build is on a site we'd be comfortable showing you before it goes live. We report domain rating and referring domain growth monthly alongside the actual placements.
What platforms and CMS stacks do you work with?+
This service covers any stack: BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, headless commerce (Next.js, Hydrogen, custom React front ends), webflow and marketing CMS sites, and SaaS product marketing sites on any framework. If you're specifically on Shopify or Shopify Plus, our dedicated Shopify SEO Agency service is theme- and app-aware in ways this general service isn't.
How is Conversion different from a large SEO agency?+
Large production-mill agencies typically sell you a senior strategist on the pitch call, then hand your account to a junior analyst executing a templated playbook. We keep senior strategists on every account from day one, integrate SEO with the same team running paid media and CRO so organic isn't siloed from the rest of your growth engine, and build AI search optimization into the core deliverable set rather than upselling it later. For qualifying accounts, we'll also tie part of our fee to organic revenue growth instead of a flat retainer.