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An eCommerce Owner's Guide to Shopify SEO

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    Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform and the platform of choice for many of today’s online businesses. Many consider it to actually be the top eCommerce platform for small businesses, giving them the best value for money in terms of scalability and growth. It is essentially a one-stop-shop where you can set up your eCommerce site almost immediately. 

    When you have your Shopify store set up, you will also have to consider different eCommerce search engine optimization (SEO) strategies that beat the competition. By marrying Shopify and SEO, you can ensure that your store is performing to the best of its abilities. 

    An eCommerce Owner's Guide to Shopify SEO

    As a new eCommerce owner, this can be quite a lot to navigate. This is why we’ve created a Shopify SEO guide to what best practices and strategies need to be done to improve your SEO on Shopify and stand out from a sea of sellers.

    Manage Site Speed

    Site speed is an essential component of good SEO that can make or break the user experience from the get-go. It is important to manage your site speed by optimizing it. 

    Some tips for managing site speed include:

    • Using compressed images - This can be achieved with the help of Shopify apps that adjust images for your store. Uploading the exact dimensions suited for the page can help, with 800x800 being suitable for multiple product images on the same page.
    • Making your site mobile-friendly - Google made Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to help with mobile optimization. As an app, this is a useful Shopify SEO tool that can convert parts of your Shopify site to make them mobile-friendly and thus, load faster. These pages will also be indexed on Google so that you have better rankings on mobile search engine results pages (SERPs). 
    • Manually removing apps that are not in use - Third-party apps can slow down a site, especially when you no longer need them. They have to be manually removed to prevent the code from slowing down a site.

    Highlight Product Page Information     

    Your product pages are extremely important to your Shopify site and ultimately in generating sales, so some care and attention must be taken in highlighting the information posted here. When you build your product pages, you will need to ensure that they instantly convey a product’s distinct features. 

    The goal of your product pages is to create buyer-motivated actions. Although Shopify has basic templates for inputting this information, more personalization can make your site unique. Third-party apps, as well as experts, can actually help you customize your product pages to make them truly pop and stand out. 

    Here are some of the most important details to be included in every single one of your product pages on your eCommerce platform:

    • Name of product
    • Price
    • In-depth product description
    • High-quality images and videos of the product
    • Customer ratings and reviews
    • Shipping and returns details
    • Frequently asked questions about the product
    • Add-to-cart or add-to-wishlist button

    Adding more unique content to every product page can make sure that each one is indexed, and thus, have better chances at ranking on SERPs. 

    Address Duplicate Content

    Duplicate content is one of the pitfalls of those who are working on improving their SEO for Shopify. As mentioned, unique content on every product page assures that you have a better shot of getting indexed and ranking well on SERPs. When content across different URLs is too similar, search engines may be confused in determining which one deserves the canonical tag.

    Instead of having one dominant page, you may end up having several weak pages. Shopify may sometimes create duplicate product pages and URLs from category pages. To avoid this, you will have to edit the code to lead visitors along the correct URL path. 

    In other cases, there may also be duplicate category pages that happen within the pagination itself. Web developers can often customize the code for you to fix the issue and have it work according to your specific Shopify theme. 

    Lastly, be wary of product tags. Adding multiple tags to a product can create category pages of products with the same tags. This can sometimes result in having similar content between your original category pages and the new category pages that come from these product tags. To address this, you can add ‘noindex’ tags to these new pages.

    Investigate Data Structures    

    Lots of the existing or basic Shopify templates use structured data in providing search engines with all the necessary information about your products. Structured data can also be very beneficial for collection or category pages as well. 

    There are different data structures you can investigate to improve your SEO optimization on Shopify, as defined below:

    • BreadcrumbList Structured Data - Breadcrumbs give users an idea of the navigational structure of your eCommerce site and the relationship among pages. BreadcrumbList Structured Data gives search engines a better understanding of your website’s structure with internal links. 
    • Article Structured Data - Shopify has a blog functionality that allows you to create informational content centered around your different products. If you utilize this feature, then Article Structured Data will inform search engines that the content of your blogs serves editorial purposes, thus increasing your chance of appearing on prominent sections of SERPs or on Google Discover.  

    Conduct Keyword Research

    Keyword research is essential for your Shopify search engine optimization strategy, as it will help you identify what words or phrases you should be using throughout your Shopify store. This can be especially helpful for eCommerce as it can direct potential customers to your site by using the keywords they actually search in relation to your products. 

    To get started on this, you can use some of the following strategies:

    • Use SEMRush - SEMRush can help you conduct organic research on your own site’s URL. You will be able to see the top organic keywords and their search volume, keyword difficulty, and the like. 
    • Export data from Google Ads - Formerly known as Google AdWords, Google Ads helps you decipher which keywords have the highest conversion rates and can bring in the most revenue for your store. 
    • Analyze your competitors via Ahrefs - On Ahrefs, you can spot keyword opportunities that your competitors rank for. 

    Once you have completed your keyword research, you need to optimize it on your landing pages. Incorporate these into your title tags, URLs, meta descriptions, descriptions, content, and more.      

    Look Into Conversion Optimization 

    Your conversion rate is the number of conversions you have divided by your site visitors, multiplied by 100. You can see this on your Shopify Analytics dashboard and visualize how far along the buying journey each of your visitors has come. Conversion optimization on Shopify is a great way of using your current traffic to generate more sales. 

    It is also a cost-effective strategy to grow your revenue. There are steps to make conversion rate optimization (CRO) on Shopify a success.

    Here’s how to begin the process:

    1. Set your goals - Have a look at some of your competitors and base your goal loosely on that. For context, the average conversion rate is 1.5%.
    2. Build trust - Trust is what encourages visitors to keep clicking through your site until they make a purchase. You should try to do this at every stage by including customer reviews and ratings on your product pages.
    3. Make your navigation clearer - An easy-to-navigate, simple, and user-friendly site can do wonders for improving your conversion rate. Customers should be able to find what they need immediately upon arriving at your landing page. There should also be a logical and intuitive flow from one page to the next. 
    4. Boost motivation - Give visitors reasons to want or need to make purchases on your site. Tell them why they need your product, why yours is better than your competitors’, and why now is the time to buy. 

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Is SEO important for eCommerce? 

    eCommerce businesses of every size need SEO. This is because a successful SEO strategy can increase your site’s organic search traffic while also increasing your ranking within search engines. Shopify SEO is also about anticipating new search trends and staying agile, which will help your business stay competitive. 

    How do I optimize speed for Shopify? 

    Choosing a lightweight Spotify theme and reducing large image sizes can go a long way in optimizing the speed of your Shopify site. You can also opt to replace GIFs with static images and limit any third-party applications. 

    Does changing my Shopify theme affect SEO? 

    Changing your Shopify theme may affect your SEO. While your Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics will stay the same, a new theme could affect other factors such as loading speed and overall user experience. 

    Can I pay Google to rank higher? 

    No, you cannot pay Google to rank higher on their search results.  

    Why is my Shopify store not on Google? 

    There are several reasons why your Shopify store may not be appearing on Google. One key reason is that your site may be too new, which means it hasn’t been indexed by Google. Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console may remedy this. 

    There is a world of possibility once you grow your Shopify store and incorporate all the necessary SEO practices to help you stay ahead. Bliss Drive is one of the leading companies in all things related to SEO and digital marketing. Contact us today for a free consultation!

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