Reading Google Search Console reports takes time, and the questions you actually want answered - which pages are slipping?, what is this product page ranking for? - usually need several clicks and a spreadsheet.

Smart SEO's MCP server connects your store's Google Search Console data directly to an AI agent such as Claude or Cursor, so you can ask those questions in plain language and get answers from your real data.

What MCP is

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI agents call tools on a server. Smart SEO runs an MCP server for your store and gives you a secure endpoint plus an API token. Once your agent is connected, it can query your Search Console data on demand.

The connection is read-only. The agent can look at your search performance; it cannot change anything in your store, your Smart SEO settings, or your Google account.

Before you start

MCP is available on the Pro, Business, and Premium plans.
Your Google Search Console account must be connected to Smart SEO. All the MCP tools read from Search Console, so without it the agent has nothing to query.
You need an MCP-capable client - for example Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor.

Where to find it

In your Shopify admin, open Smart SEO → AEO & GEO, then click Configure on the MCP Configuration card.

[SCREENSHOT 1: The AEO & GEO page showing the MCP Configuration and LLM Catalog cards side by side.]

Step 1: Connect Google Search Console

If Search Console is not connected, the MCP tab shows a notice and a Go to GSC Settings button. Connect it first - the rest of this article assumes it is done.

Once connected, add and verify your website:

Step 2: Copy your configuration

On the MCP tab, the Connect your MCP client card shows a ready-made configuration block containing your endpoint URL and your API token. Click Copy.

[SCREENSHOT 2: The "Connect your MCP client" card showing the configuration block and the Copy / Refresh token buttons.]

The block looks like this, with your own endpoint and token filled in:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "smartseo": {
      "url": "https://your-endpoint/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer sseo_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

You should not share the token with anyone. If it gets exposed, make sure you refresh it from this page, to prevent someone being able to access your Google Search Console data.

Step 3: Add it to your MCP client

Paste the configuration into your client's mcp.json file, then restart the client. Where that file lives depends on the client - check its documentation for "MCP servers" or "mcp.json".

Once the client reconnects, the Smart SEO tools appear in its tool list and you can start asking questions.

If you have trouble configuring this manually, simply ask Claude Code or the AI agent you use, to integrate it for you.

What you can ask your agent

With the connection live, your agent can:

Discover the keywords and pages that bring you traffic from Google
Analyse a keyword's clicks, impressions, ranking pages, and top countries
See which keywords a page ranks for and how it performs over time
Track day-by-day performance to spot rising or declining terms

Some questions to try:

Which of my pages get the most Google clicks in the last 28 days?
What keywords does /products/blue-shirt rank for?
Show the click trend for "organic cotton tee" over the last 90 days.
Which countries drive the most impressions for "summer dress"?
List my top 20 keywords by clicks, with their average position.
Which of my pages rank for "eco friendly packaging"?

About your API token

A few things worth knowing:

Your store has one active token at a time. Generating a new one replaces the old one.
Refreshing invalidates the current token. If you click Refresh token, any client still using the old token stops working until you paste in the new one.
The token is scoped to your store. It only ever returns your own data.
Uninstalling Smart SEO revokes the token automatically.

Treat the token like a password. Anyone holding it can read your store's Search Console data.

Understanding the data you get back

Data is about three days behind. Google Search Console itself publishes data on a delay, so the most recent complete day is roughly three days ago. If you ask for "today", expect the window to end there - this is a Google limitation, not a Smart SEO one.

The default window is the last 28 days. Ask for a different range explicitly if you want one, for example "over the last 90 days".

Site totals are larger than the sum of the listed keywords. Google anonymises rare search queries. They still count toward your site totals but never appear as individual rows, so the two numbers will not reconcile exactly. This is expected.

A keyword with no data returns zeros rather than an error. If a term shows all zeros, your store genuinely had no impressions for it in that window.

Usage limits

To keep things fast and fair, each store can make up to 60 requests per minute and 10,000 requests per day. Normal conversational use stays well inside these limits. If your agent hits them, it will get a "too many requests" response and should retry after a moment.

Troubleshooting

The agent says it cannot connect or is unauthorised
The token has most likely been refreshed or revoked. Copy the current configuration from the MCP tab again and update your client.

The agent connects but has no data
Check that Google Search Console is connected under GSC Settings and that the selected property matches your live storefront domain.

Questions about Google Discover return an error
Discover has no keyword or device breakdown in Search Console, so keyword and device tools cannot answer for it. Ask about web search instead.

The numbers do not match the Search Console UI exactly
Check that you are comparing the same date range, country, and search type. Remember the three-day data delay and the anonymised-query behaviour described above.

Connect AI agents to your SEO data with MCP