Reading a Shopify audit honestly
Shopify handles the parts of technical SEO that most platforms get wrong: HTTPS, redirects, a valid sitemap and a sane default robots.txt. What it leaves to you is the theme, the apps and the content, and that is where most Shopify stores lose points. Theme code decides whether product structured data is valid, whether images carry dimensions, and how many scripts load before the hero image. Apps add more scripts. Collection descriptions decide whether a category page has any text to rank or be cited for.
The audit reports everything, including the items Shopify controls, because a complete picture is more useful than a flattering one. Use the owner tags in the report: “developer” items usually mean the theme, “content” items mean the product and collection editors, and anything marked as a platform constraint can be set aside.
What this audit looks at for shopify sites
The audit runs the same 60+ checks as the main tool. The items below are the ones that most often decide the outcome for this kind of site, with the fix we recommend.
- Collection and product URL duplicates
- Shopify serves products at /products/handle and /collections/name/products/handle. The audit checks that the canonical tag points to the primary product URL.
- Theme JSON-LD
- Most themes output Product and Organization structured data; some output invalid JSON when a field is empty. The audit parses every block and reports errors and types.
- App scripts and theme weight
- Each app can add scripts to every page. The audit counts scripts, measures HTML size and pulls Lighthouse opportunities for the page.
- robots.txt.liquid rules
- Shopify lets you edit robots.txt through robots.txt.liquid. The audit shows what the file currently allows for Googlebot and AI crawlers, so you can see whether a customization went too far.
- Sitemap listing
- Shopify generates /sitemap.xml automatically. The audit checks it is valid and whether the page you entered is listed.
- Core Web Vitals
- Hero sliders and oversized product images are the usual LCP problem. The audit reports real-user data where it exists and lab data otherwise.
Frequently asked questions
- What can’t I change on Shopify?
- The URL structure (/products/, /collections/, /pages/), the automatic sitemap, server-level headers such as HSTS and CSP, and the /checkout flow. The audit still reports those items so you know they are platform constraints rather than mistakes.
- Will the audit penalize me for things Shopify controls?
- Some checks will show notices you cannot act on, such as security headers. Focus on the errors and warnings in the categories you control: on-page, content, structured data, performance and crawler rules.
- Which page should I test first?
- A product page, because the template repeats across the catalog. Then a collection page and the homepage.
- Does it work with Shopify Plus or headless stores?
- Yes for any publicly reachable page. Headless storefronts should pay attention to the content-without-JavaScript checks, since AI crawlers do not render JavaScript.