An SEO title in Shopify is the meta title tag that search engines display as the blue clickable link in search results. By default, Shopify uses your product name, collection name, or page title as the SEO title, but you can override it by editing the 'Search engine listing preview' section at the bottom of any product, collection, page, or blog post editor. This matters because your page title might be optimized for customers already on your site (like 'Men's Running Shoes - Fall 2024'), while your SEO title needs to target search intent and fit within Google's 50-60 character display limit (roughly 600 pixels). A good SEO title front-loads your primary keyword, includes your brand if there's room, and stays under 70 characters to avoid truncation. Shopify automatically appends your store name to titles on the homepage and sometimes collections, which can waste character space. You can remove this by editing your theme's theme.liquid file or using apps like SEO Manager or Plug in SEO, though we typically handle this through custom Liquid edits to maintain full control. Common mistakes we see: leaving SEO titles at default (missing keyword optimization), keyword stuffing that looks spammy, or writing titles over 70 characters that get cut off with '...' in search results. For product pages, structure should be 'Primary Keyword - Secondary Modifier | Brand' when character count allows. For collections, lead with the category term people actually search, not your internal naming convention. At Ottawa SEO, we audit Shopify stores and find that 60-70% of pages use default titles that don't match search volume data from Google Search Console. Fixing this is low-hanging fruit. We prioritize high-traffic pages first, write titles that match verified search queries, and A/B test variations when traffic justifies it. The SEO title is your first impression in search results, it directly impacts click-through rate, and Shopify makes it easy to customize once you know where to look.