Shopify provides basic SEO tools out of the box that cover the fundamentals but won't match the depth of dedicated SEO platforms. You get control over title tags and meta descriptions for every page, product, and collection. Image alt text is editable, which matters for both accessibility and image search. The platform automatically generates an XML sitemap at yourstore.com/sitemap.xml and handles canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues. Where Shopify falls short is advanced control. You can't access the robots.txt file directly beyond what Shopify allows, and server-level redirects require using the built-in URL redirect tool (limited to 10,000 redirects on most plans). There's no native schema markup editor, though Shopify adds basic product schema automatically. You can't modify the URL structure beyond the handle, meaning you're stuck with /products/ and /collections/ prefixes unless you use Shopify Plus and custom liquid. Shopify apps fill most gaps. Apps like Plug in SEO, SEO Manager, or Smart SEO handle schema markup, meta tag automation, and broken link detection. For stores selling 500+ SKUs, these apps save hours compared to manual optimization. The theme editor lets you add custom code snippets for advanced schema or tracking, assuming you're comfortable with liquid templating. At Ottawa SEO, we typically run Shopify stores through Screaming Frog first to catch the technical gaps, then layer in apps for what's missing. The platform's hosting speed is solid (70–85 PageSpeed scores are common without heavy optimization), and the CDN handles images well. The real limitation is architectural: if you need complex filtering, faceted navigation, or unusual URL patterns, Shopify fights you. For straightforward e-commerce with 50–5,000 products, the built-in tools plus 2–3 apps usually get you 85% of what a custom platform would deliver, at a fraction of the development cost.