Setting up an online store with Shopify is one of the most popular ways to get started in eCommerce. Supporting over 4.5 million stores globally, Shopify is user-friendly, reliable, and designed to scale as your business grows.
That said, simply having a store isn't enough to guarantee success – you also need to optimize your store for visibility in the search engines. The good news is that Shopify offers built-in tools and directions to help you.
In this guide, we’ll explore actionable SEO tips to help you make the most of your Shopify store. We’ll cover essential features and give you step-by-step advice to boost your store’s visibility in the SERPs.
But first…
Why SEO Matters for Shopify Stores
“Competitive” is an understatement when it comes to eCommerce. The cost of setting up an online business is low – and with Shopify’s most popular pricing plan being only $19/month (free for the first month), it’s easy for competitors to enter the market at any time.
Since the Shopify platform does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of SEO, merchants could set up their stores with those out-of-the-box features alone. But to borrow from Timespro, “E-commerce companies must have good marketing strategies and depend on SEO to maintain a digital presence.”
It’s the maintenance, not only the setup, that can drive your store to the top search results.
Beyond that, it takes knowing what SEO features and tools Shopify falls short on, so you can look for complementary SEO tools elsewhere.
Shopify’s Built-In SEO Features
Automatic XML Sitemap
Every Shopify store automatically generates an XML sitemap, which is a file that helps search engines like Google find, crawl, and index your pages. This includes all of your products, collections, and blog posts.
URL Structure Control
Shopify allows you to edit your URLs to make them more descriptive and SEO-friendly. After all, a clean, easy-to-read URL can improve both your SEO and user experience.
Meta Tag Customization
Shopify gives you certain control over your meta titles and descriptions, which are essential for improving click-through rates (CTR) from the SERPs.
Canonical Tags
Shopify automatically adds canonical tags to pages, which is a technical way to tell search engines which version of a page is the "primary" one to index.
SSL Certification
Shopify provides SSL certification for free, meaning your store runs on HTTPS, which encrypts data and provides security for customers. Not only is HTTPS a Google ranking factor, but it also builds trust with your customers.
Mobile-Friendly Design
Shopify themes are responsive, meaning they automatically adjust to mobile devices. Having a mobile-friendly site is critical for SEO, as Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing.
Auto-Generated Robots.txt
Shopify automatically creates a robots.txt file, which helps guide web crawlers on what to index and what to ignore. While Shopify handles most of this for you, having the option to customize your robots.txt.liquid file (more on this later) can give you more control over what search engines can crawl.
301 Redirects
If you ever change a product URL, Shopify allows you to set up 301 redirects so you don’t lose the SEO value of the old URL. As a result, any SEO equity from the old page is passed to the new one, avoiding broken links or 404 errors that can hurt user experience and rankings.
Actionable Steps to Boost Shopify SEO
Now that you know Shopify’s built-in SEO features, let’s look at some of their limitations, as well as actionable steps to take your store’s optimization to the next level.
Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console
Shopify automatically generates sitemap files for your store, which you can find at the root of your domain – like example.com/sitemap.xml. All you have to do is copy that URL and submit it in the Sitemaps section of Google Search Console. It’s located under the “Index” section on your menu.
And don’t forget to keep an eye on your submission status. Ideally, it’ll say success. If it doesn’t, Google Search Console will alert you to any errors, and you can troubleshoot them from there.
By the way: if you’re already using SiteGuru to stay up-to-date on your SEO tasks, you can add them to GSC straight from the app in the Sitemaps report. Just go to your dashboard, then Technical > Sitemaps.
Optimize Your Store’s Structure
Back in 2021, a survey found that 38% of consumers look at a page's navigation links when they visit a website for the first time. Any interaction with these navigation links may also indicate that users are interested in exploring more of your offers and moving further down the funnel.
That’s why a clear and logical Shopify store structure is essential for both user experience and SEO.
Keep Your Categories and Subcategories Simple
Start with broad categories and limit subcategories to avoid confusing customers or making them dig through unnecessary layers to find products.
Also, consider adding search functionality up at the top to help users find products faster, and make sure contact details are easy to locate in case customers need assistance.
A lot of Shopify themes come with this capability, but don’t hesitate to make it more prominent like in the following example:
Breadcrumbs
To add to the intuitive user experience and productive indexing, your category and product pages should contain breadcrumbs. These give users and search engines a clear path to their location within your site. Users can easily backtrack to previous pages, and search engines can better understand your overall store hierarchy.
For example, if a user is viewing a specific product, the breadcrumb trail might look like this:
Anyone with a basic Shopify store can add breadcrumbs to their category and product pages, either by adding Liquid code or with the help of page builders like eComposer.
“But doesn’t Shopify do this for me?”
It does. However, some Shopify themes either don’t have breadcrumb capabilities, or they have very basic, one-level breadcrumbs. Particularly if you’re using Shopify’s free themes like Dawn, you’ll notice that they don’t even include a breadcrumb capability anymore. There’s a reason for that, which is well-explained by Ed Codes on YouTube. We’ll try to break it down:
When you click on a category like "Men's," above, the breadcrumb should ideally map out your path from the homepage to the category and then to the specific product. For instance, if you select a product like a sharkhead cap, you'd expect the breadcrumb to reflect this journey: Home > Men's > Sharkhead Cap.
However, this isn't always the case. On many Shopify themes, the breadcrumb might skip the category entirely, showing just Home > Sharkhead Cap. This is very common if the product page has a canonical URL pointing to it. This can be frustrating, as you might need to add canonicals to your product pages in Shopify (see the Watch Out for Duplicate URLs from Shopify Collections section below).
In this scenario, the breadcrumb doesn't help the user understand their path, rendering it basically useless.
This is one of the SEO limitations of Shopify. While Shopify has features to help you with SEO, always check to make sure everything is as optimized as it could be.
Optimize Your Product Pages Before and After the Click
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
If people are coming from the SERPs, you want your listing to stand out among the rest for the keyword your store is ranking for. Title tags and meta descriptions are key tools to achieve this.
Take a look at the example below:
Notice how the title tag incorporates the most important keyword(s) and includes the product name. The meta description is concise, fitting perfectly within the ideal character limit (no ellipses), and clearly outlines the key information about the product.
Not to mention: the price is displayed upfront. By the time a user clicks on the link, they already know the product’s benefits and price, making them more likely to be serious buyers.
Once a user clicks through to the product page itself, they'll find even more detailed information:
While the title tag and meta description provide a quick overview, the product page offers specifics that couldn't fit there. This includes essential product details like where it was made, materials used, and any other specifications a customer needs to know before making a purchase.
You can easily edit your page titles and descriptions right in Shopify to help improve your store's SEO. Here’s how:
- Go to Online Store > Pages in your Shopify admin.
- Pick the page you want to edit.
- In the Search engine listing preview, click Edit website SEO.
- Enter your title and meta description, then hit Save.
When creating descriptions, avoid using the manufacturer’s copy whenever possible.
Original content not only helps with SEO but also distinguishes your store. You can even use AI tools to help write unique titles and descriptions, but always review and tweak them for accuracy and brand voice.
Are you a SiteGuru user? You can generate the best title tags and meta descriptions straight from the app.
For page titles, go to Content > Page Titles, and for meta descriptions, go to Content > Meta Descriptions. These reports not only tell you if your titles and descriptions are the right length and unique, but they also show how they’ll appear in the SERPs.
And if you need to create new ones but aren’t sure where to start, SiteGuru’s AI can suggest SEO-optimized meta descriptions and titles that tick all the right boxes.
Edit Your Robots.txt.Liquid
Shopify gives you the option to customize the robots.txt file using the robots.txt.liquid template. Liquid is a templating language created by Shopify, used to load dynamic content on storefronts and applications.
This file allows you to block certain pages (like admin or checkout pages) from being crawled. These pages aren’t relevant to customers or search engines, so excluding them from indexing keeps your sitemap clean and focused on your products and content.
They also help you:
- Set crawl-delay rules for certain search bots to control how frequently they access your site. Larger stores with thousands of products may want to fine-tune crawling behavior (e.g., using crawl-delay) to reduce server load or prevent over-crawling
- Add extra sitemap URLs to ensure all relevant content is included.
- Restrict certain crawlers from accessing your site.
The default setup is designed to meet the SEO needs of a wide range of online stores. But in case you need to edit your robots.txt liquid for better SEO performance, here’s how to do it:
- In your Online Store, select Themes.
- Click on the ... (more options) button next to your current theme, and then click Edit Code.
- In the code editor, click Add a new template. From the options, select robots and then hit Create template.
- Now, you can edit the default robots.txt template. You can refer to Shopify’s Developer page for help on using Liquid variables and some common use cases.
- Once you’ve made the necessary changes, click Save.
- The changes will take effect immediately, but search engines may take some time to reflect them. To test your new rules, you can use Google’s robots.txt Tester.
Watch Out for Duplicate URLs from Shopify Collections
Shopify's Collections feature allows you to group products into specific categories, making it easier for customers to browse your store.
However, this categorization can sometimes result in duplicate URLs. For example, if a single product is part of multiple collections, it may be accessible through both the unique URL for the product and the separate URL for each collection that includes it.
This may result in duplicate content issues. Without proper management, this might dilute SEO efforts, though implementing canonical tags or removing duplicate pages could mitigate this risk.
Here’s how to apply canonical tags if you need them:
- After backing up your theme, click the three horizontal dots next to your Shopify theme. Select Edit Code to open the theme in the code editor.
- In the left sidebar, navigate through the theme files to locate theme.liquid. This file contains the head element of your Shopify pages. Look for the <head> and </head> tags to identify the section you need.
- Just above the </head> tag, add the following line of code:
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ canonical_url }}" /> - This code uses Shopify’s Liquid template language to dynamically generate a unique canonical URL for each page.
- Click the Save button in the top right corner of the code editor to apply your changes.
Tools like SiteGuru give you an overview of whether your pages have self-referencing canonicals, which is a confirmation that search engines know the main URL to prioritize for ranking. All you have to do is go to Technical > Canonical URLs.
Use Shopify’s Blogging Feature
Shopify’s blogging feature is a proven way to build out content that can drive SEO benefits. Blogging helps with internal linking, targeting new keywords, and increasing brand authority. It also makes promoting your products easier by linking directly to them from posts. Shopify provides a default blog titled "News," but you have the flexibility to keep it or create a custom blog with your own name.
Unlike third-party platforms, a built-in blog feature is easier to manage since everything is housed under one domain. If SEO-driven growth is a priority, blogging is the way – especially if you’ve mastered on-page SEO techniques.
Shopify Stores Doing SEO Right
The following examples are great honorable mentions that show how your SEO efforts, user experience, and brand personality can all coexist.
Zoku
Take a look at Zoku’s example below.
Notice how their navigation menu not only clearly outlines categories and subcategories, but also adds a touch of personality with custom icons.
This visual flair isn't essential for functionality, but it’s a fun add-on for improving the user experience. By incorporating icons, customers can get a feel for the products before they even click, which makes browsing more intuitive and visually engaging.
Poly & Bark
The next example comes from Poly & Bark, one of the featured stores in Shopify's eCommerce inspiration page – so you know they’re doing something right.
As we've discussed earlier, what’s on the SERP is often just as crucial as what’s inside your store. It’s the hook that draws people in, and without it, even the best-designed stores might struggle to get traffic.
Notice the sitelinks on this search result. These aren’t automatically generated by Shopify. Rather, they’re generated by Google, and there is no guaranteed way to get them. They’re sought-after, as they often translate to higher CTRs. In the words of Reliablesoft, “It’s a signal of high Google trust.”
You can’t control them. But you can influence them by following practices like having a clear website structure and helpful content with relevant internal links. Essentially, some of the tips we’ve shared earlier.
This is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t rely solely on Shopify’s built-in features if you want to grow. While native tools are great, thinking about SEO outside the Shopify box is key. It’s also a good reminder that a strong SEO strategy goes hand in hand with using the right tools.
Use Tools Like SiteGuru to Become Unstoppable in Shopify
Even though SiteGuru isn't a Shopify app, it gives you detailed audits of your site's SEO performance, offering insights that go far beyond default tools.
Because SiteGuru integrates directly with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, it can be your supporting source of SEO truth, without the app-hopping. You’ll get weekly site audits with actionable tips on improving your eCommerce SEO.
Step ahead in eCommerce – try SiteGuru free for 14 days!
