Shopify is one of the biggest e-commerce players and market leaders. Its creation is constantly growing; as of March 2024, over 2 million stores are live on the Shopify system.
By now, if you’ve launched a Shopify store, you probably have been made aware that SEO is an integral part of the process.
Bringing in more traffic should bring in sales, and as easy as that may sound, in reality it’s not quite so simple. This is where I remember Shopify SEO strategies coming in.
Why is SEO Important for Your Shopify Store?
Interesting enough, did you know that 49% of online shoppers start looking for their product online from a search engine like Google? This statistic epitomizes how much importance lies with coming out in the search results. If your Shopify store doesn’t come up in the searched products you sell, then you’re probably missing out on a tremendous amount of traffic and sales.
With millions of stores online vying for attention, visibility is the key. And now that you know how this ranking in a search engine can attract customers, a well-ranked store is much more likely to attract customers, and they will be much more likely to go to your store than another. But what can be done to improve the SEO of Shopify? Now it’s time to dive into some proven methods and best practices.
How to improve SEO on Shopify?
But for your business to achieve success, you must make sure that your website ranks up to the highest extent it can manage in the SERP. It might take some time, but even a brand-new site can rank well on Google using this SEO checklist.
Here are a few Shopify SEO tips that might prove helpful in improving your store’s rankings and organic traffic:
SEO Basic Checklist for Your Shopify Store
- Set Up Google Search Console: This is an extremely important tool in helping you monitor your site’s performance in search results and issues that may arise.
- Set Up Google Webmaster Tools: Know how Google views your site and enhance your SEO based on this knowledge.
- Submit a Sitemap: Create and submit your sitemap to help make it easy for search engines to crawl your site.
- Set Up Google Analytics: Track visitor behavior and build further insights into optimizing your marketing strategies.
- Consider SEO Tools: Get into tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs for more advanced keyword research and tracking.
- Check That Your Site is Indexed: Another important step is to ensure that your pages are indexed by Google. An indexed page by Google can appear in the results.
On-Page SEO Checklist
- Conduct Keyword Research: Research the keywords that are of significance to the niche to which your target audience is actually searching.
- Optimize Your Heading Tag: To enhance both readability and SEO, you should ensure that headings are clear and concise.
- Write compelling title tags: Ensure your title tags are enticing and rich in keywords so that readers are attracted to them.
- Optimize Your Meta Description: Design informative and attractive descriptions with high clickthrough rates.
- Include a Keyword in Your Page URL: Optimize with clean, keyword-rich URLs for better SEO.
- Write descriptive alt text for images: describe your images to aid the search engines in understanding your content.
- Add Schema Markup: Instruct search engines about your structured data to enhance the listings in the search results.
Content Checklist
- Content Marketing Strategy: Create a content calendar that will work well with your SEO goals and the interests of the target audience.
- Format Content for Readability: Use bullet points, short paragraphs, and headers to enhance the user experience.
- Correct Duplicate Content: Uncover and solve any instances of duplication that are having a negative effect on your rankings.
- Specialized Landing Pages: Develop product- or service-specific landing pages for conversion optimization.
Technical SEO Checklist
Is Your Store Mobile-Friendly? Be sure your site is responsive and easy to use on mobile devices.
- Use an HTTPS Secure Domain: Secure your site via HTTPS to enhance trust and rankings.
- Ensure Your Store Loads Quickly Optimize the loading time to enhance the user experience and rankings.
- Fix Broken Links: This is regularly done by checking and repairing the broken links, which enhances the quality of a site.
- Create an Internal Link Strategy: Use internal links to guide visitors and improve the crawlability of your site.
- Optimize Anchor Text: Use descriptive anchor text while linking, both internally as well as externally, to put some meat on this.
- Develop a Global Navigation Menu: Ensure your menu is short and readable to enhance the user experience.
- Enhance Core Web Vitals: Target metrics such as loading, interactivity, and visual stability.
Off-Page SEO Checklist (Link Building)
Analyze a Competitor’s Backlink Profile: Research where competitors are getting their backlinks and explore similar opportunities.
- Write Guest Posts: Guest blogging works in a number of ways. It creates some authority from contributing to good blogs, and it also increases your backlink count since the links back to your website create authority from other places. This means when you’re guest blogging, you’ll want to find niche blogs that have a good reputation.
- Secure Press Mentions: Reach out to media outlets and get features to create buzz for your store.
- Reclaim Brand Mentions: Keep track of the mentions of your brand online and let them become backlinks to your website.
Local SEO Checklist
- Set Up a Google Business Profile: Claim your business on Google to improve local visibility.
- List Your Store on Major Directories and Platforms: Ensure your store is listed on platforms like Yelp and Yellow Pages.
- Fill Out Your Contact Us Page Thoroughly: Add relevant contact information to build trust and enhance local search engine optimization.
- Consider City-Specific Landing Pages: Target local keywords with dedicated landing pages for different locations.
Bonus SEO Top Tips for 2024
- Use AI to Scale Content Creation: Use AI-based tools that give suggestions on the types of content creation and thus assist in minimizing the whole process of writing.
- Diversify Content Formats: Do video, infographics, and podcast creation so more people will relate to your work.
- Invite influential creators to produce content: Work with influencers to increase influence and credibility.
Conclusion
Optimizing your Shopify store for SEO is essential for increasing visibility and driving organic traffic. By following this comprehensive checklist, you can enhance your store’s performance and attract more customers. Start implementing these strategies today and watch your Shopify store thrive in the competitive eCommerce landscape!
