This Shopify SEO checklist covers the 26 checks I run on every store: crawl and index settings, handles and redirects, duplicate URLs, collection and product pages, apps, structured data and Markets.
By Kristijan GjorgjioskiIndependent SEO consultantPublished 18 October 2026 · 8 min read
Most Shopify stores I audit don't have a platform problem.
They have a theme problem, an app problem or a content problem. Shopify handles the plumbing well, which makes it easy to assume the SEO is handled too.
It isn't. This Shopify SEO checklist covers the 26 checks I run first, grouped by area, with what to look for and how to confirm each one is done.
You don't need to tick all 26 in one sitting. Start where your data points:
Every item has a pass state, so you can mark it done, not "sort of done".
If you'd rather have someone run the full pass for you, that's the starting point of my Shopify SEO work.
These five checks make sure Google can reach the store and reads it the way you intend.
A store in development sits behind a password page.
Search engines can't get past it, so nothing you do elsewhere on this list counts until it's gone.
Pass: an incognito browser loads your homepage with no password prompt.
Add your primary domain as a property in Google Search Console.
Without it, you're guessing about indexing, queries and errors.
Pass: the property shows data, and every other domain you own redirects to the primary one.
Shopify generates sitemap.xml automatically, according to its SEO overview. You still have to tell Google where it is.
Pass: /sitemap.xml is submitted in Search Console's Sitemaps report with a "Success" status.
The default file already blocks admin, cart, checkout, account and order pages. It also blocks collection URLs with combined tag filters (/collections/*+*) and sorted collections (*sort_by*), per Shopify's robots.txt help page.
Shopify calls edits through robots.txt.liquid an unsupported customisation and warns that incorrect use can cost all your traffic.
Pass: you've read /robots.txt, and any custom rule is written down with a reason.
Shopify themes build title tags automatically and add the store name, so long titles get truncated fast.
You'll find the homepage title and description under Online Store > Preferences.
Pass: the homepage title reads well under 60 characters in the SERP snippet preview tool.
On Shopify you control the handle, the last part of each URL. These checks keep handles clean and stop changes from breaking links.
Shopify creates a handle from the title when you add a product.
Duplicate a product to save time, though, and you often end up with a handle ending in -1 or -copy.
Pass: a crawl export of product and collection URLs shows no copy suffixes, SKU strings or old season names on pages you care about.
When you edit a collection handle, Shopify offers to create a redirect from the old URL. Leave that option ticked.
For products, don't assume. Check Content > Menus > View URL redirects after the change.
Pass: the old URL returns a 301 to the new one.
Shopify redirects work only on broken URLs. If the old address still loads a page, the redirect won't run, as the URL redirect documentation explains.
That catches people out when they recreate a product instead of renaming it.
Pass: every redirect in your list points from a URL that would otherwise 404.
Moving from WooCommerce, Magento or a custom build? Shopify accepts redirect imports as a CSV in the same URL redirects screen.
Pass: the top pages from your old analytics and backlink reports all resolve to their new Shopify equivalent. My redirect map guide covers building that list.
Shopify sets canonical tags automatically. That helps, but a canonical is a signal Google weighs, not a command. These checks remove the duplicates at the source.
Many themes use Liquid's within filter, which builds product links like /collections/sale/products/blue-boots. Shopify's Liquid reference for within itself flags the SEO implications: same content, different URLs.
Pass: a crawl of the store finds no internal links to /collections/*/products/* addresses.
Older themes filter collections by tag, which appends the tag to the path (/collections/boots/leather).
Shopify now recommends storefront filtering instead.
Pass: tag pages you don't want ranking carry a noindex or aren't linked from navigation.
Storefront filters add filter.p. and filter.v. parameters to collection URLs.
A few filter values may match real searches. Most don't, and you don't want Google spending time on them.
Pass: a written rule for each filter: leave as a parameter, or build a proper collection for it.
Shopify serves /collections/vendors?q= and /collections/types?q= listings, plus /collections/all.
They're often thin, and your theme may link to them without you noticing.
Pass: each one is either useful and linked on purpose, or kept out of navigation and the index.
My step-by-step guide to fixing Shopify duplicate content goes deeper on items 10 to 13.
This is where the money is. Collections win category searches; products win model and brand searches.
Each collection has a Search engine listing section with its own page title and meta description.
Shopify's preview warns you past 70 and 320 characters. My guide to writing title tags covers what to put in them.
Pass: your top 20 collections by revenue have hand-written titles that match how people search.
A collection that's just a grid gives Google little to rank.
Two or three short paragraphs on fit, materials or use cases go a long way. That's how an origin-led collection plan helped lift one specialty coffee store off page two.
Pass: each priority collection answers the one question shoppers ask most before buying.
If you stock branded products, the manufacturer's text is probably on dozens of other stores.
Pass: your best-selling products have descriptions written for your store, with details a supplier sheet doesn't have.
Online Store 2.0 sections make it easy to add a second H1 by accident, or lose it entirely.
Pass: product, collection, page and article templates each output exactly one H1, taken from the item's title.
Shopify lets you edit alt text from the media library. Describe what the image shows, including colour or angle where it matters.
Pass: product images on your top collections all have meaningful alt text.
Menus, breadcrumbs and in-copy links tell Google which collections matter most.
The on-page patterns I use for stores start with this hierarchy.
Pass: every priority collection is linked from the main menu or a parent collection, and links to its closest siblings.
Apps are usually the biggest speed variable on Shopify. These checks are about weight, not about removing everything.
Reviews, upsells, chat and tracking scripts often load on every page, even where they do nothing.
Pass: a simple sheet of each app, the templates it touches and the sales it drives.
Uninstalling an app doesn't always clean up the snippets it added to your theme.
Your store keeps loading code for a feature you stopped paying for.
Pass: a search of the theme code finds no references to apps you no longer use.
Test a product page and a collection page, not just the homepage.
Use Search Console's Core Web Vitals report for field data and PageSpeed Insights for lab detail. If the fixes go beyond the theme, that's technical SEO territory.
Pass: product and collection templates show "Good" for field data, or you have a fix list for the ones that don't.
Shopify's own help says themes include product schema markup automatically. Review apps often add their own on top.
Two Product blocks with different prices or ratings send mixed signals.
Pass: the Rich Results Test shows one Product item per product page, with price and availability matching the page.
Many themes skip breadcrumbs or organisation details. The schema markup generator gives you clean JSON-LD to add.
Pass: product, collection and homepage templates validate without errors.
Only relevant if you sell into more than one country or language.
Shopify notes that subfolders share domain authority with your primary domain, while some search engines treat subdomains as separate sites.
Pass: your setup was chosen for a reason you can explain. My comparison of ccTLDs, subfolders and subdomains can help.
Shopify generates hreflang tags from your Markets settings.
Adding your own on top can create conflicting annotations. If you're new to the tag, start with what hreflang does.
Pass: each page shows one set of hreflang tags, and each market version has a self-referencing canonical.
Not every unticked box is urgent. I sort findings into three groups:
| Priority | Examples from this checklist | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fix this week | 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 | Pages can't be found, or links are breaking |
| Fix this month | 10 to 17, 23 | Duplicates and thin collections hold back revenue pages |
| Schedule | 18 to 22, 24 to 26 | Real gains, but slower and more involved |
If a store sells across several countries, move 25 and 26 up a tier.
Pick the section with the most unticked boxes. Then fix the single item that touches the most revenue pages first, which is usually item 10 or item 15.
For the wider picture beyond Shopify settings, see my ecommerce SEO approach and the technical SEO checklist.
And if you'd like a second pair of eyes on your store, I run this exact pass as part of Shopify SEO projects, then turn the results into a fix list your developer can work through.
Shopify is a solid base for SEO. It handles hosting, SSL, canonical tags, the sitemap and a sensible default robots.txt file. Its limits are the fixed URL prefixes and less control over server-level settings. Most Shopify stores that struggle in search do so because of thin collection pages, theme link habits and app weight, not because of the platform.
Run the full Shopify SEO checklist once a year and after any big change: a new theme, a batch of new apps, a catalogue restructure or a move into new countries. Between full passes, check Search Console's page indexing report monthly and review any collection whose clicks drop for more than a few weeks.
Not necessarily. Shopify already lets you edit titles, meta descriptions, handles, alt text and redirects in the admin. An app can help with bulk editing or image compression, but every app adds code to weigh against its value. Check what the platform does natively before installing anything.
No. Shopify lets you edit the handle, which is the last part of the address, but the folder that comes before it is set by the platform. That is rarely a ranking problem. Put the effort into clear handles, good titles and internal links instead of workarounds that try to hide the prefix.
About the author
Kristijan Gjorgjioski
Independent SEO consultant · 6+ years in SEO · 60+ client websites worked on
I'm an independent SEO consultant with 6+ years in SEO. I run audits, migrations and content programmes for businesses in Europe, the UK and the USA, and I build the automation behind my own research.
Book a free 30-minute call. I look at your site first and tell you plainly what I would fix, and in what order.