SEO by platform
Shopify SEO, step by step: where each setting lives
Nine settings in the order to change them, where each one lives in your Shopify admin, and the Shopify help page that says so.
The settings, in order
Work down the list once. Each step names the menu, what Shopify does by default and what to set.
0 of 9 done
Take the store out of private mode
Online Store > Preferences, then Launch store
A new store starts in private mode, which hides every page from search engines behind a password page. Nothing below counts until the store is public, and Google can't read your sitemap while it's private.
Write the homepage title and description
Online Store > Preferences > Social sharing image and SEO
Your theme builds title tags with the store name by default. Write your own homepage title and meta description here, so the result people see in Google says what you sell.
Check it free: SERP snippet previewWhat is Title tag?Shopify Help Center: adding keywords
Edit every product's search listing
Products > a product > Search engine listing
Every product, collection, page and blog post has its own page title, meta description and URL handle. Shopify warns that a title over 70 characters or a description over 320 might get cut off in results.
Check it free: Meta description generatorWhat is SERP?Shopify Help Center: adding and updating products
Redirect the URLs you change
Content > Menus > View URL Redirects > Create URL redirect
When you change a product's URL handle or delete a page, redirect the old path to the new one. Shopify only redirects from a URL that's now broken, one that shows Page not found or a 404.
Check it free: Redirect checkerShopify Help Center: URL redirects
Write alt text for product images
Products > a product > the image > Edit alt text
Search engines can't see images, so each product image, collection image and blog post image takes its own alt text. Say what the picture shows, in plain words.
Verify in Search Console and submit your sitemap
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, then Search Console > Sitemaps
Shopify builds sitemap.xml for you and updates it when you add a product, collection, page or post. Verify your domain in Google Search Console and submit that sitemap there.
Check it free: Sitemap checkerWhat is XML sitemap?Shopify Help Center: finding your sitemap
Check what Shopify already does for you
Built in: canonical tags, sitemap, robots.txt, theme structured data
Shopify adds canonical tags to stop duplicate pages showing in results, and Shopify's own themes include product structured data. Check them before you install an app that adds the same thing twice.
Check it free: Canonical checkerShopify Help Center: SEO overview
Hide the pages you don't want found
A page, blog post or product: a custom metafield named seo.hidden
To keep a live page out of search, add the seo.hidden metafield with the value 1. It drops the page from your sitemap, from search engines and from your store's own search.
Leave robots.txt alone unless you must
Online Store > Themes > Edit code > robots.txt.liquid
Every store gets a default robots.txt that Shopify calls optimal for SEO. You can only change it by adding a robots.txt.liquid template, and Shopify warns that a mistake there can cost you all your traffic.
Check it free: Robots.txt testerWhat is robots.txt?Shopify Help Center: editing robots.txt
Every step is from Shopify’s own documentation, read 29 Sep 2026.
What SearchBlueprint does for a Shopify site
A planning tool, not an editor: it doesn't change your Shopify settings. It crawls your site and tells you which searches to go after and which page should win each one.
Try each one below, on SearchBlueprint’s own plan for its own site
1Starting from a blank list
Your keyword list, started from your own site.
Most keyword tools hand you thousands of phrases. Your plan starts from your own Shopify site instead: the searches you already show up for, and the ones a site like yours could rank for.
- Your current position for each search you rank for
- Searches a site like yours could rank for, marked not ranking yet
- Monthly searches and cost per click for each keyword
- #71
free website traffic rankings
170 searches a month · $6.33 a click
- #71
web traffic statistics free
110 searches a month · $10.71 a click
- #50
spy seo
30 searches a month · $20.47 a click
- #80
what is my hosting
30 searches a month · $3.45 a click
2Which page gets which search
Give each search its own page.
You've watched two of your own pages chase the same search and neither win. Every keyword you confirm goes to one page. Where two pages compete, you're told which ones, and where nothing fits, the plan suggests a page to create.
- One main keyword per page, across the site
- A warning when two of your pages compete
- Pages to create, where no page answers a search
40 pages mapped · 2 to build
Primary keyword
seo automation
1,900 searches a month · KD 14
Page
- /
3What people ask ChatGPT
Questions to answer for ChatGPT and AI Mode.
People ask ChatGPT full questions, not two-word searches. From the keywords you pick, your plan drafts the questions a buyer might ask and ties each one to a page. You keep the ones that sound like your customers.
- Questions for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Mode
- Each question tied to a page
- Remove any that don't sound like your customers
5 of 5 kept
4On a paid plan
A title and description for every page.
Confirm your keywords once and every page gets a title and a meta description in one list, ready to paste into each product's Search engine listing. Your Shopify site only changes when you paste them in.
- A row for every page, not just the homepage
- Based on the keywords you confirmed for each page
- New pages to consider, listed with your current ones
- Keyword
- seo tool for agencies
- Secondary: client seo reporting, seo software for agencies
- Meta title
- SEO Tool for Agencies: Every Client Site | SearchBlueprint
- Meta description
- Run SEO and AI search plans for every client site, with branded reports and share links your clients open without a login.
- Recommended H1
- SEO for every client site, in one workspace
Publishing to Shopify
Writing opens to customers in October.
The connection publishes to the blog you choose through a custom app's Admin API access token. Posts land with content and images, as drafts by default, and once live the verifier fetches the storefront URL: a post Shopify accepted but the theme does not render shows as not live, which is the truth you want surfaced.
- 1
Create a custom app
In Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Apps and sales channels, then Develop apps, and create a custom app. Grant it blog and article write scopes, install it, and copy the Admin API access token.
- 2
Connect the store
In the project's Publishing tab, choose Shopify and enter the store name, the part before .myshopify.com, then paste the token. The custom domain is for visitors, the API address is the myshopify one.
- 3
Send a test publish
Check the article under Online Store, then Blog posts, in Shopify. Once the first posts reach Published on the storefront, the chain is proven.
Posts land in the store's own blog
Articles publish to the blog you choose in your store, where content that links to collections and products builds the store's authority where it converts. Multiple blogs within a store are supported by choosing the target blog.
Docs: ShopifyDrafts by default
New connections publish as drafts, the same rule as every other connection, so posts wait in your Shopify admin until you switch the connection live.
Docs: ShopifyPublished means the public URL answered
After every publish we fetch the public URL and record what came back. Published shows only when the page was found, a fresh 404 waits out a grace window, and a server error never concludes the page is missing.
Docs: Publish verificationArticles come off a planned calendar
Plan items on the content calendar and write them two ways: click Write on a card, or let Auto-write pick each one up at midnight on its calendar date. Both run the same researched pipeline, which drafts the article and then revises it against the content score across sweeps.
Docs: Content calendarInternal links point at pages that exist
With a website selected and an audit completed, the writer links to real crawled URLs from your site, never paths it invents. The 1-to-6 slider is enforced after generation as a hard rule, so the count you set is the count you get.
Docs: Internal links
What it won’t do on Shopify
Better to know before your first publish.
We send Shopify the article title and body, and today nothing for either the SEO title or the meta description. Edit Search engine listing on the blog post in your Shopify admin.
Shopify themes decide the final look. Heading levels and images arrive correctly, styling is the theme's job.
The token belongs to your custom app. Uninstalling the app kills the connection.
- Docs: Shopify
Questions people ask
Why am I getting 403 errors on publish?
The custom app is missing the write scope for blog content. Edit the app's Admin API scopes, reinstall it, and paste the new token, because reinstalling rotates it.
The post exists in admin but 404s on the storefront. Why?
It is still a draft, or the theme's blog template is unpublished. Set the post live in Shopify and check that the blog is linked in navigation.
Who sets the meta description on Shopify posts?
You do, in Shopify. The connection currently sends the title and body and nothing for the SEO title or meta description, so edit Search engine listing on the post in your Shopify admin.
See the plan for your own Shopify site
Your first plan is free and needs no card. It shows your rivals, the searches people type to find sites like yours, and which page should answer each one.
- Free first plan
- No credit card
- Keep your plan