Shopify Plus SEO audit: the issues built into Shopify Plus — and how to fix them

Audit your XML sitemap and internal linking so that every product and category page is discoverable and crawlable by Google — not hidden behind JavaScript, pagination, or missing links.

1. 1Same steps as Shopify above. Additionally, use the Shopify Plus Launchpad and custom storefronts (Hydrogen/Headless) carefully: Headless builds must generate and serve their own sitemap — confirm it exists and is submitted to Google Search Console.
2. 2In the Shopify admin, check Admin › Markets if you use international markets: each market's locale URL structure should be in the sitemap and not blocked by robots.txt.
3. 3Use Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool on sample products from each collection to confirm they are Indexed and not 'Discovered – currently not indexed'.

<!-- CORRECT: Standard crawlable link -->
<a href="/products/blue-running-shoes">Blue Running Shoes</a>

<!-- WRONG: JavaScript-only — Googlebot cannot follow this -->
<span onclick="navigate('/products/blue-running-shoes')">Blue Running Shoes</span>

Eliminate unexpected layout shifts by reserving space for every image, video, embed, and dynamically injected element so nothing jumps when the page loads.

1. 1All standard Shopify steps above apply. Additionally, use Shopify Scripts or Launchpad to ensure promotional banners and flash-sale bars are pre-rendered in theme sections rather than injected via client-side JavaScript.
2. 2For checkout extensions: in the Shopify Plus Checkout Editor, all blocks are rendered server-side with reserved space — avoid injecting custom checkout content via external scripts that fire after load.
3. 3Use Shopify's CDN image transformations ({{ image | image_url: width: 800 }}) and always pair with width/height attributes in Liquid to prevent CLS on checkout and account pages.

<!-- CORRECT: explicit width and height prevent layout shift -->
<img
  src="/images/product-red-sneaker.jpg"
  alt="Red canvas sneaker, side view"
  width="800"
  height="800"
  loading="lazy"
>

Reduce Interaction to Next Paint (INP) to under 200 ms by breaking up long JavaScript tasks, deferring non-critical third-party scripts, and lightening event handlers so the page feels fast and responsive after every tap or click.

1. 1Follow all Shopify steps above. Additionally, audit scripts injected via Shopify Scripts (Script Editor app) — these run at checkout and can inflate INP on checkout pages.
2. 2In the Checkout Extensibility admin (if enabled), review Checkout UI Extensions for heavy JavaScript in their event callbacks and refactor them to defer work.
3. 3Use the Shopify Checkout Speed report (Analytics → Reports → Checkout funnel) alongside PageSpeed Insights to track INP on checkout pages specifically.

Reduce Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to under 2.5 seconds by serving the hero image in a next-gen format (WebP/AVIF), preloading it, and eliminating render-blocking resources.

1. 1Follow all standard Shopify steps above — Shopify Plus uses the same Liquid/theme architecture.
2. 2Additionally, use Shopify Plus's Script Editor (or Shopify Functions) to review checkout scripts — remove or defer any non-critical checkout JS that may be loaded site-wide via theme.liquid.
3. 3Use the Shopify Plus Organization Admin to push the optimized theme across multiple stores simultaneously if the same hero template is used across storefronts.
4. 4Engage Shopify Plus's Launch Engineer or a Shopify Expert for server-side rendering (Hydrogen/Oxygen) migration if LCP cannot be brought under 2.5s through theme-level changes alone.

<!-- Step 1: Preload the LCP hero image -->
<link
  rel="preload"
  as="image"
  href="/images/hero-banner.webp"
  imagesrcset="/images/hero-banner-400.webp 400w,
               /images/hero-banner-800.webp 800w,
               /images/hero-banner-1500.webp 1500w"
  imagesizes="100vw"
  fetchpriority="high"
>

<!-- Step 2: Hero <img> tag — eager, high priority, no lazy-load -->
<img
  src="/images/hero-banner-1500.webp"
  srcset="/images/hero-banner-400.webp 400w,
          /images/hero-banner-800.webp 800w,
          /images/hero-banner-1500.webp 1500w"
  sizes="100vw"
  alt="[Descriptive alt text for your hero image]"
  width="1500"
  height="600"
  loading="eager"
  fetchpriority="high"
>