I am working on improving on-page SEO for my Shopify store https://honestlop.com/ and I’m a bit confused about the best approach.
Some people recommend using SEO apps/plugins for things like meta titles, descriptions, image alt text, and structured data, while others suggest doing everything manually for better control and performance.
I would like to know:
Is using SEO apps enough for good on-page optimization?
Does manual SEO give better long-term results?
Is it okay to use a mix of both (apps + manual edits)?
I want to improve rankings without slowing down my site or creating SEO issues. I’d really appreciate suggestions from experienced store owners or SEO experts.
I have tried a lot of SEO apps and my personal recommendation is that SEO apps never help you this much when it comes to better performance and ranking.
SEO is something that needs to be done manually for long-term results and it needs to be up to date time to time.
Honestly I won’t recommend you to use SEO apps because the more apps you’ll install the slower your website will be so the best option is to get your store SEO optimized manually.
Always use an app for things that would take days to implement, @Moeed s answer is incorrect, Shopify is not wordpress. If the app does not load code on the storefront - It does not slow down your store.
I checked your store and It’s not bad in terms of technical SEO. You have JSON-LD, your metadata should be improved as It defaults to title and description, some images are missing ALT texts, social metadata is perfect.
Use an app like TinySEO and save yourself the time doing everything SEO related manually.
SEO apps are helpful but not enough – They save time by handling things like meta tags, image alt text, and structured data, but they can be generic and miss the best way to attract visitors.
Manual SEO works best in the long run- Writing your own titles, descriptions, headings, and content gives more control and can improve your rankings and clicks.
A mix of both works best- Use apps for bulk or technical tasks, and focus on manual edits for your top products, collections, and key pages.
Hello @basharatmalik. To answer this question, there are quite a few factors at play. But for a new website, especially if you don’t have much experience with SEO, I recommend starting with a manual approach.
It won’t necessarily be “better” than apps, but you’ll gain a more comprehensive understanding of SEO when you do it yourself from A to Z. Only then can you evaluate whether the features of SEO apps are truly effective and determine which ones you actually need.
By carefully selecting the apps you use, you’ll save a lot of money instead of spending it on unnecessary tools (after all, the goal of SEO is to optimize costs). Good luck getting started!
I recommend using an app to get the data where to work. But to do the task accordingly and efficiently, you must do it manually.
If you use the app solely, your ultimate goal of ranking up will not be achieved in the long run. Although you may get some unsustainable short-term impacts.
In a nutshell, the app is for help and write to stay bright.
Really like the way this thread is going, apps are a supplement to manual SEO work.
There are apps that can do things that you can’t do manually easily (like IndexNow submissions, LLM outreach – LinkGPT etc does this) but for basic SEO, manual is absolutely fine.
In any case, I view apps as supplemental (but can be strong supplements in any case)
SEO apps might help you somewhere making the process easier but always remember, if you can do the on page seo manually, you should always do it manually, like setting up the meta titles, meta descriptions, SEO titles, setting up the keyword density of xuper tv, avoiding keyword cannibalization and adjusting the length of the articles.
No matter how much advanced seo plugins you use, if you understand the SEO basics right, you can use every SEO plugin to the fullest, otherwise you’ll just waste your time making the SEO plugins criteria’s towards the green signal.
Agreed with the @LitExtension point of view… It’s better to start SEO manually or you can try Free Apps.. and specilyl.. you can not ignore the Google page insights speed free tool. @basharatmalik
Hi @basharatmalik ,
It’s great to discuss this topic with everyone here. I’m Zoey from SEOWILL AI SEO App. I really appreciate everyone sharing their different thoughts.
I believe any tool is ultimately an aid to human effort. If you don’t understand SEO, whether you do manual SEO or use SEO tools, you won’t achieve the best SEO optimization for your website. Moreover, there’s the impact of AI SEO on traditional SEO now.
The current skepticism towards SEO tools might stem from the idea that installing a tool will immediately bring organic traffic. However, SEO is slow and requires accumulation. If you have the time, energy, and SEO skills, I believe you can gradually accumulate organic traffic without using SEO tools.
SEO apps are more suitable for people with limited time and energy. For example, if you only have 10 products, you can use a free image compression tool to losslessly compress product images one by one and add alt text. But if you have 1000 products, I believe you’ll want a tool to free you up.
There are now many AI tools on the market that help us write articles. If you’re not a copywriter with a lot of time and skills, perhaps accepting an AI SEO app to help you achieve this is a quick and worthwhile option to try.
Furthermore, SEO success also requires data support. You can use the free tool Google Search Console, but you’ll need to learn how to use it. Alternatively, you can use paid data tools to view the results more intuitively.
I’ve helped you check your website’s current organic traffic.
I think a combination of both is the best approach.
SEO apps are great for automating repetitive tasks like generating meta tags, adding structured data, checking broken links, optimizing image alt text, or monitoring technical SEO issues. They can save you a lot of time, especially as your catalog grows.
That said, I wouldn’t rely on automation for everything. Product titles, descriptions, collection pages, and blog content usually perform better when they’re written and optimized manually with your target customers in mind. That’s where you can really make your content unique and answer the questions shoppers are searching for.
My rule of thumb is:
Use an SEO app for technical SEO and automation.
Do the content optimization manually for your most important pages.
Also, don’t worry too much about apps slowing down your store. A well-built Shopify app should have minimal impact on performance. Just avoid installing multiple apps that overlap in functionality, especially if they all modify the same SEO elements.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one option, you could take a look at SearchPie: SEO, Speed & Schema. It covers technical SEO, structured data, image optimization, page speed, and SEO audits in one place, so you can automate the repetitive work while still having full control over your content. That’s generally the workflow I’d recommend for long-term SEO success.
Apps are good at the boring stuff: alt text across a big catalog, basic schema, catching broken links or duplicate titles. Once you’re past 50-ish products doing that by hand isn’t really realistic.
Where apps fall down is anything customer-facing — product titles, descriptions, collection pages. Auto-generated copy for these tends to read like everyone else’s and doesn’t answer what the person actually searched for. That’s the stuff worth writing yourself.
So: app for the technical/repetitive layer, manual for your important pages’ actual content.
On slowdown — a decent app won’t tank your speed. The real risk is running two or three tools that all fight over the same SEO fields. Just pick one.
I’ve been using SiteGuru for the audit piece. It crawls your site and gives you a prioritized list of what’s actually broken, instead of trying to write your content for you — and it doesn’t inject anything into the storefront, so no extra weight. Worth a look for the “mix” approach without stacking apps.
