A beautiful theme and clever product descriptions won’t mean much if your store isn’t technically sound. Technical SEO gives your Shopify store the structure and clarity that search engines need to rank you properly. Miss the mark here, and even the best marketing campaigns could fall flat.

This guide walks you through a Shopify SEO audit you can knock out in under an hour. Each step targets the behind-the-scenes elements that can quietly tank your rankings if left unchecked.

Looking to go deeper into strategy later? Don’t miss our guide on why SEO is still the #1 driver of Shopify sales in 2025.

What You Need Before You Start

• Access to your Shopify admin
• Google Search Console account
• Screaming Frog (free version works)
• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Schema.org Markup Validator
• A strong Wi-Fi connection and a timer

Set your clock to 60 minutes. Let’s go.

Check Site Speed: Load Time Isn’t Just About UX

If your Shopify store lags, users leave. Google picks up on that behavior and may push your store further down the rankings. Speed plays a big role in conversion rate too.

What to do:
Head to PageSpeed Insights and plug in your homepage. Look at the mobile score first, since that’s what Google cares about most. Pay attention to metrics like First Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive.

Quick Wins:

• Compress large images on homepage and collection pages
• Cut out heavy sliders or unnecessary animations
• Remove unused Shopify apps that inject JavaScript
• Consider switching to a lightweight Shopify theme

If your speed issues run deeper, check out our full guide on why your website is too slow and what to do about it.

Validate Your Schema Markup: Help Google Help You

Structured data, or schema, is how you tell Google what your content means. For Shopify stores, it’s essential to have product schema, breadcrumb schema, and review schema implemented properly.

What to do:
Run a product page through Google’s Rich Results Test. If you see red errors, they need to be fixed. Yellow warnings aren’t ideal but aren’t urgent unless you’re missing key elements like price or availability.

Tip:
Many Shopify themes add schema by default, but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate. Consider apps that allow manual schema management or work with a developer to inject JSON-LD code.

Want a design team that knows SEO and schema? Read about how a premium Shopify design agency in New Jersey can upgrade your brand.

Fix Canonical Tag Confusion: Clean Up Duplicate Content

Shopify has a known issue with duplicate content, especially around collection filtering and product pages appearing under multiple URLs. Canonical tags help search engines understand which version of a page is the original.

What to do:
Open a few product and collection pages, view page source, and search for <link rel=\”canonical\”>. That tag should point to the cleanest version of the URL, not one with parameters.

Fix it fast:

• Use Shopify apps to manage canonicals
• Adjust settings in themes or through metafields
• Avoid linking to filtered URLs that aren’t indexed

This step is critical if you’re in the process of migrating from Magento to Shopify or dealing with complex product categories.

Find and Fix Orphan Pages: Don’t Let Pages Float in Isolation

Orphan pages have no internal links pointing to them. This means they’re harder for Google to find and index. You could be missing out on traffic and sales from pages that technically exist, but don’t show up in search.

What to do:
Use Screaming Frog to crawl your Shopify store. Export a list of URLs and look for any that have zero inbound internal links.

Fix it fast:

• Link to them from relevant blog posts
• Add them to your navigation or collection pages
• Use a related product feature to connect pages naturally

If you’re also trying to grow your Shopify store and avoid common pitfalls, addressing orphan pages should be high on your list.

Review Crawl Budget: Help Google Focus on What Matters

Every site has a crawl budget, even small ones. Googlebot doesn’t crawl every page every day. If your store has a lot of filter pages, duplicate content, or junk URLs, you’re wasting crawl budget.

What to do:
Log into Search Console and check Crawl Stats. Look for spikes or dips. Then review your site’s structure and robots.txt file.

How to optimize crawl budget:

• Block low-value pages in robots.txt
• Use noindex tags on temporary or duplicate pages
• Fix internal links that lead to 404s or redirects
• Eliminate filter combinations that don’t add SEO value

This becomes even more important if you’re scaling your store with Shopify Plus, where site structure gets more complex.

Optimize Images: SEO Gains Are Hiding in Your Files

Image optimization goes far beyond compression. Every image should load fast, make sense to search engines, and help your products stand out.

What to do:

• Compress images with TinyPNG or Crush.pics
• Rename files to something meaningful (e.g. blue-wool-scarf.jpg instead of jpg)
• Add descriptive alt text to every product image
• Use next-gen formats like WebP if your theme supports it

Bonus Tip:
Use lazy loading for images below the fold to boost speed.

Learn more about how image optimization boosts website performance.

Audit Internal Linking: Don’t Let Your SEO Value Leak

Internal links help distribute authority throughout your site. They also keep users engaged and improve site structure for crawling.

What to do:

• Use Screaming Frog to view internal link counts per page
• Make sure high-value pages (collections, best-sellers) are linked from the homepage
• Link blog posts to products and collections when it makes sense

Smart ideas:

• Create a “best sellers” blog post that links to individual product pages
• Use breadcrumb navigation
• Add related product widgets on product pages

Learn how internal linking plays into broader  Shopify SEO tips for boosting visibility.

Create a Monthly Technical SEO Routine

SEO isn’t a one-time event. Set a monthly 30-minute routine to review speed, crawl stats, schema, internal links, and orphan pages.

Use a spreadsheet or checklist to track your findings and progress. If technical tasks start to pile up, consider bringing in help from experts. You don’t need to go it alone.

For help beyond audits, consider reading about Shopify SEO services that drive real results.

Wrap-Up: You Just Audited Your Shopify Store in Under an Hour

This audit doesn’t cover every SEO nuance, but it gives your store a fighting chance to perform better in search results. You’ve now addressed the most common issues holding Shopify stores back. No expensive tools, no dev team needed.

If you’re serious about growth, pair this audit with smart content strategy, conversion optimization, and consistent off-page SEO. Bluesoft Design can help you build all of that into your Shopify roadmap.

Need a pro team that understands both design and Shopify SEO? Start with our post on what makes the best Shopify agency in New York stand out.