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Shopify is the fastest growing e commerce platform in the world. This is mainly due to its ease of use in allowing small businesses, in particular, to build their online stores and make online sales as independently as possible. Whilst building a site using Shopify may be relatively straight forward, these efforts will be in vain unless the site can be accessed by your customers. Improving your Shopify SEO and consequently its ranking is the best way to reach more customers and sell more products online. This post will delve into how to optimise your Shopify site using SEO techniques and which tools to use to aid this process.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, SEO, particularly shopify search engine optmisation, must start with the architecture of your site. Shopify themselves provide information on how best to structure your site.
Landing pages should contain the categories of your products, an about page, contact page and blog page to assist with a content marketing strategy. It is also important to include a search bar to aid customer navigation around your site. Shopify states that landing pages should be within 3 clicks from your homepage. This follows the principle of having a ‘flat’ rather than ‘deep’ website structure.
It is also highly important to make your homepage visually appealing as this is the first thing that your customers will see upon visiting your site. Your homepage should indicate to your customer who you are, what service or good you offer and an option to convert instantly.
Google uses bots to crawl your site and assess how it should be ranked for certain keywords so site structure is also an important consideration. In order for this to happen, it is important that your site is verified with Google Search Console. This then allows you to submit your site map which will improve your ability to rank on Google. But, if your Shopify site is not categorised strongly and clearly prioritised internally then you are presenting a week architecture and thus relevancy. Find more information on submitting a site structure here.
In order to make the most out of your Shopify site, it is crucial that the User Experience is optimised. Google wants customers to be able to find what they are looking for as easily and quickly as possible. This is why factors such as site speed, website navigation and content are so important. It is reported that 40% of users will abandon a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. 7% of users are said to leave a page if it takes longer than even 1 second. After doing so much work to attract users to your site, you want to make sure they stay and are converted. Tips to increase site speed therefore include,
Site speed is all the more important with the growth of M Commerce (mobile online shopping). With most customers using mobile to access e commerce businesses, sites need to be designed with mobile friendly images and content that allows for fast mobile load times.
Testing your page speed times can be done simply through tools such as Pingdom speed testand GT Metrix as mentioned in this video.
Keywords are the backbone of any Shopify SEO strategy. Google uses keywords to determine the relevance of your site and your landing pages with the terms searched by your prospective customers. Keywords are incorporated into many areas of your site including your page title, homepage, category pages, product descriptions, meta descriptions and image tags. The importance of keywords also means that a lot of research needs to be done into what your customers want, the volume of search terms and how competitive these terms are. Let’s take a Mountain bike store for example.
This research can be done effectively through Google Ad Words. However, please note that you will be required to have an account for this service. Alternatively, this type of research can be done manually through a Google search in an incognito window.
Once your site is set up well and you have incorporated your keywords, it is time to optimise your product pages.
To top off these SEO improvements, the last step is to adopt a content based strategy. Dynamic, rich content that provides users with relevant information is useful for a number of reasons.
By posting compelling pieces in a blog section, your site has the opportunity to answer many of the queries that your customers have. These topics can be identified through Answer the public and are a great way to kick start your content strategy. Posting regularly on a range of topics will help your business rank for a number of keywords and will ensure your site stays fresh and doesn’t fall into the trap of being static. When creating content it is important to include as much information as possible by digging deep down into the topic. The idea is to deliver a complete source of information where users are not required to look at other sites for more information. A good benchmark is around 500 words for this. Your post should contain the keywords identified through your keyword research done prior. Posts should also contain strong calls to action to improve your conversion rate.
Please note that content is not limited to text. Video content, Q and A’s and infographics can also be incorporated into your strategy.
SEO Melbourne prides itself on the strength of its content led strategy. We have a team of content writers who have a wealth of experience in producing articles for a range of industries.
Shopify SEO can be a lot to digest for many business owners. If this process sounds a little daunting, don’t worry, we can help. At SEO Melbourne we are committed to delivering the highest quality service to get your e commerce site ranking #1. Contact us here to find out how we can help you with your Shopify SEO Melbourne needs.
