Shopify Agency and SEO

Should you use a Shopify theme or have a custom theme built?

Use a configured theme when your catalogue and brand fit one with modest changes, and build a custom theme when the changes would touch most of the templates. A theme is cheaper to build and easier to keep updated; custom is a larger invoice and a larger maintenance responsibility. The table sets out where each route fits.

How do Shopify collections, tags and filters create duplicate content?

Collections are Shopify's category pages, and tags and filters let one collection appear in many near-identical views. Each view gets its own URL. Left unmanaged, a few hundred products can present thousands of thin, overlapping pages, so the job is to decide which views deserve to exist and keep the rest from competing.

• Collections are the pages to rank. Most buying searches match a category, not a product, so give each important collection a clear search target, an introduction above the products and useful copy below them. A collection that is only a grid has nothing of its own to rank on.
• Tags are not categories. Using tags to build ever more specific views is tempting, and it is the quickest way to generate pages that overlap with their parent. Use tags for filtering inside a collection, not as a second navigation system.
• Filters need a rule per filter. A filter that matches a real search, such as a colour plus a product type, can justify a page with its own heading and copy. Sort orders, price ranges and stacked combinations should not be indexed. The same logic applies on any platform.
• Collections can be nested only by navigation. Shopify has no true subcategory hierarchy, so the structure is built through menus and links. Plan the menu so a crawler can reach every collection and product through ordinary HTML links, not a search box.
• Pagination needs its own treatment. Pages beyond the first are separate URLs. They should be linked with ordinary anchors, carry their own canonical tag, and not be hidden behind a load-more button that a crawler will not press.
• Apps can quietly undo the rules. A filtering or search app that rewrites URLs can reintroduce exactly the parameter pages you blocked. Re-test indexation after installing or changing one.
• Product handles matter more than they look. Changing a handle changes the URL. Choose handles carefully before launch, and when you must change one, create the redirect in the same step.

What makes a Shopify store slow, and how do you fix it?

Apps, theme scripts, unoptimised images and third-party tags make a Shopify store slow. Shopify's servers rarely do. Fixing it means measuring which scripts load on which pages, removing what does not earn its place, and correcting images and fonts. Most of the cost is added after launch, one app at a time.

• Apps load code on every page. Even an app used on one template can inject scripts and styles across the whole store. Audit what each app loads, and where it loads it.
• Uninstalling an app does not always remove its code. Leftover snippets in the theme can keep loading after the app is gone. Search the theme files for them after removal.
• Tracking and marketing tags pile up. Chat, consent, heatmaps and advertising pixels all compete for the same main thread, which hurts how quickly the store responds to a tap. Keep them in one tag manager and prune it.
• Images are usually the heaviest asset. Serve correctly sized images in modern formats with set dimensions, load those below the fold lazily, and never lazy-load the first large image on a page.
• Fonts and sliders cost more than they look. Fewer font files and a single static hero image often beat a slider that loads every slide up front.
• Measure what real visitors experience. Core Web Vitals field data in Search Console shows what customers get, which a single lab test on a fast laptop does not. What the Core Web Vitals measure explains the targets.
• Speed is a conversion issue first. It decides whether someone sees the product at all.

How do you choose a Shopify agency or a Shopify SEO agency?

Ask who changes the theme code, how they decide which collections and filtered views are indexed, what they do about apps, and how they protect rankings in a migration. Ask to see the written output, not a slide of logos. An agency that cannot answer in specifics is selling the platform, not the work.

• Who edits the theme? SEO findings on Shopify only matter if somebody can change the Liquid templates that cause them. Find out whether the agency writes theme code or hands a list to your developer.
• How do they decide what gets indexed? A good answer starts with how people search and ends with a rule per collection and filter. “We block everything” and “we index everything” are both wrong.
• What is their attitude to apps? You want someone prepared to remove an app, or replace it with a few lines of code, not someone who answers every problem with a subscription.
• Will they say if Shopify is wrong for you? Ask directly. An agency that has only ever built on one platform has a reason to say yes.
• How do they run a migration? Look for the URL map before the build, a redirect for every old address and an indexation check afterwards.
• What will you own at the end? Your store account, domain, theme files and data should be in your name. Ask what is transferred on handover.
• What have they actually built? Our own delivery record is international rather than UK-based, and the projects we have built show what we have made, not rankings we cannot promise. Weigh a freelancer, an agency and an in-house hire honestly with this comparison.
• A shortlist question for SEO specifically: how to choose an ecommerce SEO agency lists the rest.