SEO basics for your shop

What the theme does for you

• Clean headings on every page, so Google understands what each page is about.
• Structured data for products (name, price, availability, rating), articles, breadcrumbs, your organization and your site search, which can show as rich results in Google.
• Fast pages and phone-friendly layouts, which Google uses in ranking.
• A Social sharing image setting (in Theme settings > Brand), shown when a link to your shop is shared.

What you do

1. Page titles and descriptions: at the bottom of each product, collection and page in your admin, select Edit under "Search engine listing". Write a title under 60 characters with what the page sells ("Retinal Night Serum for Fine Lines | Your Brand") and a description under 155 characters that makes people want to click.

2. Your home page: in Online StorePreferences, write the home page title and description.

3. Product descriptions: write your own, at least 150 words: what it is, who it is for, what it does, how to use it, key ingredients. Never copy a supplier's text.

4. Picture descriptions (alt text): on each product picture, select Add alt text and describe it: "Retinal night serum in a 30 ml amber dropper bottle".

5. Collections that match searches: name collections the way people search: "Serums for dry skin", "Vegan lipsticks". Add a short description to each.

Grow with a blog

Articles that answer real questions ("How to layer retinal and vitamin C", "Finding your foundation undertone") bring visitors who are ready to learn and buy. Link each article to the products it mentions. See About, contact, FAQ and blog pages.

Tell Google about your shop

Add your shop to Google Search Console (search.google.com/search-console) and submit your sitemap, which Shopify makes for you at yourshop.com/sitemap.xml. Search Console shows what people search to find you, and any pages Google cannot read.