Organic traffic from the search engines is the biggest source of traffic for every Shopify store. However, earning those clicks from users depends on how high the website ranks. Search engine optimization (SEO) assists in improving the rank of the store on the result pages. Robust SEO services focus on optimizing the technical aspects, such as keywords and descriptions.
In simple terms, Shopify SEO means optimizing the store using strategies unique to the platform. While the store comes with certain useful SEO features like the blog corner and the ability to redirect, it also causes certain issues, such as higher loading time.
In this article, we’ll explain how to optimize your Shopify store for more organic traffic.
Research and include relevant keywords
Google’s bots scan websites to determine what the site is about. Keywords are one of the most common ways the search engine giant accomplishes that. For example, if a page mentions ASO multiple times, there’s a good chance the content is about app store optimization.
There are five key areas that sellers can add keywords to improve their Shopify store traffic:
Page URL Page Titles Meta Description Alt Tags Main Content
While setting up the page in the Shopify editor, sellers are required to fill in all these details. Once completed, the platform automatically makes it readable for Google. Now, the question arises, how to determine which keywords should be used?
Easy, conduct thorough keyword research.
Keyword research entails finding -
Keywords used by the target audience to search for goods and services in your niche Which ones have low competition
Your objective is to find the ones that have high search volume and low competition.
Use keyword research tools, such as SEMrush, Moz, and GrowthBar to get more refined results.
Site speed optimization
Google penalizes the websites with higher loading time. Make sure that the Shopify store is fast and user-friendly. You can do the following to increase the website speed:
Do not install too many Shopify extensions that add widgets and other such features, use speed optimization apps, such as Ultimate product Filter+Search. Extensions tend to weigh down the site making it slow. Make it a habit to go through the extensions and remove the unnecessary ones. Compress the images on the website to reduce their size. Usually, the biggest culprit behind slow Shopify stores is the large image size.
Invest in link building
Backlinks are an integral part of a successful SEO strategy. They are hyperlinks from some other website to yours, boosting the authenticity of the latter. Backlinks act as a trust signal for Google and assist in establishing credibility.
The more links a site has, the greater the chances of it being ranked for the targeted keywords. While there are multiple ways to earn backlinks, here are a few tried and trusted methods for Shopify store owner:
Suppliers and manufacturers can assist you in earning backlinks, Connect with them and see if they’d be willing to link back to your page on their website. Reach out to the industry influencers, who are willing to talk about the website and link back to it from theirs.
Press releases and other PR opportunities are an excellent way to earn backlinks. If you’ve recently launched a new product or hired an influential team member, publish it and earn some backlinks.
Optimize your store for voice search
With the majority of customers owning a smartphone, it’s safe to say that factoring voice search in the SEO strategy has become essential for boosting traffic.
Voice and text search are used quite differently, thus optimization techniques also differ. For instance, a text searcher might type “best moisturizer”. A voice-based search is usually more detailed, such as “ what are the best moisturizers for dull skin?” Also, they’re generally locally based like, “which online store delivers goods within two days to Nanital?”
Below we’ve enlisted the two points you should bear in mind when optimizing for voice search:
Leverage long-tail keywords for reaching target customers. They’re phrases that contain three or more words. To rank for those longer keywords, Shopify sellers need to create content that targets them on the website through the following process:
Research and find out the relevant long-tail keywords Identify multiple semantically related keywords Create a long-form, comprehensive article with properly placed semantically related keywords throughout the content. Optimize the content for readability, using subheadings wherever possible.
Structured data increase the chances of your blog being used to answer a voice query over the competitor. Different types of structured data can be used to better convey the subject and theme of the blog to Google. Which, in turn, can assist in improving the website ranking.
Wrapping up!
When developing a robust Shopify store that ranks on top of search engine results, you need to implement a well-structured SEO plan.
Understanding the basic concept of what the Google algorithm is and what it considers to be a ranking factor can assist you in boosting the store’s SERP ranking. A professional
digital marketing agency
can assist in creating and publishing relevant content optimized for driving more organic traffic to your website. For further information, contact us here.