SEO for Shopify

SEO for Shopify – What Is It?

Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce platform that allows everyone to set up an online store, customize it and start selling products. This CMS (Content Management System) can be easily integrated with Amazon and various digital payment methods, as well as many plugins that extend platform functionalities. A well-configured store is both user-friendly and owner-friendly, allowing for effective sales. But to achieve satisfying profits, it firstly has to be well-positioned on Google and other search engines.

What exactly is SEO for Shopify? It can be defined as a set of activities that increase your Shopify store’s ranking on the Google search engine. As a result, when the customers type certain keywords related to your offer into the search engine, they see a link to the store high on the list of search results. In a nutshell, a website’s SEO ranking depends on how valuable your website is according to the algorithm. Therefore, the Shopify store should be adapted to the requirements of the search engine and “prove” that the information it contains is valuable for potential customers.

How well your Shopify e-store ranks on Google is dependent on many factors. I will present them in a few minutes. However, at this point, it is worth knowing that well-planned SEO activities can significantly increase a store’s sales potential and make acquiring new customers much cheaper. Positioning, if done correctly, allows the website to:

• achieve high positions on the so-called SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for phrases related to your business,
• increase organic traffic so that you have a better chance of convincing the customer to your offer,
  effectively promote your brand on the web, and stand out from the competition offering similar products,
• get long-term results – although nothing is forever, your high positions in SERPs last for a relatively long time, and the cost of acquiring a client decreases regularly.

That is why positioning your Shopify store is an SEO strategy worth investing in.

Is it worth SEO positioning a Shopify store on your own?

The Shopify platform natively has a wide range of built-in SEO features. The website can:

• automatically generate links with SEO-friendly URL addresses,
• generate a sitemap and a robots.txt file, which are important for indexing the page on Google,
• allow the admin to create and edit meta tags,
• As well as set and modify ALT attributes when uploading photos and other images.

These functionalities can be additionally extended by using helpful plugins – such as, for example, All In One SEO and similar ones. All these SEO tools can make your positioning work much easier. Nonetheless, the question is whether it’s enough to bring measurable and satisfying effects.

How to optimize Shopify stores following SEO guidelines?

First things first: positioning Shopify stores (as well as any other websites) is a multi-step process that takes plenty of time. Don’t expect the results to come a week or two after starting your SEO activities. Why does it take so long? In the beginning, positioning requires updating your store’s website – both on the technical and content layers. Professional SEO always begins with an in-depth SEO audit, which is the foundation of all the activities.

During the SEO audit specialists analyze:

• the current state of the store and what needs to be improved to match SEO requirements,
• how do SEO activities of your closest competitors look like and how your Shopify store can outrun them in the race for top positions,
• what keywords can generate the most organic traffic – but not just traffic, but also customers. It is worth remembering that some keywords are more popular than others – and usually, the more popular the phrase is, the more difficult it is to get to the top of Google results. Conquering the TOP 10 on keywords with high search volume will take longer and will demand a higher financial investment. To reduce these expenses, you can choose slightly less popular phrases (at least at the beginning), and expand their scope later,
• how to expand the content in the store so that it is both more user-friendly and SEO-friendly.

The more precisely such an analysis is carried out and the more the experts understand the sales process in your store and the specifics of the industry, the more effective the subsequent SEO activities will be.

When the SEO audit is completed, see what exactly you need to change to successfully position your Shopify store.

Sitemap

How are the products in your Shopify store arranged? Positioning requires a very transparent division into individual categories and subcategories. If all the products are simply thrown into one general catalogue the effectiveness of SEO activities is out of the question.

All products should be divided into categories and subcategories – so that their structure is as clear as possible. This is important both for the Google crawlers and for the convenience of the “human” users – your customers. A well-designed sitemap will make it easier for them to find interesting products, which increases the chance of making a conversion.

SEO loves quality content

Texts published on the store’s website should include important keywords. But be careful! Good content is not oversaturated with keywords. Yes, keywords should be included, but in reasonable numbers and frequency, so that the texts are still considered natural.

Google prefers longer texts, provided that they have actual value for the user and meet the requirements of positioning the Shopify store, which:

• contain important keywords – they should be selected during extended SEO analysis using advanced SEO tools, not just intuition,
• are easy to read: divided into paragraphs, contain headings (H2, H3), and sometimes even H4, and the most important parts are bolded.
• is unique – you absolutely cannot copy descriptions or blog articles from other websites, even if theoretically you have permission to do so. Why? Because Google considers such duplicate content to be of little value, and can lower your rank in the SERPs.

And what texts should you include when positioning your Shopify stores? Here are our tips:

• product categories and subcategories descriptions, of course containing thematically related keywords – at the beginning, due to limited time and budget, you can prepare descriptions just for the main categories, and then gradually add new ones,
• product descriptions – unique, extensive and substantive.
• home page, apart from typical sales texts, should have a few paragraphs that present the Shopify store and are filled with the most important phrases from the SEO point of view.

In the long term, you should also consider setting up a business blog that gives you the platform to combine SEO activities (aimed at Google crawlers) with typical content marketing (aimed at real users). By choosing the right topics and taking care of publishing regularly, you can significantly increase the traffic from search engines and expand the SEO potential as well as maintain the results achieved earlier.

Link building matters

The main rule of link building is to publish links to specific subpages of your Shopify Store. They have to be added both on external sites and within your store. Why is it so essential? Because it is, among keyword selection and technical optimization, one of the foundations of all SEO activities. Valuable links “tell” the Google search engine that your Shopify store is worth visiting. On the other hand, internal links (those published on your website) are making it easier for Google crawlers to navigate through the subpages. So give link building a shot.

Don’t forget about metadata

To be more specific, about meta title and meta description. What are they for? In a nutshell, they are displayed in Google search results. They do not impact SEO directly, but they attract users to visit the store, therefore, are extremely important.

Remember also to add ALT attributes to images on your store – especially those published on product pages. These attributes are also important for SEO, and their main purpose is to improve website accessibility for visually impaired users.

Let us skyrocket the SEO of your Shopify store

Verseo successfully conducts SEO for e-commerce platforms, including Shopify. Many years of experience and a team of veteran experts allow us to stand out from the crowd when it comes to efficient SEO activities. If you would like to know more about what we can do for your business, simply fill in the form and get a free quote!