Been running my small store for a few months now and to be honest SEO is my main headache these days.
I have dabbled with free tools & done some basic keyword research but I am just not seeing the traffic growth I was hoping for. I am starting to think it is time to invest in a good SEO tool but I am stuck.
I keep hearing some sound like they could be useful but I am having a hard time deciding between them.
But I also do not want to just throw money at a bunch of different tools and hope for the best
Has anyone else here actually used either of these tools in a shopify store?
Which one actually gave you some real results (and not just a bunch of flashy features)?
Is Moz’s a decent option for someone who is no tech-head Ahrefs?
Honestly, before dropping $100+/mo on Ahrefs or Moz, make sure you’ve maxed out Google Search Console. It’s free and gives you actual data on what people are searching to find your store.
Between the two, Ahrefs wins hands down. I’ve used both over the years and Moz just feels outdated now. Ahrefs has a massive index and the site audit tool is great for catching Shopify-specific issues like duplicate content from collection tags.
That said, Ahrefs has a steep learning curve. My advice? Start with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. It’s free for your own verified site and lets you run a solid audit. Don’t pay for the full version until you actually have the time to execute on the data.
ShopIntegrations is right about GSC being the starting point. Just want to add something from my own experience.
For a small Shopify store, the tool choice honestly matters less than having a consistent workflow. I’ve seen stores with Ahrefs subscriptions that never look at the data, and stores on free tools only that rank well because they actually act on what they find.
What I’d do in your shoes: set up GSC, wait 2-3 weeks for data to come in, then look at two things. First, your top queries - what people are already finding you for. Sometimes you’ll discover you’re ranking page 2 for something you didn’t expect, and a small title or description tweak pushes you to page 1. Second, your coverage report - it’ll flag technical issues that might be holding you back.
If after a month on GSC you feel like you need more, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free tier) is the next step. The paid tools start making sense once you’re doing competitor research and content planning at scale, but for a store with a few months of history that’s probably premature.
What kind of products are you selling? That changes the SEO approach quite a bit.
I don’t think Moz or Ahrefs are the best tools to start with. I’d recommend checking out the Shopify App Store for SEO tools. Fix your technical SEO first, optimize your store speed. And after start focusing on content, external SEO like backlinks, social media and brand awareness.
Just a quick tip: don’t go with apps that let you generate thousands of blog posts each month. You might see a traffic spike, but sooner or later Google will demote you for spam.
Hi, so in my experience, I think Ahrefs is a great tool if you want to optimize for SEO. For context, I previously had a internship position where I needed to optimize the company’s blog articles to appearing at the top page of Google and Ahrefs was the one my supervisor recommmended. On Ahrefs there are a lot of free tools for keyword ideas that helped boost my SEO so you dont need to worry too much about spending too much on one tool. Hope this helps.
Hi @Yuparkoti. Ahrefs and MOZ are both great tools, but MOZ is cheaper. Pick the one that best fits your goals.
There is no single “best” SEO tool. Ahrefs, MOZ, and SEMrush are great for keyword research, analyzing competitors, and checking backlinks. However, they only provide estimates data. For exact numbers on traffic, clicks, and page views, you need Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA4).
You also rely on GSC and GA4 to fix indexing errors and investigate unusual traffic changes. If there were a “best” tool, it would be GSC, because it shows exactly how your site performs directly in Google’s search results.
Ultimately, Ahrefs and MOZ are very similar. If you know SEO well, the exact tool you use doesn’t matter too much. Personally, I use Ahrefs for keyword research and MOZ for checking backlinks and competitors. SEMrush is another affordable alternative to Ahrefs, though some in the SEO community feel its data is slightly less accurate.
Hi @Yuparkoti , I believe there are more do with how to utilize the tools rather than finding the “best” tool ever. You can also take advantage of Google tools first to see how your site is performing and it also provides you with essential data to start with.
Or if you’re not a techie, it can be overwhelmed to use such tools because they’re supposed to give you with all technical infor/data. You can consider using Shopify SEO apps for better execution because they’re easier to use and can apply directly to your Shopify store just by a few clicks
Choosing between Ahrefs and Moz can be tough because they are both powerful, but they can also be very expensive and a bit overwhelming if you aren’t an SEO pro. Ahrefs is amazing for deep data, while Moz is slightly more beginner-friendly. But for a small store, you might find yourself paying for a lot of “flashy” features you don’t actually need yet. Sometimes these big tools feel like a second job just to learn how to use them!
The most important thing to remember is that keywords aren’t everything. You could have the perfect keywords, but if your site is slow or if Google doesn’t understand your store structure, you still won’t rank. I’d suggest focusing on your site speed and Schema (the data that helps star ratings and prices show up in search results) too. These technical basics often move the needle much faster for Shopify stores than just chasing high-volume keywords. Focus on making your site fast and easy for Google to “read” first!
used both, ended up sticking with Ahrefs. Moz is fine but the UI feels dated and the keyword data isn’t as fresh. Ahrefs’ site audit tool is the most useful thing imo because it catches technical issues you’d never find manually.
that said if budget is tight, start with Google Search Console (free) and Ubersuggest (cheap). you’ll get 80% of the insights for a fraction of the cost. Ahrefs is worth it once you’re actively doing content marketing and need competitive analysis, but for a small store just getting started with SEO it’s probably more tool than you need right now. spend the money on content instead.
Hi Alex here,
I work with Shopify & Shopify Plus stores daily and my colleague runs the SEOLab app, so take this with that context.
Eli’s advice above is right. Moz and Ahrefs are built for agencies and content teams, not a store a few months in. Your fastest wins are on site fixes first. Missing meta titles, thin product pages, broken links, slow load times and no structured data hold back more small stores than keyword research ever will.
Any solid audit app from the App Store will surface those issues, SEOLab is one option and it walks you through fixes step by step which helps if you are not technical. Whatever you pick, pair it with Google Search Console. It is free and shows the keywords you already rank for on page 2, pushing those to page 1 is your quickest traffic gain.
Save the Ahrefs subscription for when you are publishing content regularly and need competitor data.
Yes, I agree with this. I personally use SEOLab as well, and the app works really well for store SEO audits.
The support is amazing, and the AI features are very useful for generating and improving meta titles, meta descriptions, alt text, and other SEO-related content.
As a technical person, I like that it helps speed up the audit process and makes it easier to identify SEO issues quickly. I use it on client stores to clean up the SEO basics before moving into bigger tools like Ahrefs or Moz.
If your budget allows go For Ahrefs or SE Ranking - wholesome solutions with keyword research, website analysis, audits, AI features.
If your budget is limited, I’d work much more with Google’s dashboards + get affordable tools, 1 for classic SEO (e.g. Seobility) as an alternative to those huge tools, + 1 for AEO/GEO (e.g. Beamtrace, SEOforGPT) to track AI mentions too.
