Shopify SEO in 12 Steps: Settings That Make a Difference

Shopify gives you a solid technical base for SEO out of the box. What it can't do is decide how your store is organised, what your pages say, or which terms you target. These twelve steps cover the settings and habits that make the most difference.

1. Set the home page title and description

In Online Store → Preferences, write a home page title of about 50–60 characters that includes your brand and what you sell, and a meta description of about 140–160 characters that gives a reason to click.

2. Write titles and descriptions for key pages

Every product, collection, page and blog post has a Search engine listing section at the bottom of its editor. Fill it in for your most important pages instead of relying on the defaults. Use the term people actually search for, near the start of the title.

3. Keep URLs short and descriptive

You can't change the /products/ or /collections/ prefixes, but you can edit the handle. Prefer /products/merino-wool-beanie to /products/beanie-2024-new-final. If you change a handle on a live page, tick the option to create a redirect.

4. Build collections around how people search

Collections are often your strongest ranking pages. Create them for the categories and attributes people search for ("women's waterproof jackets", "vegan leather bags"), and add a short, genuinely useful introduction to each one.

5. Write unique product descriptions

Manufacturer text is duplicated across many stores. Write your own, with specific facts and answers to real questions. See how to write product descriptions.

6. Add alt text to images

Describe what the image shows in plain words. It helps image search and accessibility. You can edit alt text from the media section of each product.

7. Check your structured data

Most current themes output Product structured data. Run a few product URLs through Google's Rich Results Test. If price, availability, brand or review data is missing or has errors, fix it in the theme or with a reliable app.

8. Set up redirects for anything you remove

When you delete a product or collection, redirect its URL to the closest relevant page, not to the home page. Shopify's URL redirects tool (under the navigation or menus area of the admin) handles this, and supports CSV import for larger lists. This matters most after a migration.

9. Strengthen internal links

Link from collections to key products, from blog posts to relevant collections, and between related products. Keep the main menu focused on your most important categories, and use the footer for policies and supporting pages.

10. Keep the store fast

Speed affects both visitors and search performance. Review apps, images and theme code regularly. Our speed guide explains where to start.

11. Connect Google Search Console

Verify your domain in Search Console and submit /sitemap.xml, which Shopify generates automatically. Then use the reports to find pages with impressions but few clicks (improve their titles), pages that aren't indexed (find out why), and Core Web Vitals issues.

12. Publish helpful content

A blog lets you answer the questions people ask before they're ready to buy: buying guides, comparisons, how-tos. Link each article to the collections it relates to. A few thorough, accurate articles do more than many thin ones.

Things Shopify handles for you

• An XML sitemap, updated automatically
• Canonical tags, including for products reached through collection URLs
• An SSL certificate on every domain
• A default robots.txt, which you can customise with robots.txt.liquid

For a quick pre-launch review, use our Shopify SEO checklist. If you'd like an expert to take this on, see our Shopify SEO services.