Shopify SEO CSV audit
Drop in your Shopify products export to find every image without alt text and every product with a missing, too long or duplicate SEO title or description. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded.
Your product CSV
Export it in Shopify from Products, then Export. Any size works. The file is read on your device and is never uploaded or stored.
Results
Choose your CSV file or try the sample data. The summary appears here.
- Turn on JavaScript to run the audit. The checks and how to fix them are explained below.
Fix list
High priority first, 25 rows per page. The download has every issue in file order, with the image URL, so you can work through it product by product.
| Product handle | Priority | Issue | Current value |
|---|
What does the CSV audit check?
It reads every product and image in your Shopify products export and flags missing alt text, missing or over-long SEO titles and descriptions, duplicates across products and thin product descriptions. In the export a product spans several rows, one per variant or image, and only the first row carries the title, description and SEO fields, so the tool groups rows by URL handle before checking. Both Shopify's current column names (URL handle, Description, Product image URL, SEO title) and the older ones (Handle, Body (HTML), Image Src) work, as described in Shopify's Using CSV files to import and export products.
| Check | Flagged when | Source |
|---|---|---|
| No alt text | Image alt text is empty | Google uses alt text to understand images (Google image SEO best practices); screen readers read it aloud |
| Alt text looks like a file name or is one word | Text such as IMG_4021.JPG, navy_vneck_02 or just "sweater" | Google asks for useful, information-rich alt text; a file name or a single word says little about the image |
| Alt text over 125 characters | More than 125 characters | Shopify: 125 or fewer is optimal, 512 is the maximum |
| No SEO title | SEO title is empty | Shopify then uses the product title, which is often short or vague |
| SEO title over 70 characters | More than 70 characters | Shopify's limit for the SEO title |
| SEO title of 61 to 70 characters | About 60 characters or more | An approximation: Google sets no character limit and shortens title links to fit the device (title link documentation) |
| No SEO description | SEO description is empty | Google then picks text from the page, which may not sell the product (snippet documentation) |
| SEO description over 320 characters | More than 320 characters | Shopify's limit for the SEO description |
| SEO description outside about 70 to 160 characters | Shorter than 70 or longer than 160 | A common approximation: Google sets no limit and truncates snippets to fit the device |
| Duplicate SEO title or description | The same text (ignoring case) on two or more products | Google recommends a unique title and description for each page |
| Product description under 50 words | Fewer than 50 words after removing HTML | Our own rule of thumb for a thin product page, not a Google number |
Length checks are approximate on purpose. Google measures titles and snippets in pixels, so for an exact preview of one product use the meta title and description checker, and to test a single image's alt text use the alt text checker. The background is in the meta description character limit guide and the alt text character limit guide.
How do I export my Shopify products to CSV?
In your Shopify admin, go to Products, click Export, choose All products and a CSV file type, then click Export products. The steps, from Shopify's export guide:
- In the Shopify admin, go to Products.
- Click Export.
- Choose All products (or the current page, selected products, or products that match your filters).
- Choose CSV file for Excel, Numbers, or another spreadsheet program or Plain CSV file. Both work here.
- Click Export products.
An export of all products is emailed to you rather than downloaded. Save the attachment, then choose it above or drop it on the box.
How do I fix the issues in Shopify?
For a few products, edit them in the admin. For hundreds, edit the CSV and import it back with "Overwrite products with matching handles", or use a bulk tool.
One product at a time
- SEO title and description: open the product, scroll to Search engine listing, click Edit, then change the page title and meta description and save.
- Alt text: open the product, click the image in the Media section and add or edit its alt text. The guide to adding alt text in Shopify covers products, collections and theme images.
The whole catalog through a CSV import
- Keep an untouched copy of your export as a backup. Shopify recommends this, and an import can't be cancelled once it starts.
- Open the export, fill in the Image alt text, SEO title and SEO description cells listed in your fix list, and save as CSV (UTF-8). Don't sort the rows: Shopify warns that sorting can break image links.
- In the admin, go to Products, click Import, add the file and select Overwrite products with matching handles.
- Click Upload and continue, check the preview, then click Import products.
With overwrite on, every column in the file replaces the store's value, and a blank cell clears it, so leave the other columns exactly as exported. Columns you leave out of the file keep their current values. Each file can be up to 15 MB; split bigger catalogs. The details are in Shopify's import guide. For other ways to edit in bulk, see how to bulk edit meta tags on Shopify, how to add alt text in bulk and how to fix duplicate meta descriptions.
Is my product file uploaded anywhere?
No. The CSV is read and checked by JavaScript in your browser. Nothing is sent to MetaGenius AI or anyone else, and nothing is kept after you close the tab. The fix list download is created on your device too. Large exports with tens of thousands of rows take a few seconds.