Many of us use digital channels and tools like Google daily. Despite this, understanding how search engines actually work and how they rank pages is not something that comes naturally to most people, at least not at first. This leaves many Shopify merchants scratching their heads when it comes to the world of SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation. Our Digital Team can improve SEO Shopify for your ecommerce business to increase your sites visibility, traffic and conversions. The question is how?
How to improve SEO Shopify
Improving SEO on Shopify is a long term marketing strategy that requires a combination of activities in order to achieve results. Unlike paid advertising, SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular, consistent activity. There are four main pillars of effective search engine optimisation:
- Technical SEO- how well your content can be crawled and indexed by search engines
- Content – having relevant content that answers users search queries
- On site SEO- the optimisation of content and HTML on your website
- Off-site SEO- the building of authority to demonstrate your site is trustworthy
How to improve SEO shopify- Technical SEO
When Our Digital Team takes on any new client, the first thing we like to do is ensure all of the technical elements of SEO are in working order. This is to ensure that search engines like Google can properly crawl and index your site. We use a range of tools to explore your website and highlight any technical issues. Common technical issues that can negatively affect your rankings include:
- Crawlability
- Indexability
- Mobile friendliness
- Load speed
- Structure of site
The reason why technical SEO is the first element we like to improve or fix is because it essentially ensures that your site is understood by search engines. Doing all the other best practices of search engine optimisation could be pointless if your site is not even visible to Google.
How to improve SEO Shopify- Content
Another key element that must be considered in any effective SEO strategy is the content itself. The content you show on your website is one of the best ways you can showcase to potential customers what you do, why you do it and who you have done it for. Although optimising content for search engines is important, it’s equally important that you ensure your content is readable, relevant and interesting to your target audience. There are a number of forms in which you can create content, this includes the following:
- Landing pages
- Blog posts
- FAQs
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- Reviews
In order to produce content that people want to read, it’s important to research what people are searching for. Our Digital Team are Google Partners, this gives us access to tools that allow us to identify the average monthly search volume for certain keywords and terms. You can then use this information to put together a content plan to target key terms with the highest search volume. This allows you to reach more potential customers and provide them with an answer to their search queries.
How to improve SEO Shopify- On site SEO
Although writing high quality content that is interesting and relevant to your target audience is important, without effective on-site SEO, this content may never even get seen. This is why on-site SEO is crucial, it involves optimising each page to target a chosen keyword. This activity involves the following:
- Keyword research
- URL
- Page title
- Headings/ subheadings
- Meta description
- Content
- User experience
- Call to action
- Structured data markup
By optimising each page within your website for specific keywords, you are sending positive signals to search engines like Google. On page SEO is a method of demonstrating to Google what your page is about. From here, Google can use its clever machine learning to show your page to the right audience. The better optimised your page for a keyword, the more likely it is to appear higher on search engine results pages when a user enters a search query that includes said keyword.
How to improve SEO Shopify- Off-site SEO
Although completing all of the search engine optimisation activities discussed above are crucial in effective SEO. It is important that you don’t forget off-page SEO as this too is a component paramount in developing good organic rankings. Unfortunately, because off-site SEO is so important in improving your sites rankings, it is also the most difficult to get right.
Off-site SEO basically involves the process of acquiring links from external sources (links from one website to a page on another website). These links are called ‘backlinks’ or ‘inbound links’. The reason why these links play a role when it comes to SEO is because they signify to search engines whether a site is authoritative or not. The more authoritative a site is, the better it ranks in search engine results, thus increasing site traffic, and ultimately improving conversions.
Here are some examples of high authority websites:
- The BBC
- Wikipedia
- Youtube
- Forbes
- The Telegraph
- Business Insider
- Amazon
Improve SEO Shopify Overview
SEO can seem daunting, there are a number of components involved in putting together and executing an effective SEO strategy. That’s where Our Digital Team comes in. We work as an extension of your team to create a well thought out SEO strategy that takes the four pillars of effective SEO into consideration. With our structured, methodical approach to SEO we are able to improve yours sites visibility, drive more qualified traffic and ultimately increase conversion rates.
To learn more about how Shopify Partner Our Digital Team could skyrocket your business to the next level, do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.