Shopify makes it easy to open a shop and harder than it looks to control what Google sees. The platform fixes much of your URL structure, writes your sitemap and robots.txt for you, and lets every app you install add code to your theme. My Shopify SEO work deals with those platform-specific problems, inside your theme and admin, so that your collection and product pages are the versions Google indexes and ranks.
What Shopify SEO fixes
On most Shopify stores the first problem is not a lack of content. It is duplication and loss of control. One product can be reached at its own address and again under every collection it belongs to, variants add parameter URLs, tags and filters multiply collection pages, and the theme may link to the wrong version of each. Google then spends its crawling on copies and chooses its own preferred version, which is not always the one you want.
Once that is in order, the rest of the work has something to stand on: collection pages written for the words shoppers actually search, product pages with complete data, a theme that loads quickly on a phone, and reporting that shows which orders came from organic search. For the wider strategy that applies to any online shop, such as category planning and product copy at scale, see my ecommerce SEO service. This page is about what is particular to Shopify.
Who it suits, and who it does not
It suits UK retailers selling from their own Shopify or Shopify Plus store who want more sales from Google without paying for every click. That includes brands that started small on Shopify and now carry hundreds or thousands of products, shops that moved to Shopify from another platform and lost visibility, and teams with a Shopify agency or freelance developer who can edit the theme but want someone to decide which changes are worth making.
It is not the right fit if almost all your sales come through Amazon, eBay or Etsy and the Shopify site is an afterthought, or if you need a new store designed and built from scratch. If you run a headless Hydrogen front end, or the store has problems well beyond the theme, the work becomes broader technical SEO and I scope it that way.
What the work covers
Product and collection URLs
Shopify gives every product a fixed /products/ path and every collection a fixed /collections/ path, and neither prefix can be removed. Many themes link to products through the collection, producing addresses such as /collections/dresses/products/linen-midi-dress. Shopify adds a canonical tag pointing to the plain product URL, but Google treats a canonical as a hint, and hundreds of internal links to the other version weaken it. I check how your theme builds product links and, where needed, have it changed so every link points to the canonical address.
Tags, filters and sort orders
Collection tag pages, Search & Discovery filters and sort parameters can turn one collection into hundreds of crawlable URLs. A few of those combinations deserve to be pages in their own right, such as women’s waterproof walking boots; most do not. I decide which faceted navigation combinations should become proper collections with their own copy, and how to keep the rest out of the index through the theme templates and the editable robots.txt.liquid file.
Variants, pagination and default pages
Colour and size variants add ?variant= URLs, paginated collections add ?page= URLs, and Shopify also generates listings such as /collections/all and vendor or product type pages. These are usually harmless when canonicals and links are right, and a source of thin, near-identical results when they are not. I compare what Search Console shows as indexed with what should be, and fix the gap at its source.
Theme, apps and speed
Shopify’s hosting and content delivery network are quick, so slow Shopify stores are nearly always slowed by the theme and the apps. Review widgets, upsell pop-ups, chat tools and tracking scripts each add JavaScript, and uninstalling an app does not always remove what it added to the theme. I measure Core Web Vitals on your home, collection and product templates, list what each script costs, and give your developer a short list of what to remove, defer or replace.
Structured data and product feeds
Most current themes output Product structured data, and review or SEO apps often add their own, so a product page can carry two versions that disagree. I make sure each page has one complete set, with prices in pounds that match the VAT-inclusive price shown, accurate stock status and review data only where the reviews are genuine. If your products sync to Google Merchant Center through the Google & YouTube app, I check the feed and the pages agree, because mismatches lead to disapproved products. Markup beyond product pages is covered by my schema markup service.
Collection and product content
Many Shopify collection pages are a heading and a grid of products, which gives Google very little to work with. Using keyword research mapped to each collection, I write or brief short introductions, set titles and meta descriptions in each page’s search engine listing section, and fix themes that mark the store name or logo up as the H1 on every page. On product pages I start with the items that sell, or could sell, rather than the whole catalogue at once.
How I run a Shopify SEO engagement
- Access and baseline. I ask for a staff account on your Shopify admin plus access to Search Console and GA4, and record organic sessions and revenue before anything changes.
- Crawl and index review. I crawl the store, compare the result with what Google has indexed, and map every type of URL Shopify is producing.
- Theme and app review. I read the relevant Liquid templates and snippets, list the installed apps and the code they inject, and test speed on the templates that matter.
- Prioritised plan. You get a list ranked by likely effect and effort, separating what can be done in the admin from what needs a developer.
- Changes on a copy of the theme. Theme edits are made and checked on an unpublished duplicate of your live theme, then published, so customers never see a half-finished change.
- Checks after each release. I watch Search Console and organic orders after every change and adjust the plan from what the data shows.
Problems I check for first on UK Shopify stores
- Theme links pointing to collection-based product URLs instead of the canonical /products/ address.
- Code left in the theme by apps uninstalled months ago, still loading on every page.
- Two sets of Product markup, one from the theme and one from an app, disagreeing on price or rating.
- Product handles renamed with the redirect option unticked, leaving old links and backlinks landing on 404 pages.
- Missing or chained redirects after a move to Shopify from WooCommerce, Magento or a bespoke site. The redirect map builder checks an old-to-new list for chains and loops, and my website migration SEO service covers the whole switch.
- Discontinued products deleted outright instead of being redirected to the closest product or collection.
- Shopify Markets switched on for other countries, adding subfolder copies of every page without anyone deciding whether they should be indexed.
- Collection titles left as a single word, and the blog still sitting at /blogs/news/ with no plan for what it should rank for.
What you receive
- A URL inventory showing every page type your store produces, which are indexed and which should be.
- A theme and app review naming the templates, snippets and scripts to change.
- A prioritised action plan split into admin tasks and developer tickets.
- Titles, meta descriptions and introductions, or briefs for them, for your priority collections.
- A structured data and Merchant Center check on product pages.
- Release checks in Search Console and, if the work continues, a short monthly summary of organic sessions and orders.
Next step
Send me your store’s address and I will look at what Google has indexed, how your theme links to products and which apps are weighing it down, then tell you what I would fix first. The simplest way to start is a free SEO audit of your Shopify store. If you would rather talk it through, get in touch to book a call and bring your developer or agency along if you have one.