November 26, 2024

5 easy ways to improve your SEO on Shopify

Search Engine Optimization is an essential part of running a successful store online. And the good news is there’s a lot of advice out there to aid your journey to SERP success. 


However, as we’re all aware, there are lots of different types of sites out there aside from online stores - wikis, news sites, social media, you name it. That means either some advice is too general, or doesn’t apply to what you need for ecommerce SEO.


So today, we’re looking at ecommerce SEO and more specifically, tactics you can use to enhance your SEO when you build and manage your store on Shopify.  

Out of the box: What Shopify already does to help your SEO

Whether you’re a new merchant launching on Shopify or migrating to the platform, Shopify makes it easy to start off on the right foot with SEO. Let’s recap what’s taken care of already that’ll benefit your store’s SEO:


URL Structure

URLs make a page more accessible to both search engines and users, helping them better understand a page’s content. Shopify uses an easily readable URL structure by default, as well as recognizable characters rather than a random string of letters and symbols. For example a URL on Shopify would read “storename.com/products/product-name” which will be easy for a customer or search engine crawler to understand.


Sitemaps 

Sitemaps (XML) are another tool which search engine crawlers use to understand how your site is put together and important pages to crawl and index. Shopify automatically generates your store’s sitemap so you can submit it to Google. 


Mobile Responsive Themes

Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning they prioritize the mobile version of your store above the desktop version for indexing and ranking. All themes in Shopify store are mobile responsive and held to high standards for speed and user experience. This takes the stress out of ensuring your website looks and functions just as well on mobile devices. 


Site Architecture/Structure

How easy it is to navigate through your store is vital to user experience and to how search engines crawl and index your site. A simple example would be the homepage linking to categories, subcategories, and then products. Shopify makes it easy for your store to follow a simple, easy to navigate site structure when you create new pages and collections. 


Speed

Slow loading pages make for poor SEO results, but the good news is that Shopify helps speed things up. You will still have some work to maintain good page load times, however Shopify makes use of a global CDN (Content Delivery Network) meaning your store’s content will load quickly anywhere in the world. The platform also boasts the fastest checkout when using options like Shop Pay which also helps with user experience. 

5 tactics you can use to improve your Shopify store’s SEO

Now it’s time to take a look at what work you need to put in to get the best results for your store’s SEO on Shopify. 

#1 - Cover your technical SEO basics

It’s always good to start with the essentials. Technical SEO is the sort of behind-the-scenes of on-page SEO covering things like page speed and meta information. So all the things that do affect SEO but the user doesn’t necessarily see when they’re on your site. 


With Shopify stores, there are a few unique optimizations you can make that will improve your technical SEO. One of these is reviewing any apps you have installed on your site. Whenever you install a new app, it’ll add code to your site. The more this happens, the more there is to load and it can slow down your page speed. Review all apps you have installed, and determine their value - are there any that are rarely used? Are there any where a different app might consolidate some of the features you need? If you do decide to uninstall any apps, make sure that the code is completely removed from your store also. Even if you use a trial period for an app it can leave leftover code. 


Then you can move on to things like content optimization, which includes tasks like image optimization and compression. Large media files on pages can slow things down, like large images, gifs and auto-play videos. Ensuring these take up as little space as possible while also looking great will benefit your SEO.  

#2 - Optimize and automate your meta titles and descriptions 

Meta titles and descriptions play a key role in SEO. Not only do they tell search engine crawlers about a page, they also appear as the page preview in search results. This is your first impression with search users, and may be what helps them decide whether or not to click on your page in SERPs. 


You don’t get a lot of space, however, to make that first impression. Meta titles are around 50-60 characters, and meta descriptions are generally around 120-160 characters. The key is to be concise and unique, while incorporating keywords in a genuine way. Here’s an example from the brand Skims:

 

This is for their collection page for bodysuits - the meta description includes their brand name, as well as keywords e.g. “bodysuits”, “long sleeve”, “base layer” etc. It’s concise, and you know exactly what to expect from that page. The meta title similarly includes the information a search user will want to know.


When using Shopify, you can preview what meta information will look like in search results when you edit a page’s content. This is useful for individual pages, but what if you’re managing tens, even hundreds or thousands of pages on one site? That’s where automation becomes your secret weapon. Tools like SEO Manager are available through the Shopify App Store, making it easy to handle meta information across your store. Using the Automated SEO feature, you can create a template for meta titles and descriptions using different variables, and the app will automatically add metadata using that template when you create a new page. 

 

#3 - Create useful content across your site 

Once your technical SEO is in great shape, it’s time to move on to what users are really looking for - content. The key when it comes to content is that it’s useful to the user. After all, if you simply add lots of keywords to a product description where they don’t feel they belong, that’s bad for your SEO because users won’t actually get anything useful out of it. 


In ecommerce, what is useful to a potential customer? Product pages, FAQs, blog articles, contact information, and so on. And within each of those categories, customers have different information needs and intent. Start with that - what is the intent of the customer when they find your content, and what information would be the most helpful to them. 


Let’s use the example of product pages. The most useful information will be:

  • Product name - It should be clear what the product actually is. If the product has a unique name, then a few words that describe it could be included e.g. if a candle is called “Moonlight” then it could instead be “Moonlight | Soy wax candle”. 
  • Product description - this should be descriptive enough to convey all the most important details, while being concise enough to not be overwhelming.
     
  • Images - There should be enough to show different angles of a product so the customer gets a good idea of what it looks like. These should be clear, and the product itself should be the focus. 
  • Additional details - This includes brief information about shipping and delivery, returns, warranty etc. You can link to an FAQ with more in-depth details.
     
  • Technical information - Especially for products like technology, furniture, etc. customers will want technical specifications before making a purchase. 
  • Reviews - Customers trust reviews, and these also help to add to a page’s SEO. 

As for blogs, you need to find the sweet spot of the kind of topics that both target keywords beneficial for your store and provide helpful content for customers. That could be gift guides or how-to guides. For example, if you sell DIY knitting kits then a blog on different stitch types for beginners, or advances techniques would be the kind of topics your customers are searching for that will lead them to your store.

You can learn more about optimizing product page and blog content for SEO in this article.

#4 - Implement structured markup/schema

Want to take up more space in SERPs? Then you need to implement structured markup. This is extra code added to a page that tells Google more about it. In ecommerce, for example, things like price and availability. This can make it more likely that this information will appear alongside your meta information in SERPs as a snippet, therefore being visible to search users.

 

What this means is that any potential customers will be able to get extra information that might inform their decision to visit your store. From just meta information alone, they can’t see the price or the review rating of a product. They may then click on a product page only to see it’s out of their budget or out of stock, and leave the page. By adding structured markup, they can see this information before clicking. This improves the quality of traffic to your store, as it means the search user’s expectations have already been set. Your content may also be seen to be a better fit for search intent for specific keywords if more search users visit your store as a result of structured markup.


Implementing structured data is simple with the right tools. Shopify as a platform doesn’t come with this out-of-the-box, but using SEO Manager you can set this up to be added automatically when you create new pages. It’ll pull information from your store to populate the schema, and add it into each page’s code.  

#5 - Use the right apps and tools 

One of the best parts of building your business on Shopify is being able to make use of the Shopify ecosystem. And part of that ecosystem is the Shopify App Store. Perhaps you already have a couple of apps installed to manage different aspects of your store. The good news is that there are apps available that will make the process of search engine optimization that much easier. Whether that’s through automation, reporting, or other tools.


SEO Manager is designed specifically for Shopify merchants to automate and improve their store’s SEO. Using the app, merchants can:


  • Create templates to automate metadata 
  • Implement structured markup 
  • Find and fix 404 errors - both individually and in bulk 
  • Receive real-time SEO feedback with actionable suggestions to improve 
  • Use the AI assistant to generate suggestions for metadata

And much more - the app is packed with over 40 different features that will supercharge any SEO strategy on Shopify. Using the right tools is essential in getting the most out of Shopify as a platform, so it’s worth reviewing your team’s SEO needs and matching these up with apps designed to work with your store. 



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SEO is a worthwhile but challenging task, especially for ecommerce merchants. Fighting for the first page of search results alongside your competitors can be tricky, but with the right tools you’ll see your SEO thrive. Shopify provides a lot of great tools out-of-the-box and when combined with a solid strategy and tools made for the platform, it’s a real ecommerce powerhouse.