Shopify isn't bad for SEO. A lot of other factors are, however, very much responsible for your store's search engine ranking.
Now when we say "a lot of factors", we mean a whole lot of factors.
Shopify SEO is one of the most intricate and important elements of your store's success. It is a continuous process that takes a relatively long period for effects to fully materialize.
Nonetheless, you have to start from somewhere and there are some SEO elements you need to get in place.
This article presents you with the full list of Shopify SEO checklist items. From basic SEO to on-page SEO and the more technical SEO items, let's get right in.
Shopify SEO Checklist
Basic SEO Checklist
These are ultimate Shopify SEO checklist items that you cannot avoid. They are integral parts of your Shopify SEO that you set up at the same time you set your website up.
1.Create A Custom Domain
Owning a personalized domain name is the first step you want to take. Not only does this increase your discoverability by SEO algorithms, but potential store visitors also get to remember your store and find it faster.
A domain name related to your industry helps you rank better among your peers. You could easily register a domain name through the eCommerce platform.
Set Up Google Analytics
For effective Shopify SEO optimization, you need to continuously study how your website is performing and make appropriate changes through the data you collect.
Google Analytics is one of the most effective for this, so you want to create a Google Analytics account and connect it to your store. You create a universal analytics property and enable eCommerce tracking in Google analytics.
What's more, Google analytics has two levels of eCommerce tracking; basic and enhanced. So, you get to choose the level of information you want.
3.Set Up Your Google Search Console
Setting up your Google search console means submitting your website to Google for indexing and leveraging additional options you could use with the Google Webmaster tools.
After accessing your sitemap, You submit it to Google and allow the search engine to crawl through your pages. Indexing and page organization errors are identified and you work to fix them immediately.
You also have to verify your domain with the Google webmaster tool before you have access to services.
4.Set Up Bing Webmaster
Although Google makes up over 92% of web searches, Bing is the second-largest and you also want to have it covered. Thankfully, the Bing webmaster is also free like its counterpart.
One additional SEO item you want to look out for is being on a paid Shopify plan. If you fully set up your account on the free trial, switching to a paid plan resets all you have implemented. You don't want your efforts to go to waste.
You also want to have an external tool dedicated to SEO. These are tools like Ahrefs, keyword.io, and Moz, among others
One-Page Shopify SEO Checklist
Items here relate to the contents of your website. These are important to SEO for Shopify.
1. Properly Use Keywords
Using keywords involves researching for keywords for your products, services, industry, or direct website content and making appropriate use of them.
Tools like Moz and Ahrefs help you to do comprehensive keyword research. You look at the volume of searches a targeted keyword receives per month and choose it if visitors are sure to come looking for it.
Keywords should also be closely related to other content on the web page.
2. Page Structure Optimization
This relates to a lot of elements on your page. Here, you want to take care of the following:
- Ensure you make proper use of header tags (H1 to H6) throughout your page. Do not use the H1 tag more than once (at the very top of your page), make these easily understandable, and keep the number of characters below 60
- Optimize meta description by keeping characters below 155 and including appropriate keywords and effective content copy
- Include keywords in your page URL
- Images also rank in search engines. So you want to accompany your images with alt text descriptions and include appropriate keywords within these alt texts
- Add a schema markup
In addition to all these, you also want to ensure that the content on your website is what your customers would be satisfied with. You create excellently written informational content that offers them a lot of value.
3. Backlink Building
Backlink building is also a very important aspect of your on-page optimization. You create an effective strategy, study how your competitors are building their backlinks, and engage in proper outreach to other website owners. Of course, excellent content makes it easier to convince website owners to link to your Shopify website.
In addition to the above, it is also important to write SEO-complaint product description
Technical Shopify SEO Checklist
The technical checklist includes multiple Shopify SEO practices that are carried out within your Shopify website.
For your Shopify SEO optimization, you want to look out for the following:
1. Mobile Friendliness
A majority of eCommerce shoppers make use of mobile devices. Due to this, you want to make sure that all your web pages respond well to use on mobile devices.
Tools that allow you to check how your website looks on mobile devices are readily available on the internet. You could also use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test.
2. Fast Shopify Website Performance
Page speed is also important when it comes to SEO for Shopify stores. This is applicable for both mobile and desktop versions of your website. You could easily increase your Shopify store speed by following these instructions.
3. Leverage Redirects
Sometimes, pages may not be available or effective for what they are typically used for. One instance is where a product is removed from your store. What you want to do is set up redirects towards other pages.
4. Build Internal Links
You create different pages for different purposes on your website and place links to these internal pages within your website content. Having multiple blog posts helps you build a comprehensive internal link profile.
Some other technical SEO elements you want to check for include having a global navigation menu (comprising single-bar, double-bar, and drop-down navigation) and getting rid of duplicate content from your website.
Local Shopify SEO Checklist
Local SEO for Shopify focuses on ranking for geographically localized searches. With this, you want to take care of the following:
- Set up My Business with Google. You also list your Shopify store on other directories like Facebook, Apple Maps, and LinkedIn, among a lot of others
- Properly optimize your "Contact Us" page
- For more specific localization, in case you have different product offerings catering to different geographics, you create city or country-specific landing pages.
Are You Ready To Rank And Make Sales?
As said earlier, Shopify SEO optimization is a continuous process you engage in throughout the life cycle of your eCommerce website. It takes time to materialize but once that massive traffic starts coming in, you need tools that assure you of and even improve conversions.
You don't want tools that sabotage all your efforts. You want tools like Sparq that help you avoid generating massive traffic with very low sales. This is the final ingredient for your Shopify story's success.
