How to get your Shopify store on Google

To get your Shopify store on Google, choose a paid plan, make the store public, add it to Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. Google then finds your pages on its own, which can take a few weeks. If your store is still missing, the checks below help you find out why.

Is your store already on Google?

Search Google for site:yourstore.com, using your own domain. If your pages come up, Google has indexed them. If nothing comes up, work through the steps below in order. If pages do come up but you cannot find them with normal searches, skip to the last section: your problem is ranking, not indexing.

Six steps to appear on Google

1. Choose a plan. Shopify lists trial accounts among the reasons a store does not appear in search results.
2. Turn off private mode. A password page keeps Google out. Our guide on removing the Shopify password shows the steps.
3. Check that your products are visible. A product in Draft, or removed from all sales channels, returns a 404 error, so there is nothing for Google to index.
4. Connect Search Console and submit your sitemap. Follow our tutorial on connecting Google Search Console to Shopify.
5. Request indexing for your key pages. The URL Inspection tool lets you ask Google to crawl a single URL, such as your homepage or your best product.
6. Earn a few links. Google suggests getting linked from other sites, such as a supplier or a partner brand, and warns against paying for links.

How long does it take?

Expect days to weeks, not minutes. Google says it can take a few weeks to notice a new site, and that crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. It also says a crawl request does not guarantee that a page will be included in results, quickly or at all.

Why is your store still missing?

Do not worry if a few pages stay out. Shopify notes that Google does not index every page of a site.

Being indexed is not the same as ranking

Once your pages are in Google’s index, they still have to be a good match for what people search. Shopify names a lack of keywords and relevant content as the most common reason for low rankings. Nobody can promise you a position, but you can give each page a clear purpose. Our Shopify SEO guide shows where to start.

Forgefont delivers your store in an unpublished theme, and nothing goes live until you decide. Before launch, we ask you to remove the password so we can check the pages the way your customers will see them. For the copy itself, you can add the SEO-optimized site option, written following Google’s official documentation, when you configure your store.