A Complete Guide To Shopify SEO

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0.1 Unlock Your Free SEO Audit Now

1 What Is Shopify SEO?
2 Why Is It Important In Ecommerce World?
3 Conclusion

Are you a Shopify seller? Do you want to set yourself apart from other sellers on the same platform? To put it another way, do you want to sell more without having to pay for it?

If you responded yes to any of the above questions, you should be reading this blog right now. Continue reading to learn how these little tweaks in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) approach can help you boost sales and traffic to your Shopify Store.

To get started, you may establish a free Shopify Store.

So, let’s get started with this shopify SEO guide.

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What Is Shopify SEO?

Shopify SEO is a set of SEO tweaks made specifically for the Shopify platform.

While Shopify stores offer certain SEO benefits, such as a blog and the ability to redirect, they can also lead to duplicate content difficulties.

Why Is It Important In Ecommerce World?

The first thing you should learn in this Shopify SEO guide is SEO, or search engine optimization, is a method of increasing organic traffic. When we say organically, we’re referring to traffic that comes from non-paid sites such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

If a customer searches for ‘T-shirts for men’ on Google, for example, they will see the following search engine result page or SERP.

This page will provide a few search results, some of which will be advertisements and some will be organic results. The goal of SEO in eCommerce is to get your product pages to the top of search engine organic results.

But what if you don’t appear on Google’s first page?

According to statistics, only 4.8 percent of Google searchers make it past the second page.

As a result, SEO is essential for your Shopify store.

You’ll find all the missing components of your Shopify SEO plan in this definitive Shopify SEO guide. Let’s get going.

Improve The Site Structure

So, now that we have started with this SHopify SEO guide, the first thing that you need to work on is a good website structure. The structure of a good website should be straightforward and scalable. Simplicity will make it easier for users to traverse your site and for search engines to find and index your pages.

A simple structure allows you to access any page from the home page with three clicks.

Scalability refers to the capacity to add as many goods and categories as needed without affecting the overall structure.

One of the finest Shopify SEO benefits is that it comes with a basic and scalable structure out of the box. The content hierarchy is logical, with category pages (called collections by Shopify) automatically placed above product pages. All you have to do now is improve the navigation.

Before you set up navigation or make any other SEO improvements to your Shopify store, make sure that all of your products are organized into collections. Otherwise, your collection page will be left blank and indexed as such.

This will cause Google to think your website is unethical, causing your rankings to plummet, which is bad for your SEO.

Remove Redundant Content

One of the most common issues with internet stores is duplicate content. This is because a single product might be featured on many pages with identical or very similar content on separate URLs.

If you don’t want Google to perceive your site to be of poor quality, you must address this issue.

How To Deal With Duplicate Content

1. Make Use Of Canonical Tags:

A canonical tag is a piece of HTML code that informs search engines that you have multiple URLs that have the same or similar content. This tag can be used to identify bots, as well as the “initial page” that led to the creation of further pages.

2. Canonicalization Should Be Avoided:

When your home page has multiple URL versions, domain canonicalization occurs. The most common example is a URL that is the same with or without www.

Research Keywords

I have also included the keywords in this Shopify SEO guide because it has a big role in Shopify SEO. You use to describe your Shopify pages are only as effective as the keywords you use to describe them. You won’t obtain much organic traffic if your keywords don’t fit the intent of individuals looking for your products.

It’s recommended to utilize a specialist keyword research tool like Rank Tracker to locate the ideal keywords to increase your Shopify store’s SEO.

There are nine distinct keyword research methods in Rank Tracker, including semantics, competitor analysis, and keyword ideas pulled directly from search results, so you’ll probably end up with tens of thousands of phrases to pick from.

After you’ve utilized any or all of the keyword research methods, go to the Keyword Sandbox tab, where we’ll save all of your keyword ideas for you. There, you can filter your keyword ideas using criteria like search volume, keyword difficulty, and keyword length to find the ones that promise the greatest traffic while being the easiest to rank for.

Carry Out On-Page SEO

Because your page structure and technological soundness are two of the most essential ranking variables, the success of your Shopify SEO strategy is highly reliant on them. In this part, we’ll optimize for H1 headings, title tags, content, photos, and links, among other elements of web page content.

Before we begin on-page SEO improvement, we recommend using the WebSite Auditor tool to perform an SEO analysis on your Shopify website.

To see a summary of all technical and on-page concerns, go to Site Structure > Site Audit. The audit report will indicate too long or duplicate titles, empty meta descriptions, and redundant H1 headings. Determine which page has been impacted, then go to your Shopify admin to correct the issue.

i. H1 Headings

Because some Shopify themes don’t use the H1 tag at all, optimizing H1 headings might be a pain. H1 headings are important for SEO since they tell search engines what the page is about, allowing them to rank it for a certain query.

Website owners frequently complain that the H1 tag is absent from the homepage and product pages when it comes to Shopify SEO. Open WebSite Auditor and navigate to Site Structure > Pages > activate the H1 Count filter to see if your pages have this problem. The tool will display pages that have multiple H1 tags or no H1 tags at all.

If your pages have several H1 tags, you’ll have to manually review the source code to discover which parts have H1 heads. This is most likely due to the page’s various other parts, such as a notification bar or featured products. Replace h1 with h2, h3, or div according to the structure you want to create in the liquid code of the parts you need to change.

ii. URLs, Titles, And Meta Descriptions

Examine the On-page problems area of WebSite Auditor to discover whether your Shopify store has any on-page SEO concerns. Some of your titles and meta descriptions may require immediate attention.

Go to online store > preferences in your Shopify admin to fix or set up your homepage title and meta description.

iii. Descriptions Of Products And Collections

For SEO, good product descriptions are critical. They provide users with detailed product information and help search engines understand the facts of a page.

Whether you sell your products or drop ship and acquire product descriptions from wholesalers, your descriptions must be unique. Pages with keyword stuffing receive a lower ranking. Use the keywords you found in your study.

Descriptions Of Products And Collections

Contrary to popular belief, descriptions do not need to be at least 400 words long to rank higher. The length of the text is entirely up to you; it has no bearing on SEO. Make your descriptions useful, but save the lengthier stuff for blogs.

People dislike reading long dissertations to learn about a product’s characteristics and decide whether or not to buy it.

Iv. Images With An Alternative Text

Alt texts are important for SEO since they tell search engines what the picture is about. Make sure your alt texts are detailed and useful, as Google Images may bring you, additional visitors. Use keywords judiciously, rather than simply stuffing alt tags with them, as this may cause Google to flag your site as spam.

Content Marketing

This Shopify SEO guide also contains a touch of content marketing.

So, let’s discuss it further!

So far, we’ve focused primarily on on-page SEO, but what about driving qualified visitors to your store? Well. One of the most successful ways to drive visitors to your website is through content marketing.

You may increase visitors from organic search and make more sales by capturing your readers’ information and getting them to subscribe to your email blast by generating high-quality content that is relevant to your target demographic.

Many online shops underestimate the advantages of having an eCommerce blog. A blog can help you create trust and loyalty with potential customers by doing more than just driving conversions. If you want to learn more about generating excellent eCommerce content.

Without breaking a sweat, an efficient eCommerce blogging approach will assist develop brand awareness while drawing new visitors who may become devoted customers.

One of the most essential advantages of writing for an eCommerce store is the possibility to create more visitors from organic searches, believe it or not. You can develop long-form content that will rank on Google by providing high-quality material that is relevant to your target audience.

In general, we consider marketing to be quite important for our Shopify clients because we can produce blogs for those who are interested in our clients’ items. We’re doing this by identifying numerous themes that buyer personas are looking for, generating long-form content that ranks on Google’s first page, and so on.

Obtain A Few Backlinks

People frequently complain in Shopify SEO discussions and forums that they’ve done everything they can but the website still isn’t ranking the way they want.

A deeper look into the issue indicates that backlink SEO is frequently overlooked. Because backlink profile is a major ranking element, if optimized effectively, it can propel you to the top of SERPs.

Backlink prospects for e-commerce SEO may be closer to the truth. Begin by asking your business partners, such as distributors or producers, to link to you on their websites.

If you make or craft any of the products you sell, you can write a review of the materials your suppliers use and ask them to post it on their website.

With the SEO SpyGlass tool, you may also get new prospect ideas by looking at your competitors’ backlink profiles. Enter the domains of your competitors in Domain Comparison > Link Intersection. The tool will display domains that link to your competitors but not to you.

Improve The Website’s Performance

User experience is influenced by website performance, which influences user behavior and metrics like bounce rate, loading time, and session depth.

Furthermore, because the user experience is a major ranking component, a poor UX is likely to render the majority of your SEO efforts useless. User experience is more crucial than ever in e-commerce, since slow pages result in fewer Add to basket clicks, reducing revenues.

First, use Google Search Console to examine your Shopify store. To investigate the issues further, go to Experience > Core Web Vitals report and click on the report.

Poor Website Speed On Shopify Could Be Caused By:

Too large photos – in the Page Speed Insights report, clicking the Properly size images line will reveal which images require optimization and what size they should be. If at all feasible, make them smaller.

Too many Shopify apps – Shopify apps are designed to make your life easier, but they also slow down your website’s performance. Examine those apps you can’t live without and get rid of the rest.

Many consumers complain about the lack of customization options in Shopify native themes and opt to utilize bespoke third-party created ones instead. That isn’t the ideal solution because speed isn’t the only issue with these themes. Choose a free Shopify plan instead.

Too much liquid code – sophisticated scripts seldom make a page load faster.

Too many pop-ups or featured product snippets – while it’s understandable that you want to inform a customer about as many products as possible at once, this will simply slow down the website and upset customers.

Create A Blog Section

Despite being a product-focused platform, Shopify allows you to develop and maintain a blog. Your blog can help your SEO strategy by providing more keywords and backlinks to your website, as well as allowing you to demonstrate knowledge to your users. Furthermore, Google frequently returns blog results for item queries, and you don’t want to lose out on this possibility.

Guides and listicles are the most popular and ranking blog forms. Shopify SEO Guide advise customers on how to perform something, thus the questions people ask about your service may inspire your guides.

You may utilize an SEO tool like Rank Tracker to identify new ideas for tips in bulk, just like you did for keyword research. Go to Keyword Research > Related Questions after launching the tool. Enter your core keywords in the People Also Ask mode.

Choose the most keyword phrases and focus on them.

Any variable in your catalog can be used to create a new listicle. Let’s pretend you’re selling boots. Winter boots, winter leather boots, vegan footwear, hiking boots, and so on are all available. Listicles such as Best winter boots, Best hiking boots under $200, Best vegan boots, and so on can be created using this information. The possibilities are endless.

To make your blog SEO-friendly, include your top relevant keywords in your content.

To launch a Shopify blog, go to Online Store > Blog posts in your Shopify admin and click Create a blog post.

Include Schema Markup

Schema markup is a must-have in every online store SEO plan because it helps Google locate distinct features of your products. This information can then be used by Google to produce rich snippets in SERPs.

Scores and ratings attract more clicks, propelling these bits even higher in search results. Google likes rich snippets to regular ones, thus if your page doesn’t include schema markup, you might not be able to rank for particular product queries.

Because Shopify is an e-commerce platform, most themes for product pages include schema markup by default, which adds to its SEO friendliness. Simply enter the product data, and the Schema markup will display immediately in the HTML.

If your Shopify theme doesn’t support Schema markup, you can always use Shopify SEO plugins like Smart SEO or Schema App Total Schema Markup to add it. The latter will apply Schema markup to not only your shopping sites but also your blog sites.

Conclusion

As Shopify’s popularity grows, it will become increasingly crucial to grasp the platform’s SEO ramifications. Hopefully, this Shopify tutorial has provided you with more information that will assist you in making your Shopify store more search engine friendly.

For more marketing tips and services, you can schedule a free-of-cost 30-Minute Strategy session with our experts. In this call, our experts would discuss your business and provide you with the free strategies that you can use to boost your sales and revenue.