Shopify handles SEO well enough for most e-commerce businesses to rank competitively in search results. The platform includes all the core technical SEO features you need: editable title tags and meta descriptions for every page, product, and collection; automatic sitemap generation; customizable URL handles; image alt text fields; and mobile-responsive themes that pass Core Web Vitals when properly configured. The main limitations are structural. Shopify forces "/collections/" and "/products/" into URLs, which you can't remove without headless implementations. You get one blog per store, so multi-topic content strategies require workarounds. The template architecture makes it harder to create custom landing pages compared to WordPress page builders. Canonical tags are auto-generated and sometimes point to collection pages when you'd prefer the product page to rank. For technical performance, Shopify's hosted infrastructure typically delivers fast server response times and handles traffic spikes better than most self-hosted solutions. The CDN is solid. Apps can bloat your site quickly though—we've seen stores drop from 85 to 45 on PageSpeed Insights after installing five marketing apps. Every app adds JavaScript and external requests. Content-wise, Shopify's blog is basic but functional. You can rank product pages and collection pages with good on-page optimization: detailed descriptions, schema markup through apps or theme code, internal linking between related products, and actual helpful content instead of manufacturer copy. We've ranked Shopify stores for competitive commercial keywords in Canadian markets by focusing on product content quality and building topical authority through the blog. At Ottawa SEO, we run several Shopify stores in the portfolio. The platform doesn't limit rankings if you work within its structure. Most Shopify SEO problems come from thin product descriptions, duplicate content across variants, and neglecting the blog entirely. If you need complex URL structures, extensive custom fields, or advanced schema implementations, WordPress with WooCommerce gives more control. But for standard e-commerce SEO, Shopify delivers without requiring constant security updates or plugin compatibility management.