Independent Shopify SEO and technical SEO
Shopify SEO specialist for Australian and US brands
I’m Joey Escopel. I fix what stops Google and AI search engines from reading your store, then build the pages that get it ranked and cited. Freelance or full-time remote, on your business hours.
Send the URL and a line on what you sell. I’ll reply with the first thing I’d fix and whether I’m the right fit.
Joey Escopel
Shopify SEO specialist
AU and US hours
16 years
in SEO
AU and US
client base
2,000+ SKU
catalogue optimised
5 days
to an AI Overview citation
Shopify and Liquid
hands-on code fixes
Direct implementation, no outsourcing
What a Shopify SEO specialist does for your store
A Shopify SEO specialist makes a store easy for Google and AI engines to crawl, understand and trust, then builds the collection, product and content pages that turn that into rankings and sales. I do the work hands-on in Shopify and Liquid, not just in a report.
01 Store architecture
Shopify SEO
Collection and product pages rewritten around how buyers search. Duplicate URLs from collection paths, tags and variants cleaned up. Theme fixes in Liquid when the problem is in the code.
Distillery King: 2,000+ SKUs, revenue up almost 16% in the first three months.
02 Crawling and indexing
Technical SEO
Crawl, rendering and indexation audits, redirects and canonicals, Core Web Vitals, and structured data that validates with zero errors. This is the work that decides whether anything else pays off.
WGYC: 12 of 12 audit issues fixed, 8 schema types live with zero errors.
03 AI search
GEO and AEO (AI search)
Getting your brand cited in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Entity schema, answer-first sections, and a fixed set of buyer questions run through each engine so you see who gets cited before and after.
WGYC: named inside the AI Overview answer for “best custom car covers australia”.
04 Search intent
Content
Buying guides, collection copy and supporting articles planned from keyword clusters and linked hub to spoke. Written to answer what buyers ask before they choose, which is also what AI engines quote.
Distillery King: distiller kit guide cited in AI Overviews five days after it went live.
05 Several locations
Multi-location local SEO
Location pages with real local detail instead of swapped town names, entity schema that ties every branch to the parent business, and consistent business details everywhere they appear.
Steeline Sheds: “bendigo sheds for sale” from #40 to #4 during the campaign.
Shopify and local SEO results, with the dates attached
Joey Escopel’s results come from each client’s own Search Console, GA4 or rank tracking, measured while I was doing the work. Rankings are the best positions recorded during each engagement. Positions move after a handover, so if you check one today it may be different.
Anchor case study
We Got You Covered Australia
On We Got You Covered Australia, organic search sessions rose 156% and the store was cited in Google AI Overviews on 8+ queries after Joey Escopel moved its headings and product copy into server-rendered HTML. The store looked fine to shoppers, but to Google it was close to empty.
- Fixed all 12 audit issues, starting with headings and copy hidden in JavaScript.
- 8 schema types with zero errors, including AggregateRating on 91 reviews at 5.0.
- New ute, 4WD and classic car collections built around how people search.
- A hub and spoke blog across 8 keyword clusters.
+156%
Organic search sessions (GA4, 30 days)
+41%
Organic clicks (GSC, 28 days)
+135%
Clicks on the brand name (GSC)
8+ queries
Citing the store in Google AI Overviews by July 2026
Ecommerce catalogue
2,000+ SKUs
Distillery King Australia
Shopify, home distilling equipment. The largest catalogue I’ve optimised. I also wrote the buying guide for alcohol distiller kits, covering kit prices, licensing and how much water each still uses per run.
- Revenue up almost 16% over the first three months of the engagement
- Distiller kit guide cited in Google AI Overviews 5 days after publishing
Multi-location
VIC and NSW
Steeline Sheds
Multi-location local SEO across regional Victoria and NSW, agency work at Reviewly, 2025 to 2026. Location pages and entity schema for each market, using Wikidata place IDs, parentOrganization and sameAs to tie every branch to one business.
- “bendigo sheds for sale”: #40 to #4
- “wagga shed”: #19 to #2
- #1 for “shed bathurst”, “bathurst shed builders” and “albury shed”
Local conversion
Shepparton VIC
Choice Real Estate
Local SEO and conversion work in Shepparton, Victoria, agency work at Reviewly. I rewrote the homepage, for-sale and for-rent pages around commercial intent, gave each one a single conversion goal, and built RealEstateAgent schema with Wikidata place references.
- “houses for sale shepparton”: #7 to #2
- 13 clicks to contact in the period, up 117%
- For-sale page sessions up 46%
“His breakdown of our organic traffic trends was clearer than analysis I’ve had from anyone else. His content work earned citations in Google’s AI Overviews within days of publishing. He’s organised, communicates well, and his handover documentation was detailed and well structured.”
Caleb F.
Employer review on OnlineJobs.ph
29 September 2026
Want the same first look at your store?
No obligation. Direct technical feedback on how Google and AI crawlers read your store.
How I work
How I work: readable, structured, citable
Joey Escopel works in a fixed order, because content can’t rank on a page that Google and AI crawlers can’t read.
1
Readable: can crawlers see the page?
Google renders JavaScript, eventually. GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot don’t run it at all, so a theme that injects headings or product copy client-side hides them from ChatGPT and Perplexity. I check the raw HTML first and fix what’s missing.
2
Structured: does Google know what the store is?
Collections that match how people shop, internal links that move authority to the pages that sell, and schema that names the brand, products and reviews without contradictions.
3
Citable: is there something worth quoting?
Buying guides and collection copy that answer the buyer’s question in the first lines, so a search result or an AI answer can lift it whole.
What working with me looks like
Changes come to you as drafts with a before-and-after log. Nothing goes live without your OK.
AI answers are checked on a fixed set of buyer questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, pulled through DataForSEO inside my own Claude workflow.
Reports say what I did, what changed and what’s next, in plain English.
Straightforward terms
Pricing: start with an audit, then decide
Joey Escopel’s Shopify SEO audits start at US$400 fixed price and monthly retainers start at US$1,000. I start smaller than an agency: one fixed-price audit, and you decide from there. Agencies tend to bundle strategy and fixes into big retainers.
One-off audit
Shopify SEO and AI visibility audit
From
US$400
fixed price
Crawl and rendering check (raw HTML against the rendered page), collection and product page review, schema validation, an AI answer check on 10 buyer questions, and a prioritised fix list with the effort for each.
Ongoing work
Monthly retainer
From
US$1,000
a month
Hands-on fixes in Shopify and Liquid, content, schema and local SEO, with a monthly report on what was done and what moved.
Dedicated hire
Full-time remote
Custom
40 hrs a week
40 hours a week on your business hours, Australian or US. Email me the role and I’ll reply with my rate.
Before you hire
Questions to ask before hiring a Shopify SEO specialist
How much does a Shopify SEO specialist cost?
Joey Escopel’s Shopify SEO audits start at US$400 fixed price and monthly retainers start at US$1,000. Freelance ecommerce SEO audits commonly run from about US$300 to US$1,500, and agency retainers go much higher. Full-time remote rates depend on the role.
Do you only audit, or do you make the fixes too?
Both. I work hands-on in Shopify, Liquid and WordPress. On We Got You Covered Australia I moved headings and product copy into server-rendered Liquid myself instead of handing the client a list.
Can you get my store cited in Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT?
Nobody can promise a citation, and you should be wary of anyone who does. I can make your content readable to AI crawlers, structured with clean schema, and written to answer buyer questions directly. We Got You Covered Australia was cited on 8+ queries about three months after the audit began.
What hours do you work from the Philippines?
I’m in Sultan Kudarat, Philippines (UTC+8) and set my hours around yours. Australian business hours fall in my morning and early afternoon. US Eastern business hours fall in my night, and I already work that shift.
Are you open to full-time roles?
Yes. I take freelance contracts and full-time remote roles. For full-time, send the role and hours and I’ll reply with my rate.
Will my rankings hold after we stop working together?
The technical and structural work keeps paying off. Rankings for competitive terms need ongoing content and links, because competitors keep publishing. That’s why every ranking on this page carries the period it was measured in.
Start with one fix
Send me your store URL
Tell me what you sell and who you sell to. I’ll reply with the first fix I’d make and whether I’m the right person for the job.
Freelance or full-time remote. Australian and US hours.