Skip to main content
MenuClose

Shopify SEO from one consultant, starting with a free audit

Shopify SEO gets a store's product pages and collection pages, Shopify's name for category pages, found in Google and AI search. It's for stores with a range of products, trading six months or more. I'm Will Sibley, one consultant. I start with a free written audit, and monthly work is from £1,000 a month ($1,500).

The audit costs
Nothing
How long it takes
Three working days
What you send
Store address, revenue range, email
Who writes it
Will Sibley, by hand

Proof

Shopify SEO results from a store I work on

A UK Shopify store came to me in June 2026 with almost no traffic from Google, in a category Google won't run ads for. I did the work in the order the audit sets out. The numbers come from its Search Console, Google's free report on search traffic.

0 to 281

clicks a week from Google, in fourteen weeks

438

of the 1,000 searches Search Console lists now rank in the top ten, with 143 in the top three

84%

of the store's clicks from Google came from phones

Clicks from Google, per week

Average Google position, per week

Google Search Console, web search, all queries. Weekly totals for the fourteen full weeks from 16 June to 21 September 2026. Store anonymised. Average position is the mean of the daily averages.
Weekly Google Search Console data for the store
Week beginningClicksImpressionsAverage position
16 Jun 2026026153.9
23 Jun 2026354549.2
30 Jun 2026353243.5
7 Jul 2026653344.0
14 Jul 2026256839.7
21 Jul 20261180237.1
28 Jul 20263096434.3
4 Aug 202626110029.1
11 Aug 202640130825.9
18 Aug 202663208123.6
25 Aug 202684309820.5
1 Sep 2026125355314.9
8 Sep 2026182430112.2
15 Sep 202628152739.8

What the chart shows

Clicks from Google went from 0 a week to 281 a week in fourteen weeks, from 16 June to 21 September 2026. The store's average position moved from 53.9, which is page six of Google, to 9.8, which is page one. In total that's 856 clicks from 24,919 impressions, the number of times Google showed the store.

Read the Shopify store case study

What's included

The eight things the Shopify SEO audit checks

The free audit is two to three pages in plain English, with the three to five fixes that would move revenue first. It works through these eight checks, and the examples come from the store in the chart.
  1. 01

    Which pages Google has listed

    Shopify creates addresses you never asked for, such as /collections/vendors?q= and /collections/types?q=. It marks most of them with a canonical tag, a line of code that tells Google which address is the real one, but Google treats that as a suggestion. On the store above, a vendor page drew 385 impressions that belonged on a proper brand collection, which took half an hour to build. I also read the sitemap, the list of pages a store hands to Google.

  2. 02

    Collection pages

    Collections match the buying searches, and on many Shopify stores they're a grid of products with a title and nothing else. A competitor who wrote 150 words then sits above you. I check each title, the opening text and whether two collections overlap.

  3. 03

    Product pages

    I look for the maker's own description pasted in, the ?variant= addresses Shopify makes for each size or colour, and deleted products. Shopify shows a "page not found" error when you delete a product. On the store above, an address carrying utm_source=google was listed beside the clean one.

  4. 04

    Structured data

    Structured data is hidden code that tells Google a product's price, stock and star rating. Current themes output it themselves, so an app that writes its own gives Google two versions. On the store above I removed a paid app doing exactly that, which took five minutes and saved a monthly fee.

  5. 05

    Speed and apps

    Shopify's hosting is fast, and what slows a store down is the theme and the apps. I read Google's speed data from real visitors' phones in PageSpeed Insights and look for code left by removed apps.

  6. 06

    Guides, reviews and the blog

    A review or buying guide under /blogs/ can rank for "best [category] UK" and send readers to the product page. One review on the store above draws over 3,000 impressions a month.

  7. 07

    Links from other sites

    I compare the sites linking to you with those linking to the stores that outrank you. A store with under twenty sites linking to it will struggle on a competitive search.

  8. 08

    AI search

    I ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews the questions a buyer in your category asks, and note which stores they name. See AI search.

How it runs

What happens after you send the form

  1. 01

    Day 1

    Send the form

    Your store's address, a monthly revenue range and an email. The audit works from the public store, so there are no logins to share.

  2. 02

    Days 1 to 3

    I go through the store

    I run Screaming Frog, which reads every page the way Google does, and pull your rankings and your competitors' from SEMrush. It takes a few hours per store.

  3. 03

    By day 3

    The audit arrives

    Two to three pages by email, with the fixes in order. Your revenue range lets me put a realistic figure on what each fix could add.

  4. 04

    Afterwards

    It's up to you

    Take the list to your developer, or ask me to quote for the fixes. If search isn't worth the effort for your store yet, the audit says so.

Price

What Shopify SEO costs

The first audit is free and needs no logins. A paid audit goes deeper, using your Search Console and Google Analytics data, and I quote a fixed price before starting. Monthly work, where I do the fixes, content and links, starts at £1,000 a month ($1,500).

WhatPriceWhat it covers
Free Shopify SEO audit£0Two to three written pages with the three to five fixes to make first, sent within three working days.
Paid Shopify SEO auditQuoted on scopeA page-by-page audit with Search Console and analytics access, ending in a task list your developer can work from.
Monthly Shopify SEOFrom £1,000 a month ($1,500)Fixes in the theme and admin, collection and product pages, content, links and a monthly report.

How to choose

Should you hire a Shopify SEO agency or a Shopify SEO expert?

Hire an agency if you want a team running SEO, ads and design together, and one consultant if you want a senior person working in your store. I'm one consultant, so this table sets out when each is the better fit.
An agency is the better choice whenOne consultant is the better choice when
You want SEO, shopping ads and theme design under one contract.You want the person who audited the store to make the fixes in the theme.
You need hundreds of product descriptions written each month.Your collections sit on page two of Google and should be on page one.
You sell in several languages and need each market managed.You have a developer or theme agency and need someone to direct the SEO.
Your buying rules require a supplier with a team behind it.You'd like a written view of your store before you pay anything.

Whoever you choose, ask who will log in to your Shopify admin, and ask for a sample audit. Mine is free, so you can put it beside anyone's. This page is part of my ecommerce SEO work, and agencies can use my white-label service.

Questions

Shopify SEO questions

Is the Shopify SEO audit really free?

Yes, and there's no catch. It's the same first look I'd take at any store before agreeing to work on it. Some stores go on to hire me for the fixes and plenty don't, and you won't hear from me again unless you reply.

Who is the free audit for?

It suits Shopify and Shopify Plus stores trading for six months or more, with a range of products and revenue in the tens of thousands a month. It's less use to stores that haven't launched, or to dropshipping stores selling the same catalogue as a hundred others.

Are you a Shopify SEO agency or a consultant?

A consultant. Sibley Digital is me, Will Sibley, with ten years in search, including as Senior SEO Manager at The Telegraph. Part of my week goes on growth assessments for merchants of By the Numbers, a Shopify analytics app, so I see the order data behind many stores as well as their rankings.

How is this different from the free Shopify SEO audit tools?

The tools give the store a score out of a hundred. They can spot a missing image description, but they can't tell you that your vendor page outranks your brand collection. My audit is written by a person who has read your store and the two or three that outrank it.

Is Shopify good for SEO?

Yes, good enough that it's rarely what holds a store back. The /collections/ and /products/ prefixes, the basic blog and the pages that filters create are all manageable. My Shopify SEO guide has the detail.

Can you do the fixes as well?

Yes. I make them in the theme and the Shopify admin, or write them up for your developer or theme agency. That's monthly work from £1,000 a month ($1,500), and it includes technical SEO. A migration to or from Shopify is quoted on scope.

Guides

Guides on Shopify SEO

Written from client work. All guides

Get started

Get your free Shopify SEO audit

Send me your store's address and I'll tell you where it stands and what the first fix is likely to be worth at your size.

A range is fine. It tells me what a page-one ranking is worth to you, and it stays between us.

All three fields are needed. I write the audit myself and send it by email, usually within three working days. There is no mailing list, and I won't chase you afterwards.