SEO Audit for Shopify help
Product and collection pages
These 10 checks look at the pages where people decide to buy: product titles, photos, descriptions, the buy box, reviews, collections and checkout.
Now on the Shopify App Store. These guides go with Store Audit: SEO & AI Search, the Cape Wired app that checks your store for you. Install it from the Shopify App Store, or follow the steps below to check your store yourself.
Last updated: 29 October 2026Clear product titles
What it means: Product titles show up in Google, collection grids and AI answers. They need to say what the product is, not just its brand name or an internal code.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Go to Products and open one of your best-sellers.
- Rewrite the title as: what it is, plus one key detail that suits the product (colour or material for clothing, scent or size for beauty, flavour for food and drink).
- Remove stock codes, SKUs and abbreviations only your team would know.
- If short names are part of your brand, keep them, and under Search engine listing give the product a page title that says what it is (for example "Hartley Linen Shirt in Sage Green" for a shirt called Hartley).
- Save, then repeat for your other key products.
What good looks like: Every key product title says what it is plus one useful detail, with no codes. Where names are short by design, each product's Google title does that job instead.
Enough product photos
What it means: Photos do the job of picking a product up in a shop. One packshot leaves people guessing about size, texture and detail.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Go to Products and open a key product.
- In the Media section, check you have at least four images.
- Add a shot that shows scale (in a hand or next to a familiar object), an in-use shot and a close-up of the detail.
- Compress images before uploading so each is under 2 MB.
- Keep the background and lighting consistent across products.
What good looks like: At least four images per key product: a clean main shot, a scale shot, an in-use shot and a detail shot, in a consistent style and under 2 MB each.
Helpful product descriptions
What it means: Shoppers skim. A description that starts with what the product does for them, and answers their usual questions, helps them decide.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- List the questions customers ask most about a product (check emails, reviews and chats).
- Go to Products and open the product.
- Start the description with one sentence on the main benefit.
- Add short bullet points that answer those questions.
- Aim for at least 80 words, then save and repeat for other key products.
What good looks like: A benefit-led opening line, a few bullets covering who it is for, what it is made of and how to use it, then a short paragraph on the brand or how it is made.
Clear buy box
What it means: The area around Add to cart should show the price, options, whether it is in stock and when it will arrive. Each missing piece is a reason to hesitate.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Go to Online Store > Themes > Customise and open a product template.
- Check the price and variant picker sit next to the Add to cart button.
- If your theme has an inventory or stock status block, add it near the button.
- Add a text block with your delivery estimate near the button.
- On the live site, switch between variants and check the price, image and stock all update.
What good looks like: Price, variant buttons, a stock line and a delivery line, all right by Add to cart.
Reviews on product pages
What it means: Reviews are one of the strongest trust signals. A star rating near the title reassures people straight away.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- If you don't have one, install a reviews app from the Shopify App Store.
- In Online Store > Themes > Customise, add the app's star rating block under the product title.
- Add the full reviews section further down the product page.
- In the reviews app, switch on automatic review request emails after delivery.
- Check your newest review is recent, and ask past customers if not.
What good looks like: A star rating and count right under the title, full reviews with names and dates lower down, and automatic review requests after delivery.
Related product suggestions
What it means: Suggesting what goes with a product helps people find what they need and can lift your average order value.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- In Online Store > Themes > Customise, open your product template.
- Add a related products or complementary products section if your theme supports it.
- Use the Search & Discovery app to hand-pick complementary products for your best-sellers.
- If your theme's cart drawer or cart page has a product suggestions setting, switch it on.
- Add a product to your cart on the live site to check suggestions appear.
What good looks like: Hand-picked "pairs well with" suggestions on key product pages, and at least one relevant suggestion in the cart.
Collection intros and filters
What it means: A short intro tells shoppers and Google what a collection is for. Filters and sorting stop people scrolling through long lists.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Go to Products > Collections and open a key collection.
- In the description, write one to three sentences on what is in it and who it is for.
- Set a sensible default sort order (such as best-selling).
- In the Search & Discovery app, go to Filters and add useful ones such as product type, price and availability.
- In the theme editor, open a collection page and check its settings show the description and filters.
What good looks like: Every key collection opens with a short intro, sorts sensibly and has working filters once it holds more than a dozen products.
Tidy collections
What it means: Collections are how people browse. Empty, duplicate or one-product collections look neglected and confuse search engines.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Go to Products > Collections and look at the product count for each.
- Delete or hide collections that are empty or hold only one product, or add products to them.
- Merge collections that cover the same thing.
- Rename collections based on supplier names or internal codes to words customers use.
- Update your menus in Content > Menus to match.
What good looks like: A handful of obvious collections, each with enough products to browse, no duplicates, organised the way customers describe what they want.
Practical details on product pages
What it means: Sizing, ingredients, materials and care information should sit on the product page, where people decide. Making them hunt for it, or hiding it in an image, loses sales.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Gather the practical details for each key product.
- In Online Store > Themes > Customise, add collapsible row blocks under the description on your product template.
- Add rows such as Ingredients or Materials, How to use, Delivery and returns, and a short FAQ.
- Type the details as text, not only as an image or PDF.
- For details that differ by product, use metafields in Settings > Metafields and metaobjects and connect them to the rows.
What good looks like: Clearly labelled collapsible rows under the description with the details as text, plus a size guide with measurements for clothing.
Smooth checkout
What it means: Everything else is wasted if the last step stumbles. Express payments let people pay in a couple of taps.
How to fix it in Shopify:
- Go to Settings > Payments and switch on Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal.
- In Online Store > Themes > Customise, select the buy buttons block on your product template and turn on dynamic checkout buttons.
- If your theme's cart has a setting to show express checkout buttons, switch it on.
- Do a full test purchase on your phone, up to the payment step.
- Check the delivery cost matches your site and a discount code works.
What good looks like: An express payment button under Add to cart and in the cart, and a checkout where prices match the site and discount codes work first time.
Want to go deeper?
The Shopify DIY Self-Audit Kit
Want the full checklist, worked examples and the scorecard? The Cape Wired Shopify DIY Self-Audit Kit covers all 40 checks in depth, including product and collection pages.