{
  "manualOnly": true,
  "providerRequests": 0,
  "locale": "en",
  "group": "wordpress-vs-shopify-seo",
  "title": "WordPress vs Shopify SEO: compare controls, not promises",
  "notice": "This is a manual planning aid, not a live audit, supplier catalog or ranking prediction. Examples are fictional. Nothing is fetched or submitted; downloaded files stay on your device.",
  "columns": [
    "Control",
    "WordPress + WooCommerce",
    "Shopify Online Store",
    "Practical check"
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "id": "metadata",
      "title": "Titles and descriptions",
      "values": [
        "An SEO plugin or theme commonly provides per-page metadata controls; inspect the chosen setup.",
        "Built-in SEO fields cover products, collections, pages and posts.",
        "Save one distinct title and description, then inspect rendered HTML."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "product-urls",
      "title": "Product URLs",
      "values": [
        "WooCommerce offers product and taxonomy permalink settings; changes require migration care.",
        "Editable handles sit within Shopify resource URL structures.",
        "Compare required routes and test old-to-new destinations before a change."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "sitemap",
      "title": "XML sitemap",
      "values": [
        "WordPress core provides a sitemap index; plugins can replace or alter output.",
        "Shopify generates sitemap.xml automatically.",
        "Open the actual sitemap and check the intended public product URL."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "canonical",
      "title": "Canonical ownership",
      "values": [
        "Core, theme and SEO extensions can affect output; nominate one owner.",
        "Canonical tags are generated; theme or app changes still need inspection.",
        "Check for one intended canonical, including a variant example."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "navigation",
      "title": "Navigation",
      "values": [
        "Menus, templates and product categories shape discovery.",
        "Menus, collections and theme templates shape discovery.",
        "Reach a product from a category without using the search box."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "maintenance",
      "title": "Change maintenance",
      "values": [
        "The operator coordinates hosting, themes, plugins and compatibility testing.",
        "The operator still reviews theme, app and content changes.",
        "Assign a reviewer and retest one product and one collection after updates."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "example": "Imagine a small equipment store with product variants and a detailed buying guide. The editor needs descriptive titles and category links; a developer owns unusual URL rules. In the matrix, compare the actual control and its verification, rather than adding arbitrary platform scores.",
  "decision": "If the team mainly needs standard store publishing, test those tasks in Shopify. If custom routing and publishing workflows are essential and someone can maintain the installation, test WordPress with the intended plugins. These are conditional choices, not a declaration that one platform wins SEO.",
  "checklist": [
    "Define required page types and URL rules.",
    "Separate built-in controls from theme or plugin behavior.",
    "Test one representative product and collection.",
    "Keep a migration map and a named maintenance owner."
  ],
  "reviewRecord": "Create a staging product and collection. Save the rendered title, description, canonical, visible links and sitemap entry with a date. Change the product handle and verify the old URL's intended destination. Record the theme, extensions and responsible person; test again after a change."
}