A 45-point SEO checklist for an online store, built only from Google Search Central documentation and the Shopify manual. Every point cites the page it came from, and you can tick items off as you work.
This is the reference version of the ecommerce SEO checklist: 45 points, each one traced to a Google Search Central page or the Shopify manual. No agency folklore. Tick the boxes as you go; the counter keeps score.
Data checked: July 17, 2026. Sources are numbered [1] to [4] and listed at the end of the page.
Google’s own bar for being indexable is exactly three requirements [1]. If any of these fails, nothing else on this page matters.
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Googlebot is not blocked: the page is public, needs no login, and robots.txt does not disallow it | [1] | |
| 2 | The page returns HTTP 200; error pages and broken URLs are not indexed | [1] | |
| 3 | The content is indexable: a supported file type with real text, and nothing that violates spam policies | [1] | |
| 4 | Pages checked with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console, plus the Page Indexing and Crawl Stats reports | [1] | |
| 5 | Google can load the same CSS and JavaScript a user’s browser loads, so it sees the page the way a visitor does | [2] |
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | URLs are descriptive and hyphen-separated, with words a user recognizes (/collections/organic-skincare, not /2/6772) | [2][4] | |
| 7 | Similar pages are grouped in directories so Google learns how often each section changes | [2] | |
| 8 | The hierarchy runs general to specific: Homepage, then collections, then products | [4] | |
| 9 | Internal links connect related products and collections with a logical relationship | [4] | |
| 10 | Each piece of content lives at one URL; duplicates redirect to the preferred URL or carry rel=“canonical” | [2] | |
| 11 | 301 redirects are in place for moved or discontinued products | [4] | |
| 12 | Pagination and incremental page loading follow Google’s ecommerce guidance so deep catalog pages stay crawlable | [3] | |
| 13 | The sitemap URL (https://your-store.com/sitemap.xml) is submitted in Google Search Console | [4] |
On Shopify, canonical tags, sitemap.xml and robots.txt are generated automatically [4], so points 10 and 13 reduce to checking they exist and submitting the sitemap once.
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Every page has a unique, clear, concise title that describes its content | [2] | |
| 15 | Title tags stay under 60 characters and carry the primary keyword | [4] | |
| 16 | Meta descriptions stay under 160 characters, unique per page, keywords used naturally | [4] | |
| 17 | One H1 per page for the title; H2 and H3 for subsections | [4] | |
| 18 | Keywords appear in page titles, descriptions and image alt text where they fit | [4] | |
| 19 | Content anticipates the words customers actually search, both novice and expert phrasing | [2] | |
| 20 | Content is unique, current and readable: paragraphs, headings, no copied text | [2] | |
| 21 | Product, page and blog SEO fields are edited per page rather than left at defaults | [4] |
A reviewed theme takes care of heading structure and generated title tags out of the box; the Shopify manual notes that themes made for the platform are built with the H1/H2 practice in mind [4], and catalog themes such as UTD’s Shopify themes pass that review before listing.
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Images are sharp, high quality, and placed next to text relevant to them | [2] | |
| 23 | Every image has short, descriptive alt text (“Men’s waterproof hiking boots”) | [2][4] | |
| 24 | Image file names match the content they show | [4] | |
| 25 | Videos sit on standalone pages near relevant text, with descriptive titles and descriptions | [2] |
Google’s ecommerce guide is a separate documentation set with its own steps [3].
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Product structured data is present so products qualify for product snippets and merchant listings | [3] | |
| 27 | Product data is shared with Google (Merchant Center feed or structured data on page) | [3] | |
| 28 | Variant pages follow Google’s variant markup guidance | [3] | |
| 29 | Return policy and shipping policy markup or Merchant Center settings are filled in | [3] | |
| 30 | The URL structure follows Google’s ecommerce URL design recommendations | [3] | |
| 31 | New store launches follow the “launch a new website” steps from the ecommerce guide | [3] | |
| 32 | Review content follows Google’s “write high quality reviews” guidance | [3] |
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | SSL is active and every page serves over HTTPS (default on Shopify) | [4] | |
| 34 | robots.txt exists and does not block pages you want indexed | [1][4] | |
| 35 | sitemap.xml exists and lists the URLs you care about | [2][4] | |
| 36 | Canonical tags are present on collection and product pages | [4] | |
| 37 | Pages you do not want in results are opted out with noindex rather than left to chance | [2] | |
| 38 | Site performance is reviewed in Search Console and page speed monitored in analytics | [4] |
| Done | # | Point | Src |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | The store is promoted where its audience is: social, communities, ads, offline materials, word of mouth | [2] | |
| 40 | Content that earns natural links exists and is updated; links from other sites accrue over time | [2][4] | |
| 41 | Old content is refreshed or removed when it stops being relevant | [2] | |
| 42 | Changes are given weeks, not hours, before judging impact; some take months | [2] | |
| 43 | Search Console is checked on a schedule, not just after traffic drops | [1][4] | |
| 44 | The site: operator confirms key pages are in the index | [2] | |
| 45 | Nobody on the team is spending time on the “not worth it” list below | [2] |
Straight from the Starter Guide’s “things we believe you shouldn’t focus on” section [2].
| Non-factor | Google’s position |
|---|---|
| Meta keywords | Google Search does not use the keywords meta tag |
| Keyword stuffing | Tiring for users and against spam policies |
| Keywords in the domain or URL path | Hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs |
| Content length | No word count target, minimum or maximum |
| Subdomains vs subdirectories | Do what makes sense for your business |
| PageRank obsession | One signal among many |
| Duplicate content “penalty” | Inefficient, but not a manual action unless you copy others |
Six: canonical tags, sitemap.xml generation, robots.txt generation, SSL certificates, title tags produced by the theme, and structured data that themes generate. The Shopify manual lists these as built-in SEO features. You still write the titles, descriptions and alt text yourself.
The Shopify manual says Google indexes a site automatically within 48 to 72 hours after content is added or updated. You cannot force a re-index, but submitting the sitemap in Google Search Console and using the URL Inspection tool prompts recrawling.
No. Google's SEO Starter Guide states the length of content alone does not matter for ranking purposes and there is no magical word count target, minimum or maximum.
It is not a penalty. Google says duplicate content on your own site is not a violation of its spam policies, but it wastes crawling resources and can confuse users, so a canonical URL or a redirect from non-preferred URLs is still worth setting.