# Use XSeo with Shopify Sidekick {#doc-title}

By [B2B Gold](/about/#how-we-write) Updated 6 November 2026 [XSeo page](/shopify/xseo/) [XSeo on the Shopify App Store](https://apps.shopify.com/xseo?utm_source=b2bgold.app&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=docs&utm_content=docs/xseo/sidekick&utm_term=docs-header)

## What can I ask Sidekick about XSeo? {#what-can-i-ask-sidekick-about-xseo}

If Sidekick is available in your Shopify admin, it can answer questions about your store’s SEO from XSeo’s own data, such as what to fix first or which products have no meta description. It can also open an XSeo plan, with text it wrote, for you to review. Nothing in your store changes until you apply the plan.

Sidekick, Shopify’s assistant, asks XSeo for what you’d see in the app. These answers only read: asking changes nothing in your store and uses none of your AI items.

| Ask Sidekick something like | XSeo answers with |
| --- | --- |
| “What should I fix first for SEO?” | Home’s latest check: open issues in Home’s order, the top three marked fix first, passed checks and this month’s changes |
| “Which products have no meta description?” | Up to 25 items with one problem: no meta description, weak SEO text, a default SEO title, no category or images without alt text |
| “Show me the SEO of my linen shirt” | Its SEO title and meta description with their length, handle, whether it’s hidden from search, alt text, AI shopping data and XSeo’s last 10 changes |
| “How much did XSeo compress my images?” | Space saved, and which originals can still be restored, until when |
| “What did XSeo change this week?” | Each run: how many items, by you or autopilot, undone or not, with a link to **Activity** |
| “Any broken links or 404s?” | Missing pages, broken links and redirect problems, with XSeo’s suggestions |
| “Is my schema markup working?” | Whether the embed is on, what XSeo adds per page type, and the storefront check’s findings |
| “Is autopilot on?” | Each autopilot switch, since when, and what it wrote in the last 7 days |
| “Are my products ready for AI shopping?” | Products missing a category, GTIN, description or visibility, AI crawlers your robots.txt blocks, and one product as AI agents get it |

If Home hasn’t checked your store for over a week, Sidekick tells you to open XSeo to check again. XSeo sends Sidekick nothing about your customers and stores nothing new for it; Shopify’s own terms govern what Sidekick does with an answer ([XSeo’s privacy policy](https://xseo.afixer.app/privacy-policy.txt), “Shopify Sidekick”).

## How does a plan from Sidekick work? {#how-does-a-plan-from-sidekick-work}

A plan from Sidekick is an XSeo fix that Sidekick opens on its own page in XSeo, **Plan from Sidekick**, with your request at the top. You review it there and click the fix’s own button to apply it, and the run lands in **Activity** like any other.

1. Ask Sidekick to fix something, such as “Fix the meta descriptions on my products” or “Redirect the 404s”.
2. Sidekick opens **Plan from Sidekick**: “Sidekick opened this XSeo plan. Nothing in your store changes until you apply it below, and you can undo a run in Activity.” **Your request** quotes what you asked.
3. Read the fix as you would on Home: the examples, **Now** beside **XSeo writes**, the settings line and the counts. Sidekick can change the writer, language and fields; replacing text you wrote still needs your tick.
4. Click the fix’s own button, such as **Write alt text (96)**, or **Cancel**.

Plans cover SEO text, alt text, categories, redirects for missing pages, broken links, structured data and copying another app’s SEO text. For other issues, such as descriptions or barcodes, the plan says “XSeo fixes this on another page, so this plan has nothing to apply here.” with a button to that page. An image plan says images are optimised in your browser with the **Images** page open, and offers **Open Images**.

> **Note:** A plan that writes with XSeo’s AI makes its examples with AI when it opens, as Home’s fix does, and those items count toward this month’s AI items even if you close it: [how XSeo counts AI items](/docs/xseo/ai-allowance-and-support/#what-counts-as-an-ai-item).

## Can Sidekick write the SEO text? {#can-sidekick-write-the-seo-text}

Yes. In an XSeo plan, Sidekick can put in its own SEO titles and meta descriptions, or alt text, for up to 10 items: XSeo shows them as the examples, marked **Written by Sidekick**, and writes them exactly as shown when you apply.

- **The run narrows** to those items. If you then pick a writer yourself, Sidekick’s text is dropped.
- **Not from a name alone:** Sidekick can’t stage SEO text for an item whose details only repeat its name. Add a description first.
- **Redirects:** in a plan for missing pages, Sidekick can set where each old address goes, up to 20 at a time. An address XSeo didn’t record shows **Added by Sidekick**; change a target, or clear it to leave that address out, before you apply.

What you apply is recorded like any run, so you can undo it in **Activity**: [how undo works in XSeo](/docs/xseo/activity-and-undo/).

## How do I ask for help through Sidekick? {#how-do-i-ask-for-help-through-sidekick}

To ask the XSeo team for help through Sidekick, ask it to contact XSeo support: it opens XSeo’s **Support request** page with a topic and message it drafted, and nothing is sent until you press **Send request**.

1. Ask Sidekick something like “XSeo didn’t compress my images, contact support”.
2. On **Support request**, check the **Topic** and edit the **Message**, up to 1,000 characters, leaving out your customers’ personal information.
3. Click **Send request**. **View your request** opens it; click **Cancel** instead, and the page says “Nothing was sent.”

Its fields are those of the form **Contact support** opens on Home, and the team answers inside XSeo: [how to contact XSeo support](/docs/xseo/ai-allowance-and-support/#how-do-i-contact-xseo-support).

## What can’t Sidekick do in XSeo? {#what-cant-sidekick-do-in-xseo}

Sidekick can’t change anything in your store through XSeo: it can’t apply a plan, send a support request, turn on an autopilot or change XSeo’s settings, so every write is your own click in XSeo.

- **No Google numbers:** Sidekick can’t read your Search Console data or store speed through XSeo; they’re on **Results**.
- **No customers:** XSeo tells Sidekick nothing about your customers.
- **No image runs:** images are optimised in your browser, on the **Images** page.
- **No embed switch:** XSeo’s structured data plan shows the steps; you switch the embed on in the theme editor. Shopify’s own help says you can ask Sidekick there to turn an installed app embed on or off ([Shopify: apps in your theme](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/customizing-themes/apps), checked 6 November 2026).

## Related {#related}

- [Get started with XSeo](/docs/xseo/getting-started/)
- [XSeo’s AI allowance and support requests](/docs/xseo/ai-allowance-and-support/)
- [Undo changes in XSeo with Activity](/docs/xseo/activity-and-undo/)

[XSeo - SEO & Image Optimizer](/shopify/xseo/)

XSeo is a free Shopify app for SEO and images. It writes SEO titles, meta descriptions and image alt text from templates or AI, compresses images in place with a 60-day backup, adds structured data through a theme app embed, manages redirects and checks the product data AI shopping reads. Runs you start show examples first, and Activity can undo them.

[Install free on the Shopify App Store](https://apps.shopify.com/xseo?utm_source=b2bgold.app&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=docs&utm_content=docs/xseo/sidekick&utm_term=card) [Plans and pricing](/shopify/xseo/#pricing)

Need help with XSeo? Email [support@b2bgold.app](mailto:support@b2bgold.app).