Complete guide to setting up on-page technical SEO on Shopify with the SEO Doctor app

Optimizing your Shopify store’s on-page SEO can make a significant difference in search engine rankings and customer engagement. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up on-page technical SEO effectively, from optimizing meta tags to improving site speed.

In this article, we will be outlining how to setup on-page technical SEO with the features of the SEO Doctor app by Magical Apps for your Shopify store.

The Magical Apps team builds apps that provide solutions for business to success online. Developing over 130 Shopify stores, we also manage apps like the 4.5 star rated SEO Doctor.

For these instructions, I worked with our team of developers and support agents on how to setup and install the app. 

If you feel like there is something missing, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Table of contents

App Install Instructions

Installing the app on your Shopify store is easy.

Click “Install” on the SEO Doctor app listing page.

Add App

App Setup Instructions

After completing the app installation, read the setup instructions to learn how to fix issues on your store, use SEO tools, autopilot, and more.

Initial App Setup

Setup Instructions

For assistance with setup, please contact the Magical Apps team after you have installed the app.

For additional support, use our knowledge base to learn more details about the app and its features.

App Setup Instruction Library

Dashboard

After installing, SEO Doctor will give you an overview of the scan it has completed on your website and issues it has identified. As long as you have the app installed, SEO Doctor will be running constant checks on your website for SEO issues.

The Dashboard will also provide you with your overall SEO score.

Fix Issues

In this tab, SEO issues identified by product and collections are displayed.

Included for each product and collection are the number of issues, how many have been fixed, and the SEO score. The goal of this area is to clear all issues.

To start fixing issues:

  1. Optional: Click the eye icon along the right-hand side of each product or collection to preview the exact issues in a modal window.
  2. Click “Fix Issues” to initiate manually fixing the issues for that product or collection. Or click, “Fix Automatically” if you are on a paid plan with autopilot.
  3. If you click the “Fix Issues” button:
    1. In all tabs, when the red “x” changes into a green checkmark, you can consider the issue in question fixed. 
    2. Then, go through the following categories to improve your SEO score:
      1. Target Keyword: This is the keyword you want to rank for.
        1. Write your own keyword or click “Get Keyword Suggestions” to generate options automatically.
        2. Click “Save” to finalize your choice.
      2. Meta Data: This section includes the meta title and description that will show on search engine results pages.
        1. Fill out the “Meta Title” and “Meta Description” fields. Reference the checklist of requirements on this tab when writing them. Your title and description should meet all requirements.
        2. Click “Save” to publish your changes.
      3. Page Contents: This section includes the title and description that will show on front-end pages.
        1. Fill out the “Page Title” and “Page Description” fields. Reference the checklist of requirements on this tab when writing them. Your title and description should meet all requirements.
        2. Click “Update” to publish your changes.
      4. Image Alt Texts: This section includes fields to input image alt text.
        1. Click “Auto Populate and Save” to generate alt text automatically, or write custom alt text yourself
        2. Click “Save Alt Text” to publish your changes.
      5. Image Compression: This section compresses your images to improve the page load speed of your store.
        1. Click “Compress All” to compress all of the associated images together, or click “Compress” to do one at a time. The compression will be scheduled and the result will show within the app once complete.

SEO Tools

This tab consists of the following four sections:

Image Alt Text

In this section, view all of the product images on your store and customize the alt text for them.

  1. Click “Generate Suggestions” to generate a group of alt text options.
  2. Click the suggestion you want to apply to your product image.
  3. Click “Save” to publish the change to your store.

Optionally, use the drop down menu at the top of this page to enable filtered views of all product images, images with alt text, or images without alt text.

Rename Images (Pro)

This page lists all images on your online store by product and enables you to rename the files associated with them.

To rename images:

  1. Find the image you’d like to rename. You can use the search box at the top of the page or using the arrow navigation at the bottom of the page to browse photos one page at a time.
  2. After finding the image you’d like to rename, click the text box under “Name text” and enter the new file name.
  3. Click “Save”.
Image Compression

In this section, all of your product images with their names, compression status, and a relevant action (“Compress” or “Revert”) are listed.

To compress images:

  1. Choose an image with a “Status” of “Uncompressed”.
  2. Click “Compress”.
  3. The image status will change to “Scheduled to compress”.
  4. Click “Check status” to confirm if the compression has been completed. If complete, the Status will update to “Compressed”.

Optionally, use the drop down menu at the top of this page to enable filtered views of all, compressed, or uncompressed product images.

Fix any broken links on your store by creating redirects with this feature. 

To setup your first redirect:

  1. Click “Create URL redirect” to set up your first redirect.
  2. Set the broken link path using the broken link slug that appears after the / in the primary domain (ex. magicalapps.com/broken-link).
  3. Set the new link path using the new link slug that appears after the / in the primary domain (ex. magicalapps.com/new-link).
  4. Click “Fix Broken Link”.

If you have existing redirects click “Add redirect”. Existing redirects are listed with the “Broken path” (the link that is broken), the “Redirect path” (where the broken link is now pointing to), the status of the redirect (“Success” or “Pending”), and the option to delete your redirect.

Autopilot (Pro)

The SEO Doctor Autopilot feature allows you to configure the app to automatically fix all current SEO issues and future SEO issues that might come up as search engines like Google changes their algorithm or as you add new products to your store.

Setting up autopilot meta title

Setting up autopilot for your meta titles allows SEO Doctor to automatically follow the rules you have set to fix your meta title issues as they come in.

To enable autopilot meta titles:

  1. Click the “Meta Title Optimization” block to expand it.
  2. Click the toggle beside “This option is disabled.” to enable the option.
  3. Then, use the below instructions to set the Conditions.
Conditions 
  1. Choose which condition you want SEO Doctor to apply when fixing meta title issues for you. “All” will apply autopilot to all pages with no exceptions. “Pages without meta title” will apply autopilot to only pages that do not have a set meta title. If you are using Google Merchant Center, it is recommended to use the condition “Pages without meta title”.
Rules
  1. If you are not familiar with using templates select “Let SEO Doctor Decide”. Or, choose “Use title template” to control how SEO Doctor generates your meta title.
  2. If you’ve selected “Use title template”, add the template variables you want to use under the Product and Collection tabs.
  3. Click “Save” at the top of the page to save your changes.
Setting up autopilot for meta description

Setting up autopilot for your meta description allows SEO Doctor to automatically follow the rules you have set to fix your meta description issues as they come in.

To enable autopilot meta descriptions:

  1. Click the “Meta Description Optimization” block to expand it.
  2. Click the toggle beside “This option is disabled.” to enable the option.
  3. Then, use the below instructions to set the Conditions.
Conditions 
  1. Choose which condition you want SEO Doctor to apply when fixing meta description issues for you. “All” will apply autopilot to all pages with no exceptions. “Pages without meta description” will apply autopilot to only pages that do not have a set meta title. If you are using Google Merchant Center, it is recommended to use the condition “Pages without meta description”.
Rules
  1. If you are not familiar with using templates select “Let SEO Doctor Decide”. Or, choose “Use title template” to control how SEO Doctor generates your meta description.
  2. If you’ve selected “Use title template”, add the template variables you want to use under the Product and Collection tabs.
  3. Click “Save” at the top of the page to save your changes.
Image Alt Text fixes with Autopilot

With autopilot, SEO Doctor fixes your image alt text automatically for you based on the preferences you set.

To enable image alt text:

  1. Click the “Image Alt Text” block to expand it.
  2. Click the toggle beside “This option is disabled.” to enable the option.
  3. Then, use the below instructions to set the Conditions.
Conditions 
  1. Choose which condition you want SEO Doctor to apply when fixing image alt text issues for you. “Optimize for images with no Alt text” will apply autopilot to only images that do not have set alt text. “Optimize for all images” will apply autopilot to all pages with no exceptions. 
Rules
  1. If you are not familiar with using templates select “Let SEO Doctor Optimize”. Or, choose “Use Image Alt template” to control how SEO Doctor generates your image alt text.
  2. If you’ve selected “Use Image Alt template”, add the template variables you want to use under Product Images.
  3. Click “Save” at the top of the page to save your changes.
Image compression fixes with Autopilot

With autopilot, SEO Doctor can automatically compress your images for you using the preferences you set.

To enable image compression:

  1. Click the “Image Compression” block to expand it.
  2. Click the toggle beside “This option is disabled.” to enable the option.
  3. Then, use the below instructions to set the Conditions.
Conditions 
  1. Choose which condition you want SEO Doctor to apply when applying image compression for you. “All product images” will apply autopilot to all pages with no exceptions. “Only images above 100Kb” will apply autopilot to only images that have a file size above 100 kilobytes. 
Rules
  1. “Let SEO Doctor Compress” is the only Rule available and will be automatically displayed and selected after selecting the condition.

With autopilot, SEO Doctor tracks broken links that don’t work and redirect them to links that do automatically.

If you have a preferred destination for product pages, collection pages, special pages and blog pages there is an option that allows you to set your own redirect path for them.

Autopilot will continuously import your broken links from Google Webmaster Tools and do the extra job of redirecting all those broken URLs for you. 

To enable image compression:

  1. Click the “Broken Links” block to expand it.
  2. Click the toggle beside “This option is disabled.” to enable the option.
  3. Then, use the below instructions to set the Rules.
Rules
  1. If you are not familiar with setting up broken link redirects select “Let SEO Doctor Decide”. Or, choose “Set redirect path” to control how SEO Doctor handles broken links for product pages, collection pages, blog pages, and other pages.
  2. If you’ve selected “Set redirect path”, ensure the boxes for each category (product pages, collection pages, blog pages, other pages) you want autopilot to automatically fix are checked.
  3. Set the domain slug for each enabled category. This is what broken links will be redirected to.
  4. Click “Save” at the top of the page to save your changes.

Report

The Report page contains a table with data concerning issues for: Meta Titles , Meta Description, Image Alt Texts, Images Compressed, Broken Links. Each tab displays an overview of how many issues have been found and fixed in those categories.

In each tab, you can sort the report by filtering all the issues, or issues that are pending, fixed, or failed.

Each tab will also have 4 columns that provide further detail for the issues SEO Doctor has identified.

  1. The Issue Description column will explain what the issue is and where it was found on your store. 
  2. The Issue Detected column will provide you with the exact date and time the issue was identified. 
  3. The Issue Status column will let you know if the identified issue is pending, fixed, or failed.
  4. The Info column will display additional information related to the Fixed issue in question. For instance, under Images Compressed it will show when it was compressed and how much the file size was reduced.

Settings

On the Settings page, you will be able to access:

  1. Plans: See all the SEO Doctor Pro Plans. You can upgrade and downgrade from here.
  2. Notification: Provide an active email address to receive updates on fixes or issues as and when they happen on your store.
  3. Business Update: Provide your business details to allow SEO Doctor to submit data to search engines and other crawl bots.
  4. Install 404 Tracker: 404 (Broken Links) tracker is installed as an “App Embed” on Shopify themes. Activate the 404 tracker in order to see broken links in the Reports section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Discover answers to common questions about the SEO Doctor app for Shopify.

Read FAQs

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