How to write SEO titles and meta descriptions for your Shopify products

What the SEO title and meta description are

Every product page in your store has two short texts written for search engines rather than for the page itself:

• The SEO title (called Page title in the Shopify admin) is the clickable blue line in a search result. It is also the text shown on the browser tab.

• The meta description is the short paragraph under that line. It doesn’t appear on your product page at all.

Together, they are your product’s shop window in Google and other search engines. The page title helps search engines understand what the page is about. The meta description doesn’t decide where a page appears, but it is often what convinces a shopper to click your result rather than the one below it. Tools that read and summarise web pages, AI assistants included, can read these fields too: a clear, factual title and description give them less room to misdescribe your product.

Where to edit them in Shopify

Each product has a Search engine listing section in the Shopify admin. The steps are generally:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product.

2. Scroll to the Search engine listing section. It shows a preview of how the product might appear in search results: a title, the product’s web address and part of a description.

3. Click the pencil icon to edit.

4. Fill in the Page title and Meta description fields. The URL handle field, which sets the end of the product’s web address, is in the same place.

5. Click Save.

A word on the URL handle: Shopify advises against changing it too often, because it can affect how the product shows in search results. Set it well when you create the product, then leave it alone.

How they differ from the product title and description

It’s easy to confuse the four fields, because they look alike:

Field	Where it appears	Who it’s for
Product title	On the product page, usually as the main heading, and on collection pages	Shoppers in your store
Product description	On the product page	Shoppers in your store
SEO title (Page title)	In search results and on the browser tab	Shoppers searching, and search engines
Meta description	In search results only	Shoppers searching

Your product title can be short and evocative, because the photos and the rest of the page give it context: “Luna”, “The Weekend Tote”. In a search result, that context is gone. “Luna” alone tells a stranger nothing. The SEO title is where you add what the product actually is.

What Shopify uses when the fields are empty

If you never fill in these fields, your products still show up in search results. Shopify fills them from the product itself:

• The title comes from the product title. Depending on your theme, your store name can also be added before or after it.

• The description comes from the product description, cut to a snippet.

Search engines can also ignore the meta description and build their own snippet from the visible content of the page, especially when they find text that better matches a particular search.

The defaults are fine for a product with a descriptive name and a description that opens with the essentials. They work badly when the product title is a first name (“Luna”) or when the description starts with a story (“Inspired by summer evenings on the coast…”): the search result then says nothing about the product.

How long they should be

• SEO title: the Shopify field accepts up to 70 characters, and Shopify suggests keeping titles to about 60 characters so they aren’t cut off in results.

• Meta description: Shopify recommends about 160 characters. Search engines may show less, particularly on mobile, so put the most important information in the first sentence.

Search engines cut long lines based on the space available on screen rather than an exact character count. Wide letters take more space than narrow ones. Treat the numbers as a guide, and check the preview in the admin.

Before adding your brand name to a title yourself, look at how your product pages already appear: if your theme already adds the store name, writing it again gives you “Luna Hoops | Brand | Brand”.

A simple formula for SEO titles

For fashion, jewelry and accessories, this structure works for most products:

Product name + main material or colour + product type (+ key detail)

Put the words a shopper would actually search for, typically the product type and material, near the start. Keep the product name if customers know it or search for it.

Examples

Jewelry

• Weak: Luna

• Weak: Earrings | Earrings Gold | Hoop Earrings | Best Earrings

• Better: Luna Small Gold-Plated Hoop Earrings

Ring

• Weak: Signet ring - new!!

• Better: Oval Signet Ring in Sterling Silver, Engravable

Clothing

• Weak: The Weekend Dress

• Better: Weekend Linen Shirt Dress, Navy, Midi Length

Bag

• Weak: Tote bag

• Better: Woven Straw Tote with Tan Leather Handles

The better versions don’t add adjectives like “stunning” or “perfect”: they add facts. Material, colour, shape and type are what people type into a search bar.

A simple formula for meta descriptions

A meta description is a two-sentence pitch. A structure that works:

1. What it is, with the details that matter: material, finish, size or fit.

2. Why it’s worth a click: a practical benefit or what makes it different, stated plainly.

Examples

Hoop earrings

• Weak: Luna. Inspired by summer evenings on the coast, this piece was born from our love of light.

• Better: Small gold-plated hoop earrings, 15 mm, light enough to wear every day. Hinged clasp, nickel-free. Sold as a pair.

Linen dress

• Weak: Shop our dress! Best dress, dress for women, summer dress, linen dress, cheap dress.

• Better: A navy linen shirt dress in a midi length, with a removable tie belt and coconut buttons. Relaxed fit, machine washable.

Leather belt

• Weak: (empty, so the snippet shows the first line of the description: Size guide: see below.)

• Better: A 3 cm vegetable-tanned leather belt with a solid brass buckle. Available in black and cognac, sizes 75 to 105 cm.

Only state what is true of the product. If the earrings aren’t nickel-free, don’t write it: a meta description that promises something the page doesn’t confirm disappoints shoppers who click.

Avoid duplicates across products and variants

Duplicate titles across several pages make it harder for search engines to tell those pages apart, and they make your search results look interchangeable.

• Variants share one page. In Shopify, the colours and sizes of a product are variants on the same product page. They share one SEO title and one meta description. Don’t try to name every colour in the title; mention the range in the meta description (“Available in black, cognac and tan”).

• Separate products need separate wording. Some brands create one product per colour. In that case, each product has its own page, and each title should include its colour: Woven Straw Tote, Natural and Woven Straw Tote, Black, not the same title twice.

• Don’t copy a template across a collection. “Beautiful jewelry from our collection, free shipping” on 80 products gives search engines and shoppers nothing to tell them apart. Keep a shared structure, not a shared sentence.

When to write them, and when not to rewrite

New products are the right moment. When a product is created, it has no search history yet: there is nothing to lose and everything to gain from a clear title and description from day one. Writing them while the product is still a draft, before it goes live, is the easiest habit to keep.

Existing products deserve more care. A product that already brings visitors from search has a title that works, even if it doesn’t follow your new formula. Replacing hundreds of titles at once, by hand or with a tool, can undo that without you knowing which change caused it.

A safer approach:

1. List products with empty fields or only the default title. Fix those first.

2. For products that already have a written SEO title, only change the ones that are clearly wrong (a name alone, outdated wording, a colour that no longer exists).

3. Change a few at a time, note the date, and compare over the following weeks.

This is also why a tool that writes SEO text should never overwrite titles you or your team have already written.

A checklist before you save

• The title says what the product is, not just its name.

• The main search words, such as type and material, are near the start.

• The title is around 60 characters or less.

• The meta description opens with the essentials and is around 160 characters or less.

• Every fact is true and confirmed on the product page.

• No keyword lists, no ALL CAPS, no repeated brand name.

• No two products share the same title.

Related guides: writing alt text for product images, renaming product images for SEO and uploading many product photos at once.

With Dropmatch

Dropmatch, a Shopify app published by Aryios, writes SEO text only where it can’t overwrite your work:

• New products get an SEO title and meta description. When photos don’t match any existing product, Dropmatch can create a draft product with an SEO title and meta description written from the photos, in your store’s language.

• Existing SEO titles and descriptions are never overwritten.

• Photos get alt text and an SEO file name. Each photo is described in your store’s language, following your brand rules: facts to respect and words to avoid.

• You edit before anything is sent. Every text can be changed first, and a whole batch can be undone afterwards.

See all features or the pricing.

Frequently asked questions