Shopify SEO Optimization Checklist

Phase 1: Technical SEO Audit

• [ ] Site Speed

• [ ] Run your store through Google PageSpeed Insights.
• [ ] Compress all product and theme images.
• [ ] Review installed apps and remove any that are non-essential or slow down the site.
• [ ] Ensure your theme is lightweight and up-to-date.
• [ ] Enable lazy loading for images.

• [ ] Site Structure & Indexing

• [ ] Submit your sitemap.xml to Google Search Console.
• [ ] Check for crawl errors in Google Search Console.
• [ ] Ensure your site has a logical navigation structure (Homepage -> Collections -> Products).
• [ ] Implement breadcrumb navigation.

• [ ] Duplicate Content

• [ ] Verify that canonical tags are correctly implemented on product and collection pages.
• [ ] Use the robots.txt file to block indexing of non-essential pages (e.g., internal search results).

• [ ] Mobile-Friendliness

• [ ] Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to check your pages.
• [ ] Test the user experience on various mobile devices.

Phase 2: On-Page SEO Implementation

• [ ] Keyword Research

• [ ] Identify primary and secondary keywords for your key product and collection pages.
• [ ] Analyze competitor keywords.

• [ ] Homepage Optimization

• [ ] Write a clear and compelling title tag and meta description.

• [ ] Collection Page Optimization

• [ ] Write unique title tags and meta descriptions for each collection.
• [ ] Add descriptive text to your collection pages.

• [ ] Product Page Optimization

• [ ] Write unique, keyword-optimized product titles.
• [ ] Craft detailed and persuasive product descriptions.
• [ ] Use a proper heading structure (H1 for title, H2s for subheadings).
• [ ] Optimize all product images with descriptive filenames and alt text.

• [ ] Blog Content

• [ ] Create a content calendar based on keyword research.
• [ ] Write high-quality blog posts that are helpful to your target audience.
• [ ] Include internal links to your product and collection pages within your blog posts.

Phase 3: Off-Page SEO & Authority Building

• [ ] Link Building

• [ ] Identify relevant blogs and publications for guest posting.
• [ ] Reach out to influencers for product reviews.
• [ ] Set up alerts for brand mentions and request links where appropriate.

• [ ] Social Media

• [ ] Ensure your social media profiles are complete and link back to your store.
• [ ] Share your content and products regularly.

• [ ] Customer Reviews

• [ ] Implement a strategy to encourage customer reviews on your product pages.

Phase 4: Advanced & Ongoing Tasks

• [ ] Schema Markup

• [ ] Ensure product schema is correctly implemented.
• [ ] Add breadcrumb and FAQ schema where appropriate.

• [ ] International SEO (if applicable)

• [ ] Set up Shopify Markets for different regions.
• [ ] Ensure hreflang tags are correctly implemented.

• [ ] Regular Monitoring

• [ ] Monitor your keyword rankings.
• [ ] Regularly review your Google Search Console and Google Analytics data for insights.