SEO for Shopify: a 25-point checklist

By Julián, founder of Rankedora · 1 November 2026 · 8 min read

This list is designed to review an existing Shopify store in an afternoon. Each point says what to look at and why it matters. Before touching templates or code, make a copy of the theme.

Crawling and indexing (1 to 7)

1. Check that the store has no password. A store with password protection switched on blocks search engines. It is a frequent oversight after launch.
2. Choose a single primary domain. In the domain settings, check that all variants (with and without www, the .myshopify.com domain) end up at the same address.
3. Submit the sitemap to Search Console. Shopify automatically generates /sitemap.xml and it can’t be edited. Submit it and review the indexing report.
4. Review the robots.txt. By default it blocks paths such as the cart, checkout or accounts and sort URLs. It can be customised with the robots.txt.liquid template, but only touch what you understand.
5. Verify product canonicals. The same product can be opened from /products/name and from /collections/collection/products/name. The canonical should point to the first. Most themes get this right, but check it in a product page’s source code.
6. Control filters and sorting. URLs with filter or sort parameters shouldn’t compete with the base collection. See filters and facets in ecommerce.
7. Manage redirects and 404s. If you change a product or collection handle, create the redirect (Shopify offers to do it when you save). For out-of-stock or discontinued products, follow this guide.

Pages, collections and content (8 to 14)

8. Short, stable handles. Shopify fixes the prefixes /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/ and they can’t be removed. What you do control is the rest of the URL: keep it short, descriptive and unchanging.
9. Unique SEO titles. Every product, collection and page has a search engine listing field. Write your own title with the main search term and the brand, without going over about 60 characters.
10. Meta descriptions that sell. They aren’t a direct ranking factor, but they influence whether people click your result.
11. Useful text on collections. Add a short introduction and, below the listing, a buying guide with real criteria (materials, sizes, uses). Avoid filler. More in category and product page SEO.
12. One H1 per page. Some themes use the logo or a banner as the H1 on inner pages. On a product page, the H1 should be the product name.
13. Your own product descriptions. The supplier’s are shared by dozens of stores. Add measurements, materials, uses, care and real photos: it is the kind of content Google says it values over generic content.
14. A blog with purpose and internal links. Shopify includes a blog (/blogs/). Use it for buying guides and comparisons that answer real searches and link from them to your key collections and products. Also check that every important collection receives links from the menu, breadcrumbs and other pages.

Product data, reviews and feed (15 to 19)

15. Validate product structured data. The Shopify theme outputs basic JSON-LD. Test it with Google’s Rich Results Test and check that no reviews or SEO app adds a second block that contradicts it. Guide: product schema.
16. Fill in identifiers and brand. GTIN or barcode, MPN and brand on every product where they exist. They are identifiers that help Google and other systems recognise the product.
17. Real, visible reviews. Mark up with structured data only the ratings the customer sees on the page. See reviews and schema.
18. Clear shipping and returns. Publish the policies and link to them from the product page and the footer. Google supports shipping and returns structured data, and they also reduce purchase doubts.
19. Merchant Center feed with no errors. If you use Shopify’s Google & YouTube app, review rejected products and warnings. Google recommends Merchant Center so that products can be shown in its AI answers. Guide: Merchant Center feed.

Performance (20 to 22)

20. Measure on mobile. Run your key templates (home, collection and product page) through PageSpeed Insights and review the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console.
21. Audit your apps. Uninstall the ones you don’t use and check the theme afterwards: some leave residual code that keeps loading.
22. Look after your images. Appropriate sizes, descriptive alt text and the page’s main image without lazy loading, because it is usually the element that takes longest to appear.

Measurement (23 to 25)

23. Verify the domain in Search Console with a domain property and review queries, pages and indexing issues every month.
24. Measure sales, not just visits. Set up your analytics to see organic-channel orders and revenue separately.
25. Watch traffic from AI assistants. Some assistants add a source parameter to links (ChatGPT usually uses utm_source=chatgpt.com). Create a segment in your analytics to track it and use Search Console’s generative AI performance report for Google’s AI features.

What to do with the results

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Mark each point as correct, improvable or broken and start with crawling and indexing (1 to 7): if Google can’t index a page, the rest doesn’t matter. Then tackle product data and the content of the collections that bring in the most revenue. If you would rather have someone review it with your store in front of them, it is part of our ecommerce SEO audit and our SEO for Shopify service.

Frequently asked questions

Sources consulted

• Google Search Central: optimising for generative AI features