How we approach third party audits

As a brand, there is probably not a day that goes by without you being pitched by external service providers. A big part of that outreach is the offer of a "free" audit, or a list of things they claim are wrong with your SEO or PPC accounts.

When you receive this information and flag it with us, it usually triggers a conversation about context. An audit identifies "what" is happening, but it lacks the "why" - the specific business decisions, technical trade-offs, and past results that led to our current strategy and setup. 

Because we believe in radical transparency, we want to be honest. But our commitment to nuance in these moments doesn't always work in our favour.

When an auditor makes a confident, black-and-white claim and we respond with historical data and context, it can feel unsatisfying compared to a promised "quick fix." However, we would rather be authentic and offer the full technical picture than give a shallow answer that ignores the reality of your business.

The myth of the transformative setting

One of the most important things to understand - whether we are talking about your search rankings or your ad revenue - is that updating a few settings is unlikely to lead to transformative performance.

Audits are often sold with the promise that a few "quick fixes" will double your results. This is often more appealing than the hard truth: that the reason performance is not where it needs to be is usually due to something much more difficult to fix.

If we have identified a foundational issue - such as positioning or market conditions - and a third party offers to solve it with a few toggle switches in Google Ads or a handful of meta-tag changes, it is natural to find that appealing. But the reality is that transformative growth comes from big strategic plays:

・ Product pricing: How your prices compare to the wider market.

・ Market positioning: Why customers choose you over a competitor.

・ Data quality: Making Shopify acts as a reliable "point of truth" for AI and search engines.

The trust battery

Trust is not a wishy-washy concept; it is a functional requirement for speed. We use the concept of the Trust Battery - a term discussed by Tobi Lütke on The Knowledge Project podcast - to describe this. Every time we deliver on a promise, the battery charges. When it is full, we move fast because we spend our time on execution rather than explanation.

・ The speed penalty: You spend more time on education than execution, which slows down your entire roadmap.

・ The exhausting middle ground: In this particular situation, the biggest pain point is finding yourself caught in a "he said, she said" debate between two arguing factions. It is draining and exhausting for you to have to mediate technical disagreements across SEO and PPC.

This exhaustion is a critical factor. When you are forced to play technical referee, the mental load is immense. Often, a stakeholder will eventually make a decision simply to end the exhaustion of the debate, rather than because the data supports it. They just want the noise to stop. 

The audit iceberg

Any audit is a snapshot in time. It is great at showing what is happening, but it lacks the why. Beneath the surface of a "misaligned" setting is often a pyramid of strategic decisions:

・ Historical data: We may have tested that "optimal" ad structure or URL hierarchy months ago and found it performed poorly.

・ Technical trade-offs: In Shopify, we often work around theme limitations or PIM sync logic that dictates how SEO data must be surfaced.

・Data storytelling and timeframes: An auditor can often pick a specific timeframe to make the data tell whatever story they want. Because they lack your historical data, they don’t see the improvements made over time or how seasonality affects your specific vertical. They also lack insight into market trends, active offers, or sudden shifts in competitor behaviour that directly impact account performance.

Our open kitchen protocol

We are not perfect. If an audit finds a genuine error, we will hold our hands up and address it immediately. To protect your project's momentum and stop you from having to play "technical referee," we follow this process:

1. The context update: We provide a full update explaining the business logic behind every major decision in the SEO or PPC roadmap.

2. Audit review: We look at the audit to separate genuine technical signals from noise. If a legitimate error is found, we will address it.

However, it is important to note that there are often "known issues" that we have chosen not to fix for a specific reason - usually because the cost of the fix outweighs the benefit, or because it would conflict with a more important business requirement.

3. The audit workshop: We arrange a three-way discussion call with the provider to look at the comments together and share the strategic context they are missing.

The purpose of this process is not for us to come across as dismissive or to downplay what are often legitimate concerns. Our goal is to provide the context needed so that any decisions about the roadmap are based on a complete picture of the data and history.

We believe that an open, honest conversation is the best way to move past the noise and ensure that whatever path you choose is the right one for the business.