Independent SEO consultant · Shopify & Shopify Plus

Shopify SEO Consultant

Hi, I’m Blake Smith, an independent SEO consultant with more than 10 years of experience helping ecommerce businesses grow organic traffic and revenue, including Shopify and Shopify Plus stores.

I work directly with store owners, ecommerce managers, developers and agencies to find what is limiting a store in search, and what is worth changing first.

Blake Smith, Australian SEO consultant

Shopify SEO Consulting Services

Shopify store owners usually contact me when organic search isn’t pulling its weight compared with paid and social, or when something has changed and revenue has dropped.

I can help if:

  • ✓

    Your store sells well through paid or social channels, but organic search barely contributes.

  • ✓

    Organic revenue dropped after a theme change, a new app or a move to Shopify.

  • ✓

    Your collections aren’t ranking for the category searches your customers actually use.

  • ✓

    Filters, tags and sorting have created thousands of near-duplicate URLs.

  • ✓

    You’re moving to Shopify from WooCommerce, Magento or another platform and need redirects and structure planned properly.

  • ✓

    You sell in several countries with Shopify Markets and need regional URLs and hreflang checked.

  • ✓

    Apps and theme code are slowing the store down.

  • ✓

    Your team or agency needs senior SEO direction rather than another monthly report.

Shopify handles a lot of SEO basics well. The problems tend to sit in structure, duplication and what themes and apps add.

The work covers technical SEO, collection and product structure, on-page SEO, content, internal linking, migrations, international SEO, digital PR and AI search visibility.

Platform specifics

How Shopify SEO Differs From Other Platforms

Shopify makes some decisions for you. Good Shopify SEO works with them.

A Fixed URL Structure

Shopify uses fixed URL prefixes: /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/. They can’t be removed, so site structure has to come from collections, navigation and internal links rather than from URL folders.

It also means every URL changes when a store moves to Shopify from another platform, so redirect mapping is one of the most important parts of a migration.

Duplicate Product URLs

A product can be reached at /products/product-name and also through each collection it belongs to, such as /collections/shoes/products/product-name. Shopify points the canonical tag at the /products/ version, but many themes still link internally to the longer collection path.

Fixing the theme so internal links use the canonical product URL consolidates signals and reduces wasted crawling.

Filters, Tags and Sorting

Collection filters, tag pages and sort options can generate large numbers of URL variations. Some are worth having indexed because people search for them. Most are not.

Since 2021 Shopify has allowed stores to edit robots.txt through a robots.txt.liquid template, which gives direct control over how those variations are crawled.

Collections Are Your Category Pages

For most stores, collections should own the category searches with the most commercial value, such as “women’s running shoes” rather than individual product names.

That means planning which collections exist, how they are named and linked, and where useful content sits on the page without pushing products out of view.

On Shopify, the biggest opportunity often sits in collections and structure, not in product page tweaks.

“

The words legendary and hero gets thrown around all too often. Blake is neither of those. But what he is, a gun admired by his peers in the online marketing space for his attitude and approach to online marketing

– Oliver Lee

Why Work With an Independent Shopify SEO Consultant?

You work directly with me, the person analysing the store and making the recommendations.

I’ve worked on ecommerce SEO for startups through to multi-million dollar online stores, and I’m comfortable with Shopify, Shopify Plus and custom, larger-scale builds.

I can work alongside your developer, theme agency or marketing team, setting SEO requirements and reviewing changes before they go live.

Work is prioritised by likely revenue impact, starting with the changes most likely to move organic sales.

What I Check on a Shopify Store

Every review starts with the commercial picture: which products and collections make money, what customers search for, and what the search results reward. Then the Shopify specifics.

Illustration of keyword research and strategy
  1. 01

    Indexation and sitemaps

    What Google has indexed, and whether it should be.

  2. 02

    Product URL duplication

    Collection-path product links in the theme and how canonicals are handled.

  3. 03

    Collection structure

    Which collections exist, which searches they target and how they link together.

  4. 04

    Filters, tags and sorting

    Which variations deserve indexing and how the rest are crawled.

  5. 05

    robots.txt.liquid

    Crawl rules for parameters, internal search and other low-value URLs.

  6. 06

    Structured data

    Product schema from the theme and apps, and any duplication between them.

  7. 07

    Shopify Markets

    Regional URLs and hreflang for stores selling in more than one country.

  8. 08

    Speed and apps

    Theme code and app scripts that slow down key templates.

Then everything is prioritised by likely revenue impact.

Common questions

Shopify SEO Questions

Is Shopify good for SEO?

Yes, for most stores. Shopify handles hosting, security and many technical basics well. The main limitations are the fixed URL structure and the duplication that themes, filters and apps can create, and those are manageable.

Do I need an SEO app for Shopify?

Usually not for the basics. Titles, meta descriptions and redirects can be managed in Shopify itself. Apps can help in specific cases, but every app adds code, so it’s worth being selective.

Can you help with a migration to Shopify?

Yes. Migrations are where Shopify SEO matters most: mapping every old URL to its new equivalent, carrying content across, and checking indexation after launch.

Shopify SEO and Wider Ecommerce SEO

Shopify SEO is part of my broader ecommerce work. If your store runs on WooCommerce, see my WordPress SEO consulting page.

My SEO consultant in Australia page covers the rest of my consulting work.

SEO Success Stories

You’ll be in good company. I’ve worked on SEO campaigns for:

Client logos: ELMO Cloud HR & Payroll, Versace Home, Carpet One Floor & Home, Mettro, Manchester Warehouse, Aquabliss, St. Frock and JDH Architects

247%

increase in organic traffic for a national flooring brand

Industries include SaaS, national flooring companies, local solar providers and just about everything in between.

Testimonials from People I’ve Worked With

Blake is cool, calm and collected, you can throw anything his way, he’ll handle it like pro

– Georgia Leaker

Blake was focused and reliable as a strategic consultant

– Christopher McLaren

I would gladly give Blake a referral to anyone ready to progress or make the imperative jump into the online space

– Lindsey McIntyre
SEO consultation on a video call, talking a client through their results

Need Help With Shopify SEO?

Tell me about your store and what you need organic search to deliver.

I’ll review where things stand and recommend the most sensible next step.

Book a Consultation

Tell me about your project. You’ll hear back from me directly.