SEO is one of the best digital marketing strategies you can implement in your Shopify store. If you learn how to do it yourself, it’s completely free. And even if you get some help, SEO is affordable and highly influential. However, it can be challenging if you don’t know where to start.
To help you out, we prepared the ultimate Shopify SEO checklist with the most important prelaunch, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tasks. Keep reading to find the best Shopify SEO tips with step-by-step guides.
What is Shopify SEO
Shopify SEO is a digital marketing strategy to enhance a Shopify store so search engines can recognize it as relevant content to specific search queries. It can help your store rank higher in search engines, potentially increasing organic website traffic and sales.
It’s no longer about stuffing your content with keywords or using clickbait to lure readers. Search engine algorithms have become highly advanced, and your Shopify website has to correspond to user intent and be unique and informative.
Common SEO challenges for Shopify websites
Whatever the niche, there are many SEO challenges that various Shopify websites face. Here are some of the most common ones:
- Non-optimized images. Images are one of the first things site visitors look at. Many Shopify website owners don’t follow image optimization SEO practices, resulting in slower site speeds or poor visual layout.
- Out-of-stock pages. Some store owners delete product pages of items that are out of stock. However, if your page ranked higher in search engines, deleting it means you’re losing the position. Instead, it’s more valuable to redirect customers to similar or relevant pages on your website.
- Poor internal linking. While internal links can help search engines find relevant content on your website, many overlook its importance or include it incorrectly. Ensure the anchor text includes related keywords rather than basic phrases like “click here.”
- No blog. Even when running a store, creating a blog is crucial for driving more traffic and getting higher positions on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
- Duplicate content. Many Shopify store owners take the fast route and leave manufacturer product descriptions. This can result in duplicate content across multiple websites and impede SEO efforts because of the lack of uniqueness.
- Bad URL structure. URLs help search engines figure out your website structure, so it’s crucial to use clear and straightforward URLs.
- Generic or missing metadata. Meta titles and meta descriptions should attract new readers and search engines. So, generic tags won’t work for SEO – they should be informative and convincing.
These are just some of the general challenges Shopify site owners face. Each business requires different customizations, meaning SEO challenges can vary for different people.
21 tasks to check off in the Shopify SEO checklist
There are a lot of things you can do to optimize your Shopify website for SEO, whether before launching the website or after. Here’s a quick overview of all pre-launch, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tasks you should check off the list:
Keep reading to learn step by step on how to complete each SEO task with detailed explanations and naturally increase rankings.
Pre-launch SEO tasks
Pre-launch SEO tasks include setting up some necessary SEO tools and preparing to release content that’s made for your target audience. So, here are all the steps you should take before getting your Shopify site out into the world:
1. Analyze target audience
SEO is closely related to knowing your target audience. It can help analyze search intent, create valuable content, and build backlinks from websites that are relevant to your audience.
If you already started a business, review your current customer base. Find out their age, interests, and other relevant demographics.
However, if you’re just starting out, perform market research and analyze competitors. Make sure to gather data with Google Analytics to gain continuous insights into who visits your site and buys from your Shopify store.
2. Set up Google Analytics
Google Analytics is essential for any business that wants to get website performance data. It helps get important performance insights, so you can identify what digital marketing strategies or assets work and what don’t.
Once you learn how to use it, you can leverage it to increase website traffic, enhance user experience, and potentially get more conversion rates.
Setting Google Analytics 4 up is very simple. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
- Go to Google Analytics.
- Head to Admin > Create > Account.
- Add an account name, set the account data sharing settings, and click Next to add a property.
When adding a new property, you’ll need to provide your business objectives, property details, and business details, and choose a platform. You can find the full process in Google’s GA4 tutorial.
3. Set up Google Search Console
Setting up Google Search Console is an important part of any Shopify website that wants to rank in search engines. It helps site owners to monitor and troubleshoot how Google views their website.
All you have to do to set up Google Search Console is follow this simple guide:
- Go to Google Search Console and create a Google Account or sign into your existing account.
- Select a property type. If you have Google Analytics set up on the same account, you can simply add a URL prefix. Otherwise, insert your domain and click Continue.
- Insert your DNS record details which you can find in the Domain section of the Shopify admin dashboard and click Verify.
That’s it. Remember that you’ll have to wait a day or a few for first the reports to be generated.
4. Create a sitemap
A sitemap is a file with all the information about the pages and files on your website as well as their interconnection. It helps search engine crawlers discover and understand your website’s structure.
On Shopify, a sitemap is generated automatically and contains links to all your products, pages, posts, images, and more. All you have to do is submit it to Google Search Console. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Google Search Console.
- Click Sitemaps and enter your Shopify sitemap URL.
- Press Submit.
You can learn more about sitemaps and find more tips in our Shopify sitemap guide.
5. Automate SEO tasks with third-party tools
Many SEO tasks can be automated with third-party tools so you can save time for other important tasks. You can find both free and premium tools for various SEO purposes. Here are some options we recommend:
- TinyIMG app – an app that’s built for Shopify and comes with lazy loading, image compression and resizing, file & alt text generator, broken link detection, JSON-LD, AI meta and keyword suggestion generator, and more. You can get it for free and upgrade to the $14/month plan if the free option isn’t enough.
- TinyIMG extension – a completely free SEO tool for exploring competitor pages, identifying specific page errors, and more.
- SEO King – Shopify SEO app for AI content generation, image optimization, content translation, and more. There’s a free plan to test out, but if that’s not enough, you can upgrade to paid plans starting from $9.99/month.
You can find the full list in our best Shopify SEO apps article.
6. Conduct keyword research
The fastest way to conduct keyword research is to use a third-party tool like TinyIMG. It uses AI to give you keyword suggestions for specific pages. Alternatively, you can use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Moz to find relevant keywords and their volume.
If you don’t have the budget to get another tool, you can research keywords manually. This will take much longer, but it’s free. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
- Write down the most important topics of your website and find relevant keywords for each one.
- Analyze competitor websites and what keywords they implement.
- Figure out the user intent behind the keywords.
On-page SEO tasks
On-page SEO deals with optimizing separate pages to help them rank higher in search engines. Here are all the tasks you should implement to improve your position in search results:
7. Insert keywords into URLs
Making SEO-friendly URLs helps both users and search engines understand what your page is about. It should contain the main keyword and shouldn’t be too long. Plus, the words should be separated by hyphens.
For instance, let’s say your website is called Spicy Wonders and you wrote an article “Top 5 Best Vegetarian Recipes” – your Shopify URL structure should look something like this: www.spicywonders.com/top-five-best-vegetarian-recipes/.
8. Optimize heading tags
Heading tags can help improve page SEO by helping search engines understand your content better. They usually include target keywords and ensure easy readability.
- H1 – the title of the page post that usually includes the main keyword. There should be just one first-level heading on the whole page.
- H2 – the subheadings that are used to summarize the main points of your topic.
- H3 – the sections used to elaborate further on the ideas stated in H2.
- H4, H5, H6 – further elaborations on previous-level headings.
Note that on pages created through Shopify, page titles are the H1 tag by default.
9. Improve content
Content is an integral part of ensuring SEO rankings. To put it simply, it has to be created for readers, not search engines. Here are a few tips and tricks on how to optimize your content:
- Create a strategy. Make sure your content is relative to your readers and includes the main keywords.
- Write informative product descriptions. For product pages, write product descriptions that focus on benefits for the user rather than just features. This will make the product more appealing to the reader.
- Write effective category descriptions. Make sure your categories come with short descriptions of the content or products they include. Don’t forget to insert relevant keywords.
- Add a table of contents. If you’re writing a blog post, include a table of contents with all headings listed together with jump links.
- Use headings and subheadings. Ensure your content always includes a first-level heading. Subheadings like H2 or H3 are also highly recommended to increase readability and help search engines understand your content.
- Fix grammar mistakes. Always proofread your content and use free tools like Grammarly to check for mistakes.
- Ensure easier readability. Prioritize short and clear sentences as well as active voice instead of passive. If you’re not sure what works and what doesn’t, check your content with the free Hemingway tool.
10. Add informative metadata
Metadata, or a meta title and meta description, are HTML tags that give search engines information about your page.
You can see an example of how the metadata of a Regatta Lifestyle page looks on Google below.
But it’s not just about search engines – another goal of metadata is to convince the user to click on your website. Let’s take a look at what they should be:
- Meta title. It should be less than 60 characters long and include the main keyword. Make it descriptive and interesting to potential customers.
- Meta description. Write a unique and informative description of your page content, including a call to action and target keyword. Note that it shouldn’t exceed 160 characters.
Such tools as TinyIMG come with an AI metadata generator for quick optimization. You can also check if your titles and descriptions are well-written with the free metadata checker.
11. Optimize images
Optimizing images for SEO is just as important as creating high-quality content. Here are the main things you should do:
- Choose the right size. Large images can adversely impact site speed and user experience. Make sure your Shopify image sizes don’t exceed the recommended 4472 x 4472 pixels, or 20 MB.
- Create a descriptive alt text. Alternative texts help search engines understand your page content better. Write descriptions that are easy to understand.
The fastest way to optimize images is to use the TinyIMG app, which lets you edit alt texts and compress images in bulk.
Technical SEO tasks
Technical SEO might sound difficult at first glance, but most tasks can be completed even if you don’t know much about coding or website infrastructure. So, let’s take a look at the most essential tasks you should complete.
12. Improve Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is an assessment of the real user experience on a website, including loading time, interactivity, and visual stability of a page. Ensuring great test results can guarantee a positive user experience, potentially leading to a higher search engine position.
You can check your Core Web Vitals results by adding your page URL to Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Here’s an example of how the assessment looks like:
To improve Core Web Vitals, you’ll need to identify potential issues. Depending on your result, you may need to:
- Improve site speed. If the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) result needs improvement, check out the best eCommerce site speed optimization practices and optimize your images, disable apps you don’t use, optimize your themes, and more.
- Enhance page stability. To enhance the Interaction to Next Pain (INP) result, add height, width, and aspect-ratio attributes to your images and avoid moving visuals that change the layout.
- Improve interactivity. If the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) result isn’t ideal, minify JavaScript and use Google Tag Manager to reduce your code without changing functionality.
13. Optimize for mobile devices
Optimizing your website for mobile devices can benefit your SEO efforts by enhancing user experience. So, let’s take a look at a few main Shopify mobile optimization practices to implement:
- Adjust images for smaller screens to create a structured and mobile-friendly layout
- Optimize mobile website speed to reduce bounce rates
- Use short text to avoid overstuffing the page but don’t forget to use keywords
- Improve the checkout page to ensure user convenience and minimize cart abandonment rates
You can learn more tips for improving your mobile website by reading our Shopify mobile store optimization guide.
14. Use internal links
Internal linking refers to the process of linking from one page of your website to another. There are two types of internal links:
- Structural – navigational links to your menu, product categories, homepage, and so on
- Contextual – links that navigate the reader to related content
Contextual linking helps search engines to know related content on your website and its value. To put it simply, if a specific page is getting more links, search engines will deem it more important.
Here’s an example of internal linking on the Forbes website:
In an article about the “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” movie and its box office success, Forbes also mentions the “Inside Out 2” movie in context. They use this as an opportunity to link to another recent article of theirs.
15. Fix broken links
Broken links, or 404 errors, can significantly affect your SEO efforts because search engines can’t crawl them. Plus, if visitors detect broken pages, they’re highly likely to leave instantly.
The easiest way to fix broken links is using TinyIMG. It can send you broken link reports as well as let you set automatic redirection.
Alternatively, you can fix broken links manually. First, you’ll need to find broken links using Google Analytics 4 or Google Search Console. Then, you can create redirects on Shopify by clicking the View URL redirects button in the URL redirects section.
To learn all about 404 errors, read our article on how to fix broken Shopify links.
16. Add structured data
Structured data, or schema markup, is a code that helps search engines understand your page content better. Once you implement it, you can get rich snippets in search engines. These are usual snippets but with additional data.
Let’s take a look at a rich snippet example of Target:
With added schema markup, Google can add additional information about your page on SERP, including the rating, price, and stock availability of your products.
While adding structured data can seem difficult, getting an app like TinyIMG simplifies the process by doing it for you. If you want to learn more, read our Shopify Structured Data guide to learn how to add it both automatically and manually.
17. Get rid of duplicate content
Duplicate content is similar text that appears on two different pages on your website. The reason it can negatively affect your SEO is that it becomes unclear for search engines which page they should rank.
To ensure you don’t have duplicate content on your website, make all text original and unique. This means you shouldn’t use generic metadata or product descriptions sent by the manufacturer.
If you need duplicate content in some cases, you can use a canonical tag. The way it works is you insert a rel=”canonical” code into your theme code, and search engines will know which page they should prioritize.
In case coding isn’t your strong point, you can get a third-party app like the Canonical Tag URL Wizard.
Off-page SEO tasks
Off-page SEO is different from other SEO types because it’s the only one that deals with activities outside of your website to ensure higher ranking. The main goal is to build website authority through external sources. Here’s all you can do to improve your off-page SEO:
18. Get backlinks
Link building is the backbone technique of off-page SEO. When reputable websites link to your website, it demonstrates to search engines your website’s authority, leading to higher search result positions.
Some link building is natural – it happens when other websites link to you as a source. However, you may also try getting links by promoting your content. One of the examples is writing pitches to journalists or bloggers on Connectively (former HARO – Help a Reporter Out).
Whatever methods you use to get backlinks, prioritize quality – the links should be relevant to your Shopify business. There are a few things to note:
- Ask for backlinks from websites with high domain authority scores
- Prioritize websites that have high organic traffic
- Make sure the company you’re asking from is relevant to your business
- Less is more – a few unique backlinks are better than overstuffing the page with non-valuable links
19. Leverage social media
Social media sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook have some of the highest domain authority and popularity scores. So, it’s a great way to leverage these platforms for off-site SEO.
Make sure you promote your content to a wider audience and engage with people on social media. This can eventually lead to building more backlinks.
Alternatively, you can find social media influencers with a similar niche and target audience to yours. Try offering them to collaborate. You may ask them to share your content or give backlinks from their website.
20. Perform local SEO
Local SEO can improve your online presence and help more consumers within your geographic area discover your business. A good example of local SEO is the Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business.
For instance, here’s what Walmart’s profile looks like on Google Maps:
By creating a Google Business Profile, Walmart can manage how its stores appear in Google Maps, Google Shopping, and Search. Additionally, customers can write reviews and rate their experience. All this contributes to higher search rankings for local keywords.
You can also improve your website with keywords specific to the location you’re selling, adding business hours, address, or phone number, and creating landing pages specific for locations (if your website operates in multiple different ones).
21. Consider writing guest posts
Popping into a high-quality blog as a guest author can highly benefit your off-page SEO. Approach blogs within your niche and pitch them your ideas on how you could contribute to their website content.
Focus on writing well-researched content but make sure to also include links to the relevant pages of your website.
Shopify SEO checklist: conclusion
A complete Shopify SEO checklist includes dealing with not only pre-launch but also on-site, off-site, and technical tasks. From optimizing your site’s speed and content for search engines to troubleshooting technical issues and promoting your website using external resources – everything contributes to your SEO score.
The fastest way to tick off many tasks from your Shopify SEO checklist is to automate them with a third-party tool, such as TinyIMG. It allows you to optimize images in bulk, enable lazy loading to improve page speed, generate content and get keyword suggestions with AI, fix broken links, and more.
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Frequently asked questions
Shopify is a great platform for SEO because it has some built-in features, optimizes page speed, and implements automatic sitemap updates. However, no platform can guarantee great SERP results without your SEO optimizations.
To make your Shopify store SEO friendly, you can optimize your site speed, product pages, and site structure, perform keyword research and add relevant ones to your site, get backlinks, and more.
You can check your SEO ranking in Google Search Console by clicking “Search Results” under the Performance section. Press “Queries” and you’ll see all the terms your website ranks for.
