Is Shopify Good for SEO? The Complete 2025 Analysis

Shopify SEO Summary:

• 👍 Clean code, fast hosting, and mobile-friendly themes make for a solid SEO foundation
• 🔄 Duplicate content issues can be fixed with proper Liquid template adjustments
• 🔗 URL structure limitations (/products/, /collections/) can’t be changed but can be worked around
• 📝 Blogging capabilities have improved but still have limitations for serious content marketing
• 🛠️ Most technical SEO tasks now have native solutions (like robots.txt.liquid editing)
• 🚀 The right apps can fill remaining SEO gaps (but don’t overload your store)
• 🥇 Platform choice matters less than execution—a well-optimized Shopify store beats a poorly managed WooCommerce site
• 🔌 Hybrid approach (Shopify + WordPress) offers the best of both worlds for serious SEO

Back when I was building my first Shopify ecommerce site in 2015, I learned the hard way that a pretty store doesn’t automatically mean good SEO. Ten years and dozens of Shopify sites later, I’ve seen exactly what works, what fails, and what’s just wasting your time.

Let’s cut through the noise: Shopify can absolutely rank well in Google—if you know how to work with (and around) its limitations. This isn’t about tweaking a few title tags and hoping for traffic. It’s about understanding the platform’s DNA and making calculated decisions about what to fix, what to accept, and when to bring in external solutions.

In this guide, I’ll show you the unfiltered truth about Shopify SEO in 2025. No fluff, no ‘maybes,’ just actionable insights from someone who’s in the trenches. Whether you’re managing your own store or advising clients, you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to do next.

Shopify & SEO: Quick Answer

Here’s the quick answer: Shopify is good enough for SEO, but it’s not great.

Shopify handles the technical SEO basics well out of the box (clean code, decent speed, mobile optimization), but it falls short in crucial areas like URL structure, duplicate content management, and content marketing capabilities.

For many small to medium businesses, these limitations won’t be dealbreakers. But for SEO pros or competitive niches? You’ll need to implement the fixes and workarounds I’m about to show you—or consider a different platform entirely.

Don’t let that scare you though. Every ecommerce platform has its SEO flaws, and Shopify’s can absolutely be managed with the right approach. Let’s dive into exactly how.

Shopify’s SEO Strengths

Before we tear into Shopify’s limitations (and there are plenty), let’s acknowledge where the platform actually shines. Despite what some SEO purists might claim, Shopify gets a lot right out of the box.

User-Friendly On-Page SEO Features

Most store owners aren’t SEO experts, and Shopify knows it. That’s why they’ve made basic on-page optimization accessible to everyone.

You can easily edit title tags, meta descriptions, URLs (with some limitations we’ll cover later), and alt text without touching a line of code. The interface is intuitive—place your keywords strategically, save, and you’re done.

Shopify also handles canonical tags automatically for products that appear in multiple collections. It’s not perfect (more on that later), but it prevents the worst ranking issues for beginners who wouldn’t even know what a canonical tag is.

Site Performance & Technical Baseline

Not using a fast website in 2025 is like opening a store with a door that takes 5 minutes to push open—customers will bounce before they even see what you’re selling.

Shopify’s hosting is rock-solid and uses a global CDN that delivers your store quickly worldwide. Google’s Core Web Vitals? Shopify themes are designed with these in mind, giving you a fighting chance at passing those assessments without hiring a developer.

The clean code structure also means search engines can easily crawl and understand your site architecture. There’s no bloated backend code confusing Google about what matters on your pages.

App Integrations & Automation

One of Shopify’s biggest SEO strengths is its robust app ecosystem. Can’t do something natively? There’s probably an app for that.

From technical SEO tools like Schema Markup and JSON-LD generators to content optimization apps that analyze your copy against competitors, the Shopify App Store is packed with solutions to fill the platform’s gaps.

My favorites? SEO Manager and SEO Booster consistently deliver results for clients without breaking the bank. For image optimization (crucial for site speed), TinyIMG is tough to beat—it automatically compresses images, converts formats, and adds alt text using AI.

Just don’t go app-crazy. Each one adds code and potential conflicts. Pick 2-3 quality SEO apps, not 10 mediocre ones that slow down your store.

Shopify SEO Challenges & Limitations

Now for the uncomfortable truth—Shopify has several SEO limitations that can seriously hamper your organic growth. Let’s tackle these head-on.

URL Structure Limitations

Shopify forces specific URL structures that make SEO experts cringe. Every product lives under /products/ and every collection under /collections/—no exceptions, no customization.

Why does this matter? Two reasons:

First, you can’t organize content in a way that creates topical clusters for SEO. Want your “organic cotton t-shirts” category to live under /clothing/t-shirts/organic/? Sorry, not possible.

Second, when products appear in multiple collections, Shopify creates multiple URLs for the same product:

• /products/blue-shirt
• /collections/summer/products/blue-shirt
• /collections/sale/products/blue-shirt

Yes, Shopify adds canonical tags, but Google doesn’t always respect them. Your link equity gets diluted across duplicate pages, weakening your ranking potential.

I’ll show you a custom code fix for this later, but it’s a fundamental platform limitation you need to understand.

Duplicate Content & How to Fix It

Duplicate content is one of Shopify’s most persistent SEO headaches. Beyond the URL structure issues mentioned above, Shopify creates duplicates in several other ways:

1. Pagination creates duplicate first pages – When you click to page 1 from page 2, you get a URL with ?page=1 parameter that duplicates your main collection page.
2. Product tags create duplicate category pages – Each product tag generates a separate page with the same products appearing in multiple tag pages.
3. Different domain versions – Your myshopify.com domain, www vs. non-www versions, and HTTP vs. HTTPS all create duplicate versions of every page.

The good news? Most of these issues have straightforward fixes:

For pagination, the best approach is to make a change directly in your theme’s Liquid templates rather than using JavaScript (which search engines may not execute):

{% if paginate.current_page == 1 %}
  <link rel="canonical" href="{{ canonical_url | remove: '?page=1' }}" />
{% endif %}

For filtering and tag pages, use robots.txt.liquid to disallow crawling of low-value URLs:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /collections/*+filter*
Disallow: /collections/*/products/*

This approach preserves crawl budget better than blanket noindex meta tags while still preventing duplicate content issues.

And for domain issues, just enable domain redirection in Shopify’s admin panel (Settings > Domains).

Don’t skip these fixes. Duplicate content isn’t just a theoretical problem—it directly impacts your rankings by confusing Google and diluting your link equity.

Limited Blogging & Content Management Features

Let’s be real—no one’s reading a 1,500-word blog post about alt text unless it’s helping them rank or save time. And while Shopify’s native blogging capabilities have improved, they still have limitations for serious content marketers.

Shopify’s blog has these key features and limitations:

• Blog tags (up to 250 per post) that can function as categories
• Multiple blogs can be created for high-level content grouping
• Scheduled publishing is available through the Future publishing feature
• Metaobjects support for blog authors, which improves E-E-A-T signals
• Built-in section blocks for more flexible formatting

However, you’ll still face challenges with:

• Less robust comment management compared to dedicated platforms
• Fewer SEO plugins and content optimization tools
• More limited theme customization for blog layouts
• Simpler author attribution systems compared to WordPress

These might seem like small issues if you’re just posting occasional product updates. But if content marketing is a core part of your strategy? These limitations can still be conversion and traffic limiters.

There are apps that patch some of these holes, but they’re band-aids on a deeper structural reality: Shopify was built for product pages first, with content as a secondary consideration.

Technical SEO Barriers (sitemap, structured data, server-level changes)

While Shopify automatically generates a sitemap.xml file, you have limited native control over it. However, you can add supplemental sitemaps (for blogs, landing pages, etc.) directly in Google Search Console to expand your coverage.

For structured data, modern Shopify themes (Dawn 12+, Sense, Origin) now ship with product, collection, article, FAQ, and breadcrumb schema built-in. Third-party apps are only necessary for highly specialized schema types like Recipe or HowTo formats.

The biggest technical limitation remains the lack of direct server access. You still can’t:

• Modify your .htaccess file
• Implement server-side redirects
• Access server logs for deep crawl analysis
• Set up custom server responses

However, there’s good news for robots.txt control. Since mid-2021, Shopify has allowed full file-level control through a robots.txt.liquid template that you can edit from Online Store → Edit code. This gives you much more flexibility than previously available.

For most stores, these remaining limitations won’t be deal-breakers. But for enterprise ecommerce or highly competitive niches? Some of these technical barriers can still be the difference between ranking #1 or page two.

Real Shopify SEO Case Study: Data, Strategies & Growth

Battling a Declining Trend in a Non-Optimal CMS

Theory is great, but let’s look at what happens in the real world. I recently took over SEO for Perfect Keto (perfectketo.com), a leading keto supplement brand with their entire platform built on Shopify.

The situation wasn’t pretty. Despite having solid content, they’d been losing organic traffic steadily for four years. Their main issue? A deadly combination of Shopify’s content limitations and authority signals that weren’t structured properly for Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.

The keto market itself was in decline (down about 30% year over year according to our keyword tracking), but Perfect Keto was falling even faster than the market trend.

We faced two major Shopify-specific challenges:

1. Their blog content lived directly on Shopify, which meant limited schema options, poor author attribution capabilities, and inflexible organization structures.
2. The duplicate content issues on product pages were spreading link equity thin, with some products having 4-5 different URLs.

Instead of small tweaks, we made a radical decision: migrate the entire blog from Shopify to a WordPress subdomain while keeping the store on Shopify.

This hybrid approach gave us the best of both worlds: Shopify’s solid ecommerce capabilities for products and checkout, plus WordPress’s superior content management and SEO flexibility for the blog.

Lessons Learned & Actionable Tips

The Perfect Keto migration taught us three critical lessons that apply to any Shopify store:

1. Know when to work with Shopify and when to work around it. For product pages, we optimized within Shopify’s constraints. For content marketing, we moved to a platform designed for content.
2. Declining niches demand technical excellence. When overall search volume is dropping, you can’t afford technical SEO issues. Even small fixes to duplicate content and URL structure can mean capturing competitors’ traffic as they neglect these details.
3. CMS limitations eventually become growth limitations. Small stores might not notice Shopify’s content constraints, but as you scale, they become serious bottlenecks.

Could we have made it work entirely within Shopify? Maybe, but it would have required more custom code, more compromises, and ultimately delivered worse results.

The hybrid approach paid off. Despite the overall keto market continuing to decline, Perfect Keto broke their downward trend and started growing organic traffic again within months.

Want to see the full case study? Check it out here.

Advanced Shopify Technical SEO Solutions

Managing Duplicate Content in Collections & Products

Let’s solve one of Shopify’s most persistent SEO problems once and for all: product URLs that change based on which collection a customer navigates from.

The issue: When a product appears in multiple collections, Shopify generates URLs like:

• /collections/summer/products/blue-shirt
• /collections/new-arrivals/products/blue-shirt

While Shopify adds canonical tags pointing to /products/blue-shirt, internal links throughout your site still point to these collection-based URLs, diluting link equity.

The solution is refreshingly simple. Open your theme files and find product-grid-item.liquid (usually in the Snippets folder). Change this line:

<a href="{{ product.url | within: current_collection }}" class="product-grid-item">

To this:

<a href="{{ product.url }}" class="product-grid-item">

This small change ensures all internal links point directly to the canonical product URL, consolidating your link equity and avoiding the duplicate content trap entirely.

Optimizing Shopify URL Structure: Realistic Options

While you can’t change Shopify’s core URL structure patterns (/collections/ and /products/), you can still optimize what comes after these prefixes.

Here’s what you can control:

1. Collection handles: Instead of accepting Shopify’s auto-generated slugs, craft keyword-optimized handles. Bad: /collections/summer-2025-line Good: /collections/mens-linen-shirts
2. Product handles: Same principle applies—optimize the portion of the URL you do control. Bad: /products/t-shirt-235-blue Good: /products/mens-organic-cotton-t-shirt-blue
3. Blog structure: For blogs, create a logical hierarchy using your article titles: Bad: /blogs/news/post-34 Good: /blogs/news/how-to-style-linen-shirts-summer

The key is focusing on what you can change rather than fighting Shopify’s core URL patterns. If URL structure is a major concern for your SEO strategy, consider the hybrid approach we used for Perfect Keto, with WordPress handling your critical content pages.

Implementing Advanced Structured Data

Shopify’s default product schema is fine, but for serious ecommerce SEO, you need more. Here’s how to implement advanced schema types without touching your theme code.

First, install the Schema Plus app. It allows you to add custom JSON-LD to specific pages without coding skills.

For product pages, enhance the default schema with these high-value additions:

1. Product Reviews Aggregate: This enables star ratings in search results.
2. Availability: Explicitly mark products as in stock, limited stock, or sold out.
3. Shipping Details: Add shipping rate and time information.
4. Multi-SKU Properties: For products with variants like sizes or colors.

For collections and category pages, add:

• CollectionPage schema
• ItemList schema for displaying product listings

For content, implement:

• Article schema with author details
• FAQ schema for product Q&A sections

These schema enhancements can significantly boost your rich snippet visibility, especially for competitive product searches where every SERP advantage matters.

Workarounds for Server-Level Limitations

No .htaccess file. No server logs. No custom server responses. Working with Shopify’s server-level limitations can feel like boxing with your hands tied behind your back.

But resourceful SEOs find ways to work around nearly anything. Here are practical workarounds for Shopify’s server-level constraints:

1. No server logs? Install Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for crawl data insights. Not as detailed as server logs, but better than flying blind.
2. No .htaccess for redirects? Use Shopify’s built-in URL redirects in the admin panel (Navigation > URLs > URL Redirects). For bulk redirects, use the Bulk Redirect app.
3. No robots.txt access? While you can’t edit robots.txt directly, you can add meta robots tags to any page via theme customization or apps like SEO Manager. Since mid-2021, Shopify has allowed full file-level control through a robots.txt.liquid template that you can edit from Online Store → Edit code.
4. Missing advanced server features? Consider offloading critical content to a subdomain on a different platform (like we did for Perfect Keto) where you’ll have full server control.
5. Need custom HTTP headers? Some can be implemented via Shopify’s theme.liquid file using meta tags as alternatives.

These aren’t perfect solutions, but they provide practical alternatives for most server-level SEO requirements without migrating off Shopify entirely.

The Best Shopify SEO Tools & Apps (2025 Review)

Side-by-Side Feature Comparison

Confused by the endless options in the Shopify App Store? Here’s my no-BS comparison of the top SEO apps for 2025:

Beyond these all-in-one tools, consider these specialized apps:

• TinyIMG for image optimization
• Yotpo for review schema
• Rewriter for AI-assisted content optimization

Pricing & Integration Steps

Let’s talk money. Is it worth paying for Shopify SEO apps when you’re already paying for the platform itself?

SEO Manager: The most comprehensive solution but now uses a tiered pricing model:

• Free tier for basic features
• Growth tier at $29/month for most mid-sized stores
• Pro tier at $69/month for enterprise features

Best for stores with 50+ products or competitive niches. Integration is straightforward—install, grant permissions, and the initial audit runs automatically.

Booster SEO & Image Optimizer (formerly SEO Booster): Now priced at $39/month for the Pro tier, but includes additional image optimization features. Great for small to medium stores with basic SEO needs. Installation takes about 5 minutes, and setup wizard guides you through optimization steps.

Plug in SEO (Free + Premium): The free version provides basic auditing, but real fixes require the premium plan ($20/month). The free plan is a good starting point for new stores to identify issues before investing in solutions.

Smart SEO ($9.99/month): The budget option with a surprising amount of features. Perfect for small stores with limited resources. Installation and setup take under 10 minutes, with most features working automatically.

My advice? Start with the free version of Plug in SEO to identify your biggest issues, then choose a paid app based on the specific problems you need to fix. For most Shopify stores, Smart SEO now hits the sweet spot of features vs. cost.

Pros, Cons + Our Recommendations

After testing dozens of Shopify SEO apps across hundreds of stores, here’s my honest assessment for 2025:

SEO Manager:

✅ Most comprehensive technical fixes
✅ Excellent schema implementation
✅ Bulk editing saves hours
❌ Most expensive option
❌ Interface can be overwhelming
👉 Best for: Serious ecommerce businesses with 100+ products and dedicated marketing staff

Booster SEO & Image Optimizer (formerly SEO Booster):

✅ User-friendly dashboard
✅ Excellent meta tag automation
✅ Now includes integrated image optimization
❌ Higher price point than before
❌ Advanced schema requires custom code
👉 Best for: Small to medium stores that need solid SEO without complexity

Plug in SEO:

✅ Free tier identifies issues
✅ Clean, simple interface
✅ Excellent support
❌ Most fixes locked behind premium
❌ Limited bulk editing
👉 Best for: New stores just getting started with SEO

Smart SEO:

✅ Most affordable premium option
✅ Content analysis for product descriptions
✅ Fast, lightweight app
❌ Missing some advanced features
❌ Limited customization options
👉 Best for: Budget-conscious merchants who need the basics done well

My top recommendation for 2025? Smart SEO now offers the best overall value for most Shopify stores given the price increases from other providers. If you’re managing an enterprise-level store with complex needs, upgrade to SEO Manager’s Pro tier. Just starting out? Plug in SEO’s free tier will point you in the right direction.

Shopify vs. Other Ecommerce Platforms for SEO

Shopify vs. Magento & BigCommerce

When we move to enterprise-level platforms, the SEO comparison gets more interesting.

Magento (Adobe Commerce) vs. Shopify:

Magento wins on SEO flexibility with full control over URL structures, server configurations, and advanced technical SEO elements. Its SEO package includes built-in analytics and settings like meta tag optimization and robots.txt editing.

But Magento is a beast to manage. You’ll need developers, significant server resources, and ongoing maintenance. Updates can break customizations, and the total cost of ownership is substantially higher than Shopify.

BigCommerce vs. Shopify:

BigCommerce offers more built-in SEO features than Shopify, including:

• Better URL customization (no forced prefixes)
• More built-in schema markup
• Native 301 redirects with bulk import
• Automatic 301 redirects when product names change

However, BigCommerce has a steeper learning curve, fewer themes, and a smaller app ecosystem. Its blogging platform is marginally better than Shopify’s, but still not comparable to WordPress.

The Bottom Line:

• Magento: Best for large enterprises with dedicated development teams and complex SEO needs
• BigCommerce: Solid middle ground with better native SEO but fewer extensions and themes
• Shopify: Easiest to use with good enough SEO for most businesses
• WooCommerce: Most SEO flexibility but requires more technical management

For most businesses, the Shopify + WordPress hybrid approach (like Perfect Keto used) offers the ideal balance: Shopify’s ease for products and WordPress’s strength for content.

Shopify SEO Audit: Free Interactive Checklist

Ready to optimize your Shopify store? Use this actionable checklist to find and fix the most common SEO issues:

Download this checklist as an interactive Notion template

0. One‑time launch settings

• [ ] Choose a high‑performance theme (Dawn ≥ 12, Sense, Origin, Booster, Turbo, Flex).
• [ ] Set primary domain → Settings ▸ Domains → Redirect all variants (www/non‑www, HTTP→HTTPS).
• [ ] Enable automatic HTTPS and HSTS (default on all plans).
• [ ] Create robots.txt.liquid file; start from Shopify’s template.

1. Crawlability & indexation (quarterly review)

• [ ] Audit robots.txt.liquid. Disallow:

/*+filter*
/collections/*?page=* (keep canonical versions crawlable)

• [ ] Submit primary + supplemental sitemaps in Search Console (e.g., separate blog or landing‑page sitemap created with an app).
• [ ] Ensure canonical tags are intact on products & variants.
• [ ] Fix collection pagination duplicates (?page=1) via theme logic (Liquid, not JS).

2. URL & duplicate‑content hygiene

• [ ] Hard‑link products to the canonical /products/handle (edit product-grid-item.liquid).
• [ ] Add noindex to low‑value tag or vendor collection pages if they must exist.
• [ ] Remove / rewrite thin product descriptions (≤ 100 words, duplicated manufacturer copy).
• [ ] Redirect legacy URLs with Shopify’s URL Redirects or a bulk‑redirect app.

3. Core Web Vitals & performance (monthly spot‑check)

• [ ] Turn on native image lazy‑loading (theme setting).
• [ ] Serve AVIF / WebP via Shopify’s image delivery params ({{ img_url: ‘480×480’, format: ‘auto’ }}).
• [ ] Audit app payload → Online Store ▸ Speed report → remove or replace heavy apps.
• [ ] Enable “background section rendering” option in Online Store 2.0 themes.
• [ ] Target: LCP < 2.5 s, INP < 200 ms on mobile.

4. On‑page optimization (ongoing)

• [ ] Optimise title & meta description fields for every product / collection.
• [ ] Use dynamic variables (e.g., {{ product.vendor }}) to scale titles.
• [ ] Populate alt text when you upload media (TinyIMG can bulk‑populate).
• [ ] Use metaobjects for rich author bios and product specs (improves E‑E‑A‑T + schema).
• [ ] Check heading hierarchy (H1 once per template, logical H2/H3 cascade).

5. Structured data

• [ ] Verify theme outputs Product, Collection, Article, Breadcrumb & FAQ schema.
• [ ] Add AggregateRating when review count ≥ 3 (Yotpo/Judge.me integrate automatically).
• [ ] Inject custom JSON‑LD (Recipe, HowTo, Event) via Schema Plus or native metaobjects.
• [ ] Validate in Google Rich Results Test after each theme update.

6. Content strategy

• [ ] Decide: Native blog vs. WordPress subdomain (hybrid) for large‑scale content.
• [ ] Implement blog tags as categories; link them in navigation.
• [ ] Use Shopify’s Future publishing to schedule posts & keep cadence.
• [ ] Map internal links from blog → collections/products (at least 3 per post).
• [ ] Add FAQ sections (Liquid block + FAQ schema) on key products & landing pages.

7. Authority & trust

• [ ] Build About, Contact, Shipping & Returns pages with full business info.
• [ ] Collect product reviews → ensure they surface in schema.
• [ ] Acquire topical backlinks (digital PR, partnerships, resource pages).
• [ ] Display trust badges (certifications, payment icons, SSL ribbon).
• [ ] For YMYL niches, list medical / subject‑matter experts using metaobjects.

8. Analytics & monitoring

• [ ] Install Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster Tools.
• [ ] Connect GA4 and enable Enhanced e‑commerce.
• [ ] Review Search Console’s Crawl Stats quarterly (proxy for missing server logs).
• [ ] Track Core Web Vitals in Shopify Speed dashboard and PageSpeed Insights API.
• [ ] Set up alerting inside Looker Studio / GSheets for traffic or Core Web Vitals anomalies.

9. Optional but high‑leverage extras

• [ ] Cloudflare Pro in front of Shopify for extra caching rules & image Polish.
• [ ] Shopify Markets: set market‑specific domains with hreflang auto‑output.
• [ ] Use Shopify Functions (Plus) for server‑side logic without apps (fewer scripts).
• [ ] Create a manual supplemental sitemap for filtered landing pages.
• [ ] Leverage checkout.liquid (Plus) to inject GTM or advanced analytics at purchase.

Keep this checklist handy and revisit it quarterly (or in smaller cycles when suggested). Even implementing half these items will put you ahead of most Shopify competitors.

How to use this checklist

1. Get our Notion checklist here
2. Tag task owners directly in the lines
3. Triage into One‑time, Monthly, Quarterly buckets for your team.
4. Review after every major theme, app, or algo update

FAQs

Are there technical SEO workarounds for Shopify’s structural limits?

Yes, there are effective workarounds for nearly all of Shopify’s technical SEO limitations:

1. No server log access: Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for crawl data insights.
2. Limited robots.txt control: Implement meta robots tags on specific pages. This was fixed by Shopify in 2021
3. No direct .htaccess access: Use Shopify’s built-in URL redirect system.
4. Forced URL structure: Focus on optimizing the portions of URLs you can control.
5. Limited sitemap customization: Use third-party apps to generate additional specialized sitemaps.
6. Basic schema markup: Implement advanced schema through apps or custom JSON-LD injection.

The only limitation without a direct workaround is Shopify’s content management system. For serious content marketing, consider the hybrid approach with WordPress on a subdomain.

How can I audit my Shopify store quickly for SEO issues?

To perform a quick but effective Shopify SEO audit:

1. Run a crawl using Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs)
2. Check for duplicate content issues with collection URLs
3. Audit site speed with Google PageSpeed Insights
4. Verify mobile usability in Google Search Console
5. Check meta title and description quality (uniqueness, keyword usage, length)
6. Ensure all product images have alt text
7. Look for thin content (short or duplicate product descriptions)
8. Verify schema implementation with Google’s Rich Results Test
9. Check for broken links and 404 errors
10. Review canonicalization implementation

Focus first on technical issues that affect all pages (like duplicate content), then move to on-page optimizations for your highest-value products.

You can also use our free on-page audit tool below:

Do Shopify themes affect SEO performance?

Absolutely. Your Shopify theme choice can significantly impact SEO in several ways:

1. Page speed: Poorly coded themes add JavaScript bloat and slow loading times
2. Mobile optimization: Some themes perform poorly on mobile devices
3. Schema implementation: Premium themes often include better structured data
4. HTML structure: Clean heading hierarchy and semantic HTML improve crawlability
5. Image optimization: Better themes include lazy loading and next-gen format support

In 2025, the fastest Shopify themes for SEO are Booster, Turbo, and Flex. If using a different theme, prioritize page speed optimizations through image compression and unnecessary app removal.

Can a non-coder achieve strong SEO results on Shopify?

Yes, non-technical store owners can absolutely achieve strong SEO results on Shopify. The platform’s biggest strength is making basic SEO accessible to everyone.

Without coding knowledge, you can:

• Optimize all meta titles, descriptions, and alt text
• Create keyword-rich product and collection content
• Set up proper canonicalization
• Implement redirects for changed URLs
• Add basic schema markup through apps
• Build a content marketing strategy with the blog
• Optimize images for faster loading
• Submit your sitemap to search engines
• Monitor performance in Google Search Console

The only Shopify SEO fixes that require coding knowledge are advanced duplicate content solutions and custom schema implementations. These can be handled through apps or by hiring a developer for one-time fixes.

Final Verdict: Is Shopify Good for SEO in 2025?

After dissecting Shopify’s SEO capabilities, limitations, and comparing it to alternatives, here’s my honest verdict: Shopify is good enough for SEO for most businesses, but it’s not the best platform if SEO is your primary traffic channel.

Shopify gets a solid B grade for SEO in 2025. It handles the basics well, has an outstanding app ecosystem to fill gaps, and most of its limitations have workable (if sometimes awkward) solutions.

The platform really shines if:

• You’re a small to medium business without dedicated technical staff
• You need to launch quickly and iterate
• You value reliability and simplicity over ultimate customization
• You’re balancing SEO with other traffic channels like paid and social

But you should probably look elsewhere if:

• Your business model revolves entirely around organic search traffic
• You’re in an ultra-competitive niche where technical SEO edges matter
• Content marketing is your primary strategy
• You need unusual site structures or custom taxonomies for SEO

The good news? Even if you’re already invested in Shopify and discovering its limitations, solutions exist—from the code fixes we’ve covered to the hybrid approach of using WordPress for your blog like Perfect Keto did.

Remember that no platform is perfect. WooCommerce offers better SEO flexibility but more maintenance headaches. Magento provides enterprise-level control but at enterprise-level costs and complexity.

The tools are available. The workarounds exist. The question isn’t whether Shopify can rank—it absolutely can—but whether you’re willing to implement the strategies outlined in this guide to make it happen.

The search rankings are waiting. What’s your next move?

References & Additional Resources

• Perfect Keto Case Study
• Shopify’s Official SEO Documentation
• Google’s Structured Data Documentation
• Schema.org Product Markup Guidelines
• PageSpeed Insights
• Google Search Console
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider