# Set your Shopify title and meta, then check the source > Where to set a Shopify title and meta description, how long they can run, and how to check what your theme prints when a theme edit or an app changes them. > Published: 2026-10-12 > Canonical: https://rabbot.ai/blog/2026-10-09-shopify-title-and-meta-description-where-to-set-them/ > Tags: shopify, seo, page-titles, meta-descriptions --- **The short version.** You are filling in a Shopify page for the first time, or you searched for your own store and Google showed a headline you did not write. A page's title is one of the things Google reads to write the headline of a search result, and its meta description is the short summary a result can show beneath it. You set both in the search engine listing on each product, collection, page and blog post, and for your homepage under Online Store, then Preferences. Google says there is no limit on how long either can be and cuts them off to fit the screen, so the 70 and 320 characters in Shopify's help pages are a guide. Your theme, the code that lays out your store, prints what you type and adds your store name to the title, and one shared file does that on every page. An edit to that file changes every title at once, and an app or a product import can change many. To tell whether yours have changed, open the source of a few pages, which just means the code your browser receives, and read the title and description in it. Rabbot tracks unexpected title and description changes and lengths that get cut off. It does not write copy. ![Three places a Shopify title can differ: what you type in the Page title field, what your theme prints as the title tag in the page source, and what Google shows as the headline of a result.](/img/blog/2026-10-09-shopify-title-and-meta-description-where-to-set-them/1-three-places.png) Picture a corner shop with a label printer behind the till. Every shelf label is printed from one template: the product's name in bold, a line of small print under it and the shop's name at the foot. You type the name and the small print into a form, the template does the rest, and nobody walks the aisles once the printer has run. Then someone tidies the template, and for a week every label shows only the shop's name. Your title and meta description are the name and the small print, your theme is the template, and your pages are the aisles. ## Where to set them in Shopify Shopify calls the place where you set both of them the search engine listing, and each kind of page has its own. I read Shopify's Help Center on 1 October 2026, and menus can move, so take these as directions rather than a script. ![Where to set the title and meta description in Shopify: the homepage under Online Store, Preferences, and pages, products, collections and blog posts in their own Search engine listing section.](/img/blog/2026-10-09-shopify-title-and-meta-description-where-to-set-them/2-where.png) *From Shopify's Help Center, as of 1 October 2026.* Your homepage is the odd one out. Its title and meta description sit under Online Store, then Preferences, in the "Social sharing image and SEO" section. Everything else has a Search engine listing section on its own edit screen, which you open with a pencil icon or, on pages, with "Edit website SEO". Open it for a product, a collection, a page or a blog post, change the two fields, and Shopify shows a preview of how the listing might look. The title field has more than one name. The admin calls it Page title. The product CSV file (a spreadsheet saved as plain text) calls it SEO title, and so does Shopify's Admin API, the interface apps use to read and change a store's data. On the finished page it becomes the title tag, the line in the page's code that names the page. Leave it blank and Shopify's help page says your theme uses your shop name followed by the page's own title, or the other way round. ## How long they can run, and what to write Google says there is no limit on how long a title or a meta description can be. Each is cut off in results "as needed, typically to fit the device width". I could not find a width or a character count in Google's help pages on titles and descriptions, and I will not invent one. Shopify's pages do give numbers, and they do not all agree. ![The length numbers for a title and a meta description: Google gives no limit and cuts to fit the device width, while Shopify's own pages give 70 or 60 characters for a title and 320 or 160 for a description.](/img/blog/2026-10-09-shopify-title-and-meta-description-where-to-set-them/3-lengths.png) *From Google's and Shopify's help pages, read on 1 October 2026.* The table above sets them side by side. A title gets 60 or 70 characters and a description 160 or 320, depending on which of Shopify's pages you read. I work to the lower number in each pair, because Shopify recommends those, and I treat them as estimates. The limit is width, so wide letters use more of it than narrow ones, and two titles of the same length can be cut at different places. For titles, Google asks for wording that describes the page and differs on every page, with your site name kept to the beginning or end and set off by a hyphen, colon or pipe. For descriptions, it asks for a site-level one on your homepage and a page-level one everywhere else. If you are short of time, it says to cover the homepage and your popular pages first. Its example of a poor description for a shop is a bare list of what it sells. Its better one says what the shop sells, when it opens and where it is. Here is a title and meta description example for each kind of page, for an invented tea shop called Harbour Lane Tea. For the homepage I would type the title `Harbour Lane Tea | Loose-leaf tea, blended in Leeds` (51 characters) and the meta description `Black, green and herbal teas, blended in small batches in Leeds and posted across the UK. Free delivery on orders over £30.` (123 characters). A collection of green teas gets the title `Loose-leaf green tea` (20) and the description `Sencha, jasmine pearls and gunpowder green teas, in 50g and 100g bags, with tasting notes for each.` (99). A product gets the title `Jasmine Pearls green tea, 100g` (30) and the description `Green tea scented with jasmine blossom and rolled into pearls. A 100g bag makes about 40 cups. Ships from Leeds.` (112). Each says what that page is, and none repeats another. The collection and the product leave the shop name out of the title, because the theme adds it. ## What your theme prints What you type lives in your admin. What a browser, and Google, receive is the page's code, and your theme writes that. Shopify's developer documentation says the title for most pages is set in the admin and reaches the theme as `page_title`, with the description arriving as `page_description`. Both are Liquid objects, and Liquid is the template language Shopify themes are written in. Shopify's help page says the title tag lives in one file, `theme.liquid`, the main file of your theme, and that the file is used on every page. Dawn, one of Shopify's own themes, shows what that file can do. I read its code on 1 October 2026, version 15.5.0 from June. It prints your page title, then a dash and "Page 2" from the second page of a collection onwards, then a dash and your store name unless the title already contains it. It prints the description tag only when a description exists. Your theme may differ, and I cannot see it. Two consequences follow for the length rules. Shopify's limits apply to what you type. A 60-character title for a shop called Harbour Lane Tea, whose name is 16 characters, prints as 79 once Dawn adds the dash and the name. The product title above prints as 49. The pattern also belongs to the theme, so when the code changes every page changes, whatever its own fields say. ## How one change reaches many pages A theme edit or update reaches every page, because one file prints the title tag for all of them. An app or a product import reaches the pages it touches. Shopify documents how each one works. The wider list of signals these can change is in [what breaks in Shopify SEO after launch](/blog/2026-09-30-shopify-seo-what-breaks-after-launch/). ![Four ways titles change on many pages at once. A theme edit changes the one file that prints every title tag. A theme update can leave a customised title format behind. An app can write the SEO fields or edit theme files. A product import with overwrite on can blank the SEO title.](/img/blog/2026-10-09-shopify-title-and-meta-description-where-to-set-them/4-many-at-once.png) A developer who edits the title line in `theme.liquid`, or an app that edits your theme files for you, changes the title everywhere at once. Shopify says some apps add code to your theme. Its page on theme updates says an update carries your code edits across when they do not conflict with it. When they are not included, the theme card says "Theme added: code edits could not be included". A title format someone customised in code is one of the edits that can go missing that way. Apps also come at the same fields from the other side. When an app creates or updates a product or a collection, Shopify's Admin API takes an `seo` object with a title and a description. An app with permission to change your products can therefore rewrite many. Several SEO apps list that as a feature, and the [roundup of Shopify SEO apps](/compare/best-shopify-seo-apps/) names five whose listings describe changing titles, descriptions and alt text in bulk, as of 29 September 2026. A bulk edit you ask for is the app doing its job. A product import can do the same. Shopify's page on product CSV files says that when you choose "Overwrite products with matching handles", a blank column in the file overwrites the matching value in your products as blank. A handle is the last part of a product's web address, and it is how the file's rows are matched to your products. The same page says a blank SEO title means the product's own title is used, so a blank SEO title column sends those products back to it. That is a lot of ways to change a page you thought was finished, and I find it a little alarming too. Most of it is milder than it sounds. Google builds a result's summary mainly from the page itself and uses your description only when it describes the page better. A missing or weak description therefore mostly costs you a say in the wording. Google also says it may write a better headline itself when it finds a problem such as a half-empty title, one where the page's own part is missing and only the site name is left. I would not lean on that. The worry I would keep is a title that is the same on every page. Google's example is a shop that titles every page "Cheap products for sale", which it says makes it impossible for users to tell two pages apart. One shared file is one way that happens. ## Reading the page source Pick three pages of different kinds: your homepage, one product and one collection. Open each in your browser. The browser tab shows the text of the title tag, which MDN, the reference web developers use, says is where a page's title appears. Then follow Shopify's own advice. Right-click the page, choose View Page Source, and look near the top for the `` tag and the `<meta name="description">` tag. Read what you find against the admin. A title that is yours plus your store name is the theme doing its job. A title with the page's name missing, the same title on all three pages, or a description tag that has vanished from all three points at your theme or an app. Look at your last theme update and your last app install. If the source matches what you typed and Google still shows other text, Shopify says the search engine is choosing it, and Google's pages say it may. The search result is the slowest check. Google has to visit the page again before a change shows, which it says may take a few days to a few weeks. Shopify suggests asking for a recrawl with the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console, Google's free service that shows how it sees your site. Read the source first, because it is the page as your store serves it today, and the search result only catches up later. Save a copy before each change. Paste the three titles and three descriptions into a note with the date, make the change, and compare. The check is only as good as the pages you open, and it is right on the day you run it. ## Headings and alt text, briefly Two neighbours of the title are worth a look while the source is open. The first is the main heading, the large line at the top of a page, which in the code is an `<h1>`. Shopify says it builds that heading from the Title field, which is a different field from the Page title in the search engine listing. Google lists heading elements such as `<h1>` among the sources it reads when it writes a result's headline, and MDN advises one `<h1>` per page. Search the source for `<h1` and expect one, with the page's name in it. The second is alt text, the short description an image carries for people who cannot see it and for search engines. Shopify's page on alt text says to keep it brief and descriptive, with a maximum of 512 characters and 125 or fewer recommended. For a product you open the product, click a media item and choose Add alt text. Google's advice is to describe the image in the context of the page and to avoid stuffing it with keywords, and its example of a good one is "Dalmatian puppy playing fetch". In the source, look for an image tag, the line of code that places a picture on the page, that has no `alt` in it. ## Rabbot's part I build Rabbot, so weigh this section accordingly. Rabbot tracks your page titles and meta descriptions for unexpected changes, and it flags lengths that get cut off in search results. It also flags a missing or duplicated main heading on a monitored page, and it tracks image alt text across your monitored pages. It does not write copy, so every title, description and alt text stays yours to write. On Starter and above, a title or description that changed on you comes with a tap that puts the earlier value back. Rabbot shows both values, you confirm, and you can undo it for 30 days. It does not know who made the change, so it never says. In the picture from earlier, Rabbot is the person who walks the aisles on a schedule. A check is a fetch and a read. Rabbot fetches the page a shopper's browser would receive, takes the HTML your store serves back, and pulls out the title, meta description, headings and the other parts that matter. It compares that snapshot with the one from the last check, so findings come from what changed, and Rabbot is not grading your writing. [How Rabbot checks your store](/docs/monitoring/how-rabbot-checks/) explains a check in full. A finding is a card with a name such as "Meta description changed", the pages it touches, and the values before and after. Choose "Show affected pages" and each row carries the value Rabbot read on that page. Rabbot's docs make the same point I made about shared files. When every row shows the same wrong value, the cause is usually one shared template or setting, and fixing it there clears every row at once. If you changed a description on purpose, "Dismiss as intentional" stops the alert for that change while Rabbot keeps checking the page. [What counts as an issue](/docs/issues/what-counts-as-an-issue/) lists the kinds of problem Rabbot looks for. Rabbot checks the pages on your monitored list. Paid plans check daily, so you hear the same day a check finds something. The free plan is free forever, no card required, and checks 20 pages of your choosing every week. Pages outside those 20 are not checked. When you publish a new theme, Rabbot sends every monitored page through the same checks. Edits to a theme that is already live do not announce themselves, so the next scheduled check catches those. An issue closes only when a later live check no longer finds the problem. The free [store audit](/tools/store-audit/) is a first read before you install anything. It reads a sample of your pages once, when you ask, made up of your homepage, up to eight product pages and three collections picked from your sitemap, the list of pages your store publishes for search engines. For titles and meta descriptions it reports whether each is present, a sensible length, not too wide to show in full, and not repeated, and it covers headings and image alt text too. If you are still choosing an app, the roundup sorts sixteen of them into those that change your store and those that check it, from each app's own App Store listing. ## What to keep What you type in the search engine listing is not quite what your page prints, because your theme adds to it. And one shared file prints it on every page, so a change to that file is a change to all of them. Before you publish a theme or install an app, copy the title and description of your homepage, one product and one collection into a note with the date. Afterwards, open the three again and compare. If a title is the same on every page, or half of it is missing, start with your theme and your last app install. Rabbot is on the [Shopify App Store](https://apps.shopify.com/rabbot). Every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial. ## Sources - Shopify Help Center, ["Adding keywords for SEO to your Shopify store"](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/seo/adding-keywords). Supports the homepage and page paths and field names, the 70, 60 and 160 character figures, the blank-title behaviour, the title tag living in theme.liquid and the file being used on every page, the View Page Source check, search engines rewriting titles and descriptions, the recrawl delay and the URL Inspection suggestion, and the H1 built from the title. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify Help Center, ["SEO overview"](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/seo/seo-overview). Supports themes generating title tags that include your store name, and the "less than 60" and "less than 160" figures. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify Help Center, ["Adding and updating products"](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/add-update-products), "Managing collection settings" and "Adding and managing blog posts". Support the Search engine listing paths and the preview for products, collections and blog posts, and the 70 and 320 character cut-off warnings. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify Help Center, ["Using CSV files to import and export products"](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/import-export/using-csv). Supports the SEO title and SEO description columns, their blank fallbacks, handles matching the file's rows to products, and a blank column overwriting the matching value when "Overwrite products with matching handles" is chosen. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify Help Center, "Adding alt text to media". Supports what alt text is for, the 512 and 125 character figures, and the Add alt text steps for a product. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify Help Center, ["Updating themes"](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/managing-themes/updating-themes) and "Uninstalling apps". Support code edits, including an app's, carrying over when they do not conflict, the "code edits could not be included" message, and some apps adding code to a theme. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify developer docs, ["Add SEO metadata to your theme"](https://shopify.dev/docs/storefronts/themes/seo/metadata). Supports the title and description being set in the admin and reaching the theme as page_title and page_description. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify developer docs, "SEOInput", GraphQL Admin API. Supports the SEO title and SEO description fields on product and collection inputs. Checked 2026-10-01. - Shopify's Dawn theme, [layout/theme.liquid](https://github.com/Shopify/dawn/blob/main/layout/theme.liquid), version 15.5.0, released 2026-06-19. Supports how Dawn prints the title tag and the description tag. Read 2026-10-01. - Google Search Central, ["Influencing your title links in search results"](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link), last updated 2025-12-10. Supports no length limit with cutting to fit the device width, a distinct title on every page, the site name at the beginning or end, the sources Google reads (headings included), half-empty titles, Google writing an improved headline when it finds a problem, the "Cheap products for sale" example, and the recrawl delay. Checked 2026-10-01. - Google Search Central, ["Control your snippets in search results"](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet), last updated 2026-04-20. Supports summaries coming mainly from page content, the meta description being used when it describes the page better, no length limit with cutting to fit the device width, site-level and page-level descriptions, covering the homepage and popular pages first, and the shop examples. Checked 2026-10-01. - Google Search Central, "Google image SEO best practices", last updated 2026-03-02. Supports the alt text advice and the "Dalmatian puppy playing fetch" example. Checked 2026-10-01. - Google Search Console Help, "About Search Console". Supports Search Console being a free service that shows how Google sees your site. Checked 2026-10-01. - MDN, "The Document Title element", last modified 2026-04-24, and "Heading elements", last modified 2026-08-26. Support the title showing in the browser tab and a page generally having a single h1. Checked 2026-10-01. - Rabbot, [features](https://rabbot.ai/features/), [how Rabbot checks your store](https://rabbot.ai/docs/monitoring/how-rabbot-checks/), [what counts as an issue](https://rabbot.ai/docs/issues/what-counts-as-an-issue/), [your first check](https://rabbot.ai/docs/getting-started/your-first-check/), [show affected pages](https://rabbot.ai/docs/issues/pages-affected/), [dismiss as intentional](https://rabbot.ai/docs/issues/dismiss-as-intentional/), [how often Rabbot checks your pages](https://rabbot.ai/docs/monitoring/check-cadence/), [what Free includes](https://rabbot.ai/docs/billing/free-plan-limits/), the free [store audit](https://rabbot.ai/tools/store-audit/), the [roundup of Shopify SEO apps](https://rabbot.ai/compare/best-shopify-seo-apps/) and the Shopify App Store listing ([apps.shopify.com/rabbot](https://apps.shopify.com/rabbot)). Support every statement about Rabbot here, the audit's sample and report, and the five apps whose listings describe bulk editing. Checked 2026-10-01, with the roundup's app facts as of 2026-09-29.