Learn how Google and AI read your store
Fifteen guides in five clusters — one per check. Start with the pillar, go deeper where it hurts. Written from what the checker actually enforces, not generic SEO advice, and each ends with the free tool that detects the problem on your own store.
Feed rejections run the check →
Pillar guideGoogle Merchant Center requirements for Shopify, in plain wordsWhat Google Merchant Center actually requires of Shopify products, the five mistakes behind most disapprovals, and how to audit your catalogue in an afternoon.Deep diveHow to write Google Shopping titles that get approvedHow to write Google Shopping titles that get approved and clicked: brand-first word order, the 150-character limit, and the formatting traps to avoid.Deep diveProduct descriptions that survive Google ShoppingWhat Google wants in a product description, why thin supplier copy gets rejected or ignored, and a rewrite pattern with examples.
Landing pages run the check →
Pillar guideWhat Google requires of your product landing pagesWhy Google disapproves products whose pages load fine for you: 500s, blocks, redirects, soft 404s and price mismatches — and how to test like a crawler.Deep diveWhen the feed and the landing page disagreeWhy price and availability mismatches between your feed and landing page draw preemptive disapproval — and how to keep the two in sync.Deep diveThe URLs that quietly stop being productsRenamed handles, collection redirects and soft 404s silently disapprove products. How to audit every product URL on Shopify.
AI crawler access run the check →
Pillar guideRobots.txt for AI crawlers: who you are actually blockingWhich AI crawlers your robots.txt blocks without you knowing, how longest-match rules actually work, and how to let search-time agents in on Shopify.Deep diveGPTBot versus ChatGPT-User: allow one, maybe block the otherGPTBot trains models, ChatGPT-User answers shoppers with links to you. What each AI agent does and how to set robots.txt per agent.Deep divellms.txt: the introduction your store hands to AIWhat llms.txt does, what to put in one for a Shopify store, and why it matters for AI shopping answers even before it is widely honoured.
Structured data run the check →
Pillar guideProduct schema on Shopify: what the theme gives you and what it hidesWhat your Shopify theme emits, the five fields it does not, ProductGroup variants, and how to validate markup the way a crawler reads it.Deep diveThe two markup fields that unlock shipping and returns in listingsHow hasMerchantReturnPolicy and shippingDetails unlock shipping and return info in listings — with JSON-LD examples and the account-level shortcut.Deep diveMarking up variants: the ProductGroup patternHow to mark up multi-variant products with ProductGroup and hasVariant, why flat Product blocks under-represent catalogues, and the ratings trap.
Sitemaps run the check →
Pillar guideShopify sitemaps and the “could not fetch” errorWhy Search Console says it could not fetch a sitemap that loads fine for you, what “success with 0 URLs” means, and the fix order that resolves most cases.Deep diveCrawl budget: why some products never get indexedHow crawl budget works on Shopify stores, how dead sitemap URLs waste it, and the audit that gets product pages indexed faster.Deep diveShopify robots.txt: the lines that matterThe Shopify robots.txt template explained: what to disallow, what must stay crawlable, and the mistakes that block products from Google.
Prefer error-by-error? Every Merchant Center error, explained. Ready to test? Site audit · Feed check · Product pages · AI crawlers · Structured data · Sitemap · Indexing · Canonicals · Orphan pages · llms.txt · Trust pages · Availability · Prices · Schema coverage · Social preview · Images · Hreflang · Redirects · Duplicates · Soft 404s · JavaScript · Broken links · Freshness · Robots.txt · Feed finder.