The SEO Agency Checklist: How to Vet, Brief, and Work With a Technical SEO Partner

You’ve decided to hire an SEO agency. Good. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: not every agency that calls itself “technical” actually understands how crawling works, what a crawl budget is, or why Core Web Vitals can affect your rankings. The difference between a partner who moves your site forward and one who leaves you with a penalty is in how you brief them, what you ask for, and the checks you run before signing anything.

This checklist is for the person who needs to brief an SEO agency on technical work—specifically for ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce. It covers what to ask, what to avoid, and how to structure a campaign that doesn’t rely on promises of “guaranteed first page ranking” (which, by the way, no legitimate agency should offer).

Step 1: Define the Technical Scope Before You Brief

Before you send a single email, you need to know what “technical SEO” actually covers in your context. A common mistake is lumping everything under “SEO” and expecting the agency to figure it out. That leads to scope creep, missed deadlines, and frustration.

What to include in your brief:

• Current site health baseline. If you don’t have one, ask the agency to run an initial technical SEO audit. This should cover crawl errors, indexation issues, duplicate content, and Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, FID/INP). A good audit will flag problems with your XML sitemap, robots.txt, and canonical tags.
• Platform-specific constraints. Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento each have unique technical quirks. For example, Shopify’s URL structure and handling of product variants can create duplicate content issues that need careful canonicalization. WooCommerce often struggles with pagination and thin content on category pages. Magento requires deep server-level optimization.
• Performance targets. Specify Core Web Vitals thresholds (e.g., LCP under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1). If the agency can’t explain how they’ll measure and improve these, that’s a red flag.
• Risk tolerance. Be explicit: no black-hat links, no automated link building, no promises of instant results. Ask how they handle redirects (301 vs. 302, chain redirects, and redirect loops) and what their process is for recovering from a manual action.

What to leave out of your brief:

• Guaranteed ranking positions. Any agency that offers this is either lying or using manipulative tactics.
• Vague “we’ll make your site better” language. You need metrics and milestones.

Step 2: Understand How Crawling and Indexation Work (So You Can Ask the Right Questions)

A technical SEO agency should be able to explain how Googlebot interacts with your site. If they can’t, they’re not technical.

Key concepts every brief should cover:

• Crawl budget. Not every page on your site gets crawled equally. Google allocates a limited crawl budget based on site authority, update frequency, and server response time. If your site has thousands of low-value pages (e.g., filter combinations on an ecommerce site), you’re wasting crawl budget. The agency should prioritize which pages matter most—product pages, category pages, and high-value content—and ensure they’re crawlable and indexable.
• XML sitemap. A properly structured sitemap.xml tells Google which pages to prioritize. But it’s not a magic wand. If your sitemap includes thin or duplicate pages, you’re asking Google to waste time. The agency should audit your sitemap for errors and remove non-indexable URLs.
• Robots.txt. This file controls what Googlebot can and cannot crawl. A common mistake is accidentally blocking important resources (like CSS or JS files) or, worse, blocking entire sections of your site that should be indexed. The agency should test your robots.txt against the current site structure.
• Canonical tags. Duplicate content is a fact of life for ecommerce sites. Product pages with multiple URLs (e.g., `/product?id=123` and `/product/blue-shoes`) need a canonical tag pointing to the preferred version. Without it, Google may index the wrong URL or split ranking signals.

Table: Common Crawl Issues by Platform

Step 3: Set Up a Link Building Campaign That Won’t Backfire

Link building is where most SEO campaigns go wrong. The temptation to buy links or use automated outreach is high because it’s faster. But the risk of a manual action (or a drop in rankings after a Google update) is real.

How to brief a safe link building campaign:

• Define your target audience. Links from irrelevant sites (e.g., a shoe store linking to a software blog) carry little value and can look manipulative. Ask the agency to map your ideal backlink profile based on relevance, not just Domain Authority or Trust Flow.
• Specify link types. Not all links are equal. Editorial links from reputable publications are gold. Directory links, forum links, and paid links are often risky. The agency should prioritize earned links through content partnerships, guest posting on relevant sites, and PR-driven campaigns.
• Set a disavow process. Even with careful outreach, your backlink profile may accumulate toxic links over time. The agency should monitor your backlink profile regularly and submit a disavow file to Google when necessary. This isn’t a one-time task; it’s ongoing maintenance.
• Avoid black-hat tactics. No private blog networks (PBNs), no automated link exchanges, no link farms. The agency should be able to explain their outreach process and show examples of white-hat campaigns they’ve run.

Table: Link Building Approaches Compared

Step 4: Audit Your Core Web Vitals and Site Performance

Core Web Vitals are an important factor in user experience and can influence rankings. If your site loads slowly or has layout shifts, users leave—and Google notices.

What to ask the agency to deliver:

• A full Core Web Vitals report for both mobile and desktop. This should include LCP (largest contentful paint), CLS (cumulative layout shift), and FID/INP (first input delay/interaction to next paint). If they only give you a tool-generated score without explaining the underlying issues, push back.
• A prioritized fix list. Not all issues are equally impactful. The agency should rank fixes by effort vs. impact. For example, optimizing hero images often improves LCP quickly, while fixing third-party script loading may take longer but has a bigger cumulative effect.
• Performance monitoring setup. Ask how they’ll track performance over time. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) are standard. If they can’t explain how they’ll use these to measure progress, they’re not serious about performance.

Common performance pitfalls to watch for:

• Unoptimized images. Ecommerce sites are notorious for serving full-resolution product images. The agency should implement image compression, next-gen formats (WebP, AVIF), and lazy loading.
• Render-blocking JavaScript. If your site loads analytics, chat widgets, or tracking scripts before the main content, LCP suffers. The agency should audit your script loading strategy.
• Poor server response time. For platforms like Shopify, some aspects of server performance are managed by the platform, but app usage and custom code can still affect it. WooCommerce and Magento sites often suffer from slow TTFB (time to first byte) due to cheap hosting. The agency should recommend a hosting upgrade or CDN if needed.

Step 5: Create a Content Strategy That Matches Search Intent

Technical SEO gets your pages crawled and indexed. Content strategy gets them ranked. But the two must work together.

How to brief content strategy:

• Keyword research with intent mapping. Don’t just ask for a list of high-volume keywords. Ask the agency to categorize keywords by intent: informational (e.g., “how to optimize Shopify speed”), commercial (e.g., “best Shopify SEO app”), and transactional (e.g., “buy Shopify SEO audit”). Each intent type requires a different content format and structure.
• Content gap analysis. The agency should compare your current content against competitors’ content for your target keywords. Where are you missing opportunities? For example, if competitors have comprehensive guides on “WooCommerce technical SEO” but you don’t, that’s a gap.
• Editorial calendar. Content strategy without execution is just a document. The agency should provide a timeline for publishing new content, updating old pages, and repurposing high-performing content.

What to avoid in content strategy:

• Keyword stuffing. Writing for search engines instead of humans. The agency should focus on natural language and user experience.
• Thin content. Pages with 200 words and no added value. Every page should serve a clear purpose.
• Duplicate or near-duplicate content. Especially common in ecommerce category pages. The agency should ensure each page has unique meta descriptions, headings, and body copy.

Step 6: Build a Reporting Framework That Matters

Reporting is where most agency relationships break down. You get a monthly PDF full of vanity metrics—organic traffic, keyword rankings, Domain Authority—but no actionable insights.

What to demand in your reporting:

• Crawl health metrics. Number of crawled pages, crawl errors, indexation rate, and Core Web Vitals scores over time. These tell you whether the technical foundation is stable.
• Conversion-focused metrics. Not just traffic, but how that traffic converts. Ask for goal completions (e.g., form submissions, product purchases) and attribution where possible.
• Link profile changes. New links acquired, lost links, and any toxic links disavowed. The agency should show you the quality of new links, not just the quantity.
• Action items for the next period. Every report should end with a clear list of what needs to be done next. If the report is purely retrospective, it’s not useful.

Table: Reporting Metrics to Track

Step 7: Know What Can Go Wrong (And How to Protect Yourself)

Even with a great agency, things can go sideways. Here’s what to watch for:

• Wrong redirects. A 302 redirect (temporary) when you need a 301 (permanent) can confuse Google and dilute link equity. Chain redirects (A → B → C) slow down page load and waste crawl budget. The agency should audit redirects regularly.
• Black-hat links. Even if you don’t ask for them, some agencies use automated tools to build links. Check your backlink profile monthly. If you see links from unrelated sites or spammy directories, raise the issue immediately.
• Poor Core Web Vitals after changes. Sometimes, “optimizations” make things worse. For example, lazy loading every image can hurt CLS if not implemented correctly. The agency should test all changes before pushing live.
• Scope creep. The initial brief should include a clear list of deliverables. If the agency starts suggesting “additional services” without a clear ROI, ask for a revised scope and cost estimate.

Final Checklist Before You Sign

• The agency provided a technical SEO audit that includes crawl errors, indexation issues, Core Web Vitals, and a prioritized fix list.
• They explained how they handle crawling and indexation for your platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, or BigCommerce).
• They outlined a white-hat link building strategy with no promises of instant results.
• They showed you a sample report with actionable metrics, not just vanity numbers.
• They agreed to a risk-aware approach: no black-hat tactics, no guaranteed rankings, and a clear disavow process.
• They provided references or case studies (without specific client numbers unless verifiable).

Remember: a good SEO agency is a partner, not a magician. They should educate you, push back when needed, and deliver measurable progress—not promises of page one overnight. Use this checklist to brief them well, and you’ll set the foundation for a campaign that actually moves the needle.

For more on platform-specific technical SEO, check out our guides on Shopify technical SEO, WooCommerce technical SEO, and Magento technical SEO. Need a broader overview? Start with our ecommerce SEO guide or dive into site speed optimization.