Optimizing your Shopify store is hard work. From optimizing images to making sure the technical aspects of your website are formatted correctly, a variety of tasks can go wrong and impact your store’s essential performance. To solve this problem, we have this guide. This article provides a comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) checklist designed specifically for Shopify stores. In this way, you can optimize your entire shop and generate relevant traffic from search engines.
Keyword Research For Your Products
Keyword research is the foundation of nearly every SEO activity you do on your Shopify website. why? Because text is one of the most important things search engines use to determine the context of an e-commerce website. If you can match your site’s content to the search queries someone uses to find your site, you’re more likely to appear in those search results. First, use a keyword research tool like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to find out what terms your target customers are searching for. Pay attention to the following three factors:
Choose Relevant and Genuine Keywords
Targeting “shoes” doesn’t have much commercial value unless you sell them on your Shopify site. Make sure each target keyword is relevant to the product you’re selling.
Consider Search Volume
This metric shows how many people search for that specific term each month. High search volume keywords can drive thousands of searches each month for your Shopify store, but they can be much more difficult to rank for. Existing websites with high authority are likely to take the top spot.
Analyze Keyword Difficulty
This metric shows how difficult it is to rank for each keyword. If you have a new Shopify store or are just starting to optimize your website, you’ll see faster results by prioritizing terms that are relevant to your store but have low keyword difficulty.
Organize Keywords with User Intent
Once you’ve shortlisted potential keywords, it’s time to start using them. We classify all keywords into one of three categories, depending on the user’s search intent. Here’s how to target them on your Shopify website:
Informational
Informational keywords indicate that the searcher wants to know something, such as “the benefits of walking.” This makes for great blog posts that allow potential buyers to let you know when they’re most impressed.
Commercial
Commercial keywords indicate that the searcher wants to buy something, but isn’t ready to convert yet. An example is “Walking Pad Comparison”. Target these terms to Shopify collection pages that give hesitant buyers more options.
Transactional
Transactional keywords indicate that the searcher wants to buy something. B. “Buy a hunting mat.” Drive these users to your product pages by including transactional phrases in your title tag, product description, and anchor text for internal links.
Shopify SEO Checklist for On-Page Optimization
On-page Shopify SEO is the process of optimizing the individual pages of your store. From internal linking to content marketing, here are six boxes to check.
Write Title and Meta Description for Each Page
Meta titles and meta descriptions appear in search engine results and have a significant impact on organic click-through rates (CTR). You can edit it by going to the Search Engine List section of the Product List Dashboard. When optimizing Shopify meta tags, your goal is to encourage search users to click through while proving your page’s relevance to search engines.
Add Informative Alt Text to Images
Search engines can’t see images the same way humans can. By providing descriptive alt text for every image in your Shopify store, you can accurately index the image and provide search engines with context to understand its relevance to the content on your page. When creating optimized alt text for images on your Shopify site:
- Be accurate and concise
- Use natural language
- Include the page’s keywords, but don’t overuse them
Create Unique Product Descriptions
Shopify product description has important information about your product that can potentially influence sales by attracting customers. From an SEO perspective, it plays an important role in improving your store’s visibility and ranking in search engine results. By strategically incorporating relevant keywords into your product description, you can tell search engines what your product is all about.
Build Shopify Blog To Publish Informational Content
A Shopify blog is a powerful tool that not only helps you communicate with potential customers but also improves your SEO performance. Blog posts allow you to target specific keywords, answer customer questions, and showcase your expertise with high-quality content. All of this increases your site’s authority and search engine visibility.
Use Schema Markup for Rich Results
Schema markup, also known as structured data, is code that you can add to your Shopify store’s HTML to provide search engines with additional context about your page content. You can enable rich snippets using the Schema Markup Generator. These are advanced search results that provide detailed information to users directly on the search results page. For Shopify stores, this includes:
- Product pricing – including promotions
- Customer reviews
- Availability
- Fulfillment options (buy online, pick up in-store, etc.)
- Return policy
Process Internal Linking For Both Users and Search Engines
Internal links direct buyers to your website. It also helps search engines navigate his Shopify store and uses anchor text (the text you link to) to provide more context to the page you link to. As part of your Shopify SEO checklist, look for internal linking opportunities within your Shopify store. Quick wins include:
- A link to a product page in the “You May Also Like” section of an existing product page
- A link to a category page in a Shopify blog post
- A Shopify Store “About” Link from page to homepage
Shopify SEO Checklist for Off-Page Optimization
Off-page SEO refers to optimizations that occur elsewhere. Check these items off your checklist to comprehensively optimize your store, from directory sites to social media.
Build High DA and Relevant Backlinks
Search engines want to know that the websites they direct their users to are useful, trustworthy, and valuable. Backlinks are external links from another her website that point to your Shopify store and can go a long way in building credibility. Search engines will see it as just another website that vouches for you. The more coupons you receive, the more reliable your Shopify store will be. Link-building techniques to start with include:
- Responding to journalist requests on sites like HARO or Help a B2B Writer
- Sending free samples to bloggers to write a review on their website
- Repairing broken links pointing to your store
- Writing guest posts or sponsored content for publications in your niche
- Creating linkable assets such as how-to guides or quizzes
Bear in mind that not every backlink is a good backlink. Affiliating your site with low-quality or spam websites can give Google the same impression of your Shopify store.
Get Customers Reviews
Many customer reviews increased online conversions. When used correctly, it also has the potential to improve your Shopify store’s SEO performance. Reviews add user-generated content to your product pages. This may include related keywords or phrases that potential customers might search for. In other words, this is a way to target secondary keywords outside of your product page’s main description.
Optimize Social Media Profiles of Your Business
Social media doesn’t directly correlate with SEO performance, but optimizing your online profiles can inflate other important SEO metrics. For example:
- Posting on social media builds backlinks to your Shopify store
- Promoting Shopify blog posts can increase the number of people interacting with your store
- Social media profiles can appear in branded search results
- Comb through your social media strategy and ensure you’re maximizing the SEO potential you can derive from it.
This means optimizing your bio to include keywords, regularly promoting your blog content, and driving website traffic to your Shopify store.
Shopify SEO Checklist for Technical Optimization
Technical SEO involves improvements to your website’s code, hierarchy, or structure. Below are the six most important technical considerations for SEO on Shopify.
URL Structure Optimization
URL structure plays an important role in helping search engines understand the content and hierarchy of your Shopify website. When a URL reflects category and product hierarchy, it provides a logical structure that helps search engines determine the relevance of content to a user’s query, ultimately influencing the rank of her web page in search results.
Backlinko found that the optimal length for a page URL is 66 characters, but shorter URLs perform better than longer URLs. A well-optimized Shopify URL also uses your custom domain, replaces spaces with hyphens, and keeps numbers to a minimum.
Make Your Online Store Mobile-Friendly
63% of internet users access search engines on a mobile device, so your Shopify store needs to be mobile-friendly for its SEO. Search engines prioritize user experience, but if your store isn’t mobile-friendly, dissatisfied users may quickly abandon your store. This high bounce rate tells search engines that your site might not have what people are looking for, which can hurt your search engine rankings. Techniques to make your Shopify store more mobile-friendly include:
- Using visual hierarchy to prioritize a page’s most valuable content above the fold
- Making buttons large and finger-friendly
- Automatically resizing page content based on the screen it’s loaded on (also known as responsive design)
Create XML Sitemap and Submit it to Google Webmasters
An XML sitemap is a virtual roadmap that lists all the important pages of your website in a structured format. With an in-depth view of your site’s structure and content, it’s easier for search engine crawlers to navigate and index your Shopify pages. Shopify automatically produces a sitemap.XML file for all merchants. You can find yours by adding “/sitemap.xml” to the end of your store domain. Copy and paste this URL into Google Search Console.
Optimize Navigation of Your Shopify Store
E-commerce navigation can go a long way in helping online shoppers find what they’re looking for. Clear navigation also helps search engine bots crawl and index your pages effectively, increasing your chances of ranking higher in search results. Optimize your eCommerce navigation by:
- Use parent and child categories.
- Make sure the navigation bar is minimized on mobile devices.
- Panning helps search visitors find other related products related to the product displayed in the search. Display garbage.
Identify and Fix Broken Links
Broken Link Active If your Shopify store points to a page that doesn’t exist, it’s called a broken link. Search engines that repeatedly find broken links on your site may decide that your content is unreliable or worthless. User experience also suffers when searchers are unable to interact with your website.
As a result, your SEO rankings may be affected and your Shopify store may appear less prominent in search results. Use his SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to identify broken links within your e-commerce store. Then, use a Shopify app like Easy Redirects to send the broken link via a 301 redirect to the next most relevant URL.
Improve Website Load Time
A faster-loading Shopify store improves the user experience. This is what all search engines prioritize in their algorithms. If your website is slow, users may get frustrated and end up clicking the “back” button and choosing another girlfriend’s website. This high bounce rate tells search engines that your website may not be offering what people want, which can lead to lower SEO rankings. We aim for a 2-second load speed for the entire store. Check your current speed with Google PageSpeed Insights and reduce latency by:
- Compressing Images
- Minimizing Code
- Limiting Pop-ups and Plug-ins
- Enabling Browser Caching
- Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Shopify SEO Checklist For Local Business
If you’re a merchant with a brick-and-mortar store in addition to your Shopify website, you need this Local SEO Checklist.
List Your Business on Google My Business
If you have a brick-and-mortar store next to your Shopify e-commerce site or serve customers from a physical location (such as a warehouse), Google My Business is helpful to your business. With Google My Business listings, you can reach the 87% of people who use Google to review local businesses. When people search for businesses near you, your listings will appear prominently in Google Maps and local search packages.
The best part? Customers can leave reviews on your Google My Business listing. Not only will local shoppers receive glowing reviews that make visiting your store easier, but Google can also interpret positive reviews as a signal that your online store is worth promoting.
Create Profiles on Online Directories
There are online directories designed to help people in a specific location find local businesses. When your store is listed in a trusted directory, it tells search engines that your Shopify store is trustworthy and relevant for local searches. Many directories also provide backlinks to a seller’s website, which can help build his profile while attracting local searchers. Start with global directories like Yelp and Yell. Next, apply to join the directory for each location where your Shopify store operates.
Create Landing Pages for Specific Locations
A local landing page is a URL within your Shopify store that provides information to local shoppers. This can include your store’s number:
- Hours
- Address
- Phone Number
- The SEO benefits of local landing pages are the location, such as “shoe store in Tampa” or “pottery studio near Los Angeles.” Having a unique URL to target unique keywords. Angeles. ”
The more keywords you incorporate into your store’s website copy, the more likely it is to rank for relevant searches.
Keep Your NAP Listings Updated and Accurate
NAP (short for Name, Address, Phone Number) is an important SEO consideration for local businesses optimizing their e-commerce stores. The ultimate goal of a search engine is to provide users with high-quality results. Businesses with consistent NAP data demonstrate their trustworthiness and help establish Shopify stores that meet Google’s standards for trusted listings.
Find all existing directory entries and verify that his NAP information for the company is still correct. You’d be surprised how many entries often get lost when you change your business address or phone number.
Shopify SEO Checklist For Performance Tracking
Tracking your Shopify SEO performance will tell you how effective your SEO strategy is. With so many metrics available on the Shopify and Google Search Console dashboards, which KPIs are worth tracking and which are false metrics that provide no insight into your SEO performance? can be difficult to figure out. The following metrics will help you analyze your success as you work through this Shopify SEO checklist:
Organic Search Traffic
The total number of people who visit your website after it appears in organic search results. An increase in organic traffic not only indicates that your search presence is growing, but that the people who recommend your listing find it relevant enough to click on it. is shown.
Keyword Ranking/Position
The position of a particular keyword in search results. The ideal location is the 1st position. Research shows that pages occupying the first position account for 27.6% of all clicks.
Traffic Amount/Value
This number is Ahrefs’ estimate of how much you would need to spend on paid ads to get the same amount of organic traffic. This is calculated by multiplying the keyword’s monthly paid traffic by the CPC value.
Organic Conversions
Create segments in Google Analytics to only show data for users who came to your site through organic search. To understand the quality of your search traffic, check the conversion rate for this segment (but keep in mind that even if your traffic is of high quality, you can still lose conversions on poorly optimized pages).
Assisted Organic Conversions
Just like buyers from other marketing channels, not all search engine visitors convert into paying customers on their first visit. The Google Analytics Assisted Conversions report shows you how organic factors influence a typical customer’s journey.
Shopify SEO Checklist FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Why my Shopify store need SEO?
SEO is a highly effective way to drive qualified traffic to your Shopify store. This gives you a chance to appear in the search results of potential buyers who are actively searching for the products you sell through your online store.
What are the common Shopify SEO mistakes?
Duplicate content, no internal links, and slow site speed are some of the biggest problems with Shopify SEO. This checklist is designed to ensure you don’t miss out on easy opportunities to increase your search traffic.
How long does it take to rank my Shopify store on Google first page?
SEO is a long-term strategy. It can take up to a year for Google to index your site, collect search traffic data, and start showing his Shopify store on the first page of search results.
Can I do SEO for Shopify store myself, or should I choose a professional/company?
You can use this Shopify SEO checklist to make your own optimizations. However, if you don’t have the time or want to outsource your SEO, you can outsource it through his SEO company on Shopify.
Conclusion
Optimizing your Shopify store is no easy task – but this comprehensive Shopify SEO checklist will make the task easier. Review our checklist to improve your store’s search visibility.