The short answer is yes—Shopify is good for SEO. It’s a great option when you need to launch quickly and have a limited budget for development and implementation of various sales-enhancing tools. Shopify is a great platform for those looking to build an online store with solid SEO features right out of the box. It supports search engine optimization in ways that make it easy for store owners to improve their search engine ranking without needing extensive technical knowledge.
In this comprehensive Shopify SEO guide, I’ll demonstrate the Shopify SEO strategy my team and I use to ensure Shopify sites are fully optimized from the beginning. Drawing from years of experience working on a wide range of projects, I’ll share the Shopify SEO tips and methods that have consistently helped us rank Shopify websites in competitive markets. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned store owner, understanding the basics of SEO on Shopify is crucial.
Common Shopify Mistakes
When store owners rush into building without a clear optimization plan, it often leads to the misconception that Shopify is bad for SEO. In reality, many challenges stem from common SEO mistakes that are entirely avoidable. Let’s break down what typically goes wrong and help you assess whether Shopify is good for your long-term search visibility.
Starting work without SEO-strategy
Many Shopify merchants make the same mistake: jumping straight into design and development without thinking about SEO from the start. It’s easy to get caught up in building a beautiful Shopify site, but without a well-defined strategy, you might be setting yourself up for long-term SEO issues.
Think of it this way—starting a store without basic SEO planning is like building a house without blueprints. Everything may look good at first, but as your Shopify store grows, it can be difficult to rearrange the structure without causing disruption.
Here’s the reality: once your project is live, restructuring your site isn’t impossible, but it’s a bigger challenge. We’ve seen it time and again—clients come to us needing help to improve Shopify SEO by reworking a poorly structured site. While it takes effort, we’ve successfully revamped many setups to enhance their SEO health and performance.
This kind of scenario is a common Shopify SEO case study for us. And one thing is clear: even if you already have a Shopify setup, it’s never too late to optimize.
The best advice? Start with a plan. But if you’re already live, don’t worry—we provide professional SEO services to restructure and support your growth smoothly.
Skipping Mobile Optimization
It’s tempting to put all your focus on how your Shopify site looks on a desktop. After all, that’s where most of us spend time designing. But here’s the truth: mobile optimization shouldn’t be an afterthought—it needs to be central to your Shopify SEO strategy.
Why? Because mobile e-commerce sales have surged to account for 72.9% of total e-commerce sales (Techjury). This means that if your online store isn’t optimized for mobile users, you’re likely missing out on the majority of your sales and hurting your search engine ranking. From a SEO perspective, mobile optimization plays a significant role in how search engines evaluate your site.
In fact, failing to address mobile usability is one of the key shopify seo problems we encounter. It’s a typical sign of poor SEO planning, and it can drag down your performance across both search and conversion metrics.
The graph above highlights the steady rise in mobile shopping. With mobile now dominating online retail, it’s more important than ever to focus on mobile usability if you want to improve SEO on Shopify.
How to Make Shopify Good for SEO:
- Responsive Design: Make sure your Shopify theme is fully responsive and adjusts to different screen sizes. This is a core part of technical SEO for mobile.
- Speed Optimization: Mobile users expect fast load times. Use built-in tools or Shopify SEO apps to compress images and minimize code. A slow site damages both user experience and SEO.
- Real-World Testing: Regularly test on actual mobile devices. Emulators can help, but nothing beats testing your pages in your Shopify store on real phones and tablets.
By prioritizing mobile optimization, you can not only improve your user experience but also boost your store’s SEO performance, as Google heavily factors mobile usability into its ranking algorithms.
Technical Optimization on Shopify
I’ve worked with countless Shopify stores, and while the platform is robust and versatile, it’s not without its quirks—especially when it comes to SEO for Shopify. Let me walk you through one of the biggest SEO issues we’ve encountered: Shopify’s tendency to create duplicate content through collection tags. This seemingly small problem can cause serious trouble for your SEO rankings.
1. Duplicate Pages from Collection Tags
The Problem:
One particular issue we faced involved the use of tags on collection pages. Shopify offers internal tags for organizational purposes, which sounds useful—until you realize that these tags can generate duplicate collection pages. That’s where poor SEO practices can sneak in unnoticed.
Here’s an example from a successful Shopify project we worked on:
- Main Collection: /collections/rot
- Duplicate Collection (Created by Tag): /collections/rot/rot
In this case, the tag “rot” created a second URL that looked almost identical to the original collection page. The problem? Google was indexing both the main collection and the tag-created duplicate, diluting the SEO value and causing confusion for search engines.
The Fix:
To solve this, we had to carefully manage how tags were being used and ensure that duplicate collection pages weren’t being indexed. Here’s how we approached it:
1. Canonical Tags: we added canonical tags to the duplicate pages to point back to the main collection page. This helped consolidate the SEO value and directed search engines to prioritize the correct URL.
<!-- Add this code to the head section of your collection.liquid template -->
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ collection.url }}">2. Noindex Tags for Duplicates: we also used noindex tags on the duplicate pages to prevent them from being indexed at all. This double-layered approach ensured that Google focused on the main collection page.
{% if collection.handle == 'rot/rot' %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
{% endif %}By applying these fixes, we eliminated the duplicate content issue and saw a significant improvement in the store’s search rankings. It’s all about ensuring that your collection pages aren’t competing with each other for SEO value.
2. ?variant Parameter Issues
The Problem:
Another common problem we’ve faced with Shopify stores is the ?variant parameter. Shopify generates unique URLs for different product variants, such as size or color. This can lead to multiple URLs for the same product, which can cause duplicate content issues. For example:
- Main Product Page: /products/red-shirt
- Variant URLs:
/products/red-shirt?variant=123456789
/products/red-shirt?variant=987654321
These URLs can all be indexed separately, spreading out SEO value and reducing the visibility of your primary Shopify product page.
The Fix:
To handle this, we implemented canonical tags on the product pages, ensuring that all variant URLs pointed to the main product URL. Here’s the code we used:
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ product.url }}">This method allows you to optimize your Shopify site for clarity and relevance in search engines, concentrating authority on your core pages. It’s a widely used best practice in handling parameter-related duplication and ensuring that your site follows friendly SEO structure.
3. Filter Indexing Problems
The Problem:
Another technical issue we’ve encountered is the automatic indexing of filter-generated pages. Shopify can create filter URLs like:
- /collections/shirts?filter=color-red
- /collections/shirts?filter=size-medium
While helpful for users, these filtered pages often have low value from an SEO and content standpoint. If indexed, they compete with your main category pages and can dilute your SEO efforts.
The Fix:
To prevent this, we added noindex tags to filter-generated pages or blocked them via the robots.txt file. This ensured that only the core collection pages were indexed:
{% if collection.filters %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
{% endif %}Alternatively, blocking filter URLs through robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /collections/*?filter=This helps preserve a clean index and directs Google’s attention to high-priority content. In today’s evolving landscape, especially with SEO in 2025 shifting more toward content quality and structure, such tactics are more important than ever.
Wrap-Up on Technical Optimization
These are just a few of the many technical challenges we’ve tackled with Shopify. From managing duplicate content caused by collection tags and variant URLs to handling filter indexing properly, each fix plays a vital role in enhancing your Shopify for SEO setup.
Remember, even small technical missteps can have a major impact on your visibility. It’s these details that make or break your site’s SEO health, especially on a platform like Shopify. And while Shopify isn’t a bad choice by any means, ignoring these nuances could make it feel like Shopify is bad for SEO—which simply isn’t true when it’s used right.
Shopify SEO Hacks: How to Make Your Store Stand Out
Shopify also has many lesser-known capabilities that, when leveraged correctly, can take your store to the next level. From advanced schema usage to blog strategy, these hacks go beyond the basics and are rooted in years of hands-on experience and SEO insights.
1. Microdata: Reviews
Why it matters: Adding review schema is one of the most effective ways to boost your Shopify SEO checklist. Those eye-catching stars in Google search results are more than just pretty—they directly impact click-through rates. While many tools on the Shopify App Store offer this functionality for product pages, going a step further can yield even better results.
Our Real-World Example: Take our work with alkoholfrei-vom-winzer.de. We didn’t just stop at product pages—we custom-built schema markup to include reviews on collection pages. This is something Shopify apps typically can’t do out-of-the-box.
By adding review microdata to the collection pages, we saw a noticeable boost in our CTR. In fact, if you take a look at the screenshot below, you’ll see how these stars appear directly in the search results, helping us draw more attention and clicks.
2. Building a Strong Internal Linking Structure
A well-designed internal linking strategy is key to distributing SEO value across your Shopify site. Internal links act like a map for both users and search engines, helping direct attention to the most important pages in your store. One feature that supports this is breadcrumbs—those small navigation links that show where a user is in your site’s hierarchy.
A strong internal link structure isn’t just about navigation; it’s a powerful way to support SEO, making your content easier to crawl, understand, and rank.
3. Optimize Your Blog Content for SEO
This is where content marketing becomes a true differentiator. Blogging isn’t just for lifestyle brands—it’s one of the best ways to drive traffic to your Shopify store through long-tail keywords.
Our Real-World Example: We knew with alkoholfrei-vom-winzer.de it would be hard to compete right away on commercial keywords against giants like Amazon and Lidl. Instead, we focused on keyword research and published blog posts like “The Best Non-Alcoholic Wines.” These articles brought in traffic, boosted authority, and laid the groundwork for targeting high-converting commercial terms later.
Once the blog traffic and conversions started rolling in, we then shifted our focus to building up category pages. This phased strategy worked wonders, with the blog providing a steady stream of traffic and contributing to a strong conversion rate.
It’s an example of how SEO and content work hand-in-hand. With every blog post, we built momentum toward a stronger domain. This is a core part of tips for Shopify stores aiming for sustainable, long-term results.
Optimizing Product Pages: The Key to Success on Google Merchant Center
Your Shopify store’s product pages are the heart and soul of your e-commerce business. They need to do more than just look good—they need to perform well in search engines, especially on platforms like Google Merchant Center.
If you’ve been paying attention to Google search results lately, you’ve probably noticed that the top few screens are often dominated by product listings from Google Merchant Center. This shift in how products are displayed means that optimizing your Shopify store’s product pages isn’t just a good idea—it’s essential.
1. Why Google Merchant Center is a Game-Changer
Google Merchant Center allows your products to appear directly in Google Shopping results, and optimizing for this platform is crucial because those product cards are often shown at the very top of the search results page. Regular organic results are getting pushed further down, meaning if your products aren’t optimized for Merchant Center, you could be missing out on valuable traffic and sales.
Here’s what that looks like:
To make sure your products stand out in these listings, you need to have your product data, including pricing, images, and descriptions, perfectly optimized for Google Merchant Center.
Pro Tip: Google now places a lot of emphasis on the quality of your product data, so make sure your titles, descriptions, and images are clear and precise. This is not the place to cut corners—details matter!
2. The Importance of Alt Text
While we’re talking about images, don’t forget about alt text. Adding descriptive, keyword-rich alt text to your product images helps Google understand what your images are about and can also improve your rankings in Google Image Search. Plus, it’s a great way to boost your SEO while making your site more accessible to all users.
Pro Tip: Keep your alt text simple but descriptive. Instead of “shoe,” use something more specific like “red leather running shoes for men.” This helps both Google and your customers.
3. Focus on Conversion Optimization
It’s not just about getting traffic—it’s about converting that traffic into sales. And that’s where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes into play. Here are a few key areas to focus on:
- Product Descriptions: Your product descriptions need to be both engaging and informative. Highlight the benefits, not just the features, and make it easy for customers to understand why they need your product.
- High-Quality Images: Invest in high-resolution product images. Customers want to see what they’re buying, so show them multiple angles and zoom options.
- Call to Action: Make sure your “Add to Cart” button is prominent and easy to find. You’d be surprised how often this simple detail gets overlooked.
Winning the Shopify SEO Game
In the world of e-commerce, success with Shopify SEO doesn’t come overnight. It’s not about quick tricks—it’s about persistence, smart strategy, and attention to detail. Over time, each improvement—whether it’s technical fixes, content enhancements, or better internal linking—adds up.
The truth is, Shopify is generally considered good for SEO and remains one of the most accessible platforms for anyone willing to grind it out, adapt to changes, and stay committed. Whether you’re improving SEO elements, restructuring collections, or optimizing product content, every action you take helps build lasting momentum.
We’ve helped many brands grow from small projects into thriving stores, applying everything from smart SEO techniques to data-backed SEO practices. And while it takes time, the results are worth it. As one company among many in this space, what sets us apart is our commitment to transparency, results, and real human support.
So, if you’re ready to stop guessing and start growing, reach out. Feel free to contact me if you need help optimizing your Shopify store or want to discuss your SEO strategy. Together, we’ll take your store to the next level!