If your Shopify store struggles to grow organic traffic, the platform isn’t holding you back. I’ve audited Shopify stores across Singapore, small brands operating out of Jurong, ACRA-registered DTC businesses, and ecommerce stores scaling past five figures a month. The pattern stays consistent.
Rankings don’t stall because Shopify is “bad for SEO.” They stall because the technical foundation inside the theme never gets cleaned up. This is exactly the work I do as a Shopify consultant in Singapore: fixing structural issues directly in the code, not masking them with apps.
So let’s address the question honestly Is Shopify good for SEO in 2026?
Yes, but only if you understand where Shopify falls short technically and how to work around those limits.
Why Shopify Gets Blamed for SEO Problems It Didn’t Create
One argument comes up repeatedly
“Shopify is bad for SEO because I can’t access the server.”
That sounds technical, but it’s mostly an excuse.
Shopify removes server access intentionally. It enforces stability and prevents the plugin chaos that destroys performance on poorly maintained WordPress sites.
At the same time, Shopify gives full control over themes, templates, Liquid logic, and internal linking, which is where most SEO damage actually happens.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth. Shopify ships with three real SEO weaknesses out of the box. They affect crawling, speed, and URL behaviour. None of them is fatal. All of them are fixable if you understand how Shopify renders pages.
Shopify isn’t killing rankings.
Poor theme decisions are.
The Real Reason Many Shopify Stores Struggle to Rank
When Shopify SEO fails, it usually comes down to one thing: structure.
I see stores with
- Duplicate URLs competing against each other
- Bloated themes weighed down by leftover app scripts
- Product pages deleted the moment stock runs out
None of these issues comes from Shopify’s infrastructure. They come from how the store is configured.
Once you clean up the structure, Shopify SEO becomes far more predictable and scalable.
How Shopify Quietly Creates Duplicate URLs (And Why It Matters)
Most store owners never notice this problem, but Google does.
Shopify allows the same product to appear under multiple URLs, such as
- /products/blue-shirt
- /collections/shirts/products/blue-shirt
To a customer, these pages look identical.
To Google, they are two separate URLs.
This creates three problems
- crawls both URLs
- Google Internal links split authority
- Rankings take longer to stabilise
For Singapore stores with smaller catalogs, this dilution hurts more because you’re competing with regional marketplaces that already dominate crawl resources.
Why Canonical Tags Don’t Fully Protect Shopify Stores
Most agencies stop at saying, “Shopify handles this with canonical tags.”
That’s only half the story.
Canonical tags suggest a preferred URL, but they don’t stop Google from crawling alternatives. Google still spends crawl budget on collection-based product URLs and still distributes internal link signals across multiple paths.
That’s why some Shopify product pages hover on page two for months despite decent backlinks and content.
What I Change Inside the Theme to Consolidate Rankings
This duplication issue starts at the theme level, not the server.
Many Shopify themes generate product links that include the collection path by default. As a result, the same product ends up with multiple internal URLs. During an audit, I adjust how the theme outputs product links so every internal link consistently points to a single, primary product URL, no matter where the product appears on the site.
The fix itself is small, but the impact is immediate
- Google crawls one URL
- Internal links consolidate
- Ranking signals stop splitting
I handle this directly inside the theme files because doing it carelessly can break navigation. The important takeaway isn’t the code; it’s the outcome:
one product, one URL, one authority source.
That’s proper Shopify technical SEO, not surface-level optimisation.
The Hidden Cost of Shopify SEO Apps
Search for Shopify SEO advice, and you’ll see endless recommendations to install apps for:
- Schema
- Meta tags
- Image optimisation
- Sitemaps
Every app promises convenience. Every app adds JavaScript.
Here’s what actually happens over time.
Most apps inject scripts into the theme. liquid. Even after uninstalling them, leftover code often remains. I regularly audit stores weighed down by
- Render-blocking scripts
- Slower Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Poor Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Core Web Vitals drop, and rankings follow.
This matters even more in Singapore, where mobile users expect fast loads and abandon slow pages before they ever reach checkout.
Why Page Speed Is a Bigger SEO Lever in Singapore
Shopify quietly performs well for local businesses here.
Shopify runs on Cloudflare’s CDN, with local nodes in Singapore. That means
- Faster Time to First Byte
- Better mobile performance
- No dependence on cheap overseas hosting
Compared to many WooCommerce stores running on overloaded shared servers, Shopify delivers better baseline speed for Singapore traffic.
On top of that, Shopify integrates smoothly with PayNow and GrabPay via Shopify Payments. Faster, familiar checkouts reduce friction and improve engagement. Google doesn’t rank payment gateways, but it does measure user behaviour. Better UX supports stronger SEO indirectly.
Handling Out-of-Stock Products Without Resetting Rankings
This is one of the most expensive mistakes I see.
When a product sells out, many store owners hide or delete the page. That creates a 404 error and wipes out any backlinks or rankings the page earned.
The correct approach depends on intent.
If the product is coming back:
- Keep the page live
- Push it lower in collections
- Add a “Notify Me” option
- Update copy to set expectations
If the product is gone permanently:
- Implement a 301 redirect
- Send users to the closest relevant collection or alternative
This preserves SEO value instead of throwing it away.
Shopify vs WooCommerce SEO: The Trade-Off Most People Miss
People love framing this debate as Shopify vs WooCommerce SEO, but flexibility isn’t the real issue.
WooCommerce offers full server control. It also allows:
- Plugin conflicts
- Broken updates
- Severe performance degradation
I regularly audit Singapore WooCommerce stores that suffer from plugin overload, which quietly kills speed and crawl efficiency.
Shopify trades control for structure. You can’t accidentally generate hundreds of orphan pages or break URLs with one update. For revenue-focused ecommerce owners, this stability often works in their favour.
Why Shopify’s URL Structure Isn’t Your Real Problem
Yes, Shopify forces /products/ into URLs.
No, you can’t remove it.
That’s annoying, but it’s not what’s holding rankings back.
Shopify’s enforced structure maintains hierarchy and prevents orphan pages. Google doesn’t reward cosmetic URLs. It rewards relevance and internal clarity.
Instead of obsessing over URL aesthetics, I focus on:
- Strong internal links between blogs and products
- Semantic anchor text
- Collection-based topical clusters
This consistently outperforms cosmetic URL tweaks.
Final Verdict: Is Shopify Good for SEO in 2026?
Here’s the honest answer.
Shopify is a Ferrari engine inside a locked box.
It’s fast. It’s stable. It scales cleanly.
But if you don’t understand Liquid, internal linking behaviour, and theme architecture, you’ll never unlock its full potential.
Shopify doesn’t fail SEO. Poor implementations do.
When you fix duplicate URLs, remove app bloat, optimize Core Web Vitals, and manage inventory pages correctly, Shopify SEO becomes a real competitive advantage, especially for Singapore businesses targeting local and regional demand.
And if you’d rather not touch theme files yourself, working with a Shopify expert who understands both search behaviour and revenue impact makes all the difference, like me, or anyone who’s spent time balancing technical SEO with real-world Shopify revenue constraints.
