SEO for Shopify: How to Optimize Your Online Store
How to do SEO for Shopify and position your online store. Add valuable content with keywords, images with alt text, metadata...
Toñi Rodriguez
2 years ago
If you have a small business and are attracted to the idea of selling online, Shopify is ideal for that. It is a very intuitive and easy-to-use ecommerce platform.
But…How do I get customers to my store?
You should know that in addition to creating the store and uploading products, you will need to work on SEO to position it so that users can find the products in your ecommerce.
For that reason, in this article we are going to tell you how to optimize SEO for Shopify. We have created a test store so you can see the entire process with example images.
So stay tuned because we are starting:
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a platform for selling online. The setup is easy and quick, allowing you to set up your store without much technical knowledge.
It is a Canadian company founded by Tobias Lütke, Scott Lake, and Daniel Weinand in 2006.
Why is the use of Shopify growing so much?
Perhaps because thousands of small businesses have easily joined ecommerce with Shopify.
Experiencing greater growth in 2020, due to the Covid19 situation. Small and medium-sized enterprises that had to close their physical business saw an opportunity to sell online with Shopify.
The platform has seen exponential growth, reaching a total of 2 million sellers worldwide.
More than 25,000 businesses in Spain, 60,000 across Latin America.
How to open a store on Shopify?
Shopify is a CMS for creating online stores. It works simply, and by following a few setup steps, you can enjoy your online business in no time.
The first thing you need to do to create your online store is to sign up for Shopify with an email address and password:
1- Sign up for Shopify and start configuring your data.
2- Choose a template that best fits your business.
3- Choose a payment plan.
4- Upload the products you are going to sell and their descriptions.
5- And that’s it!
Simple, right? Now it’s time to position the online store, which is a bit more complex.
SEO for Shopify
And it’s not just about publishing the products to get them positioned. If only it were that easy!
SEO is the optimization of a website for search engines, such as Google. It classifies and orders which websites may have more relevance for a specific search through an algorithm.
This classification is based on hundreds of factors, among which stand out, the quality of the content, authority of the website, and quantity and quality of organic links pointing to the site from other websites in the same niche.
your company's website
Content Quality and Keyword Analysis
Quality content is essential in SEO for ecommerce, which is why before you start writing the texts for the online store, conduct a keyword research relevant to your market niche. Ask yourself: What words would users use to find your products? For example: If you sell various para-pharmacy and natural cosmetic products, including anti-wrinkle creams, analyze how the product is searched: "anti-wrinkle cream" "anti-wrinkle creams women q10" "anti-wrinkle cream men" "what is the best anti-wrinkle cream"
Add keywords and improve SEO for Shopify
Use SEO Artificial Intelligence tools to find these relevant keywords and strategically incorporate them into product descriptions, online store content, titles, and meta descriptions…
It is very easy in the case of product descriptions because you can add keywords in the content.
Metadata
And in the case of the SEO title and meta descriptions; go to the "online store" option in the Shopify panel and you will see a tab called "preferences".
In it, you can write the keywords, optimizing the SEO title and meta description.
You can edit the metadata tags for blog posts, web pages, and products in the online store.
The content must be original, free of spelling mistakes, and add value to the user.
You can also add a blog to generate relevant content for your potential customers and improve SEO for Shopify.
Add a blog to your Shopify to improve SEO
You can add a blog to your online store to create articles and keep your customers updated about your products or your business.
This will increase the keywords through the articles, which will lead to an increase in organic traffic to the online store.
To create a blog in Shopify, you must also create an article; let me explain how to do it:
- From your dashboard, go to "online store".
- Click on "blog" and now you will see that "blog article" appears.
- Enter a title and content with the keywords.
- In the dropdown menu "blog", select "create a new blog".
- Click on "save" and add it to the main menu of the online store.
Images and videos
Regarding images, Shopify has something very good, which is that it automatically compresses the size of these types of files, which speeds up the loading process.
When uploading product images to Shopify, try to ensure they are of the highest possible quality, so that when compressed, they do not lose resolution and avoid appearing pixelated.
Once uploaded, you can edit the alternative text and name them correctly, according to the keyword or user search intent.
Including videos is beneficial for SEO as they showcase products better and keep users engaged longer.
your company's website
User experience, navigation, and filters
The menus in your Shopify store should be descriptive and coherent with the title of the page or product they link to.
Shopify offers a tab where you can set up navigation menus and filters so that users can find easily the products in the online store.
You can also create nested menus in dropdown menus to group category or product pages.
Shopify recommends the " Shopify Search & Discovery" plugin, which is free and helps to customize search, filtering, and suggests related products.
This way, the user will navigate easily through your online store and buy more and better, which is what it's all about.
This navigation greatly benefits the user experience, as the easier it is for them to reach the products, the better.
It also benefits SEO because if the user has a good shopping experience, they will stay longer in the store, as the time spent on a website is considered a ranking factor.
And regarding Google, it will better understand the content of your store if it is well structured in menus, categories, and products.
Internal Linking
Within the content of the articles, you can work on internal linking by adding links to related products.
For example, imagine your online store sells para-pharmacy products and the article you are writing is about "facial care in winter". In addition to explaining what should be done to take care of the face in winter, you can recommend the products you have in the online store for this purpose and add the corresponding link.
You will be favoring SEO for your Shopify online store, as it will facilitate navigation for the user, improving the time spent on the site.
And regarding Google, it reduces crawling time and favors indexing.
Link Building
And to position online stores, in addition to content, links are needed. Since they increase domain authority, which is one of the SEO ranking factors that Google values.
At Unancor, we work every day to offer you the best quality links for your business.
Our " matchmaking" tool focuses on finding the perfect match between your business and the ideal medium to add a link.
It's very simple; you just need to register and register your website, adding the keywords you want to rank for. Once you complete the registration, you will see a super simple and intuitive interface with a list of media related to your business, where you can include your link and "make a match".
We offer a database of over 10,000 local, national, and international media outlets.
And if you don't know which backlinks (links from one website pointing to another) are best for your online store, let a SEO professional assist you, study your project, and create a 100% personalized link building strategy.
Links from other sites to yours help search engines know that your online store is trustworthy and therefore will improve your online reputation.
Integrated SEO functions in Shopify
Stores created with Shopify have integrated SEO functions that help you with positioning. For example:
- Canonical tags are automatically generated, thus avoiding duplicate content and possible penalties. These tags are used to indicate to Google that one page overlaps with another, meaning it is very similar to another, but is not cloned content.
- The sitemap.xml and robots.txt files are generated automatically. The sitemap.xml helps Google index the content of the online store. While the robots.txt file gives instructions to search engines about which parts of the site should be crawled or ignored.
Analytics: Google Search Console for Shopify
To improve SEO on Shopify, you can also set up a Google Search Console account.
It is a free Google service that helps you analyze and solve crawling, indexing, and UX usability issues of your online store.
Through Search Console, you can check that Google crawls and indexes your online store and request it to index new or updated content.
This way, you will have information about the URLs that receive clicks, impressions, etc., and from which country.
It also shows you which websites have links to yours.
It offers performance reports where you can see the highest traffic pages, and compare the performance of the online store in various countries, among others.
You simply need to enter Google Search Console and add a property. Shopify also has a plugin for you to implement it from your store.
Analyze the results
Shopify internally generates reports with important metrics such as the number of visits, conversion rate of the store, ..
And the percentage of customers who return to purchase in your store, this data is fundamental to know if customers are satisfied with the shopping experience.
Optimize SEO for Shopify
When you register for Shopify ecommerce, it generates a domain based on the name you have given your store.
Other ways to optimize SEO for Shopify include creating your custom domain. This way, you won't have to use the subdomain that the ecommerce platform offers by default.
This is highly recommended, and to do this, you just need to go to the "domains" tab of your online store, and from there you can change it.
Shopify offers domain registration within its plans and pricing. You can also connect the store with an existing domain.
Is Shopify bad for SEO?
You may have heard this question before, right?
Well, the answer depends on the project in question and it is NO: if you are starting and want to set up an online store without technical complications.
And the answer is YES: if you do not want to pay subscription plans and prefer to take care of the overall management of your ecommerce.
It is important to note that Shopify is a SaaS (Software as a Service). This means that by paying a monthly fee, you will have access to everything that the plan you have contracted offers. You will not have access to the source code of the page and therefore you will not be able to make modifications to the template you choose.
your company's website
Best SEO Plugins for Shopify
When setting up your online store on Shopify, you will see that it offers SEO plugins to configure "my Shopify," which is what your store is called by default.
The best SEO plugin for Shopify is "Plug in SEO" (well, the most recommended).
The Plug in SEO performs a kind of SEO audit checking the titles of the pages, the structure of the blog posts, headings, meta descriptions…. Through a report, it returns possible errors that need to be fixed.
There are other SEO plugins for Shopify such as Schema Plus for SEO that introduces rich data into the content, helping Google better understand your online store.
You will find all other applications in Shopify app store.
Hire a Shopify Partner
Within the online store, you have an option called Shopify Partner where you can hire the services of professionals who are experts in ecommerce, SEO, and Marketing.
They offer help for your online store regarding setup and development, visual content and branding, content writing, among others.
Search and filter in the list that appears to find the right professional for your business, communicate with them to discuss project details, and start working to boost your Shopify store.
Need help with your Link Building strategy?
Our team of experts is ready to help you boost your project with personalized strategies
Contact us nowConclusions:
Shopify is one of the best platforms to create an online store if you do not have too much technical knowledge.
The SEO for Shopify is easy to implement: add well-structured content that includes keywords, correctly name images, optimize metadata, work on internal linking, and build quality links.
By working on this entire strategy, you will increase the visibility of your online store and attract organic traffic.
Have you used Shopify for ecommerce and think we missed something?:
Let us know in the comments, and thank you for reading.
