Hiring Someone to Optimize Your Shopify Store: What It Covers and How to Spot a Good Offer

Anyone who searches for help to optimize a Shopify store usually has a feeling: the store could be faster, easier to find or sell more. But “optimize” is not an assignment, it is a catch-all word. Without a goal and without starting values, neither you nor the provider can tell whether the work achieved anything. This article helps you decide: what can optimization mean, how do you set a goal and a way to measure it, what belongs in a good offer, and how do you give access without taking on unnecessary risk.

What “optimize” can mean

Four areas usually get thrown into one pot. It pays to separate them:

• Load time. Apps, scripts, images and the theme itself. The causes and what you can check yourself are in Slow Shopify store? 7 causes.
• Technical findability. Errors in Search Console, sitemap, redirects, clean titles and descriptions. If your store does not show up on Google at all, start with Shopify Store Not Found on Google.
• Usability. How well do the product page, cart and checkout work on a phone? That is a check with test orders, not a promise of a specific increase in sales.
• Housekeeping in the background. Tracking scripts, leftovers of old apps, duplicate code. It saves load time and makes later changes cheaper. How scripts and pixels relate to the cookie banner and consent is covered in Shopify cookie banner and privacy policy.

A serious offer says which of these areas it covers and which it does not.

Where to start

Three questions help you place the problem:

1. What bothers you, specifically? “The store feels slow on a phone” is a different job from “Google does not show my product pages” or “customers drop out at the cart”.
2. How would you notice it got better? A number, an error message that disappears, a test order that goes through without a hitch.
3. What must not change? The look? The addresses? The running campaigns?

If you write down these three answers, you already have the core of the brief.

Before: record baseline values and a goal

Without a measurement before, there is no proof afterwards. For the page experience, Google defines three metrics, the Core Web Vitals. According to web.dev these count as “good”:

• LCP (load time of the largest element): 2.5 seconds or less
• INP (response to input): 200 milliseconds or less
• CLS (layout shift): 0.1 or less

Each is assessed at the 75th percentile of page loads, split by mobile and desktop. A page passes only if it reaches all three values.

Here is how to record the starting point:

• Measure the home page, one collection and one product page in PageSpeed Insights, mobile view. Write the values down.
• In Search Console, look at the Core Web Vitals report if your store has enough visitors.
• In Shopify, look at the web performance reports. According to Shopify they are based on real visitor data from the past 30 days, the data can be delayed by up to 36 hours, and changes to the store do not show up immediately. New stores or stores in private mode may not have metrics yet.
• If needed, save the Search Console errors as a screenshot.

These values turn into the goal. “Faster” is not a goal. “The three metrics in the green range on mobile for these three page types” is one.

What a good offer contains

Whether freelancer or agency, these points should be in writing.

• Scope in one sentence per area. What is changed and what explicitly is not.
• Target values and how they are measured. Which pages, which tool, which day.
• Work in an unpublished theme. The live store keeps selling until everything is checked.
• Approval before go-live. Publishing happens only after you have confirmed it in writing.
• A list of changes. So you can follow later what was changed.
• A re-measurement with the same pages and the same tool as before.
• A clear price or clear pricing logic. With me it is a fixed price after the briefing; what the price depends on is in Having a Shopify store built: what the cost depends on.

General questions for any provider, such as comparable live stores and availability after go-live, are in Shopify freelancer or agency: six questions.

Warning signs

• A guaranteed first place. On its page “Do you need an SEO?” Google says in essence: nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, and anyone who promises one is not the right person. That applies to optimization as a whole: you can improve the conditions, the ranking is Google’s decision.
• A score as a promise. Lab test values vary with page, device and test run. Target ranges and a before-and-after comparison under equal conditions make sense.
• No starting measurement. Whoever measures nothing can prove nothing.
• Changes without explanation. Google lists as a question for an SEO provider whether they will share all the changes they make to your site with you. That holds for any optimization.
• More access than needed. See the next section.

Giving access safely

A provider needs access to your store. That works without handing over your password. According to the Shopify help, access for developers runs through collaborator requests:

• The developer sends a request through a Partner account. You see it in the settings under “Users” and review the permissions asked for. Shopify advises granting only the permissions the task needs.
• In addition you can generate a four-digit code there, in the Security section; the developer has to enter it with their request. A new code invalidates old ones.
• You can remove access at any time. It also expires automatically if the developer has not logged in for 90 days.

Clarify beforehand how access is meant to work, which permissions are really needed and when it will be withdrawn.

Also sensible: never let anyone work directly on the live theme. In Shopify you can duplicate a theme under “Online Store” via the three-dot menu (“Duplicate”). The copy is named “Copy of …” and stays unpublished until you publish it.

After: check the result

When the work is done:

1. Same measurement as before. The same three pages, the same tool, and put the values next to your notes.
2. Test functions. A test order with payment, the checkout on a phone, the most important apps, forms.
3. Watch Search Console. Messages and redirects. Because Shopify’s reports cover the past 30 days, a change shows up there only gradually.
4. Read the change list. You should be able to follow what was changed in the store. If the list is missing, ask for it.

And the expectation towards Google: on Search Central, Google recommends good Core Web Vitals for success in Search. No specific ranking follows from that, because nobody can guarantee rankings. What you have improved in any case is something real: your visitors’ experience of the page.

An example: Pedchem

Pedchem, a pest control store with 323 products, ran on the Flex theme with several paid apps. I rebuilt the store on the Enterprise theme without paid apps, moved the product data into metafields, fixed errors from Search Console and set up redirects from its data. In the lab test the preview theme reached 96 points for performance, the old theme 57. The speed targets were agreed in advance; Google only collects real user data after go-live. Everything was built on a preview theme while the old theme kept selling, and was published only after written approval.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start myself? Yes. Cleaning up apps, shrinking images and shortening the home page often does a lot. The list is in Slow Shopify store?.

Do I need a new theme? Not always. When cleaning up is enough and when a switch is better is covered in Shopify theme customization.

Can anyone guarantee the store sells more afterwards? No. Load time, errors and usability can be improved; whether that becomes more revenue also depends on range, prices and advertising.

What does an optimization cost? It depends on the scope. With me there is a fixed-price offer after the briefing, with the agreed target values.

Do you work on the live store? No. I work in an unpublished test theme; it goes live only after your written approval.

Want me to look at your store?

Send me your store’s address for the free store check. I look at what is visible from the outside: load time, apps in the theme and the basics of findability. Then I tell you which of the four areas will bring the most in your case, even if you implement it yourself afterwards. If you would rather hand it over: I make your Shopify store faster, at a fixed price after the briefing.

Further reading: Shopify help: when the Help Center is enough

Kiril Karatitsyn, Shopify developer in Germany