Running an eCommerce store on Shopify can be lucrative, but it’s not always easy to attract customers and make sales. With millions of online stores, how can you ensure your Shopify store stands out from the crowd?
The answer is simple: search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is a critical component of any successful eCommerce strategy, and for Shopify stores, it’s more important than ever.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, SEO is optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Using the right SEO techniques can increase your store’s visibility, attract more traffic and ultimately drive more sales.
But with so many Shopify SEO best practices out there, where do you even start?
In this article, we’ll explore the top Shopify SEO best practices that will help you take your store to the next level.
We will cover everything you need to know about Shopify SEO, from keyword research to backlink building.
So let’s dive in and discover the working tips for your store!
SEO Tip 1: Conduct Keyword Research
When it comes to SEO for your Shopify store, keyword research is one of the most critical steps. Keyword research helps you understand what your potential customers are searching for and what keywords they use to find products like yours. By identifying and targeting the right keywords, you can improve your store’s visibility and attract more relevant traffic.
So how do you conduct keyword research for your Shopify store? There are several steps involved in the process, including:
Brainstorming
Start by thinking about the products you sell and the words and phrases that come to mind. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about what they might search for when looking for products like yours.
Use Tools
You can use a variety of keyword research tools that can help you identify relevant keywords and search volumes. Some popular tools include Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush and Ubersuggest.
Analyze Competitors
Look at the keywords your competitors are targeting and see if there are any opportunities for you to rank for those keywords as well.
Once you’ve conducted your research, it’s time to choose the right keywords to target. For a Shopify store, it’s a good idea to focus on primary and secondary keywords.
Primary keywords are the most important and relevant keywords for your products, while secondary keywords are related phrases that can help you capture more traffic.
Some examples of primary keywords for a Shopify store selling shoes could be “women’s running shoes” or “men’s dress shoes.” Secondary keywords could include “comfortable shoes for work” or “casual shoes for men.”
By targeting both primary and secondary keywords, you can improve your chances of ranking for a wider range of search terms and attracting more relevant traffic to your store.
Remember, keyword research is an ongoing process. Keep track of your rankings and adjust your keywords over time to stay ahead of the competition and continue to attract relevant traffic to your Shopify store.
SEO Tip 2: Optimize Your Shopify Store
Optimizing your Shopify store’s structure, design and content is crucial for better SEO results. Not only does it make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site, but it also enhances the user experience and encourages visitors to stay on your site and make purchases.
Here are some tips on optimizing your Shopify store for SEO:
Optimize Product Pages
Product pages are the heart of your Shopify store, so it’s important to optimize them for both search engines and visitors. Use descriptive and unique product titles and descriptions, add high-quality images and videos and include customer reviews. Make sure your product pages load quickly and are mobile-friendly.
Optimize Homepage
Your homepage is often the first page visitors see when they arrive at your store, so it’s important to make a good first impression. Use clear and concise headlines and descriptions, add high-quality images and ensure your homepage is easy to navigate. Include links to your top-selling products and categories.
Optimize Category Pages
Category pages help organize your products and make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Use descriptive and unique category names, include clear and concise descriptions, and add high-quality images. Make sure your category pages load quickly and are mobile-friendly.
Use Meta Tags, Headings and Descriptions
Meta tags, headings and descriptions are important elements of on-page SEO. Use unique and descriptive meta titles and descriptions for each page, include relevant headings and subheadings and use alt tags for images. Don’t stuff keywords into these elements, but ensure they accurately describe the content of the page.
Optimizing your Shopify store’s structure, design and content can improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results and attracting more relevant traffic to your store.
SEO Tip 3 – Optimize Pagination for Collections Page
Optimizing pagination for your Shopify store’s collections pages is an important but often overlooked aspect of SEO. Google has stated that infinite scrolling can pose a challenge for crawlers to access individual items in the feed or gallery, potentially resulting in orphan pages and reduced search visibility for your products.
To ensure all of your product pages are accessible to search engines, implementing pagination in your Shopify store is essential. It allows crawlers to easily navigate through all of your products, increasing the likelihood of them being indexed and surfaced in search results.
When working with clients to optimize pagination for their Shopify store’s collections pages, technical SEO agencies or Shopify development companies take a comprehensive approach. This includes ensuring that each paginated result has a unique URL, providing clear signals to search engines to crawl each individual page.
Additionally, each page is given its own canonical URL to avoid any duplicate content issues and to ensure that the most relevant page is indexed.
In order to further improve the overall SEO health of the Shopify store, technical SEO agencies also take measures to block unwanted URLs from being indexed. This is done by preventing URLs with filters or other sort orders from being indexed, thus ensuring that only the most relevant pages are included in search results.
SEO Tip 4: Create High-Quality Content
Creating high-quality and unique content is a crucial part of optimizing a Shopify store for SEO. Not only does it help to improve search engine rankings, but it also enhances the user experience and encourages visitors to spend more time on the site. High-quality content can help establish a brand’s expertise, authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of both search engines and potential customers.
When creating content for a Shopify store, it’s important to ensure that product descriptions are detailed and accurate, highlighting each product’s unique features and benefits. This can help to improve search engine rankings and increase conversion rates.
Blog posts can also be an effective way to attract more traffic and engage with potential customers. By providing informative and valuable content related to the products or services offered, businesses can establish themselves as a reliable source of information in their industry.
In addition to written content, images and videos can play a significant role in creating engaging content for a Shopify store. High-quality images can help showcase products in the best possible light, while videos can demonstrate product features, provide tutorials, or tell a brand’s story. Visual content can also help to improve the overall user experience by making the site more visually appealing and easy to navigate.
SEO Tip 5: Optimize URL Structure
Optimizing your Shopify store’s URL structure is a critical aspect of SEO. It plays a key role in how search engines understand and rank your content, and it can also impact the user experience on your site. Here are some tips to optimize your URL structure:
Keep URLs simple and easy to understand:
A clear, concise and descriptive URL can help both search engines and users understand what your page is about. Avoid long and complicated URLs with multiple parameters.
Good example: www.example.com/products/blue-t-shirt
Bad example: www.example.com/products/item12345?color=blue&size=m
Use hyphens to separate words:
Use hyphens (-) to separate words in your URLs, as opposed to underscores or spaces. This makes it easier for search engines to read and understand the URL.
Good example: www.example.com/blog/seo-best-practices
Bad example: www.example.com/blog/seo_best_practices or www.example.com/blog/seo-best-practices
Include your target keywords:
Including your target keywords in the URL can help search engines understand the content of your page and improve your chances of ranking for those keywords.
Good example: www.example.com/products/blue-t-shirt
Bad example: www.example.com/products/12345
Avoid using stop words:
Stop words like “a,” “and,” “the” and “in” don’t add any value to your URLs and can make them longer and harder to read.
Good example: www.example.com/blog/shopify-seo-tips
Bad example: www.example.com/blog/top-5-shopify-seo-tips-to-rank-higher-in-google
Implement a logical hierarchy:
Use a logical hierarchy to organize your content and make it easier for users to navigate your site. For example, use subdirectories to organize products by category.
Good example: www.example.com/products/clothing/t-shirts
Bad example: www.example.com/t-shirts-clothing
Optimizing your Shopify store’s URL structure can improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results and drive more organic traffic to your site.
Some Other Shopify SEO Best Practices
• Utilize descriptive and compelling meta titles and descriptions to encourage clicks from search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Optimize image file names and use alt text to describe the image content, which can improve visibility in image search results.
• Implement a clear and intuitive navigation structure to help both users and search engines understand the hierarchy and relationship between pages.
• Ensure the site’s mobile experience is optimized, as mobile-friendliness is a significant factor in SEO rankings.
• Use schema markup to provide additional context to search engines about the content on your site, such as product details, reviews and ratings.
• Incorporate customer reviews and ratings on product pages, as they can provide unique, user-generated content and build trust with potential customers.
• Build high-quality, authoritative backlinks to your site from other reputable websites, which can improve the site’s overall domain authority and search engine rankings.
Conclusion
When store owners adhere to these guidelines, it follows that they shall enhance their store’s prominence in search engine results pages (SERPs), draw in more pre-qualified traffic and ultimately augment sales. One must bear in mind that optimizing for SEO is an interminable process and it’s absolutely pivotal to incessantly monitor and modify strategies to outpace the competition.
It is our ardent hope that all Shopify store owners shall assimilate these prime practices and make the most of the bountiful benefits of SEO. With ample dedication and time, your Shopify store shall skyrocket through the rankings and attain the prosperity it so rightly deserves.