Over the past decade, the way modern consumers purchase new items has changed drastically. Instead of being forced to visit a physical storefront to procure new items, people can now find and purchase the goods they need online. The world of eCommerce was forever changed during the pandemic. During this time, online sales rose to the highest level in recorded history.
Since then, consumers have continued to reap the rewards offered by shopping online. In the second financial quarter of 2022, over $252 billion was spent by American consumers online. Entrepreneurs looking to venture into the world of eCommerce use the complete commerce platform known as Shopify.
With this platform, you can build, grow and manage your online business. Once you’ve created an online store, you need to shift your focus to driving traffic to this domain. The most effective way to accomplish this goal is by using tried and true search engine optimization (SEO) tactics.
Here is information about the importance of Shopify SEO and effective ways to improve the SEO of your Shopify website.
What Is Shopify SEO?
SEO adjustments that are unique to Shopify’s platform are the basic definition of Shopify SEO. The typical Shopify store comes with a variety of things that can be used for SEO, such as the ability to redirect and blogs. However, these built-in SEO tools can also cause problems.
One of the most common problems with Shopify’s built-in SEO is duplicate page content. If you want to set yourself apart from other Shopify websites, you have to change some default settings to remove duplicate content from your store.
Why is Shopify SEO Important?
Relying solely on paid ads to drive traffic to your Shopify store is a bad idea. A recent study found that nearly 80 percent of search engine users ignore paid ads. This is why you need to use Shopify SEO strategies to boost organic website traffic. Shopify SEO is important for many reasons we will cover below.
Shopify SEO Can Boost Brand Engagement and Credibility
Modern consumers look for several trust signals when scoping out a Shopify website for the first time. If you want your brand credibility to improve, then you have to realize the importance of a good blog and thorough keyword research. When your Shopify website shows up in a variety of different searches, it will be easier to convince potential customers that your business is trustworthy.
Improving your credibility will also help your engagement rates. If the content on your Shopify store is engaging and informative, it will get shared by visitors. This will also help to improve your social media presence, which can help you sell more products to the masses.
A Free Form of Advertising
When you initially start an eCommerce business, you will have to be very mindful of your marketing spending. While paid marketing can provide a good return on investment, you will have to invest a good chunk of your marketing budget into this advertising method. SEO is a good option if you want to drive traffic to your Shopify store without spending a ton of money.
Higher Conversion Rates
If a Shopify store is optimized for search engine success, it will naturally be more user-friendly. Successful SEO strategies will drive more traffic to your Shopify store. This will usually result in a higher conversion rate. If you want to improve your conversion rates, then you need to go out of your way to tell visitors about the benefits offered by your products.
Using positive reviews from satisfied customers is a great way to win website visitors over. If you can prove how well your products have performed for others in the past, visitors will trust your brand more.
A Great Way To Generate Targeted Leads
Choosing the right keywords is an integral part of a successful Shopify SEO campaign. Selecting the right keywords will require you to focus on buyer intent. The more you know about your target customer, the easier it will be to figure out the words they might use to search for your products. If you successfully choose and implement the right keywords, you should have no problem generating targeted leads.
A targeted lead will be far more likely to make a purchase. You can easily generate more targeted leads by segmenting your audience and getting to know your core demographic.
Make Your Shopify Store Easier to Find
There are over 4 million Shopify stores currently online. Rather than allowing your Shopify store to get lost in the shuffle, you need to work on making it easier to find for online consumers. The best way to accomplish this goal is by utilizing the power of SEO. The typical eCommerce store doesn’t have a lot of content.
This makes getting on the first page of Google more challenging. One of the key components of a successful Shopify SEO strategy is creating a blog. With this blog, you can target popular keywords. By using relevant industry-specific keywords in your content, you can attract attention from search engines. This attention will result in your website being much easier to find.
How To Improve Shopify SEO
Now that you know about the importance of SEO for your Shopify store, you are probably curious about how to develop an effective marketing strategy. If you want to improve your Shopify SEO, then you need to implement the tips covered below.
Create Unique Product Descriptions
One of the most important parts of your Shopify store is the product descriptions. Adequately describing the benefits/features offered by the products on your website can help you win over potential customers. A well-written product description can also help increase the SEO rank of your website.
When trying to craft a good product description, be sure to consider things like:
- Keep descriptions short and concise
- Focus on highlighting benefits instead of features
- Leave industry jargon out of your descriptions
- Add relevant and popular keywords
- Directly address the needs of your target customer
Great product descriptions can help you beat out the competition and drive more traffic to your Shopify store.
Improve Site Structure
Making sure the pages on your Shopify store are both easy to understand and simple is also important. If potential buyers have a hard time finding the items they want, they will leave your website out of frustration. Creating a few simple category pages is the best way to make your site easier to navigate.
You also need to add various internal links to promote important pages on your Shopify store. Using these links to guide both search engines and shoppers to essential pages can help your rank. Be sure to embed these internal links in relevant anchor text.
Including a search bar in your Shopify store design is also a good idea. A search bar allows a visitor to find exactly what they want without having to click on various page links. You also need to make sure your about us and contact pages are easy to find.
Website Speed is Important
The average consumer is extremely impatient. This impatience usually leads to a website visitor leaving if a particular page doesn’t load quickly. Google also considers website speed when crawling your domain. A website that is slow to load doesn’t have a chance of getting to the first page of Google.
If you want to improve the speed of your Shopify store, try doing things like:
- Avoid using sliders
- Don’t use a large number of apps on your website
- Select a theme that is highly-optimized
- Use images that load easily
Routinely testing page load speeds will help you stay a step ahead of potential problems.
Blogging Can Boost Shopify SEO
You can’t underestimate the power of great content when trying to improve Shopify SEO. With well-written blogs, you can boost both the visibility and credibility of your Shopify store. When creating blog content for your Shopify store, you must consider your core demographic.
Developing content that your audience connects with can help you improve the number of shares it receives. If consumers share your content with others on social media, it will extend your Shopify store’s reach.
Make Page Titles and Meta Descriptions More Engaging
Most people fail to realize that the Shopify templates that generate titles and descriptions can be changed. If you want to drive more traffic to your Shopify store, then you need to change these elements. Page titles and meta descriptions are the main things that show up in search engine results.
As you start to alter these elements, be sure to:
- Keep meta titles relevant to the page content
- Primary keywords should be used
- Meta titles should be around 60 characters long
- Meta descriptions can be up to 160 characters long.
If you have limited experience with creating meta titles and descriptions, you need to let professionals handle this work.
Are you having a hard time driving traffic to your Shopify store? If so, it is time to check out the Shopify Specific SEO packages Small Business SEO offers.