Shopify is a great platform both for eCommerce and SEO. It’s relatively easy to optimize since it’s a SaaS platform that has a lot of user-friendly features baked into it.
Making updates to SEO is relatively easy, too. Here are some things you can do to improve a Shopify website, from a Shopify SEO expert – 1Digital Agency.
How It All Works: SEO Services for Your Shopify Store
Since making changes to a Shopify website is straightforward, here are some of the ways you can boost a website’s SEO score.
● Submit your sitemap: The good news about Shopify is that the platform will automatically generate a sitemap – which is like a file that tells search engines how the website is organized. This helps them crawl it and index important pages for better visibility. While the platform will automatically generate one, you should manually submit the file to Google through Google Webmaster Tools.
● Optimize your headings and titles: One of the easiest and most impactful ways to boost the visibility of a Shopify website is by optimizing the headers and titles. Simply inserting a keyword into these will boost SEO substantially. Insert keywords where it makes sense, though, and don’t stuff. Make it sound organic if possible.
● Remove and compress images: While Shopify is hosted in a powerful, robust datacenter, large files can still slow down individual websites and create bottlenecks. To avoid this, make sure any image files you upload are properly compressed so as not to adversely affect website speed.
● Add alt text to images: While you’re working on your images, add alt text in the form of descriptors containing your target keywords.
● Add schema markup: Schema markup improves how search engines understand your website and will alter the displays in the search engine results pages. Websites with schema markup often enjoy higher click-through rates and better customer engagement. It can be tough for a beginner to set up, though, so it is best left to a Shopify SEO expert.
● Remove duplicate content: Anywhere on your website that has duplicate content from a distributor or manufacturer, remove it. Duplicate content is basically plagiarized and will not help your website. In fact it can hurt it.
● Add SEO-optimized blogs and landing pages: This is one of the biggest things you can do to improve SEO, although it takes a lot of work. Draft keyword-rich, informative blogs and CMS pages that answer user queries, with internal links pointing to your other key landing pages. These will improve visibility as well as the user experience.
● Reach out to partners for guest posts; trade for a link: Consult industry partners and parallel organizations in your vertical to see if they will allow you to guest post on their website; just make sure there is a backlink pointing to your domain in the post.
● Add internal links with SEO-friendly anchor text: Wherever you can, add internal links to your website’s pages with SEO-friendly anchor text. For instance, don’t use anchor text like “click here.” Instead, make the anchor text a keyword relevant to the page the link is pointing to.
● Set up your GMB account: To help your local SEO efforts, set up your Google My Business account and make sure it is as fully updated as all the fields allow. You might also want to consider adding landing pages to your website for the services you offer and areas you cover.
Let an SEO Expert Put These Digital Marketing Tips into Practice
If it sounds like all of this is a lot of work, it is, and moreover, this short guide doesn’t even cover the preliminaries – setting up Google Analytics, Search Console, and Webmaster Tools. It also doesn’t cover the necessity of keyword research before you even start making optimizations.
All of this is to say, if you don’t have the time or resources to put these into action, hire a Shopify SEO expert to get them done for you.
