Should I edit robots.txt on Shopify?

Only with a specific reason. The default is sensible; the most common damage from custom rules is blocking pages that were earning traffic.

Do collection filter URLs need canonicals?

Yes. Filtered views should either be canonicalised to the base collection or be deliberately indexable with unique content — not both, and never neither.

Technical guide

Shopify technical SEO: the parts you actually control

Shopify hides most of the server layer, which removes whole classes of problems and creates a few specific ones. This guide covers the technical surface a merchant can genuinely influence.

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URL structure and duplication

Shopify exposes products at /products/handle and again at /collections/x/products/handle. The second form is convenient for navigation and dangerous for crawling. Ensure the canonical always points to /products/handle, and prefer linking to the canonical form in your own templates and internal links.

Tag and filter URLs multiply quickly. Filtered collection views rarely deserve indexing unless they target real demand and carry unique copy. Decide deliberately which filters are indexable rather than letting the theme decide.

robots.txt and sitemaps

Shopify serves a default robots.txt that you can extend with robots.txt.liquid. Be conservative: a broad Disallow can remove commercial pages from search. Shopify's sitemap index is generated automatically and updates as you publish; submit it once in Search Console and let Google re-read it.

Redirects

When you delete or rename a product, create a URL redirect in the Shopify admin. Without it, every external link and every internal link that survived the rename lands on a 404. Redirect chains — A to B to C — should be flattened so each old URL points directly at the final target.

Speed

Most Shopify performance problems come from apps injecting scripts into every page and from oversized hero images. Audit installed apps periodically, remove script tags from uninstalled apps, serve images at the size they are displayed, and lazy-load anything below the fold.

StoreFix detects this class of issue during the audit, applies the safe repair through the Shopify Admin API, stores the previous value so you can undo it, and re-runs the audit to confirm the fix landed.

Frequently asked questions

Should I edit robots.txt on Shopify?: Only with a specific reason. The default is sensible; the most common damage from custom rules is blocking pages that were earning traffic.
Do collection filter URLs need canonicals?: Yes. Filtered views should either be canonicalised to the base collection or be deliberately indexable with unique content — not both, and never neither.

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StoreFix scans your Shopify store, repairs everything it can safely change, and runs the audit again to verify the result.