Shopify SEO setup: the settings nobody teaches you

Shopify does a lot of things right by default: it generates sitemaps, handles redirects, and has a clean structure. But there are a bunch of settings that don't come configured and make the difference between a store that shows up on Google and one that doesn't.

After setting up over 100 Shopify stores, these are the adjustments I always make.

Settings you absolutely need to change

1. Homepage title and meta description

Go to Online Store > Preferences. There you can edit the title and meta description for your homepage. By default, Shopify just uses your store name. Change it to something descriptive:

• Bad: "My Store"
• Good: "Running Shoes | Free Shipping Over $50 | MyStore.com"

2. URL structure

Shopify auto-generates URLs based on the product title. The catch is you can't change the base structure (/products/, /collections/). But you can edit the slug for each product.

• Bad: /products/womens-running-shoe-black-color-size-38
• Good: /products/womens-running-shoe-black

Short, descriptive, no filler words.

3. Alt text on all images

Every product image needs alt text. It's not just accessibility -- it's SEO. Google doesn't see images; it reads the alt text.

• Bad: alt="" (empty)
• Good: alt="Women's black Nike Air running shoe side view"

4. H1 headings on collection pages

By default, the collection name is the H1. Make sure it's descriptive: "Women's Running Shoes" instead of "2024 Collection."

Add a description paragraph above the products. Google needs text to understand what the page is about.

The robots.txt file and sitemap

Shopify generates both automatically:

• Sitemap: yourstore.myshopify.com/sitemap.xml
• Robots.txt: yourstore.myshopify.com/robots.txt

You don't need to touch them in most cases. What you do need to do is submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. Many stores never do this, and Google takes much longer to index their pages.

Step	Tool	Time
Verify site ownership	Google Search Console	5 min
Submit sitemap	Google Search Console	2 min
Review crawl errors	Google Search Console	10 min
Fix errors found	Shopify admin	Varies

Common Shopify SEO mistakes

• Duplicate products in collections. Shopify creates URLs like /collections/name/products/product in addition to /products/product. This generates duplicate content. The fix is for your theme to use canonical tags (most modern themes already do).
• Empty tag pages. If you use tags for filtering, Shopify creates pages for each tag. Many end up empty or with very little content. Consider blocking them in robots.txt.
• Broken redirects. When you change a product URL, Shopify creates an automatic redirect. But if you do it multiple times, it can create redirect chains. Check under Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects.
• Slow load speed. Installing too many apps slows your store down. Every app adds scripts. Uninstall the ones you don't use and test with PageSpeed Insights.

Next steps

Open Google Search Console, connect your store, and review the errors it reports. Then go through your top 10 products and verify each has an optimized title, a hand-written meta description, alt text on images, and a clean URL. That review takes one afternoon and it's worth gold.