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Incorporating SEO into your Shopify website is essential if you want your eCommerce business to be found. Using normal SEO on a Shopify website will help optimize it, but there are specific strategies you can implement to make sure your shop is visible for all to see. By adding search engine optimization (SEO) it will help drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and improve sales on your site.

Does Shopify Use SEO?

In short, yes. The long answer is that Shopify is a commerce management platform that allows businesses to sell both online and in-person. Using Shopify gives your business the ability to sync inventory and manage both locations (online and in-store) in one centralized site. Since Shopify allows you to build a website for your business and control it all online, it also provides a URL. This connects to the search engines, which is why using SEO on your Shopify website is important. To show up and potentially be on the first page of a major search engine like Google, is something SEO can do if you optimize your website to be efficient.

Shopify SEO Optimization

Shopify has many optimization applications you can utilize. There are several applications that you can add to your website to help customize it to your liking. Finding the perfect app can be a difficult process, but Shopify makes it simple by organizing the apps into categories. These apps can help with shipping, connect social media, add customer reviews, and even give SEO tips. Every app provides a unique purpose. They all range in prices but some are even free for you to use.

How to Optimize Your Shopify Sitemap?

Optimizing your website’s structure can make it easier for search engines to analyze your content. Shopify takes care of some of the optimizations for you. It makes sure that your website doesn’t use inline frames for advertisements or other elements. It also uses URLs that don’t have added numbers or other special characters. This keeps your website looking clean and helps the search engine understand what content is on your page.

What You Can Do

To make your website operate smoothly, you can fix some elements on your end to boost your SEO on Shopify:

• Add internal links to help better navigate from each page
• Using better language for an internal link (ex: not saying “click here”)
• Use titles for your images to match descriptions
• Design a layout that works with a variety of devices

Adjust Your Online Store Navigation

When designing a layout for your online store, keep in mind user-friendliness. This is extremely important to SEO. Search engines don’t want to suggest websites to their users that aren’t compatible with their devices. Most people search for what they are looking for on the go, which means adjusting your website for a mobile device is extremely important.

Submitting Your Sitemap 

A sitemap is automatically made for your website through Shopify. It helps Google learn more about your Shopify store through searching the content. In order to find it, you can go under your Shopify store’s primary domain name. Then you can add /sitemap.xml. Your sitemap will automatically update as you change your website. Although you are not able to make changes to your sitemap, you can still submit it to Google. Submitting this information to Google allows your website to gain accurate results. To submit your sitemap, you need to…

Find Your Sitemap

As mentioned above, this is under your Shopify account with your primary domain name.

Register Your Sitemap with Google Search Console

There are two options on what to register, either a domain or URL prefix. Domains allow every page on your website to be indexed by Google. URL prefix is allowing Google only to index the exact URL page and nothing beyond. There is a verification process that allows your website to be fully submitted.

Add Your Sitemap

This part is pretty simple. Add your URL sitemap and you’re done. Google now will be able to index your website faster and provide your store with better visibility to those searching.

What Are the Benefits?

Allowing Google to see this information gives your website better search results. If Google knows the content your business has to offer, it can match a customer to your website. This can also help your site’s SEO. When you allow a search engine, specifically Google, to see the coding of your website, you are speaking its language. Allowing it to filter through and collect more information is a great way to get your site easily searchable. Along with your website being updated faster and indexed by Google, submitting your sitemap can benefit your future. As technology is getting smarter, sitemaps may become a requirement to rank sites more accurately. You can get a head start by doing this now!

Shopify SEO Tips

Page Speed

Speed can make or break a website. Have you ever clicked on a website and it takes a while to load so you go to another website? You don’t want this to happen. Checking your website page speed can be the difference between your website and competitors.

• Use compressed images so they load faster
• Make sure you don’t have applications or other widgets on your website that aren’t being used. This only takes more time to load.

Create A Blog

Blogs can help SEO be updated and use keywords that people are currently searching for. This can attract people to your website that want to learn more about the content you have to offer. A blog can help you include aspects of your business that don’t fit a page you currently have but want to share. This could be teasing product releases or sharing customer’s stories.

Audit Your Website

Auditing your website can be a hassle, but it ensures that there is only one URL like yours. You don’t want duplicates of pages. This helps get rid of anything that could confuse a search engine, therefore reduce where your shop ranks on pages. An audit can also review if your website is running as optimized as it can be and show where work is needed to be done.

Create a Google My Business (GMB) Account

Even if your store is only online, having a Google My Business account helps customers know your business is legitimate. It creates another area where your store is present. If you have low authority from other websites, this gives your business another URL to establish better credibility with search engines and customers. It will help give your website the boost it needs for SEO.

How Can Entering Keywords Help SEO?

When it comes to using your online store, keywords are crucial. These words provide clarity so a search engine can learn and match your website with a user. If your website fits the description of what someone is searching for and you provide the exact keywords, your site will be listed higher. Keywords give your website better visibility. You can use short keywords or long ones, depending on how your user searches. Studying your target audience is extremely important to learn what keywords need to be used. You can also use applications that will find keywords for you, like Google’s Keyword Planner Tool. Keywords are all about research. Once you have your research you need to know how to best use them.

Keywords on Shopify

You want to use keywords in a variety of places. This can help establish that your website has the content the user wants. To start, you want to add keywords to your website’s meta description. This allows you to highlight your website and what people can gain from your site. Adding keywords in this section of your site is very important to search engines. Don’t stop with the description of your website though. Add keywords to page titles, ALT tags, and throughout the content on your pages. Knowing when to use the right words can gain you SEO. Having a blog adds to where you can place words that are trending while staying true to your area of expertise. Using ALT text for images can help optimize how your images are viewed as well. The primary focus of using keywords for your Shopify business is to gain authority by reassuring Google you have exactly what each user wants.

Want Your Shopify Website to Stand Out?

If you are wanting your Shopify website to become more visible, adding SEO will improve how your website ranks on search engines. If you are wanting a better page layout, easy-to-use templates, or advice on areas to add SEO to your website, Webmix Networks SEO can help. There are many aspects of SEO that your business can utilize. Being a full-service digital marketing company, we can handle everything from the design to implementing marketing or SEO strategies for your business. Whether you plan on improving your SEO on your own or with an SEO agency, we have resources for you to utilize.