8 Problems With Shopify SEO

Shopify is popular. Shopify is growing fast. According to MacroTrends its revenues rose by 36% year on year in the quarter to September 2023. It’s a platform heavily optimised for sales and e-commerce. Inevitably, though, a platform like this will have limitations. Shopify SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is broadly considered to be one of its greatest shortcomings.

Google considers a page’s URL an important metric when ranking a page. For a long time search.com ranked higher than Google for the search term “search”. In the past, it was considered good SEO practice to include product taxonomy in the URL, thus:

• https://store.com/clothes/men/tee-shirts.html

But Shopify permits none of that. All products, categories (collections), pages and the like are stored under the following patterns:

• https://store.com/products/
• https://store.com/collections/
• https://store.com/pages/

Other than the URL identifier (called the ‘slug’) for the page, collection or page, Shopify permits no further subcategorisation. Site hierarchy and URL customisation are important for SEO.

• https://store.com/products/mens-comfy-cap-sleeve-tee-shirts

In this instance, the slug is “mens-comfy-cap-sleeve-tee-shirts”.

It’s not perfect – slugs can end up being very long. But it does work. We often include part numbers or SKUs in the slug.

• Use Canonical Tags to identify the most desired authoritative page for each set of duplicates.
• Wherever possible, provide unique content for every page.
• Some applications (such as SiteMap NoIndex Pro) can prevent search engines from indexing and listing duplicate content.

Shopify boasts a blogging capability, but in truth, it is extremely limited. Compared with dedicated systems (CMS) like WordPress, the SEO opportunities related to content marketing and on-site SEO are very limited. Shopify offers fewer options for customisation and optimisation of contetn.

• Enhance blog posts with SEO apps that allow for more in-depth optimisation, such as adding meta tags, customising headings, and improving social sharing capabilities.
• If your content marketing strategy demands more robust features, consider integrating an external blog platform (like WordPress) through a subdomain.

While Shopify automatically generates some canonical tags to help prevent duplicate content issues, the platform does not allow for much customisation of these tags. This can lead to challenges in managing and optimising canonical tags for certain complex scenarios.

• While Shopify sets canonical tags automatically, you can use SEO apps that offer more control over canonical URLs to correct any issues with duplicate content.
• Applications like Canonical Tag URL Wizard can help a great deal. But, as with many apps, it’s not free.

Shopify automatically uses SSL/HTTPS for all sites, which is generally positive for SEO and site security. However, if not properly managed during a migration from a non-SSL site, it can lead to mixed content issues or improper redirects, affecting SEO.

• Ensure all your content is served over HTTPS to avoid mixed content issues. This includes checking that all images, scripts, and CSS files are loaded securely.
• After migrating to Shopify, carefully set up 301 redirects from the HTTP versions of your URLs to the HTTPS versions to preserve SEO value.

The best solution for this is to manage your migration so that all calls to HTTP:// pattern URLs are replaced with their HTTPS:// equivalents before the data is uploaded to Shopify.

Shopify does not allow full access to edit the robots.txt file, which is crucial for controlling how search engines crawl and index a site. This can limit the ability to optimize crawl efficiency and manage the visibility of certain pages.

• Shopify has announced customisable robots.txt files will be made available soon. This will allow merchants to edit this file directly from the Shopify admin. This change will enable more control over how search engines crawl and index the site.
• Use the available customisation options wisely to prevent search engines from indexing duplicate or irrelevant pages.

Some Shopify themes may not be optimised for speed or mobile use, both of which are important ranking factors. Customizing themes for better SEO performance can sometimes require advanced technical skills.

• Choose themes that are optimised for speed and mobile devices. Test the theme‘s performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights before making a final decision.
• Regularly review and optimize your site’s images, scripts, and CSS files to improve loading times.

Shopify limits the ability to create certain types of redirects, such as wildcard redirects, which can be problematic for large-scale websites undergoing rebranding or major structural changes.

• For managing redirects, consider using SEO or redirection apps from the Shopify App Store that offer enhanced functionality over Shopify’s built-in redirect tool.
• Plan major site changes carefully to minimize the need for complex redirects. When necessary, custom scripts or apps can help manage bulk redirects more efficiently.

By addressing the above limitations proactively, you can significantly improve your Shopify store’s SEO performance, driving more organic traffic and sales.