10 Shopify SEO Problems That Could Be Hurting Your Rankings
Shopify is a fantastic platform for merchants. It has made setting up and launching an online store incredibly easier and faster. But that’s just the first step. Ranking on Google is a whole different game. While Shopify is inherently SEO-friendly, that doesn’t mean your work is done. In fact, many store owners grapple with common Shopify SEO problems that create performance bottlenecks and slowly hurt their rankings.
If you are a Shopify store owner, you need to be aware of these problems. Let’s dive into 10 common Shopify SEO problems and how you can fix them effectively.
1. You cannot edit Tag Pages
The most common problem Shopify store owners run into is that they can’t really edit or optimize their tag pages. Now, this happens because Shopify automatically generates a new page every time you use tags like ‘red,’ ‘cotton,’ or ‘long-sleeve’ to filter products within a collection. On the surface, it sounds convenient as it helps customers narrow down their choices. But from an SEO point of view, these tag pages are kind of a nightmare because they end up being duplicates of your main collection pages. It’s all due to the fact that they carry the same content and metadata, with no way to add unique titles, descriptions, or intro text. Consequently, you end up with dozens of lookalike pages that clutter your site, confuse Google, and dilute the SEO power of your main pages.
Now, let’s see what you can do about these common Shopify SEO problems:
You Can Noindex the Tag Pages
This is a simple and quick way to prevent these duplicate pages from messing with your SEO. You can signal Google not to index the tag pages while still letting customers use them to filter products. To do this, you add a small piece of code in your theme’s <head> section. This way, the pages still exist for shoppers, but search engines won’t see them as separate pages competing with your main collections.
Check Canonical Tags
Shopify usually tries to fix this automatically by pointing tag pages back to the main collection. You need to make sure this is working properly, as it helps direct all SEO value to your main pages, rather than splitting it across duplicates.
Add Custom Content for Important Tags
If a tag has high search potential, like “Vintage T-Shirts,” you can make it stand out. Add unique titles, descriptions, or a short intro so this page can rank on its own.
2. URL Structure Limitations
Shopify development also has a strict way of building URLs, which can make SEO complex. The platform doesn’t give you full flexibility, which is why you can’t always create neat and keyword-friendly links the way you might want. What actually happens in this case is that when you create a new product or collection, Shopify automatically adds fixed folders to your URL, like collections, products, or pages. Shopify automatically adds fixed folders to your URL, like collections, products, or pages.
Due to this, your links end up looking something like this: yourstore.com/products/product-name
When ideally, you would want it to appear like this: yourstore.com/product-name
It might look like a small thing, but it limits how much control you have over your site structure as you can’t build deeper hierarchies like domain.com/shoes/running/men/. These hierarchies are great for organizing products and helping Google understand your site better. As a result, your URLs will look a bit cluttered and less optimized.
To deal with this Shopify SEO problem, your best move is to make your product and collection names as descriptive and SEO-friendly as possible. A strong internal linking strategy and clean navigation can also make up for the lack of URL flexibility.
3. Limited Customization of Technical Elements
Another challenge that trips up store owners is the limited control over some technical SEO settings inside Shopify. For example, the robots.txt file, which instructs search engines on what to crawl or avoid, is mostly locked. Shopify does let you make some changes using a special template if your theme supports it, but the control is still pretty much restricted compared to platforms where you host your own site. So if you want search engines to skip certain pages or sections, you sometimes have no choice but to accept what Shopify allows.
There is also the canonical tag situation. Canonical tags basically tell Google which version of a page is the main one, so you do not end up with duplicate content problems. Shopify tries to handle this automatically, which sounds helpful theoretically. But sometimes the internal links on your site, especially links from collection pages, lead Google to the duplicate version of a product page instead of the one Shopify marked as the main version. That splits your SEO strength and confuses search engines about which page to rank higher. It is one of the major Shopify SEO problems, but it can be properly addressed if you choose the right SEO team.
4. Content and Blogging Limitations
Shopify also poses a few challenges when it comes to content flexibility. Yes, it has a built-in blog, but it is pretty basic, and the main problem is that you don’t get a lot of advanced tools or layout freedom as you do in WordPress. So if you want to build a strong content marketing engine with rich formatting and flexible design, Shopify might feel somewhat limiting.
Another part of this issue is thin content. Many store owners just copy product details from the manufacturer or only write a tiny bit about the item. Search engines don’t really approve of that. They are designed to prefer content that is original, detailed, and actually helpful. When pages barely have any unique content, Google struggles to understand why they should rank that product or blog post over countless others on the internet.
5. On-Page Optimization Issues
When it comes to on-page SEO, Shopify does leave a few gaps that can mess with your rankings, especially when you are not careful. The biggest issue is that many important details, such as page titles and meta descriptions, are left in your hands. Shopify will not optimize them for you, so if you forget to make every title and description unique and keyword-friendly, Google will get confused about which page should show up for what search.
Besides that, Shopify also doesn’t automatically compress large images or add alt text. So if you upload large images, they take longer to load, which slows down your entire site. Slow pages result in lower rankings and frustrated customers. And without alt text, search engines can not understand the image, and you miss out on a chance to show up in image results.
These Shopify SEO problems often arise when a store experiences rapid growth and introduces a large number of new products because more content increases the likelihood of overlooking small SEO details.
6. App Bloat
If you rely on Shopify apps for extra features or just because you don’t know much about SEO, you should pay attention to the hidden SEO tradeoffs. Every app you add brings extra code that your website has to load. The more apps you stack on top of each other, the slower your pages get. And, the slow pages aren’t just annoying for visitors, but they also make Google less likely to rank your site highly. On top of that, some apps add unnecessary scripts and styles that clutter your site and make it harder to manage.
7. Deindexing Issues
On Shopify, deindexing issues are common. There are a few ways they can occur. Sometimes Shopify automatically adds noindex tags to pages like tag or filter pages to prevent duplicate content. Certain apps or themes can also insert noindex tags without your knowledge. The problem arises when important pages are accidentally noindexed, which can happen more often on Shopify than on other platforms due to its automatic noindexing and limited control over page indexing. So it’s something every store owner needs to watch out for.
8. Unoptimized Themes
Sometimes, despite all your best efforts and SEO tactics, you can still end up with low rankings. This is often because you might have chosen the wrong theme. Not all Shopify themes are like this, but some are. Themes that are feature-rich tend to have excessive code, which adds weight and slows down how long it takes for the browser to render the page. Many Shopify themes also include large, unoptimized default assets that can contribute to a high Largest Contentful Paint score. Some themes encourage the use of third-party apps, which can inject even more files. On top of that, a few themes have outdated architectures that don’t perform well on mobile. All of these factors can seriously hurt your SEO performance. Before picking a theme, make sure it only has the features you actually need, and if possible, consider going with a custom-built theme.
9. Missing Structured Data Markup
Some Shopify themes don’t include proper structured data, also known as Schema Markup, for things like products, reviews, or breadcrumbs. This can prevent your pages from showing rich results in Google search, like star ratings, price info, or product availability. Without these, your listings look less attractive and can get fewer clicks. To fix this, make sure your theme or apps properly implement Schema Markup for the key pages that matter for SEO.
10. International SEO Limitations
Shopify isn’t perfect when it comes to running stores in multiple countries or languages. The platform has limitations for hreflang tags, currency-based URLs, and geo-targeting. If you are trying to rank in different countries, these restrictions can make it harder for Google to understand which version of your page belongs to which region. To handle this, you might need apps or a custom setup to manage multilingual content and country-specific domains properly.
Don’t Let These Shopify Issues Hold You Back
As someone who has worked with over 200 Shopify stores and is an official Shopify Partner, Kinex Media understands the nuances of the platform. We also know the right way to handle the SEO challenges store owners face, no matter how difficult they get. Whether it’s setting up your store, replatforming it without causing any SEO value or data loss, or optimizing it for better performance, there’s nothing we cannot help you with. With two decades of experience working on Shopify stores, we know what works and how to fix what doesn’t. Got questions? Talk to our expert consultant for free and get complete clarity.
