Shopify SEO – Improving Your Shopify Store Search Engine Ranking

Shopify SEO, or search engine optimisation, involves how well your products or store appears in search results online. When someone searches for a product to solve their problem, you want yours (and your Shopify store) to be front, centre and at the top of the list.  So, for customers to find the products you offer in your Shopify store, you will have to improve your Shopify SEO.  

Shopify SEO – Why Do SEO and Keyword Ranking Matter?

Search queries that people use when they search for products or services are referred to as keywords. To put it simply, to improve your Shopify SEO, you will need to rank for specific keywords. The better you rank in search results when customers enter a search query, the higher you will be displayed in search results and the more you will sell. It’s quite simple. Page 1 in Google is the biggest shopping high street in the world.

There are five important factors influencing your keyword rankings:

1. Natural links that point to your store from other sites
2. Your website’s authority
3. Your domain name age
4. Structure of your website
5. Content of your website

The ultimate goal is to rank first for your targeted audience.

This can feel a little daunting so it’s often better to get a Shopify SEO expert to do a Shopify SEO review. Then you know which adjustments you need to implement to bring you closer to that goal.

The Specificity of Shopify SEO Keywords

Keywords are the basic building block of Shopify SEO. To rank properly, you need to find keywords that are relevant to your products and brand. These keywords will then have to appear on your website and throughout your content.

You want to get specific with your keywords. The more general it is, the more competition there is and the harder it is to rank. That’s because there are many others competing for it.

For example, let’s say you’re selling 3D printed custom-made keychains. Ranking for the term “keychains” would be difficult because of the sheer competition. But, selecting terms like “custom made keychains,” or “custom 3D printed keychains” will provide a more accurate description and bring you customers who are searching for the exact products and services you are offering – your targeted customers.

Where to Add Shopify SEO Keywords to Your Website

If you want to do your own Shopify SEO review, make sure you have keywords in the four distinct locations on your website to improve your rankings:

1. Page Titles
2. Meta Descriptions
3. ALT Tags
4. Body

Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are some of the most important elements for Shopify SEO. They help Google make sense of what your page is about, and they are the ones displayed in search results. These will be the first information your prospects see when you show up in the results. Ensuring you have good titles and descriptions translates to more visitors and potential customers.

To see how they look in results and edit them, access the Search engine listing preview and click Edit website SEO in the top right. From there, you can add a descriptive title for the page title, with a maximum of 70 characters. You can also add a description there, with up to 320 characters. Shopify SEO best practices advise that you use natural, descriptive language here instead of just using tags or keywords.

PRO TIP: Through your Shopify admin, you can add the title and meta description for your online store too. Just go to Admin > Online Store > Preferences > enter the title and descriptions in the same way.

It’s important to note here that the search engine’s algorithms are able to check that descriptions match the content of the page. If they don’t, you won’t rank highly either.

ALT Tags

Alternative tags used in images improve your Shopify SEO because they help search engines make sense of what’s there. They can’t “read” images, but they can read content, and these tags help them to do that. Use the same keyword from the page where the image is displayed, and always use words that describe what is on the picture, not what you imagine the picture represents. This also helps visually impaired or those using a screen reader to make your store more accessible. 

To edit ALT tags, go to >Products page > click the product image you want to edit > click the ALT link.

Once you enter the keyword and description, click Done.

Body

Adding keywords to the body means having them occur naturally throughout the content. The rule here is that they must fit into the content naturally and not stand out. Their location is also important: The ones appearing in the titles and subtitles will be treated by search engines as the most important and be used to determine what’s on the page. Therefore, they should be included into page H2 headers – the main, usually largest text on the page (aside from the title.) 

For the SEO-Savvy Owners – The Shopify SEO App

Using a Shopify SEO app is a good choice if you have already experimented with Shopify SEO and know your way around the basic terms and methods like meta tags, alt texts, sitemaps, broken links, and keyword rankings. Choosing a Shopify SEO app from the Shopify store will bring additional functionality with tools such as comprehensive SEO scans, keywords suggestions, or broken link detection.

While these functions are a convenient way to automate your SEO, most of them still have a substantial learning curve and are not recommended for beginners or those with no experience with SEO. While a Shopify SEO app can help you to a degree, without a proper understanding of how SEO works, it will not be as efficient as it could be in the hands of a true Shopify SEO expert.

How a Shopify SEO Expert Can Help

You might be aware of how important it is to do a Shopify SEO review of your website, but you may not have the required know-how to do it on your own. In that case, hire a Shopify SEO expert who will look at your shop and make the necessary changes.

The review will give insight into the current state of your Shopify SEO – whether you already implemented some SEO changes, which pages are ranking well, and which pages are bringing traffic. The review will also point out any existing issues and flaws that should be fixed to rank better. A true expert will be able to explain why changes are needed and how they will influence your website.

Hire Shopify Developers who can create a foundation of good SEO practices as they help build your store. One thing to remember is that these changes take time. Whilst they can be implemented quickly, it will still take time for search engines to register the changes and your ranking to adjust accordingly.