The Shopify SEO checklist for non-developers

Most “Shopify SEO checklists” online are either generic SEO advice that ignores Shopify’s specifics, or technical lists aimed at developers. This is the in-between version: 30 items a non-technical merchant can either do themselves, decide to outsource, or skip — with clear notes on which is which.

Work through this top to bottom. It takes about 4 hours. Skip the parts marked DEV if you don’t have a developer; come back to them when you do.

Sub-post of the Shopify SEO Guide.

Foundation (30 minutes)

These are the prerequisites. Without them, the rest is wasted effort.

1. Connect Google Search Console. DNS verification is fastest. Once verified, Google starts giving you reports on indexing, ranking, and Core Web Vitals.

2. Submit your sitemap. Search Console → Sitemaps → submit yourstore.com/sitemap.xml. Shopify generates this automatically.

3. Connect Bing Webmaster Tools. Same as GSC but for Bing. Bing also powers ChatGPT search and DuckDuckGo. ~5 min, free.

4. Set your preferred domain. Decide: yourstore.com or www.yourstore.com. Pick one. In Shopify admin → Settings → Domains, set the chosen one as primary. The other should redirect.

5. Add Organization schema. DEV. Site-wide schema declaring brand name, logo, social links. Most themes don’t include this by default. → Shopify schema markup explained.

Indexing health (45 minutes)

Make sure Google can actually crawl and index everything you want indexed.

6. Run site:yourstore.com in Google. Count the URLs. Compare to your actual product + collection + page count. Big gap = indexing issue.

7. Check Search Console Coverage / Indexing. Note the Excluded count. Click into each “Excluded” reason — anything looks wrong?

8. Look for ?filter.v. URLs in Excluded. DEV. If hundreds of filtered URLs are in the excluded list as “Duplicate without canonical”, you have faceted-nav bloat. → Shopify products not showing in Google? 7 common causes.

9. View source on 5 sample product pages. Search the HTML for noindex. Should not be present unless you intend it.

10. Check canonical tags on those same pages. The <link rel="canonical"> should point to the same URL you’re viewing.

11. Check robots.txt. Visit yourstore.com/robots.txt. Should not block /products/, /collections/, or /blogs/. Should explicitly allow major search and AI crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot).

12. Add /llms.txt. DEV. New convention for AI search crawlers — a sitemap-style file that points AI tools to your authoritative content. ~30 min for a developer. → Shopify SEO Guide for context.

On-page basics (90 minutes — the bulk of merchant-side SEO)

These are merchant-level. Schedule 2–3 sittings.

13. Write unique titles for your top 30 product pages. Each title should be:

• Under 60 characters
• Distinct from every other page
• Lead with the product name, then differentiator (color, material, size)
• Written for a human, not stuffed with keywords

14. Write unique meta descriptions for those same 30 pages. 130–160 characters. Should answer “why click this result” — not just summarize the page.

15. Write unique titles + descriptions for top 10 collection pages. Collection pages rank for category-level queries (“women’s hoodies”, “leather wallets”). Generic titles like “Hoodies” miss this entirely.

16. Audit H1s. One H1 per page, includes the focus term. Most themes use the page/product title as H1 automatically — verify by viewing source on a sample.

17. Write image alt text on all hero/banner images. Describe the image, like a caption. Don’t keyword-stuff. Accessibility benefit, SEO benefit.

18. Write image alt text on top-30 product images. Same standard. Use the product name + a brief description.

19. Add internal links from blog posts to relevant products + collections. Every blog post should link to at least one collection or product where natural. This passes link equity to your commerce pages.

20. Add at least one internal link from each collection page to related collections. “Customers also viewed” or “Related collections” — helps Google understand your hierarchy.

Speed + Core Web Vitals (DEV-heavy)

CWV is now a confirmed ranking factor. If your mobile CWV is “Poor”, you have a ceiling on rankings.

21. Run PageSpeed Insights on home, top collection, top product. Mobile tab. Note CrUX numbers and Lighthouse score.

22. Audit and trim apps. Apps → Installed → for each, ask: does this earn its slot? Most stores can drop 30–50% with no business impact. → Are Shopify apps slowing down your store?.

23. Resize hero/banner images. Replace any banner over 1 MB with a 200–400 KB version. Free tool: Squoosh.

24. Defer chat widget. Most chat apps have “show after 5s” or “show on scroll”. Turn it on.

25. Fix the rest. DEV. If after the above, mobile CWV is still in “Needs improvement” or “Poor”, you need a focused speed engagement. Typical engagement: 2–4 weeks, moves CWV into “Good”.

Schema (DEV)

These all need a developer or a careful theme audit.

26. Verify Product schema is correct on top 30 products. DEV. Use Google’s Rich Results Test. Look for:

• Price matches what’s on the page
• Availability matches actual stock
• Brand is set
• AggregateRating is only set if you actually have reviews
• No duplicate Product schema from different sources

27. Verify BreadcrumbList schema. DEV. Should be on collection and product pages. Modern themes ship this; older ones don’t.

28. Add FAQPage schema where you have visible FAQ sections. DEV. Service pages, product pages with FAQ accordions, etc.

Content + monitoring (ongoing)

29. Set up a monthly Search Console review. Once a month, check:

• Coverage / Indexing — anything new in Excluded?
• Core Web Vitals — any URL groups slipped to Poor?
• Performance — which queries are bringing traffic? Which pages? Are top queries the ones you want?
• Manual actions — should always be empty

10 minutes, prevents months-long ranking drops you wouldn’t otherwise notice.

30. Plan blog content around real searches. Use Search Console’s Performance report to find queries you almost rank for (positions 8–20). Each is a potential blog post or product-page improvement that can move you to position 1–7.

What I’d skip (for now)

Not on this checklist on purpose:

• Buying backlinks. Don’t.
• Hiring an SEO retainer agency for a brand-new store. Get to the basics done first; an agency on top of a broken foundation is wasted money.
• Schema for every possible type. Stick to the four in the schema guide.
• Aggressive keyword targeting on product descriptions. Write for humans first; Google’s helpful-content systems specifically demote keyword-stuffed copy.
• Constant URL changes “for SEO reasons”. Each change creates a redirect chain that costs ranking. Only change URLs when you have a real reason.

Realistic timeline

If you start today and work through this list:

Time	Where you should be
Week 1	Foundation + indexing health done
Week 2	On-page basics on top-30 products done
Week 3	App audit + speed quick fixes done
Week 4	Schema audit complete, dev work scoped
Months 2–3	Dev fixes shipped (schema, CWV, faceted nav)
Months 4–6	First measurable ranking lift
Month 6+	Ongoing content + monitoring

Anyone selling you faster than this is selling something else.

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Want help working through this checklist on your store? Book a free intro call. Send your URL beforehand; I’ll run a live audit on the call and tell you which 5 items will move the most for your store.

Or pick the deep-dive that matches what you’re hitting:

• Need to understand what schema you really need → Shopify schema markup explained
• Products not showing in Google → Shopify products not showing in Google? 7 common causes
• Speed is the bottleneck → Shopify Speed Optimization Guide