Shopify's SEO controls are split between the platform's native fields and your theme's code. Start with the basics Shopify gives you: every product, collection, page, and blog post has editable title tags, meta descriptions, and URL handles. Your product title becomes the H1 and title tag by default, so front-load it with your primary keyword while keeping it readable. Meta descriptions don't rank you, but a compelling 140–155 character summary improves click-through from search results. URL handles matter more than most Shopify owners realize. The default handle is auto-generated from your product title, often bloated with stop words. Edit it to something like /mens-running-shoes-black instead of /mens-ultra-comfortable-running-shoes-in-black-size-10. Shorter, keyword-focused URLs perform better and are easier to share. Image optimization is critical in e-commerce. Shopify doesn't auto-generate alt text, so you need to add descriptive, keyword-relevant alt attributes to every product image, especially the primary one. This feeds Google Images traffic and helps accessibility. Compress images before upload—Shopify serves them fast, but a 2MB product photo still kills mobile load times. Heading structure is theme-dependent. Most modern Shopify themes use H1 for product and page titles, but check your theme code or use a browser inspector. Your product descriptions should use H2 or H3 tags for subsections like Features, Specifications, or Care Instructions. Many store owners paste content from Word or Google Docs, which strips heading tags and creates a wall of paragraph text. Structure it properly. For technical SEO, enable Shopify's built-in sitemap.xml and submit it in Search Console. Shopify auto-generates canonical tags and handles duplicate content better than most platforms. If you're on Shopify Plus, you can edit the robots.txt and theme.liquid files for advanced control. For standard plans, you're limited to app-based solutions for schema markup or advanced redirects. At Ottawa SEO, we often see Shopify stores with solid products but identical meta descriptions across hundreds of product pages. Write unique descriptions for at least your top 20–30% revenue-generating products. The rest can follow a template, but avoid pure duplication.