Nothing is more disheartening than building a Shopify store from scratch, ready to make serious cash that no one visits. As the store owner, it makes you wonder if you are doing something wrong. You became anxious by the day, knowing there would be no sales if there were no visitors. Eventually, there is a chance that your store will close. This is where the role of Shopify SEO services provider becomes valuable. SEO stands for search engine optimization, a process for optimizing a page or website so users may easily find it on Google or whatever search engine he or he is using.
At first, you might think there is no need to hire an agency. However, there are many things that Shopify experts can do that you cannot. For one, they have a treasure trove of tips on making your Shopify store more findable. Some of these tips are as follows.
Tips on helping customers find your Shopify store easier
1) Conduct keyword research
Keyword research is an SEO term that refers to the discovery of words or phrases that the target audience uses when searching on search engines like Google. For you, it means finding the keywords your target market uses and optimizing your Shopify product pages around them. The rule of thumb is to target one keyword or keyword cluster per page.
Start by putting yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What words or phrases will you use in searching for your product or service? Suppose you are looking for a badminton racket. You may google various terms such as “best badminton racket brands,” “badminton racket prices in the Philippines,” and “badminton racket and shuttle.” You may also search for questions such as “How much are badminton rackets in the Philippines?”
When creating a list of these search terms and questions, you are actually doing manual keyword research. You can use many keyword research tools online to narrow your shortlist. This list is already good for keyword targeting. However, you want to target keywords that would bring in conversions, such as leads and sales. So be ready to discard certain search terms and leave only those expected to perform. Your goal is to choose keywords with high monthly search volume (MSV) and low keyword difficulty (KD).
2) Optimize the store’s structure
A logical structure does not only target the website crawlers or the Google bots, so it would understand the hierarchy of your store and display which collection or product page to the user when triggered by a keyword search. It is for the shoppers too! For instance, if a user lands on your gym bag collection, you may further subcategorize by having “gym bags for men” or “gym bags for women.”
Shopify generates a sitemap for all the stores automatically. Google and other search engines use the sitemap.xml file to index your website and show your product pages on search engine results pages (SERPs). The search giant rewards well-mapped Shopify stores by ranking them higher. So nail a navigation-friendly store to rank high on Google!
3) Optimize key SEO elements
At the page level, you need t optimize key elements such as the URL, title, heading, and meta description. Do these for all pages you want displayed on Google, but more importantly, for collections and product pages.
Shopify helps owners improve SEO through the ‘Search engine listing preview.’ This component optimizes the page title, description, and URL and handle. This portion is editable.
Certain Shopify SEO best practices to follow. First, the title tag and meta description should be unique. Second, every page must have a target keyword. Refrain from keyword stuffing, which is inserting too many keywords on one page. Third, each element has a required character count that you have to abide by. For example, page titles must only have 70 characters or less.
4) Write unique product descriptions
The fact that each product page must have a unique product description cannot be emphasized enough. This is more so if you have other e-commerce stores other than Shopify. Each description, even for the same product, must be 100% unique.
This is especially important for stores whose products mass manufactured. You need a unique selling proposition that starts with a compelling exclusive copy. For instance, you may also include information on how to use the product appropriately, answer frequently asked questions (FAQs), and offer tips and hacks that the users will not find anywhere else.
5) Include product photos
The challenge in online marketing lies in selling products that have touch elements. This is where product photos become non-negotiable. Goods for sale must be perceived visually. Images are meant to entice the shoppers to buy the product. They are supplemental to the page’s product description and other textual information.
Another important image-related SEO element is alternative text or simply alt text. Alt texts describe the image. Google cannot read photos, but it can understand what the image is about through the accompanying alt text. Also, some users do an image search before making a purchase.
6) Speed up the store
It is 2023, but in case you need to learn it, speed is a ranking factor. On top of that, shoppers get easily frustrated when a page they are trying to view takes forever to load. As a result, users abandon websites that take 3 seconds to load. Instead, they would immediately move on to the next available store selling the same products.
Check your store’s speed through Google PageSpeed Insights. The tool shows the speed scores on both mobile and desktop. It shows areas that you need to improve as well.
In Shopify, images take up the bulk of components that slow down a page or store. So, your first stop should be image optimization (please refer to the above). But, again, stores are highly visual, so product photos are inevitable. One solution for this problem is installing a Shopify app, which brings us to…
7) Install Shopify SEO apps
Shopify has a library of free and paid SEO apps. Today, there are more than 150 apps to choose from, arranged from the most to the least relevant. From the dashboard, you may gauge which of these apps receive top reviews as well as the current number of users.
Then again, as already mentioned, Shopify provides basic SEO and free apps. If you need more advanced SEO features, invest in a paid plugin. Check the app before purchasing by taking advantage of the free trial. Paid apps usually offer a free trial.
8) Publish blog posts
Anything about the product that you cannot include in the product description can be discussed and published through blog posts. Also, blog posts present an opportunity to target non-transactional (or non-product) keywords. Content also improves the store’s Google ranking and attracts more people to your store, which translates to traffic.
Blog posts are generally informational, but the topic must be relevant to the products you sell to make the discussion more topical. One advantage of informational content is the possibility of reaching out to potential customers early in the buyer’s journey. This content aims to educate the consumers, particularly those who have a vague interest in your product. The more they know about your product, the better informed they will be, motivating them to purchase a particular product from your store.
Your goal is to make your Shopify store findable and explorable. Of course, there are challenges to making these things happen. But you can start bringing in more sales with the tips outlined above. These are all investments, but while there are costs to every visit, there are also potential earnings. So, the buyer’s journey starts with the desire to purchase a particular product. Make sure the buyer ends the journey on your site through a successful purchase.
Optimind can help your Shopify store as easy to find as possible. Talk to us and let us help your customers find your store more easily and complete their buying journey at your e-commerce website!
