Shopify SEO 2021: A Complete Definitive How-To Guide For Beginners –

The Shopify platform is an incredible choice to build your e-commerce brand. Themes offer sleek design and quality user-interface to help you grow your Shopify store. However, the presence of Shopify is one thing for e-commerce growth. 

You can’t do it without the absence of SEO. SEO is the most powerful tool that can skyrocket your sales. More than 35% of retail sales in e-commerce were driven by organic SEO.

Most may side it by paid promotions. However, promotions are costly and have a shorter orientation. 

If you plan to have a life in e-commerce for an enduring period, you may want to learn the basics of Shopify SEO. 

Also Read – What Are Best SEO Consulting Tips That Works?

Check out the Shopify SEO 2021: A Complete Definitive How-To Guide For Beginners

Build a Structure with the 3-Clicks Rule in Mind –

There are a whole bunch of Shopify themes with ecstatic design and attractive functions to offer. You may pick anyone that matches your specific needs.

Selecting an excellent theme can help you to grow your Shopify store although not included in the list; it doesn’t compare any less in importance with the others.

After selecting a perfect theme for your site, it’s time for you to build a structure for swift and SEO-friendly page orientation.

The Homepage should lead the order, with your collections page following it and the products page emerging from the collections page. Your contact details and other information are added to the list at last.

Now, how does the site structure enhance SEO performance?

You may be surprised to know that a site with as few as 3 clicks to reach a product is likely to rank higher in the SERPs. Plus, the golden rule to attain more attention from SEO is by having a menu that reflects the site structure.

It may sound simple to execute, but you ought to have an organized approach to do so.

To set up your Menu, you may check on the Shopify Dashboard under the navigation head.

Understand the Desperate Types of Keywords and Execute Accordingly –

The core of search engine success has always been smart work with keywords. Keywords even though easy to find, may not help in conversion if they are highly competitive.

Without classifying your keywords, you may find it hard to strategize.

So, you end up compromising on your potential to target and sell. As a remedy, we recommend you to categorize your keywords in the following way;

Navigation Keyword –

The navigation keywords emerge from searches that inquire about where a certain product may be easily found. Your job as an SEO expert is to ensure that your site has the necessary keywords to navigate your potential visitors.

Information keyword –

As the word information suggests, your prospects are those who search for information on a product, use, and quality, and brand reputation.

If your Shopify store has quality content that has intelligently used informational keywords, then you’ve better chances to come in contact with people looking for a similar product.

Extract: Include information and navigation keywords in your blog posts.

Transaction Keyword –

The transaction or commercial-intent keywords are what you need to emphasize the most. You can opt for these ads as it has a direct link with e-commerce conversions.

There are several hundred impatient buyers searching words like discounts, sales, prices, and others.

To respond effectively, you ought to pay attention to what your prospects are searching for.

 See number five where we recommend using the Google ads keywords planner.

Extract: Include commercial-intent keywords on your product page.

Put Images Tag –

Just in case you include keywords to boost up your reach and grow your store, you may want to give a try to the images tag.

With the images tag, you can include the caption of an image. This will help you to connect with users looking for pictures of a product.

It is essential to know that using keywords in tags is useful; you may not overdo it as it would cost a lot. Black-hat SEO is disregarded by the search engine.

Hence, the originality and the ability to creatively appeal to your content is the gate-way to Shopify SEO success.

Use Analytics to Track Performance –

Shopify themes coupled with your expertise for keywords, may not be enough.

What if you’re still challenged to grow your Shopify store?

What do you do now?

Well, we recommend using the Google Analytics tool to track your SEO performance from time-to-time. Monitor trends in keywords search, point out what’s working and what’s not. Track SEO-friendly metrics such as page speed, design, links, and others.

By using an analytics tool, you could get useful insight into what Google needs to see in your site to push it up in the SERPs.

Use Google Ads Keywords Planner –

The Google ads keywords planner is a simple and free guide to plan your keywords to enhance the SEO-friendliness of your site. Since the Google ads promotions are paid, the keywords that are fetched are the most relevant and updated ones.

The ads planner provides you a set of keywords that are searched by users.

Focus on trending keywords as they will give you an idea to target a tier of keywords and compete with them.

Curtail Your URL, and Optimize Meta Titles and Descriptions –

Shopify even though claims to skyrocket your conversions, its SEO performance is often questioned. Dull as it may sound, the year is 2021 and Shopify is not to be blamed for SEO performance.

In fact, it recommends you to canonicalize your URLs by shortening their addresses.

However, to achieve powerful SEO performance, we advise you to do a little more.

Your Meta Titles and descriptions are the first things your prospects see before they click on your site. A fantastic feature with Shopify is that it enables editing these tags and descriptions.

Titles and descriptions are the battlegrounds where you need to outsmart your competitors. Remember to include strong keywords in your titles and text. You may want to entice your prospects emotionally with keywords of discounts, 50% OFF, deals, new arrivals, and much more.

You may also opt to have a YOU-orientation in the content.

Build Both Internal and Backlinks –

Focus on building strong links internally between pages. Your products, collections, and blogs should have more links.

It is essential that you connect SEO-friendly blogs with SEO-friendly product pages. Maintaining this consistency is critical to improving your SEO performance.

Besides, creating backlinks of trusted badges on your cart is also a major leap to SEO success. By having trusted stamps on your site, you can boost customer confidence, and push up your ranking in the SERPs.

Emphasize on Content and Avoid Keyword Stuffing –

It’s essential that you emphasize SEO-friendly content. Even though keywords are the basis for the search engine to track your page and sway searchers towards your site, keywords are not the only thing that is considered for indexing. It’s content! Content is always the King!

Your content should be catchy, read smooth, and have ample pictures to keep your customer engaged. You could also eye user-generated content like reviews and testimonials to help you communicate a sense of transparency. Sites that tend to have more reviews are likely to win higher slots in the search engine’s index.

Focus on User-Experience of Your Site –

Last, but not least, you ought to emphasize on user-experience. Your prospects are humans who do not only seek value for money with online shopping but also want their shopping to be a delightful experience.

Make sure your layout is elegant, simple, and easy to navigate. A responsive design is a must.

In addition, the page load speed is where most retailers tend to lose the battle. It shouldn’t be more than 3 seconds.

Lastly, your meta titles are 70 characters long, while descriptions are no more than 320 characters. Our recommendations are in-line with goals for the SEO performance of Shopify in 2021.

Author Bio –

Ricky Hayes is the Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Debutify – free Shopify theme, helping dropshippers build high-converting stores in minutes. He is a passionate entrepreneur running multiple businesses, marketing agencies and mentoring programs.

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