Shopify creates the sitemap, robots.txt and canonical tags. You still need unique titles and metas, strong collection pages, original product descriptions and data, control of filtered URLs, checked structured data, Merchant Center feeds and a fast theme. Fix collections and best-selling products first.
What Shopify does for you
Shopify's SEO overview says each store's sitemap.xml and robots.txt files are generated automatically, and that auto-generated canonical tags are added to pages to prevent duplicate content from appearing in search results. Titles and meta descriptions can be edited for products, collections, pages and blog posts. That covers the basics; everything below is the work that sets a store apart.
1. Titles and meta descriptions
Write a unique title and meta description for every collection and for your best-selling products, using the words buyers search with. Shopify's keyword guide suggests titles of 60 characters or fewer (up to 70 are allowed) and descriptions of about 160 characters. Avoid the theme's default pattern of product name plus store name on every page.
2. Collection pages
Collections usually match category searches such as "men's waterproof hiking boots", so they deserve the most care. Build collections around the searches buyers make, give each a short original introduction and a clear title, link to the most useful products first, and link related collections to each other. Thin collections with one or two products help nobody.
3. Product pages
Each product page should give buyers and search engines everything needed:
- Original descriptions: not the manufacturer's text that dozens of other stores use.
- Complete data: price, availability, variants, materials, sizes, shipping and returns.
- Images with descriptive alt text, compressed for speed.
- Reviews, collected and shown as they come.
- Answers to buying questions on the page.
4. Filters, sorting and robots.txt
Filtered and sorted collection URLs can multiply into thousands of near-duplicate pages. Google's faceted navigation guidance says to prevent crawling of facet URLs that do not need to appear in Search, for example with robots.txt. Shopify's default robots.txt already disallows admin, cart, checkout and account pages and filtered or sorted collection URLs.
If you need to change it, Shopify's robots.txt guide explains that you add a robots.txt.liquid template to your theme, that Shopify Support does not help with edits, and that replacing the file with plain text is strongly not recommended. Change it only with a clear reason, and test the result.
5. Product structured data
Many themes output some product structured data; check what yours includes. Google's product structured data guide describes merchant listings for pages where people can buy, which support shipping and return policy data, and product snippets for pages where they cannot. Test your product pages and fill the gaps, especially price, availability, shipping and returns.
6. Merchant Center
Send your product data to Google Merchant Center. Google's free listings help page says products listed for free may show up on the Shopping tab, sending shoppers to your site to buy. Keep the feed's prices, availability and shipping consistent with the store.
7. Speed and apps
Apps add scripts, and scripts slow pages. Review installed apps, remove those you no longer use, compress images, and choose a well-built theme. Check product and collection pages, not only the home page, on a phone.
8. Content that answers buying questions
Buying guides, comparisons and care instructions answer the searches people make before they choose a product, and link naturally to collections. Google's ecommerce guides also cover URL structure, site structure and pagination for larger stores. Our ecommerce SEO checklist covers the full list.
Conclusion
Shopify generates the sitemap, robots.txt and canonical tags, so Shopify SEO is about what goes on top: unique titles and metas, strong collection pages, original product descriptions and complete data, filtered URLs kept out of the crawl, checked product structured data, Merchant Center feeds and a fast theme. Fix collections and best-selling products first.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. We are not a Shopify partner. Our ecommerce SEO team fixes Shopify stores' collections, product pages and data, our Shopify store builds team handles themes and apps, and our ecommerce marketing work ties search to the rest of the plan.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.