Guides

Shopify SEO checklist: a free audit you can do in an afternoon

October 20, 2026

This checklist is a full SEO audit for a Shopify store, in the order that usually pays off fastest. You don't need any paid tools. Most of it takes an afternoon; the product page work continues from there.

Tick each item off as you go; your ticks are saved in this browser. When you're done, Copy what's left puts every unticked item on your clipboard, ready to paste into a note.

Work through it top to bottom. Fix the setup and indexing sections first, because nothing else matters if Google can't see your pages.

1. Setup

• Your store isn't password-protected.
  • Open your store in a private browser window. If you see a password page, Google sees it too.
  • In the Shopify admin, go to Online Store, click Private, select Public, and click Update (or Launch store the first time).
• Your own domain is the primary domain.
  • Go to Settings > Domains. Your domain (for example yourstore.com) should be marked Primary, not the myshopify.com address.
  • Click your domain, choose Set as primary, and save. Shopify then redirects every other address to it.
• Google Search Console is set up and your sitemap is submitted.
  • In Search Console, pick your store and open Indexing > Sitemaps. sitemap.xml should show Success.
  • Follow how to add your Shopify store to Search Console. It takes about 15 minutes.
• Your home page has its own title and meta description.
  • Search your store's name on Google and read the result under your home page.
  • Go to Online Store > Preferences, fill in the home page title and meta description (say what you sell, not only your name), and click Save.

2. Indexing

• Google has your important pages.
  • Search site:yourstore.com on Google (with your domain). Your products, collections and posts should appear. For one page, paste its address into the search bar at the top of Search Console: it should say URL is on Google.
  • If a page is missing, click Request indexing in that same URL inspection screen, then work through the next three items.
• Important pages aren't "crawled but not indexed".
  • In Search Console, open Indexing > Pages and click Crawled - currently not indexed and Discovered - currently not indexed. Look for products and collections you care about.
  • Google usually skips these because the page adds little: a two-line description, or text copied from the manufacturer or another page. Rewrite the description in your own words (see product page SEO), then request indexing.
• No important page is hidden from search.
  • In Search Console, open Indexing > Pages and click Excluded by 'noindex' tag. Cart, account and search pages belong there; products, collections and posts you want found don't. For one page, inspect its address: under Page indexing, Indexing allowed? should say Yes.
  • A hidden page usually has the seo.hidden metafield set, by you or an app. Open the page in your admin, find it in the Metafields section at the bottom, clear it, and save. If there's no metafield, a developer or app may have added a robots tag to your theme code; ask whoever set it up.
• Discontinued products redirect somewhere useful.
  • In Search Console, open Indexing > Pages > Not found (404) and look for old product addresses.
  • For a product that's gone for good, first archive or delete it (Shopify only redirects addresses that no longer have a page). Then go to Content > Menus, open URL redirects, and create a redirect: Redirect from the old address (/products/old-handle), Redirect to the closest product or its collection (/collections/socks). For a product that's only out of stock for a while, keep it live and marked sold out instead.

3. Keyword research

Every title, description and collection below starts from the search you want the page to win, so pick those first.

• Each important page has one main search, and no two pages share one.
  • In Search Console, open Performance, click a page, then the Queries tab, to see what it already shows up for.
  • Pick one search per page and write it in a spreadsheet next to the page. Broad searches go to collections ("merino base layers"), specific ones to products ("merino base layer leggings women").
• Each search matches what the page sells.
  • Search it on Google. If page one is mostly product and collection pages from stores, it's a shopping search. If it's articles and videos, it's a research search.
  • Give research searches ("how to wash merino wool") to a blog post that links to the product, not to the product page itself.
• Each search is one your store can realistically win.
  • Look at who's on page one. If it's all Amazon, Walmart and big brands, a new store won't get there soon.
  • Choose a longer, more specific search ("merino hiking socks women" instead of "hiking socks"), ideally one where smaller stores or forums already rank.

Full guide: keyword research for Shopify.

4. Titles and meta descriptions

• Every important page has its own SEO title.
  • Open a product and look at the Search engine listing preview at the bottom of the page: that's the title Google shows. If it only repeats the product name, nobody has written one. To check many products at once, go to Products > Export, export all products as a CSV, and look at the SEO Title column: blank means Shopify uses the product name.
  • Open the product, scroll to Search engine listing, click the edit button, and write a Page title that starts with the search it should win, 50 to 60 characters. See Shopify SEO titles.
• No two pages share a title.
  • Search site:yourstore.com on Google and scan the result titles for repeats, or compare the Search engine listing previews of similar products. Variants listed as separate products are the usual cause. With a product CSV export (Products > Export), sorting the SEO Title column shows repeats quickly.
  • Add what's different to each one (colour, size, material, pack size), or merge near-identical products into one product with variants.
• Every important page has its own meta description.
  • Look at the product's Search engine listing preview. If the description is just the first lines of the product description, nobody has written one, and it often reads poorly in search. In a product CSV export (Products > Export), blank SEO Description cells show every product missing one.
  • In the product's Search engine listing, write a Meta description of about 150 to 160 characters that says why to click. See Shopify meta descriptions.
• Collections, pages and blog posts have titles and descriptions too.
  • Open each collection (Products > Collections), page (Online Store > Pages) and blog post (Content > Blog posts) and look at its Search engine listing preview.
  • Click the edit button in that section and fill in the title and description, the same way as for products.

5. Product pages

Start with best sellers and pages already ranking on page two of Google.

• The product title says what the product is.
  • Read the title alone. Would a new shopper know what it is? "Trailblazer Crew" doesn't say; "Trailblazer Merino Wool Hiking Socks" does.
  • Open the product and edit Title to add what it is. Keep your product name in it if you like.
• The description is original and answers shoppers' questions.
  • Copy a sentence from the description and search it on Google in quotes. If other stores show up with the same text, it's copied.
  • Rewrite it in your own words: who it's for, materials, fit and sizing, care, what's included. Google's "People also ask" box for your main search lists the questions to answer.
• The description has headings.
  • Open the product page on your store. Long descriptions should be broken into sections with headings, not one block of text.
  • In the product's Description editor, select a section's first line and change it from Paragraph to a Heading in the text format menu.
• The product category is set.
  • Open the product and look at the Category field.
  • Start typing what the product is (for example "socks") and pick the closest match from Shopify's list, then save.
• The product has reviews.
  • Look at the product page on your store. Is there a review count or stars?
  • Install a product reviews app from the Shopify App Store and turn on its review request emails, sent a week or two after delivery.

Full walkthrough: Shopify product page SEO.

6. Images

• Product images have alt text.
  • Open a product and click an image. If it offers Add alt text, the image has none. In a product CSV export (Products > Export), blank Image Alt Text cells show every image without it.
  • Open the product, click an image, click Add alt text, describe the photo, and save. For many products, export them as a CSV (Products > Export), fill in the Image Alt Text column, and import it back. See Shopify image alt text.
• New image file names are descriptive.
  • Go to Content > Files and look at the names.
  • Rename photos on your computer before uploading: merino-hiking-socks-grey.jpg, not IMG_2041.jpg. Existing images don't need re-uploading for this alone.
• Images aren't huge.
  • In Content > Files, look at file sizes. Anything over about 1 MB is worth shrinking.
  • Compress the photo with a free tool such as Squoosh or TinyPNG, then replace it on the product.

7. Collections

• Each collection has a description.
  • Open the collection on your store. Is there text above or below the products?
  • Go to Products > Collections, open the collection, and write a few sentences in Description that use its main search and say who the range is for. If your theme doesn't show it, turn on the description in the collection template under Online Store > Themes > Customize.
• Collections target broad searches, products target specific ones.
  • Compare a collection's SEO title with its products' titles. "Merino Base Layers" (collection) vs "Merino Base Layer Leggings for Women" (product) is right; the same words on both isn't.
  • Rewrite whichever title overlaps, so the collection keeps the broad search.
• No near-identical collections compete for the same search.
  • List your collections in Products > Collections and look for pairs like "Wool Socks" and "Merino Socks" with mostly the same products.
  • Merge them. Keep the one that gets more traffic in Search Console, move the products over, delete the other, and redirect its address to the one you kept (Content > Menus > URL redirects).

8. Internal linking

Internal links help Google find your pages and tell it which ones matter. Search Console's Links report shows your most-linked pages under Internal links.

• Every important product and collection can be reached by clicking.
  • From your home page, try to reach each important collection and product without using search. Check each product's Collections field in Product organization.
  • Add products to a collection, and add your main collections to the menu in Content > Menus.
• Blog posts and descriptions link to the products they mention, with descriptive anchor text.
  • Open a few posts and collection descriptions on your store. Product and collection names should be links, and the link words should describe the page ("our merino hiking socks", not "click here").
  • In the editor, select the words, click the link button, and choose the product or collection.
• Pages on page two of Google get extra links.
  • In Search Console, open Performance, show Average position, and find pages at 11 to 20.
  • Link to them from related products, collections and posts. Fix broken links too: Indexing > Pages > Not found (404) shows where each one is linked from.

Full guide: internal linking for Shopify.

9. Structured data

• Product pages have valid structured data.
  • Paste a product address into Google's Rich Results Test. Look for Product snippets or Merchant listings marked valid.
  • Most current themes include it. If yours doesn't, update to the latest version of your theme, or ask your theme developer.
• Only one app adds review stars.
  • In the same test, open Product snippets and look at the review rating. Two sets of ratings, or errors about reviews, usually mean two apps.
  • Go to Settings > Apps and uninstall review apps you no longer use, then turn off leftover ones under Online Store > Themes > Customize > App embeds.

10. Speed and mobile

• Pages load quickly on phones.
  • Run your home page, a collection and a product through PageSpeed Insights and look at the Mobile tab. Core Web Vitals Assessment: Passed is the goal.
  • The usual causes are large images, too many apps, and big slideshows or videos at the top of the page. Start with the items PageSpeed lists under Diagnose performance issues.
• Apps you don't use are removed.
  • Go to Settings > Apps and list what you haven't used in a month.
  • Uninstall them. Then open Online Store > Themes > Customize > App embeds and turn off anything left from removed apps.
• Your store works on a phone.
  • Open your store on your phone. Try the menu, collection filters, a product page and add to cart.
  • Most fixes are theme settings, in Online Store > Themes > Customize with the mobile preview switched on (the phone icon at the top).

11. Content

Content works best when it targets the searches from keyword research, links to your products (internal linking), and gives other sites something to link to (backlinks).

• You have a few posts that answer shoppers' questions.
  • List the questions customers email you or ask before buying ("how do I wash merino?", "merino or synthetic?"). Is each one answered somewhere on your store?
  • Write one blog post per question in Content > Blog posts, and link each to the products it mentions. Google's "People also ask" box for your main searches shows more questions worth answering.
• About, shipping and returns information is easy to find.
  • Scroll to your store's footer. Are there links to About, Shipping and Returns?
  • Write your policies in Settings > Policies and your About page in Online Store > Pages, then add them to the footer menu in Content > Menus.

12. Backlinks

Links from other websites tell Google people trust your store. A few from real sites in your niche beat hundreds from anywhere. Search Console's Links report lists who links to you under External links.

• The brands and suppliers you work with link to you.
  • Search each brand you stock plus "stockists" or "where to buy", and look for your store.
  • Email them and ask to be listed. It's a normal request.
• Mentions of your store include a link.
  • Search Google for your brand name in quotes, excluding your own site: "Your Brand" -site:yourstore.com.
  • When an article mentions you without a link, thank the author and ask them to link the product they mentioned.
• You're pitching the roundups and gift guides for your products.
  • Search "best [your product]" and "[your product] gift guide" and list the articles on page one.
  • Email each author a short note on what makes your product different, with an offer to send a sample. Don't buy links: Google treats paid links as spam.

Full guide: link building for Shopify stores.

13. AI search

Shoppers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews what to buy.

• Your product data is complete.
  • Open a few products. Is Category filled in? Is the description more than a couple of lines? Are sizes and colours set up as variants, not written into the title? In a product CSV export (Products > Export), blank Product Category cells show every product missing one.
  • Fill in the gaps the same way as the product page items above. Then check Sales channels > Agentic in your admin. See ChatGPT shopping for Shopify stores.
• Your robots.txt doesn't block AI search crawlers.
  • Open yourstore.com/robots.txt and search the page for OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search) and PerplexityBot. If neither name appears, you're fine: they follow the User-agent: * rules, which in Shopify's default file only block pages like cart, checkout and account. It's a problem only if one of those names is followed by Disallow: /, or User-agent: * is followed by Disallow: / on its own. (GPTBot and Google-Extended only control AI training, not whether you show up in answers.)
  • If something is blocked, go to Online Store > Themes > Edit code. A robots.txt.liquid file under Templates means someone customised it: remove the rules blocking crawlers you want, or ask whoever added them.

After the audit

Copy what's left into a note and sort it by how many pages each item affects and how much those pages sell. Fix setup and indexing first, then titles and meta descriptions on your top pages, then product page content.

Check Search Console after two to four weeks. Clicks and average position for the pages you changed tell you what's working.