You’ve built a great Shopify store. The products are solid, the design looks professional — but the organic traffic isn’t coming.
In most cases, the issue isn’t your content. It’s the technical SEO setup underneath it.
With over 600 Shopify stores built and optimised, here’s what we consistently find — and fix.
Why Shopify SEO Is Different
Shopify has a fixed URL structure. Unlike WordPress, you can’t fully customise every URL path. This creates specific technical challenges that, left unaddressed, actively harm your search rankings.
The most common: duplicate content.
A single product can exist at two URLs simultaneously:
/products/blue-sneakers/collections/shoes/products/blue-sneakers
Google sees these as separate pages with identical content. Your SEO authority gets split, and neither page ranks as well as it should.
The 5 Technical Settings Most Store Owners Miss
1. Canonical Tags
Shopify auto-generates canonical tags, but themes and apps can override them incorrectly.
How to check: Open Chrome DevTools (F12) on any product page and search for <link rel="canonical">. Confirm it points to the /products/ path, not the /collections/products/ path.
2. Image ALT Text
Google can’t read images — it reads ALT text. Missing ALT text means:
- No visibility in Google Image Search
- Lower keyword relevance scores for that page
Fix: In Shopify Admin > Products, click each image and add descriptive ALT text that includes the primary keyword naturally.
3. Page Speed
Google uses page speed as a direct ranking factor. A Shopify store scoring below 60 on Google PageSpeed Insights is losing rankings to faster competitors.
Common causes: oversized product images, unused apps leaving scripts behind, homepage video backgrounds.
Check your score: pagespeed.web.dev
4. Custom Meta Titles & Descriptions
Shopify’s default meta title format is Product Name | Store Name. That’s not optimised for search.
Every product page, collection page, and blog post needs:
- Meta title: Under 60 characters, primary keyword included naturally
- Meta description: Under 160 characters, written to encourage clicks
5. Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Shopify’s default themes include basic Product Schema, but review ratings, stock status, and pricing won’t show as rich snippets in Google without additional configuration.
Rich snippets increase click-through rates by 20–30% on average.
Content SEO: Don’t Neglect This
Once technical settings are in order, content strategy drives long-term growth.
- Blog posts based on keyword research (what your customers are actually searching)
- Product descriptions written from scratch — not copied from suppliers
- Collection page text with at least 200 unique words per category
Quick Wins Checklist
| Task | Priority |
|---|---|
| Check canonical tags on all products | High |
| Add ALT text to all product images | High |
| Run PageSpeed Insights | High |
| Write custom meta titles/descriptions | High |
| Install structured data for reviews | Medium |
| Start keyword-based blog content | Medium |
HHP Design has built and optimised over 600 Shopify stores across Australia. We offer a free Shopify SEO audit — no obligation, just a clear picture of where your store stands and what can be improved. Get in touch to book yours.