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3. SEO in your CMS Shopify SEO Guidelines

Want to boost your Shopify store’s search visibility? This lesson on Shopify SEO covers platform-specific strategies, tools, and expert tips to help you overcome Shopify’s limitations and drive consistent organic traffic.

While Shopify includes built-in SEO features, maximizing performance requires a deeper understanding of its unique constraints—like URL structure, canonicalization, and limited control over technical elements. From optimizing product and collection pages to implementing schema markup and improving internal linking, this lesson provides actionable guidance tailored for ecommerce success.

Whether you’re troubleshooting SEO issues, comparing plugins, or refining your store’s structure, these expert-curated resources will help you turn your Shopify site into a high-performing, search-friendly platform that drives qualified traffic and conversions.

SEO overview – Shopify Help Center

Guide from Shopify

Shopify SEO: The Guide to Optimizing Shopify [Updated for 2023]

Guide from Christopher Long / Moz

 

Shopify SEO Tips: Push Shopify to its Limits!

Guide from ContentKing

 

Shopify SEO – How to Optimize Your Shopify Site for Google

Guide from Loren Baker / Search Engine Journal

 

12 Important SEO Tips for Shopify Ecommerce Platform

Guide from Ashok Sharma / SEMrush

 

Shopify SEO: An Ultimate Guide

Guide from Nitin Manchanda / botpresso 

 

Shopify SEO: A Simple Guide for Beginners

Guide from Tushar Pol / Ahrefs

Shopify SEO: The Non-Technical Handbook to grow your store traffic

Guide from Ilana Davis

SEO For Shopify - The Learning SEO Accelerator [15th Session]
Learn how to optimize a Shopify based Ecommerce site in this insightful Learning SEO Accelerator session with Kevin Indig, SEO Consultant and former SEO at Shopify.
Learn how to optimize a Shopify based Ecommerce site in this insightful Learning SEO Accelerator session with Kevin Indig, SEO Consultant and former SEO at Shopify.
Shopify SEO Tips from Specialists

Explore advice and insights from experienced Shopify SEO specialists who’ve successfully navigated the platform’s unique challenges and limitations.

Check your product URL structure - that creates duplicate product pages and makes crawling the actual product URLs difficult for Google. Simple 5-minute fix:
1. Go edit your theme code
2. Find a snippet called "product-grid-item.liquid" or "product-card-grid.liquid"
3. Varies by theme
4. Find: "within:collection"
5. Delete it. Then click save.
Freddie Chatt
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"Use a unique template for each page you want to optimise. I’ve seen duplicate content issues happen more than once on subcategory pages because the exact same template was used across 100’s. Suddenly you get 100’s of pages with the same content when you edit just one page."
Sophie Brannon
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Shopify generally will generate multiple 'Collection' URLs for a single product (and a URL without the collection) if they are in multiple categories. This means you have multiple, duplicate URLs for a single product. Shopify tries to handle this through canonicalisation, however, most of the internal link structure still points to non-canonical links, meaning the hints are generally ignored. You can fix this by editing the collection-template.liquid and removing the collection reference from where the hrefs are being generated. Easy. Note: This will impact your breadcrumbs, but there are other workarounds for this.
Mark Williams-Cook
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I hope nobody has forgotten about how important #schema is! It’s much better to have a product page actually set as ItemPage with Product (and offers property) instead of WebPage. The Yoast Shopify app can help with that.
Alex Moss
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"The way Shopify automatically sets URLs for collections and products isn’t great. If you have some coding knowledge you can get this changed easily - (or ask a developer). It usually gives a great boost to your internal linking structure and really helps Google’s to index the right product URLs for your store"
Dan White
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Shopify is much easier to optimise if the store uses a Shopify 2.0 theme.
Because these themes use reusable blocks and sections, you can work with the developer to make recommendations that will scale gracefully across multiple-page templates.
For example, this approach makes adding lazy loading to offscreen images a lot easier.
Bonus: Here's a quick Xpath expression you can use to check the Elements panel in Chrome Dev Tools for images that aren't lazyloaded: "//img[not(contains(@loading,"lazy" or contains(@class, "lazy") or contains(@class, "lazyloaded"))]"
Jonathan Moore
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Make sure to separate your attribute value names from the product variable names. Where SEO comes into play with this is with a bit of custom dev work you can index these quite flexibly. Even at the value level.
Emma Russell
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* When changing your theme, specifically pay attention to the URL structures for product pages when navigating from a collection page. Shopify’s common product structure included collections in the product URLs (called collection-aware URLs). However all Shopify made themes and many other theme developers are moving away from collection-aware URLs in favor of product only URLs. When move complete the theme change, those old collection-aware URLs are not automatically redirected so you end up with 404 pages. So if you move from collection-aware URLs to a product-only structure, don’t forget to set up your redirects. Perhaps another good reason to link directly to a product page rather than a product page within a collection.

* Rather than editing your robots.txt file or editing your liquid theme files, hide products from search engines using the seo.hidden metafield in Shopify.

* When selling internationally and with multiple currencies, use Shopify Markets. When setup correctly, your hreflang tags and unique URLs for each language/currency will be setup for you. No further apps or coding required.

* Modifying your meta title and descriptions for thousands of products can be exhausting. Save yourself time and bulk edit SEO fields (title, description, and handle) using the Bulk Edit button. No need for another app!
Ilana Davis
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Shopify can sometimes be a pain when it comes to managing crawling and indexing of URLs. But with the help of the paid versions of the apps "Sitemap NoIndex Pro" and "Canonical Tag URL Wizard", I was able to fix many SEO issues myself without having to call in (and pay) a Shopify Expert. (There are lots of other great Shopify apps out there, but the ones just mentioned are the best for my needs from a functional and user perspective.)
Alexander Außermayr
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A) I cannot stress the importance of using an ‘out of stock’ UI option that allows users to be notified when something comes back into stock - it’s a general rule for any eCommerce site bit it’s as simple as choosing an app that does the job for you. Be wary of guidance to ‘hide’ out of stock products or even use temporary redirects as a method of managing out of stock products. For most Shopify stores, product redirects should only be used when a product has been discontinued or is one of a kind. And, from a user perspective, clicking on a search result for what you’re looking for only to be redirected to a similar (or not so similar product) is bad UX.
B) Shopify has a feature to promote ‘featured’ products but despite using canonicals on parameter ‘featured’ URLs, it can cause a high volume of duplication. This is because of internal links and try as you might to ‘manage’ these URLs or to get Google to ignore them, the canonical hint and internal links are you only effective tools in doing so. If you’re seeing this issue in GSC, take a programmatic approach to create more authoritative internal links to your original URLS.
Sally Raymer
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SEO for Shopify FAQs
Is Shopify an SEO friendly platform?

Yes, Shopify is generally considered an SEO-friendly platform. It offers a range of built-in features and tools that facilitate the implementation of essential SEO best practices. However, like any platform, there are both strengths and limitations to its SEO capabilities. Among the strengths: User-Friendly Interface, Mobile Responsiveness, good site speed, SSL Certificate, Basic SEO Features, and Integration with SEO Apps. However, it also has some limitations:

* URL Structure: Shopify has a fixed URL structure for products and pages that may not be ideal for all SEO strategies, especially since it adds extra terms like /products/ or /collections/.
* Limited Redirect Capabilities: While Shopify does allow 301 redirects, managing large numbers of redirects can be cumbersome, especially during site migrations.
* Customization Limitations: More advanced SEO tactics might require customization that goes beyond Shopify’s built-in features.
* Blogging Capabilities: While Shopify does offer a blogging platform, it is not as robust as other platforms like WordPress, which might limit content marketing and SEO efforts.

What are the top issues to avoid SEO wise when optimizing a Shopify store?

Some of the most common SEO issues to avoid when optimizing Shopify sites are:

* Duplicate Content: Shopify can generate duplicate content issues, particularly with product pages and collections. This happens due to multiple URLs leading to the same content. Utilize canonical tags to tell search engines which is the primary page to index.
* Poor URL Structure: Shopify’s default URL structure can be non-optimal for SEO. It often includes unnecessary directories, like /collections/ or /products/, which can dilute keyword relevance. Customizing the URL structure can improve SEO.
* Lack of H1 Tags on Home Page: Some Shopify themes don’t use H1 tags for the main headline on the home page, which is important for SEO. Ensure that your theme uses H1 tags correctly.
* Missing Alt Tags for Images: Alt tags are crucial for image optimization. Ensure all images on your Shopify store have descriptive, keyword-relevant alt tags.

What are the advantages of using Shopify vs other ecommerce platforms like Woocommerce?

Choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce for an eCommerce platform depends on various factors, including your technical skills, budget, and specific business needs. Both platforms have their unique advantages.

* Shopify is ideal for those who prefer an all-in-one, user-friendly solution that handles all the technical aspects of setting up and running an eCommerce store. It’s particularly suitable for those with limited technical knowledge or who prefer to have support readily available

* WooCommerce is better suited for those who want more control over their site, have some technical skills (especially with WordPress), and are looking for a more cost-effective solution with the flexibility to customize extensively.

Does Shopify have free SEO plugins or apps?

Yes, you can browse through the Shopify app store in the SEO category to take a look at the top ones, some of which offer a free plan. 

Is Shopify good for SEO?

Yes, Shopify can be SEO-friendly when properly optimized. While it has some limitations compared to open-source platforms, Shopify provides essential SEO features including customizable title tags, meta descriptions, URL editing, automatic XML sitemaps, and mobile responsiveness. Success depends on understanding and working within its constraints.

What are the main SEO limitations of Shopify?

Key limitations include restricted URL structure (forced /products/, /collections/, /pages/ paths), limited control over robots.txt, duplicate content issues from variant URLs, inability to fully customize technical elements, and challenges with implementing advanced schema markup without apps or custom coding.

How do I fix common Shopify SEO issues?

Address duplicate content with canonical tags, optimize collection pages with unique content, compress images for faster loading, create SEO-friendly URLs within Shopify’s structure, implement proper heading hierarchy (including H1 tags on all pages), and use apps to add missing schema markup.

Learn More About SEO in your CMS

WordPress SEO Guidelines

Wix SEO Guidelines

Shopify SEO Guidelines

Magento SEO Guidelines

Webflow SEO Guidelines

Squarespace SEO Guidelines

The SEO Learning Roadmap

Take a look at the SEO learning roadmap below, featuring the different areas, from the basics of SEO, to the most common activities and phases of the SEO Process:

1 SEO Fundamentals

Start learning SEO with the fundamental concepts and areas, why they're important, and the basics to execute them: keyword research, content optimization analysis, technical optimization and link building.

2 Execute an SEO Process

Once you know the main SEO concepts, it's time to put them in practice by learning to develop an SEO process, from establishing a strategy and setting goals to management, measurement, and reporting.
You are here

3 SEO in your CMS

Learn to implement the most important SEO configurations in the top Web platforms in the market, along with considerations to take into account.

4 Deepen your SEO Knowledge

It's time for an SEO deep-dive into those particular areas and common scenarios where you have a bigger interest or need to tackle.
Advanced Technical SEO
Advanced Content Optimization
Advanced Link Building
Advanced SEO Management
Advanced SEO Opportunities
SEO Scenarios

5.1 Specialize within SEO

Learn and specialize in one of the most popular SEO verticals.

5.2 Automate SEO Tasks

Learn to automate your SEO tasks and accelerate your SEO process execution.

6 SEO in other Search Engines

Learn how to rank in other search engines besides Google.

7 Keep up with SEO News

Stay updated with the latest news, updates and resources in SEO.

9 Optimize for AI Search (GEO, AEO, LLMO)

Learn about AI search optimization with free, reliable guides and resources.

8 Complement your SEO

Learn about complementary areas that can help you as an SEO.

9 Free SEO Tools To Use

Get access to free SEO tools to execute your SEO tasks.

10 Train, test & troubleshoot your SEO further

It's time to take your SEO knowledge further.