Shopify Search Engine Optimisation
Shopify is a complete e-commerce platform that allows anyone to set up an online store to sell goods. This easy-to-use platform lets you organise your products, customise your storefront, accept credit card payments and track and respond to orders in just a few clicks. Shopify is a favourite with start-ups because it is intuitive and affordable. The platform allows developers and designers to build unique storefronts that are appealing and includes essential marketing tools such as social network integration, custom gift cards and discount codes.
Many of PureSEO’s clients have Shopify websites and we have worked closely with them to improve their organic ranking and dramatically increase their sales. Want to join our list of Shopify success stories? Get started with these beginner’s Shopify SEO tips.
Get your basics in place!
Right from the get-go, it is important to make sure that your homepage title and meta description is in place. The meta description, which is a short text blurb explaining the content of a webpage, shows up in the search engine result pages when someone searches for your brand name or any keyword that causes your home page to appear. It is super easy to include a meta description with Shopify. Simply go to ‘Online Store -> Title and meta description’ to edit the description for your store. Write the title and meta description in the style of an advertisement, as this is one of the first things a searcher will read and you want to encourage them to click through to your website.
Include an XML sitemap
XML sitemaps make it much easier for search engines to crawl your site. The good news is that Shopify automatically generates an XML sitemap for your site. This sitemap can be found at the following URL: www.myshop.com/sitemap.xml.
Even better is that Shopify updates the sitemap every time you add a new product/page/blogpost/image etc. It’s that simple!
Optimise your blog
Shopify’s blog functionality can be super useful for helping you gain rankings, since search engines index blog content quickly. Blog posts can include product reviews, comparisons, buyers guides or tutorials. This is the best way to display authority, get more traffic to your store and engage with your customers.
Use redirects
This is actually quite an important step that can be missed quite easily. Check if your Shopify settings are correctly set up and that you are redirecting your users from the non-www to www. In order to do this, click on Online Store -> Domains and verify that the checkbox ‘redirect all traffic’ is checked. All done.
Connect Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free software tool that helps you understand the behaviour of your website visitors by giving you important metrics such as where your visitors came from, how long they stayed on your website, which pages they engaged the most with, etc. Without this information, it is difficult to know which improvements need to be made to improve the functionality of your website. Follow these steps to sign up for Google Analytics and link it to your Shopify store:
- Go to the Google Analytics homepage and click ‘Access Analytics Premium’.
- Click ‘Admin’ in top navigation menu.
- Under the ‘ACCOUNT’ drop down menu click ‘Create new account’.
- Follow the steps and click on ‘Tracking ID’.
- Click the ‘General’ link in the menu in the backend of your Shopify Store.
- Copy and paste the tracking ID in the ‘Google Analytics’ section.
It may take up to 24 hours to start seeing data but once you do, you can track your site performance and plan your next steps.
Get started on pushing your Shopify website to the next level! To connect with us and find out how we can help optimise your Shopify site even further, check out our services page and contact us today.
