Shopify SEO: the checklist for your online store

Shopify SEO means making sure your online store is found in Google and in AI search engines. Shopify handles a large part of the technical basics itself; you make the difference with product data, copy, multiple languages and redirects.

For anyone running a Shopify store, that is good news: part of the work has already been done. This checklist follows that split: first what Shopify handles automatically, then what you need to do yourself, with separate sections on product copy, the URL structure, speed, a bilingual store in Belgium and AI search engines. At the bottom you will find everything together in 20 points. If your store is not online yet, start with setting up a Shopify store.

How does SEO for Shopify work?

SEO for Shopify works in two layers. Shopify sets up the technical basics correctly by default: canonical tags, a sitemap, a robots.txt, free SSL and product schema in its themes. You decide what Google and AI search engines get to read about your products: titles, product copy, collections, images, redirects and language versions.

ClickForest builds and optimises Shopify webshops for SMEs in Flanders and starts from exactly that split when it comes to SEO for Shopify. Most of the work lies in what Shopify cannot know: which questions your customer has before buying, how your collections fit together logically and which URLs you need to redirect after a change.

What applies on every platform, from category structure to link building, is covered in our e-commerce SEO tips and is not repeated here.

What does Shopify handle automatically for SEO?

Shopify automatically creates canonical tags against duplicate content, generates and maintains your sitemap.xml, provides a default robots.txt, sets title tags that include your store name and gives every domain a free SSL certificate. The free themes Dawn and Horizon also add product schema to your product pages. You check whether all of that is still in place after every change.

Element	What Shopify does	What you do
Canonical tags	Sets them automatically, in a standard theme also on sorted collections and on product links via a collection	Check them after a new app or theme edit
Sitemap.xml	Creates and maintains it, from the Basic plan also for international domains	Submit it once in Google Search Console
Robots.txt	Blocks cart, checkout, internal search results and filter combinations by default	Leave it alone
SSL	Free certificate for every domain	Load images, videos and fonts from outside Shopify over HTTPS
Product schema	Standard in the Dawn and Horizon themes	Test it, especially with a paid or customised theme
Titles and meta descriptions	Generates title tags that include your store name	Write your own title and description for each page
Hreflang	Automatic from Shopify Markets	Set up markets and language versions correctly
Redirects	Up to 100,000 redirects on the regular plans	Create a 301 for every changed URL
Images	Shows every photo in the best format for the browser	Sharp photos and descriptive alt text

Canonical tags and sitemap

Shopify automatically adds canonical tags to prevent duplicate content from appearing in search results. In a standard Shopify theme, a sorted collection (with ?sort_by= in the URL) gets a canonical to the collection itself, and a product you open via a collection gets a canonical to the regular product page.

Shopify also creates your sitemap.xml itself, with all your products, the primary image of each product, pages, collections and blog posts, and it is updated whenever you add something. Submit it once to Google Search Console. If you work with international domains from the Basic plan upwards, each domain gets its own sitemap.

Robots.txt: leave it alone

Shopify’s default robots.txt keeps your admin, cart, checkout, internal search results, policy pages and combinations of collection tags out of Google. On a live store you will also see rules for sort orders and for combinations of filters. So you do not need to block /cart and /checkout yourself. You can edit it through the robots.txt.liquid template, but Shopify calls that an unsupported customisation and warns literally: “Incorrect use of the feature can result in loss of all traffic.”

Product schema is already in your theme

Structured data tells Google what a product is, what it costs and whether it is in stock; how that works is explained in our guide to structured data for Google. In Dawn the product section contains {{ product | structured_data }}, in Horizon {{ closest.product | structured_data }}: both themes add product schema by default. A paid or customised theme can lack it, or a developer may have removed it during a change. So test at least one product page with Google’s Rich Results Test.

Since June 2026 something else belongs to the standard package: Shopify makes eligible products available to AI channels (more on that below). CEO Tobi Lütke announced that direction in December 2025:

“We’re making every Shopify store agent-ready by default.”

— Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify (December 2025)

What do you need to do yourself for SEO in Shopify?

You handle everything that is content: your own title and meta description for each page, short handles, unique product and collection copy, descriptive alt text, reviews on your product pages and a 301 redirect for every changed URL. You connect Google Search Console and Merchant Center, and you keep an eye on apps and theme edits, because they can undo good work.

Titles and meta descriptions

Shopify allows up to 70 characters in the page title, but recommends staying within 60 characters so Google does not cut the title off. For the meta description, Shopify recommends 160 characters. Fill in both for your homepage, your collections and your best-selling products, with the keyword at the front: “Navy linen men’s shirt” tells Google and your customer more than “Summer Collection 2”. With keyword research you see which words your customers actually use.

Images and alt text

For square product photos, Shopify recommends 2048 by 2048 pixels. Shopify takes care of the file format: it automatically shows every image in the best format the browser can handle. Give every photo a descriptive file name and an alt text that says what is in the picture. Do not stack keywords into it: Google warns that alt text stuffed with keywords can be seen as spam.

Reviews and Merchant Center

Add review markup to your product pages. According to Google, reviews about your own business in Organization schema are not eligible for stars in the search results. Also connect Shopify’s Google & YouTube channel, which automatically syncs your products with Google Merchant Center; that channel is only available for certain countries and currencies. According to Google, combining structured data on your pages with a Merchant Center feed increases your chances of appearing in Google’s product experiences.

At Bastiano, a caterer for which ClickForest built the Shopify webshop, structured data and SEO content led to 35% more organic traffic.

The same product data also goes to AI channels. Shopify president Harley Finkelstein summed up in January 2026 why AI shopping needs structured product data:

“You can’t just scrape information and expect a great experience.”

— Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify (January 2026)

Apps, theme edits and measuring

After every new app or theme edit, check whether your titles, your H1 and your product schema are still there. According to Shopify, a page that does not show what you expect is usually caused by edits to the theme files, made by hand or automatically by an app. Remove apps you no longer use, and choose new ones with our Shopify apps guide as a starting point. You measure the result with Search Console and Google Analytics 4, which you connect with our GA4 guide for Shopify.

Do you also have a physical shop?

Then local SEO comes into play, with searches such as a product or service plus your town. Bastiano’s Shopify webshop, for example, ranks in position 1 for “traiteur bonheiden”. A webshop without an address where customers come by can skip this part.

Example from practice: MyEssentials

MyEssentials is a Belgian fashion webshop on Shopify. ClickForest took care of the product schema, the FAQs, the SEO and GEO advice and the CRO analysis. After 2 months, 5 keywords were in the top 5. That is one webshop with its own starting point and its own competition, so it is not an average and not a promise.

How do you write SEO copy for Shopify?

Good SEO copy for Shopify answers the questions your customer has before buying: what the product is, who it is for, what it is made of, which sizes it comes in and how to care for it. Write your own copy for each product and collection, and avoid supplier copy found on dozens of other sites. You need no fixed word count: Google says it prefers none.

Product pages

Shopify itself recommends adding detailed specifications, size guides, material information and care instructions. That helps your customer choose and gives search engines something to connect your product to a concrete question. The main keyword belongs in your title and in the first sentence; you use related terms where they fit logically.

Lists of so-called LSI keywords can safely be ignored. Google’s John Mueller was clear about that in 2019:

“There’s no such thing as LSI keywords […] anyone who’s telling you otherwise is mistaken, sorry.”

— John Mueller, Google (July 2019)

Collection pages

A collection page is the logical landing page for a broader search, such as “linen shirts men”. Give every important collection a short text: what the collection contains, who it is meant for and how the products differ. Short is fine, as long as the text answers the choice your visitor has to make.

Can AI write your product copy?

Yes, as a first version. Shopify Magic, the free AI features available on every Shopify plan, writes product descriptions and headings, among other things. Read what comes out critically: an AI text only knows your size guide, your material and your customers’ questions if you provide them. If you are torn between an AI text and a copywriter, our comparison of AI copywriting versus humans sets out the trade-offs.

How is Shopify’s URL structure put together?

Shopify puts every product under /products/ and every collection under /collections/, for example /products/nike-air-max and /collections/sports-shoes. You choose the handle yourself: the last part of the URL. Keep it short and descriptive. If your theme links to a product via a collection (/collections/sports-shoes/products/nike-air-max), the canonical tag points to the /products/ version, so Google does not see a duplicate page.

Filters, sorting and click depth

Filtered and sorted collection pages automatically get a canonical tag in a standard Shopify theme, and the default robots.txt keeps combinations of filters out of Google. Extra work is rarely needed here. Make sure your navigation stays logical: keep every product within a few clicks of your homepage and use breadcrumbs, so visitors and search engines can see where a product belongs.

What do you do when a URL changes?

Create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one whenever you change a handle or delete a product or collection. Shopify allows up to 100,000 redirects on the regular plans and up to 20,000,000 on Shopify Plus, and you can import them in bulk with a CSV file. Without a redirect, visitors and Google land on an error page, and whatever the old URL had built up is lost. If you move an entire webshop from another platform to Shopify, the redirect plan becomes a project in its own right: that is part of a migration to Shopify.

Rather not keep track of everything yourself? Then you can outsource the SEO of your Shopify store to ClickForest.

How fast does a Shopify store need to be for SEO?

Fast enough to meet Google’s thresholds for the Core Web Vitals: an LCP under 2.5 seconds, an INP under 200 milliseconds and a CLS under 0.1. These metrics count in Google’s ranking systems, but relevance weighs more heavily. So see speed as a tiebreaker and as a lever for your conversion.

Google puts it this way itself: “Google Search always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par.” The Core Web Vitals measure how your visitor experiences your page, on desktop and on mobile. For a Shopify store, speed and mobile optimisation come down to these steps:

• Measure with PageSpeed Insights and follow the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console.
• Choose a well-maintained theme, such as Horizon or Dawn, both free and maintained by Shopify.
• Only load images below the fold when they are needed; Shopify takes care of the file format.
• Remove apps that load scripts you no longer use.
• Test on mobile: Google uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing and ranking, so whatever is on desktop must also be on mobile.
• Make buttons and links large enough. Chrome’s Lighthouse assumes tap targets of 48 by 48 pixels, with 8 pixels of spacing.

How do you do SEO for a bilingual Shopify store in Belgium?

Work with Shopify Markets and a language folder on your main domain, such as /fr/ for your French version. Shopify then sets the hreflang tags automatically based on your market and language settings, handles the canonicals and includes all language URLs in your sitemaps. With Shopify’s free Translate & Adapt app you translate your content and your SEO fields; you fill in the URL handles for each language yourself.

Shopify itself recommends subfolders such as /fr/. The automatic redirect to the right language only applies to customers: search engines are excluded, so Google can read every language version.

Translate & Adapt translates automatically into up to 2 languages, and a language you have translated that way cannot be swapped afterwards. For a Dutch-language webshop with a French version, that is enough. The automatic translation skips the URL handles: you add those by hand for each language, and they then apply to all markets in which that language is visible.

Proofreading remains your own job. Have a machine translation checked by someone who speaks the language well. Do separate keyword research for your French version, because the best French search term is not always the literal translation of your Dutch one. And after setting everything up, check in the page source of a product whether a hreflang line appears for every language and whether the handle in the French URL has been translated.

How do you make your Shopify store findable in AI search engines?

With the same basics as for Google. According to Google, AI Overviews and AI Mode have no additional requirements and you do not need any special markup for them. For ChatGPT, Copilot and the Gemini app, Shopify has been making eligible products available by default since 17 June 2026. Your job is to make that product data complete and correct, so those channels have something useful to show.

Google says it literally: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” The SEO basics of your store are therefore also your basis for AI Overviews. Danny Sullivan summed it up like this at WordCamp US in August 2025:

“Good SEO is good GEO, or AEO, AIO, LLM SEO, or LMNOPO.”

— Danny Sullivan, director within Google Search (August 2025)

One change you need to know about: since 7 May 2026 Google no longer shows FAQ rich results, and it removed the documentation on them on 15 June 2026.

With the Spring ‘26 Edition of 17 June 2026, Shopify switched on Shopify Catalog and the Universal Commerce Protocol by default. According to Shopify, stores with eligible products are in Catalog by default. Those products then go to ChatGPT, Copilot, AI Mode in Google Search, the Gemini app and the Shop app, and Shopify shows how you perform there and what is missing. Selling directly through ChatGPT does require your store to also sell to customers in the United States. For a Flemish webshop that does not, that shift towards agentic commerce mainly shows the direction of travel for now.

ClickForest supports SEO and GEO for Shopify webshops of SMEs in Flanders as one track, because both rely on the same product data. Also test now and then what ChatGPT and Perplexity say about your products and your brand.

Which points are on the Shopify SEO checklist?

The checklist has 20 points, split into five blocks: checking what Shopify already does, filling in your pages yourself, monitoring your URLs and redirects, speed and mobile, and your language versions and AI channels. Go through it at launch, after every new app or theme edit and whenever you rearrange your products or collections.

No.	Checkpoint	Standard or tool
1	Product schema present on your product pages	Google’s Rich Results Test
2	Reviews marked up at product level	Not in Organization schema
3	Sitemap submitted, Search Console and GA4 connected	Set up once
4	Robots.txt unchanged	Only edit it if you know exactly what you are doing
5	Canonicals and title tags intact after apps and theme edits	Check the page source of a product
6	Own SEO title for each product and collection	Up to 60 characters
7	Own meta description for each page	Shopify recommends 160 characters
8	Short, descriptive handles	Last part of the URL
9	Unique product copy	No supplier copy, no word quota
10	Copy on every important collection page	Answers the choice question
11	Descriptive alt text and file names	Without stacking keywords
12	Sharp product photos	2048 by 2048 pixels for square images
13	301 redirect for every changed URL	Up to 100,000 on the regular plans, bulk via CSV
14	Core Web Vitals within the thresholds	LCP under 2.5 s, INP under 200 ms, CLS under 0.1
15	Mobile complete and easy to use	Tap targets of 48 by 48 pixels
16	Apps reviewed	What you do not use goes
17	Shopify Markets and language folder set up	/fr/, hreflang automatic
18	Translations proofread, URL handles filled in for each language	Translate & Adapt does not translate handles automatically
19	Google & YouTube channel connected	Products in Merchant Center, only in certain countries and currencies
20	Product data complete for AI channels	Specifications, sizes, material and care

Where do you start with SEO for your Shopify store?

Start with what delivers the most for the least work: your own title and meta description for your main collections and products, unique copy where supplier copy is still in place, and a test of whether your product schema is really there. Then come redirects, speed, your French version and the AI channels, in that order.

Nobody can guarantee a timeframe or a first place, Google says itself. So go through the list again after every new app or theme update.

Want us to take a look? ClickForest builds and optimises Shopify webshops for SMEs in Flanders, from a new store to SEO and GEO for an existing one. See what we do in Shopify store development or tell us where your store stands today.