E-commerce is a booming industry, with online sales expected to reach $6.5 trillion by 2023. However, with so many online stores competing for customers, how can you stand out from the crowd and rank higher on search engines like Google? In this comprehensive guide we’ll share best SEO practices for e-commerce & Shopify stores and online shop visibility optimizing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility and relevance of your website for organic search results. SEO can help you drive more traffic, conversions, and sales to your online store. However, SEO is not a one-time thing. It requires constant monitoring, analysis, and updates to keep up with the changing algorithms and user behaviour.
If you are using Shopify as your e-commerce platform, you have a great advantage. Shopify is designed to be SEO-friendly, with features and tools that can help you optimize your store for search engines. You can obviously get help from a professional Shopify agency, like Radiant. However, you still need to follow some best practices and strategies yourself to make the most of Shopify’s SEO potential.
In this blog post, we will share some of the best SEO practices for e-commerce, and how to apply them to your Shopify store. We will cover the following topics: In this comprehensive guide we’ll share best SEO practices for e-commerce & Shopify stores and online shop visibility optimizing.
- – Keyword research and targeting
- – Site structure and navigation
- – On-page optimization
Keyword Research and Targeting: Shopify E-Commerce SEO Best Practices
Keywords are the words and phrases that users type into search engines to find what they are looking for. Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the best keywords for your niche, products, and audience.
Keyword research can help you:
- – Understand the search intent and needs of your potential customers
- – Identify the topics and categories that are relevant and popular in your niche
- – Discover the gaps and opportunities in the market and your competitors
- – Optimize your site and content for the keywords that can drive more traffic and conversions
To conduct keyword research, you can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, or Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. These tools can help you generate keyword ideas, analyze the search volume, difficulty, and competition, and find related keywords and questions. Keep reading this comprehensive guide we’ll share best SEO practices for e-commerce & Shopify stores and online shop visibility optimizing.
When choosing keywords for your e-commerce store, you should consider the following factors:
- – Relevance: The keywords should match the products and services that you offer, and the search intent of your target audience.
- – Specificity: The keywords should be specific and descriptive, rather than broad and generic. For example, “women’s leather boots” is more specific than “boots”.
- – Long-tail: The keywords should be longer and more detailed, rather than shorter and more general. For example, “women’s leather boots with buckles” is a long-tail keyword, while “boots” is a short-tail keyword. Long-tail keywords usually have lower competition and higher conversion rates, as they target more niche and qualified audiences.
- – Location: The keywords should include the location or region that you are targeting, especially if you are a local business or have a physical store. For example, “women’s leather boots in London” is a location-based keyword.
Once you have a list of keywords, you should assign them to different pages and sections of your site, such as your homepage, category pages, product pages, blog posts, etc. You should also group them into themes and topics, and create a keyword map to visualize the structure and hierarchy of your site using Shopify stores e-commerce SEO optimizing best practices.
Site Structure and Navigation
Website structure and navigation are the way you organize and present the content and pages of your site. Site structure and navigation can affect the user experience, crawlability, and indexability of your site.
Site structure and navigation can help you:
- Make your site easy to navigate and use for your visitors with for best shop SEO practices
- Make your site easy to crawl and index for search engines
- Make your site more relevant and authoritative for your keywords and topics
- Make your site more competitive and differentiated from your rivals
To improve your site structure and navigation, you should follow these best practices:
- Use a clear and logical hierarchy: Your site should have a simple and intuitive structure, with a maximum of three or four levels of depth. You should use categories and subcategories to group your products and content by themes and topics, and use breadcrumbs to show the path and location of each page.
- Use descriptive and keyword-rich URLs: Your URLs should be short and descriptive, and include the main keyword of each page. You should use hyphens to separate words, and avoid using numbers, symbols, or parameters that are not relevant or meaningful. For example, `https://www.example.com/colllections/womens-leather-boots-with-buckles` is a good URL, while `https://www.example.com/collections/product?id=123456` is a bad URL.
- Use internal links: Internal links are links that point from one page to another within your site. Internal links can help you distribute the authority and relevance of your site, guide the users and search engines to other pages, and create topical clusters and relationships. You should use internal links to link your pages to each other, especially to your important and high-value pages, such as your homepage, category pages, product pages, etc. You should also use anchor texts that are descriptive and keyword-rich, and avoid using generic terms like “click here” or “learn more”.
- Use a sitemap: A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages and resources of your site, and their hierarchy and relationships. A sitemap can help you inform and update the search engines about the structure and content of your site, and make sure that they can crawl and index all your pages. You should submit a sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and update it regularly whenever you add, remove, or change any pages on your site.
On-Page Optimization: Best Practices For Stores & Shop SEO
On-page optimization is the process of optimizing the content and elements of each page of your site for your target keywords and topics. So, On-page optimization can help you improve the relevance and quality of your pages. Increase their chances of ranking higher on search engines using Shopify stores e-commerce SEO optimizing best practices.
Top On-page optimization can help you:
- Match the search intent and expectations of your potential customers
- Provide useful and engaging information and solutions to your visitors
- Increase the click-through rate (CTR) and dwell time of your pages
- Reduce the bounce rate and exit rate of your pages
- Boost the authority and trustworthiness of your pages for best shop SEO practices
To optimize your pages, you should focus on the following elements:
- Title tag: The title tag is the main headline of your page. The first thing that users and search engines see. The title tag should be unique, descriptive, and keyword-rich, and include your brand name at the end. The title tag should also be between 50 and 60 characters long, to avoid being truncated on the search results. For example, `Women’s Leather Boots with Buckles | Example.com` is a good title tag, while `Boots | Example.com` is a bad title tag with shopify e-commerce SEO.
- Meta description: The meta description is the summary of your page, and the second thing that users and search engines see. The meta description should be compelling, informative, and keyword-rich, and include a call to action. The meta description should also be between 150 and 160 characters long, to avoid being truncated on the search results. For example, `Shop our collection of women’s leather boots with buckles, and get free shipping and returns. Find your perfect pair of boots today at Example.com.` is a good meta description, while `Example.com is the best place to buy boots.` is a bad meta description.
- Headings: The headings are the subheadlines of your page, and the way you structure and organize your content. The headings should be clear, descriptive, and keyword-rich, and follow a logical hierarchy. You should use only one H1 heading per page, and use H2, H3, and H4 headings to divide your content into sections and subsections. For example, `How to Choose the Right Size of Women’s Leather Boots with Buckles` is a good H2 heading, while `Size Guide` is a bad H2 heading.
- Content: The content is the main body of your page and the way you deliver your message and value proposition. The content should be original, relevant, and valuable and provide answers and solutions to your visitors. The content should also be engaging, readable. Scannable and include images, videos, and other multimedia elements to enhance the user experience. The content should also be keyword-rich but not keyword-stuffed and use synonyms, variations, and related terms to avoid repetition and increase semantic relevance. For example, `Women’s leather boots with buckles are a versatile and stylish choice for any occasion. They can be worn with jeans, skirts, dresses, and more, adding elegance and personality to your outfit. However, choosing the right size of women’s leather boots with buckles can be tricky, as different brands and models may have different measurements and fits. To help you find your perfect pair of women’s leather boots with buckles, we have prepared this guide with some tips and tricks on how to measure your feet, compare sizes, and adjust the buckles.` is a good content paragraph, while `Women’s leather boots with buckles are great. It would be best if you bought women’s leather boots with buckles from us. We have the best women’s leather boots with buckles in the market. Women’s leather boots with buckles are awesome.` is a bad content paragraph.
Shopify E-Commerce SEO Strategies Conclusion
By implementing these SEO practices, you can improve the visibility and relevance of your Shopify store, and rank higher on search engines like Google. However, remember that SEO is not a one-time thing. It requires constant monitoring, analysis, and updates to keep up with the changing algorithms and user behaviour.
We hope you enjoyed this blog post, and learned something new and useful. If you did, please share it with your friends and colleagues, and leave us a comment below. We would love to hear your feedback and questions. Thank you for reading, and happy selling!