I’ve had a fascinating journey with Shopify over the years. When it first launched, I honestly wasn’t sure where the platform was headed or how seriously to take it. Fast forward to today, and it’s absolutely dominated the eCommerce landscape. Nearly every new online brand seems to launch on Shopify, and for good reason.
The platform has gone through massive upgrades and improvements, particularly on the SEO front. The built-in features are much stronger than they used to be, and the app ecosystem has matured to offer genuinely useful SEO tools.
That said, it’s not all smooth sailing. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to deal with the notorious “tag issue” and the collection/products/pages URL structure problems that plague Shopify stores. While we can work around most of these limitations, they’re still frustrating obstacles that require specific strategies.
What excites me most is where Shopify is headed. In late April 2025, OpenAI officially rolled out shopping capabilities within ChatGPT, allowing users to shop directly from their search results. There had been plenty of rumours about a potential Shopify partnership with OpenAI, and a code leak suggested that OpenAI was testing native shopping capabilities with Shopify. If this partnership fully materialises, it would be an absolute game-changer, opening up Shopify merchants to ChatGPT’s massive user base (they announced over a billion searches in just one week). This kind of forward thinking and strategic positioning is exactly what has kept Shopify ahead of the competition.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to maximise your Shopify store’s SEO potential in 2025, working with its strengths and around its limitations to drive more organic traffic and sales.
Look, when I’m talking to clients about choosing a platform for their online shop, I never pretend there’s a perfect option. It’s all about which compromises you’re willing to make. Shopify has its own particular SEO quirks that you need to understand before diving in.
Let’s get brutally honest about the platform:
Shopify makes it ridiculously easy to get started. You can literally have a functioning online shop in a weekend without any coding knowledge whatsoever. That’s a genuine advantage for SEO because you can focus your energy on content and marketing rather than battling technical gremlins.
The platform handles quite a few technical essentials automatically. Your SSL certificate, mobile responsiveness, and basic XML sitemaps are all sorted without you lifting a finger. It also gives you the ability to customise important SEO elements like title tags and meta descriptions, which is obviously essential.
The hosting is generally rock-solid too. Shopify sites typically load quickly by default, with built-in CDN and caching that would take significant setup time on other platforms. When you consider how important speed is for SEO these days, that’s a genuine benefit.
But here’s where things get tricky. The URL structure is properly frustrating. You’re forever stuck with those /products/, /collections/, and /pages/ prefixes in your URLs. Want to create a nice, logical site structure with proper subfolders? Tough luck.
Then there’s the duplicate content nightmare. The way Shopify handles product variants, collections, and especially tags can create absolute havoc if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve seen stores with thousands of thin, duplicate pages getting indexed because they didn’t address this issue properly.
And the access restrictions can be annoying too. Unlike something like WordPress or Magento, you can’t directly edit server files like .htaccess or the main robots.txt file, which limits some of the more advanced technical SEO tactics.
Oh, and the blogging functionality? It’s functional but basic. If content marketing is central to your strategy (and it should be), you’ll notice the limitations compared to a platform like WordPress.
I remember when a client of mine switched from WooCommerce to Shopify for their handmade jewellery business. They were initially concerned about the SEO limitations I’d warned them about, but they chose Shopify anyway for the simplicity. And you know what? We still managed to crush their organic traffic goals by working with the platform’s strengths. The time they saved wrestling with WordPress updates and security went straight into creating better product descriptions and building relationships with influencers. Sometimes the right limitations can focus your efforts where they matter most.
The theme you choose for your Shopify store makes a massive difference to your SEO potential. There’s been a real shift in the marketplace over the past few years, with more developers taking SEO seriously.
Lots of the premium themes now come with proper schema markup, sensible heading structures, and cleaner code out of the box. But there are still plenty of beautiful-looking themes that are absolute performance nightmares under the hood.
I’ve audited so many struggling Shopify stores where the theme was the primary culprit. They’d chosen something visually stunning that loaded 25 different JavaScript files, massive uncompressed images, and fancy animations that absolutely murdered their Core Web Vitals scores.
This is why I always tell clients to run the theme demo through PageSpeed Insights before they commit. That gorgeous theme that scores 30/100 on mobile performance is going to cause you endless SEO headaches down the line. Sometimes the plainer, simpler option is actually the smarter choice.
Before you get carried away with advanced tactics, you need to nail the basics on Shopify. Miss these fundamentals, and you’re building on quicksand.
There are a handful of built-in Shopify settings that make a real difference to your SEO:
First up, you need to sort your homepage title and meta description. Head to Online Store > Preferences to find these. You’d be amazed how many shop owners just leave these at the defaults and wonder why their homepage visibility is rubbish.
For your title, make it clear, include your main keyword, and stick your brand name in there. Keep it under 60 characters so it doesn’t get cut off in search results. With the description, aim for about 150 characters that actually sell your store’s value and include a bit of a nudge to click through.
Then there’s your URL handles – what some people call slugs. These are the bits of your URLs you can actually control. When creating products, collections, pages or blog posts, always:
You’ll find these in the “Search engine listing preview” section when you’re creating or editing content. Pro tip: if you ever change an existing URL, tick that “Create a URL redirect” box or you’ll lose any SEO juice the page has already built up.
Your navigation structure matters too. It sends signals to Google about your site hierarchy and which pages you consider most important. Organise your main navigation in a logical way, with your most vital collections front and centre. It helps search engines understand how different bits of your shop relate to each other.
You absolutely, categorically need to connect your shop to Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4. I won’t budge on this one. They’re free, powerful, and essential for understanding and improving your SEO.
Google Search Console basically gives you a direct line to Google. It shows you exactly how they see your site, including any indexing problems, mobile issues, and most importantly, which search terms are actually bringing people to your store.
Setting it up isn’t too painful:
Then there’s Google Analytics 4, which gives you crucial insights into what happens once people actually reach your site. For eCommerce, you especially want to set up enhanced eCommerce tracking so you can see which organic keywords and landing pages are actually making you money, not just bringing traffic.
Shopify does have a built-in GA4 integration. Just go to Online Store > Preferences and add your measurement ID in the Google Analytics account section. Getting the enhanced eCommerce bit set up might need a bit more work through Google Tag Manager or a dedicated app, but it’s worth the effort.
I worked with a fashion retailer last year who was making all their decisions based on Shopify’s built-in analytics. After we set up proper GA4 with enhanced eCommerce, we discovered something fascinating: organic search was driving 42% of their revenue despite accounting for only 23% of their traffic. Organic visitors were spending nearly twice as much as their average social media visitor. That completely changed where they focused their marketing budget.
This is a small detail that people overlook, but it matters for brand recognition. Upload a favicon (that little icon that shows up in browser tabs) through Online Store > Themes > Customize. It reinforces your brand every time someone bookmarks your store or has multiple tabs open, which is basically everyone these days.
Let’s tackle the trickiest SEO problems that come with the Shopify territory and what you can actually do about them.
Duplicate content is without a doubt the biggest technical SEO headache on Shopify. The way the platform is built creates several scenarios where identical or very similar content pops up on multiple URLs:
The Collection Problem
Your products can be accessed through multiple paths:
Shopify does automatically add canonical tags to the collection-path URLs pointing to the direct product URL, which helps sort this out. But you should also make sure your internal links consistently point to your preferred URL version to send Google the strongest possible signal.
The Tag Disaster
This is where things often go properly wrong. When you use product tags for filtering, Shopify creates separate tag pages (like /collections/all/blue) that can show the exact same products that appear on your normal collection pages. These tag pages typically have no unique content and can create an absolute indexing nightmare.
For most shops, you want to add a noindex tag to these pages. You can do this by editing your theme.liquid file and adding something like:
{% if template contains 'collection' and current_tags %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
{% endif %}
If you’re not comfortable with code, plenty of SEO apps can handle this for you without needing to touch any code.
The Variant Issue
Product variants (like different sizes or colours) share the same description by default, which creates near-duplicate content. If you’ve got variants that really deserve their own unique descriptions, you’ll need to customise your product templates or use an app that lets you add variant-specific content.
Pagination Problems
Paginated collection pages (page 2, page 3, etc.) often lack any unique content. Adding rel=”next” and rel=”prev” tags helps search engines understand how these pages connect to each other. Again, many SEO apps can implement this automatically if you don’t want to mess with code.
Shopify’s URL structure is one of its most annoying limitations for SEO. You’re stuck with those prefixes, whether you like it or not: /products/, /collections/, /pages/, and /blogs/. You simply can’t create proper subfolder hierarchies.
While you can’t change this fundamental limitation, there are workarounds:
First, focus obsessively on the bit you can control: make the URL handle (the part after the prefix) as optimised as possible with clear, keyword-rich, short slugs.
Second, implement proper breadcrumb navigation to show both users and search engines the hierarchical relationship between your pages. This helps compensate for the flat URL structure. Many themes include breadcrumbs already, or you can add them via an app or theme customisation.
Third, create a really thoughtful internal linking structure that guides users through your site hierarchy, reinforcing the relationships between products, collections, and content pages.
I worked with a home electronics store that was frustrated by not being able to create URLs like /televisions/smart-tv/samsung-q80t. Instead, we focused on creating crystal-clear breadcrumb navigation and building a strong internal linking structure to show the relationships between these categories. We also made sure the product descriptions explicitly mentioned their category context. Their organic traffic actually increased by 35% over the next six months despite these URL restrictions.
Another irritating limitation is the restricted access to certain technical files:
Robots.txt Workarounds
You can’t directly edit Shopify’s main robots.txt file, which is annoying. But you can add your own custom directives by editing the robots.txt.liquid file in your theme. Go to Online Store > Themes > Actions > Edit code, then look for the robots.txt.liquid file.
This lets you add specific Disallow rules for parts of your site you don’t want crawled, though you can’t change the core Shopify directives.
Adding Proper Schema Markup
Most Shopify themes do include basic product schema, but for more advanced structured data like FAQ schema, HowTo schema, or Article schema, you’ll typically need:
Despite these limitations, I’ve managed to implement pretty much any necessary structured data on Shopify with the right approach. It just takes a bit more specific work than on a completely customisable platform.
Content is where you have the most control on Shopify, so you absolutely need to get this right.
Your product pages need to convert visitors into customers, but they also need to be discoverable in the first place:
Descriptions That Stand Out
The absolute cardinal sin of Shopify SEO is using the manufacturer’s default product descriptions. You’re just creating duplicate content shared across potentially hundreds of other sites, which is SEO suicide.
Write completely unique descriptions for each product that:
Get Detailed With Specs
Detail is your friend for both SEO and conversions. Include proper specifications in an easy-to-scan format. This extra text helps with keyword depth while giving shoppers the information they need to make a decision.
I worked with a sports equipment store whose product pages were barely getting any organic traffic. We expanded their minimal descriptions to include detailed information about materials, care instructions, size guides, and usage recommendations. Their organic traffic to product pages jumped by 43% within three months.
Leverage Customer Reviews
Reviews are absolute SEO gold. They add fresh, keyword-rich content to your pages and can help trigger those lovely review rich snippets in search results. Use an app like Judge.me, Loox, or Yotpo to actively chase customer reviews and display them prominently.
Collection pages target those valuable category keywords but are so often wasted opportunities on Shopify stores:
Add Proper Intro Content
Always add a proper descriptive text section (150-300 words) at the top of each collection page. This should:
Don’t make this text so long that it pushes your products miles down the page, but make it substantial enough to provide proper context and keyword relevance.
Sort Out Your Collection Metadata
Each collection needs unique, keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions. Update these in the “Search engine listing preview” section when editing a collection.
Last year I helped a kitchenware brand optimise their collection pages by adding detailed introductory content explaining the benefits and features of each product category. Their organic traffic to collection pages went up by 38% in just over three months, and visitors started spending nearly twice as long on these pages.
Shopify’s built-in blog is one of your most powerful SEO tools, yet loads of merchants completely ignore it. This is such a massive mistake.
Why Blogging Matters For Shops
The blog lets you:
Content That Actually Delivers Results
Create blog content that lines up with what your audience is interested in at different stages of their buying journey:
Always include strategic internal links to relevant products or collections within your blog posts. These guide readers toward your products while spreading link equity throughout your site.
One of my clients in the beauty sector started publishing just one high-quality blog post per week, focused on answering common skincare questions. Within five months, their organic traffic had increased by 52%, and the blog became their third-highest source of new customers after paid social and direct traffic.
Despite some limitations, there’s loads you can do to technically optimise your Shopify store.
Site speed is absolutely critical for rankings, and it’s an area where many Shopify stores struggle. Here’s how to make sure yours loads quickly:
Choose Your Theme Wisely
Start with a well-coded, lightweight theme. Shopify’s own Dawn theme is surprisingly good for performance, or look at premium themes specifically designed for speed like Turbo or Booster.
Deal With App Bloat
“App bloat” is the number one performance killer on Shopify. Each app typically adds JavaScript and sometimes CSS to your site. Be absolutely ruthless about which apps you install and regularly audit to remove any you’re not actively using.
I helped a homeware shop improve their mobile page speed score from 28 to 76 simply by removing 5 redundant apps and replacing a bloated one with a more lightweight alternative. Their mobile conversion rate went up by 31% almost immediately.
Sort Your Images Out
Compress all images before uploading them to Shopify. Use tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or dedicated Shopify apps like TinyIMG to dramatically reduce file sizes without visible quality loss.
Resize images to the exact dimensions needed rather than uploading massive images and letting the browser scale them down. For product photos, 2048px on the longest side is typically more than enough for zoom functionality.
More Advanced Speed Tactics
With Google’s mobile-first indexing, how your store performs on mobile directly impacts your rankings across all devices.
Most Shopify themes are responsive by default, but you need to actively test the mobile experience:
I recommend regularly browsing your own store on different mobile devices to catch issues that testing tools might miss.
Structured data helps search engines understand your content and can trigger those lovely rich results in search listings.
Shopify does automatically implement basic Product schema, but for the best results, you should make sure your markup includes:
For collections, blog posts, and specific content types like FAQs or How-To guides, you’ll typically need additional schema markup. Apps like JSON-LD for SEO or Schema App offer more comprehensive implementation options.
One of my fashion clients saw their click-through rate increase by 36% after we implemented enhanced product schema that displayed price ranges, availability, and review stars directly in search results.
The Shopify App Store is packed with SEO-related apps, but most stores only need a handful of well-chosen tools. Here are the types that usually deliver the most value:
Apps like SEO Booster, Smart SEO, or SEO Manager offer comprehensive toolsets covering multiple aspects of SEO. They typically include features for:
These are good starting points, especially for newer store owners who aren’t technically minded. But they sometimes lack depth in specific areas.
For shops needing more advanced capabilities in particular areas:
Schema/Structured Data Apps
Image Optimisation Apps
Speed Optimisation Apps
Review Apps
Remember, every single app adds code to your store. Always test performance before and after installing a new app, and be prepared to bin it if the speed impact outweighs the SEO benefit.
To really understand if your Shopify SEO efforts are working, you need to track the right things.
While overall organic traffic is important, these more specific metrics give you much better insights:
Revenue & Conversion Rate From Organic
This is the ultimate measure of SEO success for a shop. Set up enhanced eCommerce tracking in GA4 to see not just how many visitors organic search brings, but how much money they actually spend.
Landing Page Performance
Analyse which specific pages are driving organic traffic and conversions. Are product pages, collection pages, or blog posts bringing in the most valuable visitors? This helps you prioritise where to focus your optimisation efforts.
Search Query Data
Use Search Console to track which search terms are bringing visitors to your store. Look for opportunities to improve underperforming queries or double down on unexpected wins.
Technical Health Metrics
Keep an eye on:
I helped a furniture client shift their focus from vanity metrics like keyword rankings to actual revenue attribution. We discovered that while their blog was bringing in significantly more organic traffic than their product pages, the product pages were generating 5x more revenue per visitor. This insight completely changed their content strategy, focusing more on optimising product pages and creating blog content specifically designed to funnel visitors toward purchase.
Set up a regular schedule for reviewing your SEO performance. I suggest a monthly review that includes:
This consistent review process ensures you’re continuously improving rather than implementing SEO tactics and then forgetting about them.
Based on everything we’ve covered, here’s what I’d prioritise to improve your Shopify store’s SEO:
Despite its limitations, I genuinely believe Shopify will continue to be the leading platform for eCommerce SEO success for several key reasons:
Constant Improvement
Shopify’s SEO capabilities have improved dramatically over the years, and this trend isn’t slowing down. With each update, they’re addressing longstanding limitations and adding new features.
The App Ecosystem
The robust marketplace of third-party apps means that even when Shopify itself doesn’t offer a feature, developers quickly fill the gap. This gives store owners incredible flexibility to extend their SEO capabilities.
Performance Focus
Shopify has increasingly prioritised site performance, particularly with themes like Dawn that emphasise Core Web Vitals scores. As performance continues to grow in importance for SEO, this focus will become an even greater advantage.
The ChatGPT shopping integration that launched in April 2025 could be absolutely transformative, especially if the rumoured Shopify partnership fully materialises. This would open up entirely new traffic and conversion opportunities for Shopify merchants, potentially bypassing traditional search engines entirely.
For most businesses, the key to success isn’t finding a platform without limitations, because such a platform simply doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s about understanding the specific constraints of your chosen platform and developing strategies to work within and around them. Shopify makes this balance achievable even for non-technical store owners, which is why it remains my most frequently recommended platform for eCommerce businesses focusing on SEO growth.
If you’re looking to unlock the full SEO potential of your Shopify store, we can help with a customised strategy based on your specific goals, industry, and technical requirements.
Using our experience with Shopify SEO, we’ll identify your highest-impact opportunities and create an actionable roadmap to better visibility, more qualified traffic, and increased eCommerce revenue.
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