Is SEO for Shopify different from regular SEO? Use this guide to learn everything you need to optimise your Shopify store.
Business owners using Shopify must work hard to attract their target audiences to their stores. As with any e-commerce business, the challenge is bringing in people to your website that are interested in purchasing products from you, and that’s where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes in.
Social media and Google Ads are excellent channels for Shopify stores to drive traffic and sales. SEO is also a great way to grow your business with a high return on investment and ensures that your ideal customers can find your store. All that’s left for you to do is create products your potential customers want to buy.
Is Shopify good for SEO?
Shopify is one of the best e-commerce platforms for SEO. Shopify’s built-in features help Google index and rank the pages. Like any website, optimising it for search engines will require a well-rounded combination of technical, on-page and off-page elements.
Image credit: Shopify
Shopify does have some limitations in terms of customisation. For example, the sitemap can become complicated for larger sites, and Shopify does not allow you to customise it.
Likewise, Shopify has categories built into the blog, so a blog might look like this: https://example.com/blogs/news, which restricts the amount of customisation that can be done to a Shopify site’s architecture.
How to do SEO on Shopify?
By understanding a customer’s search intent, organic search can be boosted to a Shopify store in several ways, such as:
1. Optimise the structure
Although sitemap customisation is limited through Shopify, you can still optimise the site structure to make it easier for search engines to index. Site structure is a part of technical SEO, and it’s essential not to overlook it if you want your site to rank highly.
You can optimise your SEO for Shopify by:
- Removing duplicate pages.
- Not adding too many categories and sub-categories.
- Adding internal links to relevant pages.
Image credit: Corner Cart
A clear site structure can help you grow organic traffic because Google will better understand the website layout.
2. Improve user experience
The heart of every marketing strategy is user experience. Even if you rank highly in search engines, you can only drive online sales if users have a good experience on your site.
Image credit: Zippia
SEOs should look at a website’s technical aspects that relate to how a user is experiencing a website. These could be things like:
- Slow site speed.
- Poor image quality.
- Obtrusive pop-ups.
- Unhelpful site navigation.
- Lack of information on product pages.
According to a study by NEA, companies that invested heavily in UX/UI design saw a 75% increase in sales.
More recently, Google’s algorithm updates — E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) and the Helpful Content — have seen Google place a far greater emphasis on creating better user experiences that directly impact rankings.
3. Create keyword-driven content
Keyword research is an essential part of any Shopify e-commerce SEO strategy. It helps identify the relevant terms and phrases that potential customers use to search for products online. There are two main types of keywords:
- Short-tail keywords: Usually consist of 1-2 words, for example, “books” or “buy books.”
- Long-tail keywords: Typically are greater than 2 words, for example, “how to buy audible books.” Long tail keywords are also more specific and can often be phrased as questions.
Target both short and long-tail keywords. It is usually easier to rank for long-tail over short-tail keywords. That’s because short-tail keywords typically have a much higher search volume and command more competition for these keywords.
Image credit: Semrush
Creating content matching the user’s search intent makes you more likely to attract and engage the right audience, increase click-through rates, reduce bounce rates, and increase the chances of conversions and sales.
4. Optimise product pages
Product descriptions are critical to not only SEO but also for converting sales. You can optimise these pages by including targeted keywords in the product title, page meta title, and product description. Consider optimising category landing pages, too.
Image credit: Sellbrite
Optimising a product or blog page usually involves TF-IDF SEO. TF-IDF, or term frequency-inverse document frequency, determines the importance of a word or phrase in a document or set of documents.
TF-IDF works by identifying all of the pages currently ranking on page 1 for a given search query, identifying which semantic keywords these pages use, then it can be used to either:
- Optimise a current page.
- Assist a writer or SEO with producing a new page.
The basic idea behind TF-IDF is that words frequently appearing in a document but only in others are considered more meaningful and relevant to the document’s topic. One example of TF-IDF content optimisation is adding FAQs to product pages.
Our team of SEO experts in Melbourne can help optimise your product pages and improve your search engine results with our Shopify SEO services.
5. Obtain quality backlinks
Link building is the process of acquiring links from reputable websites and is an off-page strategy whereby a link from a credible site acts as a vote of confidence for your website.
Shopify store owners can earn links in various ways, such as:
- Partnering with influencers.
- Guest posting (one of the most common ways to build links).
- Broken link building (finding broken links from competitors and targeting their links).
- Niche edits (also known as link inserts).
- HARO link building (PR software that helps brands acquire digital PR links).
A high-quality backlink links an authoritative and relevant website to your website. The following qualities make a backlink high quality:
- Relevance: The linking website should be relevant to your website, and the content on the linking page should be related to the content on your page.
- Authority: The linking website should have a high Domain Authority (DA) score and be considered a reputable and trustworthy source.
- Anchor text: The anchor text used in the link should be descriptive and relevant to the content on your page.
- Natural: The link should appear natural and not be part of a large-scale link-buying scheme.
- Dofollow: The link should be a “dofollow” link, which means it passes link equity to your website and can help improve your search engine rankings.
- Permanent: The link should be permanent, meaning it will stay on the linking website and pass link equity to your website indefinitely.
- Not on a low-quality website: The link should not come from a website with a history of penalisations, low-quality content, high spam score, bad reputation, or a site that is just made just to sell links.
- An indexed website: The linking website should be well-indexed by search engines and have good traffic.
By acquiring high-quality backlinks, you can increase your website’s authority, which can help improve your search engine rankings and visibility and drive more targeted traffic.
Is it worth hiring an SEO expert?
Some online store owners hire Shopify SEO expert agencies to help them improve their rankings. Business owners often need to add SEO, where a digital marketing agency can help.
Image credit: Mangools
SEO agencies have much more time to optimise your website, including checking those backlinks aren’t broken, targeted keywords are still ranking, and more. Whenever a Google update changes things, an SEO Shopify expert will know how to fix your store so it remains at the top of search engines.
Alongside SEO copywriting for your product descriptions, an expert can give you helpful e-commerce SEO tips to keep your site on top and help you develop a Shopify SEO strategy specific to your business.
How much should I pay an SEO Expert?
SEO companies offer various prices depending on your desired services and the agency’s prestige. It usually depends on your budget and what you expect of the SEO consultant. Most SEO professionals calculate a special rate depending on the expert’s knowledge and expertise and the services you require.
Image credit: Ahrefs
Reach out to the digital strategists at Aperitif for a quote to see how we can transform your business today.
Is it worth hiring a Shopify SEO expert?
Hiring a Shopify SEO expert can benefit your business as they can help improve your website’s visibility and search engine rankings. An expert in Shopify SEO can help you optimise your website’s technical structure, content, and metadata to make it more search-engine friendly.
Shopify SEO agencies can help you research and implement relevant keywords and create a comprehensive strategy to drive your site traffic. A professional can help you monitor and analyse your website’s performance and adjust your SEO campaign to improve your search engine results.
Summing up
Driving traffic and sales to a growing Shopify store can be challenging, but speaking to the experts is easier. Investing in Shopify e-commerce SEO can help you increase your online presence, drive more traffic to your website, and ultimately boost your sales.
If you are looking for an expert SEO agency in Melbourne, look no further than Aperitif. Our digital marketing experts can help get your Shopify store to the next level. Contact us today to learn more.
