Search engine optimization (Shopify SEO) for Shopify stores is essential for anyone using this platform.
Getting your online store to appear in the first search results doesn't happen by chance; it requires effective practices and strategies.
In this article, we'll review the best strategies and practices you need to boost your Shopify SEO, whether you want to increase sales, attract more buyers, or improve the overall quality of your store.
What is Shopify SEO and Why Is It Important?
Shopify SEO is the process of optimizing aspects of your store on the Shopify platform to achieve higher search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic.
Although Shopify SEO shares basic principles with other platforms like WordPress, there are some subtle differences due to the different infrastructure of each platform.
Paying attention to Shopify SEO will bring you and your store many benefits, the most prominent of which are:
1. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is primarily based on improving the organic ranking of stores and websites in search engines without spending any money.
Therefore, by following the steps and strategies we'll discuss in this article, you'll ensure you achieve the best results in this regard.
2. Improving User Experience
Shopify SEO aims not only to get buyers to click on and visit your store, but also to keep them there and return for repeat purchases.
This will reduce bounce rates and improve the overall user experience on your store.
3. Targeting a Specific Audience
Targeting all segments of internet users is very tiring and largely unrealistic, as only a small segment will likely be interested in purchasing your product. You, in turn, will need to target that segment, which is what Shopify SEO can do.
4. Increase Sales
In continuation of the previous point, the more you target the groups interested in your product, the greater the likelihood that they will purchase.
This significantly increases sales compared to many other marketing methods that can cost you a lot of money without achieving similar results.
5. Build Trust
The more organized, streamlined, and high-ranking your website is in search results, the more reassurance and trust it will instill in buyers.
Such websites are often highly reliable, and they also give an excellent first impression of the product they will expect from you after purchasing.
6. Outperform Your Competitors
To compete in any online marketplace, you must pay attention to all technical aspects of your store and take advantage of any opportunity to stand out from the competition.
Optimizing Shopify SEO is one of the best and cheapest ways to do this effectively.
How to Improve Shopify SEO
We've mentioned more than once that there are many practices and methods that can positively impact Shopify SEO.
The most important aspects you need to work on in this regard are:
1. Product Pages
Product pages, their presentation, and the content they contain have a significant impact on Shopify's SEO.
Google's search engine prefers long-form content, which you often won't be able to implement on product sales pages, so you'll need to compensate for it with other features.
Page design also greatly influences buyers' decisions. The more organized, high-quality content it is, and the more it contains the elements they're looking for, the greater the chance they'll complete the purchase.
The most important elements you need to pay attention to on your page are:
a) Keywords
Keywords are one of the most important elements of SEO for any website or store. There are many tools that help you choose the right keywords, such as Google Keyword Planner and Amazon Keyword Tool.
For example, if you sell sportswear, you might search for words like "men's sportswear" or "running shoes."
Don't forget to consider the Google search recommendations; they're highly accurate and can be helpful.
b) Titles and Descriptions
The titles and descriptions you include on your product page greatly impact Shopify SEO.
Therefore, try to make them grammatically correct, regardless of the language you write in, and incorporate your chosen keyword and its synonyms to reach the largest possible number of buyers. Of course, you should also write them in an attractive way to encourage them to buy.
c) Images
Images are one of the first elements that buyers see when they visit your website. Therefore, it's obvious that they should showcase all the visual aspects of the product that the buyer will need. They should be of the highest quality and in the smallest possible size to avoid slowing down the site.
It's also recommended to add "Alt Text" for images and include the keyword (in this case, the product name) to them. This will make them appear in image search results and increase visits to your store.
D) Reviews and Ratings
To increase the trust of new customers in your store, you should enable reviews and ratings so they can see the opinions of those who have already purchased the product.
This is in addition to encouraging customers after purchase to leave a rating or review for the product they purchased, even in exchange for gifts and prizes.
2. Links
Links play an important role in improving Shopify SEO and increasing organic traffic to your site. They also enhance your site's reputation and increase your credibility.
There are some key aspects you should pay attention to:
A) Building Internal Links
This is the process of linking your store pages to each other internally, without the need for any external intervention.
This aims to improve the user experience on the site and facilitate navigation. You can also recommend similar or complementary products and increase your sales.
b) Building External Links
External links, also known as backlinks, refer to obtaining links to your store from other sources, whether on influential sites in the field or on your own blog, to improve your Shopify store's SEO.
There's a lot of work and detail involved, but you can start with these points:
Contact blogs related to your store's products to write articles for you.
Contact social media influencers to include your store's link in their link tree.
Follow forums and Q&A sites and try to post your store's links in a useful, non-annoying way.
c) Repairing Broken Links
Links are constantly broken, whether due to product deletions or out-of-stock items, which hurts your store's search engine ranking.
Therefore, you should regularly check for and repair them using tools like Google Search Console, SEMrush, and Ahrefs.
3. Store Speed
Store speed is one of the factors that cannot be ignored when optimizing Shopify SEO, as it plays a major role in improving a store's search engine ranking and increasing the time spent on the store.
It can also significantly reduce bounce rates, which negatively impact store rankings.
You can easily measure your store's speed and how to improve it using the Google PageSpeed Insights tool.
Among the most important practices you should pay attention to while doing this are:
a) Reducing Media Size
Any type of media that takes up a lot of space, such as images and videos, can significantly slow down your store's speed.
Therefore, try to compress it as much as possible and experiment with different formats until you achieve the best results.
b) Remove Unnecessary Apps
Shopify has a huge number of plugins and apps, but that doesn't mean you have to use them all. Just try to use the ones you need and remove the rest that you don't use to speed up your site's performance.
c) Enable Caching
This method stores your store with the user so it doesn't reload from scratch every time they visit, thus increasing site speed. You can easily enable it through your store's settings on the platform.
4. Mobile Experience
Most users currently shop on their phones, so you need to pay attention to them and improve the user experience on them as well.
If you want to improve Shopify's SEO and increase sales on mobile, you'll likely use the same practices we mentioned before, along with a few additional things.
Such as choosing a design that works well and quickly on mobile, adjusting the font size so it's not excessively large, and placing images in the center of the page to fit the limited mobile screen.
The most important point is to examine your store on mobile yourself and see which elements need improvement.
5. Store Blog
To increase traffic to your website and create a fertile environment for linking to your products, you should consider creating a blog, especially if your niche lacks this aspect.
It will significantly improve your Shopify SEO and increase brand awareness.
To get the best results from your blog and maximize your profits, you must ensure you provide the best and most useful information possible to users in a neutral manner, without pushing them to buy your product. Instead, ensure the purchase is placed at the end and smoothly.
6. Duplicate Content
Duplicate pages and content are among the most common problems among online stores, causing confusion among search engines and making it difficult to know which pages to display to users.
Especially if these pages are very similar in content, ranking, and keywords.
This problem can be solved by using canonical tags, which tell search engines which results to display.
Of course, if you can rewrite that page to make it more unique or delete it if it's not important, these solutions can also do the trick.
7. Competitor Stores
This isn't a Shopify SEO improvement method as much as it is a source of information. Like any other marketing method, you should always keep competitor stores under review.
You should also see what methods they use to improve their Shopify SEO, whether it's organizing their product pages, their keywords, or even what they write in their blogs, if any.
8. Store Structure
Your website structure should be clear, easy to understand, and easy to navigate to get the best results and drive purchases.
This will also increase the length of time buyers stay on your store, which will ultimately improve Shopify SEO.
The most important elements of store structure improvement are:
a) Store Menus
Your store should have clear menus that enable users to easily identify and navigate categories.
This can be achieved by choosing a good Shopify template and customizing it professionally. You should also make the menu icon clear on the homepage and place each product in its correct category.
b) Product Schema
This is a form of structured data that helps search engines better understand your store by providing more information about your product, such as price, rating, and availability. This will certainly improve Shopify SEO.
c) URLs
Search engines prefer consistent and understandable URLs, so avoid relying on automated URLs. Try to keep them short and include keywords to improve Shopify SEO.
d) Titles and Meta Descriptions
Titles and meta descriptions are among the most important fields you can use to encourage users to click through to your store. They are the title and short description that appears when browsing stores in a search engine.
You should incorporate your keywords into both. When writing them, be sure to ensure that titles are no longer than 55 characters and descriptions are no longer than 145 characters.
9. Social Media
Similar to blogging, social media is also a great way to improve Shopify SEO, as they have a large number of users who you can benefit from in many ways.
You can use them as a channel for linking to external sites, spreading awareness of your brand, sharing content, and interacting with your audience.
All of this will certainly generate traffic to your store and improve your search engine rankings.
Conclusion
Optimizing Shopify SEO is an essential component of the success of your online store. By implementing the strategies and practices we've mentioned in this article, you'll be able to:
1. Increase your store's visibility in search engines: Improving your search ranking will attract more organic traffic.
2. Improve user experience: Providing a smooth and fast browsing experience will encourage customers to stay in your store and come back for more purchases.
3. Target an audience interested in your products: Focusing on the right keywords and target groups will increase your chances of making a sale.
4. Build trust and outperform your competitors: An organized store that appears high in search results leaves a positive impression on customers.
Start implementing these strategies on your Shopify store today and see the difference in traffic and sales. If you need more help or have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us.