I noticed some big SEO changes lately. Since a few weeks, it looks like my SEO tools, such as Mangools and SEMrush, are not managing to give me my weekly updates. I have all metrics to zero, and I also noticed some big SEO drops since I updated my theme. (half of my free seo traffic lost)
I went from refresh 15.4.1 to 15.5.0. It did mention that some code cannot be copied when the update was finished, so I tried to copy everything that I could have modified, but I might have missed something. Do you think something in particular could affect my SEO ranking regarding the update to the new theme and/or the custom code that wasn’t copied?
Something to do with Google or something linked to it, maybe?
A theme update alone usually doesn’t cause such a significant SEO drop unless something important changed during the update.
Since Shopify mentioned that some custom code couldn’t be copied, I’d recommend checking:
Whether your title tags, meta descriptions, canonical tags, and structured data (schema) are still present.
If any robots meta tags or indexing settings changed.
Whether your Google Search Console is reporting new errors, coverage issues, or indexing problems.
If the updated theme introduced changes that affect Core Web Vitals or page speed.
Whether your analytics and tracking scripts (GA4, GTM, etc.) were preserved after the update.
Also, SEO tools like SEMrush and Mangools showing zero data could indicate an issue with crawling or indexing rather than just a ranking change.
I’d recommend comparing your previous theme with the updated one and reviewing Google Search Console for any warnings. If you’d like, I can also take a look at your store and help identify any technical SEO issues.
Two different things are stacked here and it helps to split them. Mangools and SEMrush showing all zeros and no weekly refresh is almost always a tool side problem, not a ranking loss. Those tools crawl on a schedule or pull from their own index, so zeros usually mean their crawler got blocked or the project hit a limit or reset, not that Google dropped you. I would not diagnose the actual drop from either of them.
For the real traffic, Search Console is the ground truth. Look at impressions and average position around the date you updated, and check the Pages report for a jump in anything not indexed or duplicate canonical.
On the theme side, the code that could not be copied on a Refresh update is usually custom Liquid you had in theme.liquid or the head or a template, and that is exactly where JSON-LD structured data, canonical tags, hreflang, and custom title and meta tags tend to live. If any of that did not carry over you can lose rich results and clean canonicals while the pages still look the same. Quick check is view source on your top few pages and confirm the title, meta description, canonical, and structured data are still there and correct.
What does Search Console show for those pages, an impressions drop, or the same impressions with lower clicks?
@TPELUCHEFACTORY ,
A theme update can definitely affect SEO, especially if some custom code wasnt carried over. Id check whether important elements like meta tags, structured data (schema), canonical tags, robots directives, and internal linking are still present after the update.
I’d also review Google Search Console for crawl errors or indexing issues. If your SEO tools are showing zero data it could be a temporary API issue but losing organic traffic after a theme update usually points to something that changed on the site rather than Google itself.
Hi! A theme update by itself usually shouldn’t cause a major SEO drop, but if some custom code wasn’t copied over, it’s definitely worth checking. Missing SEO-related code (like structured data, meta tags, canonical tags, or custom redirects) can affect rankings and how SEO tools read your site.
I’d also recommend checking Google Search Console first to see if Google is reporting any indexing, crawling, or coverage issues. Compare a few key pages before and after the update, and inspect your robots.txt, sitemap, and page source to make sure everything is still being generated correctly.
Since you mentioned SEMrush and Mangools are showing zero data, it could also be a crawling or tracking issue rather than an actual ranking loss.
If the timing lines up exactly with the theme update, I’d start with a full technical SEO audit of the theme to identify anything that may have changed. That should help pinpoint whether the issue is theme-related or something else. Hope you get it sorted!
A theme update by itself usually doesn’t cause a significant drop in rankings, but if custom code wasn’t carried over, it can affect SEO.
A few things I’d check are:
Whether your title tags and meta descriptions are still being generated correctly.
If any structured data (schema) was removed during the update.
Whether important pages are still indexable and not accidentally set to noindex.
If your internal linking or canonical tags changed.
I’d also verify the site in Google Search Console to see if there are any indexing, crawl, or enhancement issues that appeared around the same time as the update. That will help determine whether the drop is theme-related or due to a broader Google algorithm change.
I am so sorry you are dealing with this. Losing half your traffic is terrifying, but please do not panic. This is a very common problem when updating a Shopify theme.
The reason your SEO tools are showing zero metrics is that your tracking codes were likely deleted. If you previously added Google Analytics, Search Console verification, or SEMrush tags directly into your old theme.liquid file, the 15.5.0 update wiped them out. You need to open your old theme code, find those missing or tags, and paste them into your new theme. You should also go into your new Theme Customizer and make sure all your “App Embeds” are turned back on, because updates usually switch them off by default.
This missing code is exactly why your actual search traffic dropped, too. If you lost your custom SEO snippets or structured data during the update, Google suddenly cannot read your pages properly. To fix this and prevent it from ever happening again, I highly recommend using SearchPie: SEO, Speed & Schema. It safely manages your SEO data and schema markup automatically outside of your core theme code, so you never lose your rankings when you update your theme.
Hope this helps you get your traffic back quickly!
Jumping in because this exact pattern — big version bump on Refresh + “some code couldn’t be copied” — almost always means whatever lived in theme.liquid’s <head> got dropped, and that’s usually where your JSON-LD product schema sits.
Fastest way to confirm: pull one of your product URLs through Google’s Rich Results Test. If “Product” doesn’t show up as a detected item anymore, that’s your answer — the schema block got orphaned in the update, not your rankings actually tanking. Also worth doing view-source (not inspect element) on the same page and searching for application/ld+json — if it’s missing entirely, same story.
Did the Rich Results Test come back clean or is it flagging something?
