Shopify was developed with SEO in mind. However, there’s also plenty of aspects surrounding the platform’s optimization models to keep on top of. So, how to rank your score higher?
Optimize Site Structure
When visitors can easily navigate your site to search for the things they’re looking for, they tend to view more pages, which can help your search engine rankings.
To improve your site navigation and make it easier for search engines to crawl your site and rank your products, keep a site structure simple.
Don’t overdo with categories and subcategories; place your products just a couple of clicks away from your homepage, using one of these structures: Homepage » Category Pages » Product Pages. Make it easy and fast for shoppers to find what they’re looking for.
About page and Contact page let shoppers and search engines know that you are credible and trustworthy, so don’t forget to add these pages on your site.
Include a search box on your page. It won’t help with SEO directly, but it will help visitors find what they’re looking for. Keep in mind your store should be built for customers first.
User Experience
Better user experience on your site also helps you rank higher in search results.
Boost Your Site Speed
When everything moves quickly, shoppers likely stay longer on your site.
To improve your Shopify store speed, you can:
- use a mobile-friendly theme
- optimize images
- remove any apps you’re not using
- avoid sliders
Use a Responsive Design
Responsive design ensures your Shopify store looks great on any device, including desktop, tablets, or smartphones. Responsive themes can improve user experience and keep visitors on your site longer. Note, shoppers are buying using their smartphones more and more.
Keywords Research
Observe that if your products are discoverable when people search for organic products or not. In this case, you will start improving your organic traffic by searching for relevant keywords.
Deciding what to write about seems tricky, but it doesn’t need to be. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and prepare a list of things your customers may be interested in and related to your products. What keywords would be used to find the products you sell?
For inspiration, check out forums related to your products, social media hashtags, competitors’ meta descriptions, keyword research tools, etc.
Optimize Products Pages
Start optimizing your top pages with the best conversions. Probably it will be your homepage, main product collections, and top-selling product pages.
Next, you have to name pages across the entire site using your keywords, like in this example:
- Keyword 1 – Shop for Keyword 2 – Store Name
- Red Lipstick – Shop for Red Lipstick Online – The Store
The next move is titles and meta descriptions for your products and categories. Your keywords must fit into the copy naturally, keeping in mind writing the original content.
The alt text for images should also be optimized for SEO to fit naturally.
Build Links
Search engines use backlinks to determine how the wider community values your site. A good off-page optimization strategy builds credibility and trustworthiness to your site.
Here are a few tips to get links to your store:
- Suppliers
Email your suppliers in the order they link to your store; they may have a policy that authorized retailers can get a link.
- Influencers
Reach out to industry influencers for interviews to create both links and content.
- Mentions
Some sites may already mention you with no out links. To find them, you can use mention.com. Then, email them to link to your site with the mention.
- Broken Links
Search for broken links for products and services similar to those you offer. When you find some, reach out to the site owner displaying the broken link to have them a link to your site instead. This is mutually beneficial for both parties; they get to repair a broken link, and you get a backlink since broken links can hurt SEO.
Content Marketing
Content attracts visitors to your site. Original content improves your user experience and helps you to rank for more keywords and get more backlinks. Deciding what to write about seems tricky, but it is not. Create a list of things your customers are interested in asking you and preparing real answers.
Use SEO Apps and Tools
Here, we’re going to round up some useful Shopify SEO tools and apps that you can use to drive some organic traffic for sales growth.
Plugin SEO
This app constantly monitors everything, including meta descriptions, page titles, website speed, blog post structure, content freshness, and alerts you when it encounters an issue.
Smart SEO
It lets you create alt tags for product images and meta tags for the product, collection, blog pages without making each edit manually. Additionally, apps provide structured data to search engines to enhance search results.
SEO Image Optimizer
This app helps to optimize the images on your store. After easy installation, it immediately runs SEO improvements automatically thereafter.
Yoast
Yoast makes it easy to optimize your site using the keywords that you choose. It checks all pages and posts for SEO strength and gets recommendations for improvement. Also, it helps you to edit multiple pages with a single click.
SEMRush
It helps to find underused keywords that you can use to increase traffic and conversions. It allows you to see your competitors’ keywords and their most visited pages.
Wrapping up
By working through each of the mentioned steps above, you’ll boost your SEO in no time. We hope you’ll gain larger volumes of website traction in what’s set to be a competitive eCommerce climate for years to come. If you’d like to get professional assistance with Shopify SEO, visit https://vtlabs.org, our SEO specialist will be happy to help you.
