In today's digital marketplace, where Google processes over 3.5 billion searches daily and contributes up to 80% of all trackable website traffic, understanding the basics of Shopify SEO is more crucial than ever.
With 82% of marketers acknowledging SEO's positive impact on business goals, mastering foundational SEO strategies can significantly enhance your Shopify store's visibility, driving more traffic and increasing your chances of success. Here’s how it's done!
Technical SEO
- Set Your Preferred Domain: Shopify allows you to choose a preferred domain, which helps avoid duplicate content issues and strengthens SEO.
- Logical Store Structure: Organize your Shopify store with a clear structure. Use homepages, categories, subcategories, and product pages effectively.
- Product Variants: For products with slight differences (like color or size), consider creating separate product pages for each variant to boost SEO, especially if these variants are popular search terms.
Keyword Research
- Find Relevant Keywords: Utilize tools like Ahrefs to discover keywords related to your products and categories.
- Map Keywords to URLs: Assign these keywords to existing pages on your Shopify store, or create new pages if necessary.
On-Page SEO
- Optimize Meta Titles and Descriptions: Include target keywords, keep titles under 60 characters, and descriptions around 120 characters.
- Unique Product and Category Descriptions: Avoid duplicate content; write unique descriptions for each product and category.
- Schema Markup for Rich Snippets: Add schema markup to your product pages to make your listings stand out in search results. Studies show a 30% increase in click-through rates for pages with schema markup.
- Optimize Images: Use descriptive file names and alt text for all images, and ensure images are appropriately sized for quick loading.
Content Marketing
- Blogging: Write blog posts on topics related to your products that your potential customers are searching for.
- Product Video Reviews: Create and upload review and comparison videos, particularly if they align with your product types.
Link Building
- Replicate Competitor Links: Use tools to identify and replicate links from sites that link to your competitors.
- Guest Posts: Write guest posts on relevant blogs and websites to gain backlinks.
- Create Linkable Assets: Develop content like research studies or free tools to naturally attract backlinks.
General Shopify SEO
Shopify takes care of basic SEO practices like page speed and sitemap updates. However, to rank higher, you need to actively engage in SEO strategies like keyword research, content production, and link building.
This approach to Shopify SEO ensures that your store is well-optimized, user-friendly, and stands a better chance of ranking higher in search engine results. Remember, consistency and quality are key to SEO success.