Shopify has some outstanding SEO-friendly features that make it the best eCommerce platform in 2022, hands down!
But let’s face it: Will these features help your Shopify store grab the first position in Google? Well, no, there’s still work to do.
Ranking high in Google got a lot more difficult over the years, and it is no longer stuffing your pages with keywords. Now you can get penalized for that.
However, the good news is, when it comes to Shopify SEO, using the right strategies can bring your online store to the top of the SERPs.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Shopify, and its eCommerce dominance, let’s understand SEO or Search Engine Optimization. It is a series of carefully planned strategies to help Google understand your website and count it as a relevant solution for users. These strategies could be anything from delivering a super-speed store to having really meaningful content meant for the users
All these tiny tactics will help Google ‘consider’ your website and offer a higher rank.
Now, for Shopify stores, a high rank is as important as it can get. An eCommerce website ranking #1 has twice the traffic as a website in position 2.
So, is Shopify SEO important? Yes, because it helps rank better in the SERPs, drives in more traffic (most if you can rank position #1), and boosts sales.
Let’s get down to business then…
#1 is intriguing when it comes to eCommerce success, and SEO as well. So, here are the 6 best practices every SEO expert lives by…
Place yourself in a customer’s shoes, what do you expect when you get to a store? A proper array of products on display, someone to navigate you around various departments, accurate information, and so on.
Same for a Shopify store. When they are here in your online store, they are looking forward to a quick, hassle-free shopping experience. A properly navigable website is a bonus, as things are easy to find.
This is called a positive ‘user experience’. And websites with a perfect store structure are not just easily navigable to customers, but to Google as well. Such websites are easy to crawl: this makes your Shopify store crawlable and improves website credibility.
The making and breaking point of your Shopify SEO is your Keyword Strategy. It doesn’t matter how many great keywords you use; are you using the right ones?
At Techwishes, a growing SEO company in Kolkata, we believe mastering the niche is the first step to an outstanding SEO strategy. And when it comes to Shopify SEO, it is not just a website you are aiming to move forward with. It is an eCommerce with a plethora of products, each a possibility to rank high.
So, once you have figured out your niche, there are several keyword research platforms to play around with. Starting with Google, and Amazon, it is an easy way to figure out what a potential customer is looking for. Now to broaden the keyword research a bit more, there are professional tools: Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, and more.
You can always hire an SEO expert to help finalize the right keywords. Once done, the goal is to infuse them through your Shopify store and allow Google to crawl it.
No amount of perfect SEO strategy can help your Shopify store rank if it runs at a snail’s pace. Back in 2010, Google announced page speed to be a ranking factor in Desktop searches. And in 2018, for mobile searches too, page speed got the priority.
Now, when it comes to Shopify stores, page speed optimization has its limits. Using Shopify’s servers, and Shopify template, complete control over page speed is a bit of a slip. So, this is what you can do when it comes to Shopify page speed optimization –
[Read Also: Upgrading your store to Shopify 2.0?]
Yes, it is traditional. Also yes, it still works.
With quality backlinks of increasing numbers, your Shopify store has a higher chance of ranking, rather than having none at all. Understanding backlinks and how to create them isn’t rocket science. These are links on external high authority websites pointing towards yours based on effective keywords.
Understand, not all links placed are backlinks. Like a social media link has nothing to do with SERPs rank. Also, a backlink from a low DA website is harmful and negatively impacts Google's ranks.
You can always use a website authority checker (like Ahrefs) to deduce the value of a backlink. The higher the domain authority, the better your ranking position. Or, you can always consult an SEO expert to help you with Shopify SEO.
There are several steps to a perfect SEO strategy: On-Page optimization, link building, keyword optimization, and even local SEO strategies. However, as an SEO company in Kolkata with experience, we believe, blogging is highly underrated when it comes to ranking in the SERPs.
Posting informative blogs around a website’s niche, with effective keywords, increase the website’s visibility to Google. And with the Shopify store, blogging has now become easier than ever. With SEO-friendly fields to work with, one can optimize a blog post with meta descriptions and meta keywords. Each of these features is a part of ranking in Google.
At Tech Wishes, the preferred Shopify Partners for most D2C brands in India, our team of Shopify experts are experienced with creating Shopify stores from scratch, acing at page speed, and helping to bring convertible traffic with proper SEO campaigns.
Need help with Shopify SEO? Get in touch…