Shopify SEO 2023: The Ultimate Guide to Ranking Higher

As eCommerce grows, so does the importance of SEO for Shopify Store. Because more and more people are shopping online, it's essential to make sure your Shopify store is optimized for search engines to ensure you're reaching your target audience.

Businesses that have not yet begun optimizing their Shopify stores for SEO will be at a disadvantage. If you want to pick up the pace, now is the time to start. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about SEO for Shopify stores in 2023, from optimization basics to advanced techniques.

By following the tips in this guide, you'll be on your way to improving your Shopify store rank in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attracting more shoppers to your store.

But before you get into the guide to optimizing your store, you need to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) and how it works.

What is SEO & How Does it Work?

SEO is the practice of optimizing a website or improving the rank of a website on search engine results pages to earn higher web traffic levels and improve the site's visibility. The better your website's rating, the more likely visitors will encounter it. While many elements go into a successful SEO strategy, the most important part is creating valuable content that people want to read and share.

SEO is a rapidly changing field, and tactics that worked last year may not come in handy this year. That is why it is critical to keep up with the latest trends and developments in the SEO industry. SEO is possible manually as well as through the use of SEO tools.

Before we understand how to improve your Shopify store rank, you must know how search engines work and rank websites.

Whenever you have a query and decide to look it up on the internet, a search engine is the first place you go. After you put in your question, the algorithms behind the search engine work to give you the most accurate and relevant results based on the keywords you entered into the search box. The algorithm looks for websites and ranks them by relevance based on the keywords.

To rank a website on the SERP, a search engine performs the following steps:

1. Crawling: a search engine sends out its crawlers to find and record information about a website while also looking for new websites and occasionally checking for new content on previously visited websites.

2. Indexing: This is where a crawler, often referred to as a spider or robot, decides whether the site or page is worth adding to the search engine result page or not. A few red flags include plagiarized or low-quality content or lack of inbound links.

3. Ranking: The search engine ranks the data on the SERP after shortlisting crawled sites. Technical optimization, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization are three elements used to rank websites.

SEO for Shopify Store basics:

SEO for Shopify Store is one of the most important aspects of online retail stores. It might mean the difference between earning little and earning a lot. There is no traditional SEO for the Shopify store guide. However, by following some easy guidelines and optimizing your Shopify store's settings, you may improve SEO on Shopify and increase the visibility and organic search traffic to your Shopify store.

1. Meta Details

The first thing that you need to do is make sure that your titles and descriptions are fully optimized. You have to make sure that you include the targeted keywords in the meta details and the tags for your products. You also want to make sure that you are using good quality images, as these will help you attract more potential customers to your store. Alongside good quality images, remember to also add in image alt texts.

2. Custom Domain:

Getting a custom domain is your ticket to success. A custom field will rank higher and generate more trust from visitors or potential customers. But make sure your custom domain name stands out and is distinctive, but not so unusual as to make it hard for people to remember. Another tip is to choose a custom domain name that includes related keywords to improve your Shopify store rank.

And in case you're going through a creative block, Shopify's got a domain name generator to help you out.

3. Attract Web Crawlers:

Now that you've got a domain name, custom or free, you need to attract engine crawlers to get ranked and visibility. To attract search engine crawlers, submit your site map while making sure that you add your actual domain name, including sitemap.xml, to Google Search Console or a similar tool so that your website can be easily crawled indexed, and eventually ranked on a search engine result page. Also, remember to verify the domain with the tool to get indexed.

4. Website Analytics:

To keep a check on the performance and analytics of your website, you will want to use an analytics tool like Google Analytics, which is free to use, by the way. Head over to an analytics tool and create your account. This tool will help you check your website's performance from page to page. It also enables you to analyze which channels drive traffic and generate revenue.

5. Improve your SEO Game:

Stay on top and elevate your SEO game by using SEO tools to meet your goals. While Google Search Console and Google Analytics have already provided you with a competitive edge, using an SEO tool makes things even better.

Keywords Everywhere and Ahrefs are two premium tools. However, if you're looking to save some money, you can opt for some free tools, like Surfer SEO Chrome Plug-in, Keyword.io, Screaming Frog, Moz, and MozBar.

Content Marketing for Shopify Stores

Another proven and effective way to attract and engage prospective customers is by making them feel connected. You can connect with your prospective customers by telling them more about you, the story behind you, your brand, and your products. But remember that the content should be high quality and engaging to keep your prospective customers hooked up. Attract prospective customers with your content and book some sales by following various simple steps.

1. Consider Different Channels:

You can produce and distribute content via more than one channel to increase traffic and views. Some include a separate page on your online store, a blog, social media channels, or email campaigns.

However, because there are numerous channels for producing and distributing your content, you cannot share the same generic content on each channel. For this, you must alter your content and optimize it as per the channel you wish to distribute it through.

Like on social media, you may optimize your content using mentions and hashtags. You may also add links to your post to bring traffic to your site and help lock in sales.

2. Develop Content:

You must determine and research the content suitable for each channel. Your content must be engaging and catchy to hook up with your customers and increase traffic and reach. Content can be produced in multiple ways depending on the channel. If you're distributing your content via social media, you'll want to opt for more images, videos, infographics, and less wordy captions. Conversely, if you're producing content for a blog, you would use more than two thousand words, and remember to add pictures in between to make your content not too vanilla.

While doing all this, make sure your content is SEO optimized per channel to deliver to the intended audience. You also wouldn't want to share the same content every day. Instead, consider a content mix of:

• News
• Inspirational quotes and videos
• Facts and tutorials
• Product promotions
• Contests and giveaways
• Customer feedback and influencer reviews
• Updates about community events
• Polls and FAQs
• Exclusive behind-the-scenes

3. Create a Content Calendar.

One of the most efficient ways to plan, organize, and publish content is using a content calendar. It will help provide you with insights regarding how to prepare your content and when to publish it. You can save time by using a content calendar. It doesn't require you to stay active and post consistently; you can plan all your weeks' worth of content in one go.

Planning your posts ahead of time can help save embarrassment from big mistakes or social media crises. A content calendar will also allow you to view global moments relevant to your audience to plan ahead of time.

An effective content calendar includes auditing content, choosing the proper channels, tracking your calendar, crafting content beforehand, letting your team members view and improve it, and scheduling your content to publish at the most engaging time.

4. Form a Content Strategy

While forming a content strategy, keep checking where your audience will interact the most with the content type and apply the content there. Develop custom templates for images and a custom style and font for messages, and use them across all channels, be it your website, social media, email campaign, or blog.

Remember to engage with your visitors across all channels; respond to comments, repost stories and posts, share feedback, hold interactive sessions, like polls, FAQs, or live sessions, engage with your community and make them feel like a family. This will connect them to your content and eventually increase your revenue.

On-page Optimization for Your Shopify Store

On-page SEO optimization consists of producing high-quality meta details, including titles and descriptions, focusing on a set of keywords for all pages of your Shopify stores, from the home to collections to products and other relevant pages. With a few steps to follow, you can easily set up on-page optimization for your Shopify store.

Step 1: Discover the Entire Scope of your Shopify Store.

To optimize your Shopify store, you will need to first determine the optimization level for each page of your Shopify store. Tools like Screaming Frog, Moz, or MozBar, which by the way, are all free tools, help you crawl up URLs.

Start by logging on to a tool's website. On the website, type in the URL of your Shopify store, and click on the "start" button. The device will work its algorithms, and once the tool successfully finishes crawling, it will let you export the results into an excel file.

Next, open up the Excel workbook and click on the "all pages" tab to copy the pages' addresses, meta titles, and descriptions tabs from the freshly crawled data to a new workbook. This unique workbook will help you establish a basis for on-page optimization.

Step 2: Determine which Pages Require Optimization.

Filter pages in need of optimization from most to least. Go from the most to the least relevant pages. Google Analytics or any other similar tool can help here, but you need to link your Shopify store to the device first.

Using Google Analytics, you'll see a behaviour tab in the menu towards the left. Under the behaviour tab, click on the site content button, then click on all pages. This will review the pages of your Shopify store and help you choose the ones that need optimization the most. You can also choose pages with a high impression rate but a low click-through rate, as well as your core pages or top-performing pages or products.

Step 3: Find the Right Keywords

To set up a focus keyword, you first have to choose a keyword you will be focusing on. Also, you will want a focus keyword for each page. You can use different free or paid tools to generate keywords, like SEMRush, Keyword.io, or Moz. Log onto either device and select your region. Next, type the keyword associated with your Shopify store.

Make sure you thoroughly do your keyword research, including its search volume, and add that to the workbook in correspondence to the page and the search volume. That's how you're going to map out keywords for all pages requiring optimization.

Step 4: Create Metadata

Next, now that you have a comprehensive compilation of the titles, descriptions, URLs, and keywords, you'll have to review and edit your current title tags and meta description. Some tips to remember while writing or editing a title are:

• One H1 tag is enough.
• It must include the keyword.
• It must be in the range of 55 to 65 characters ideally.

While writing a meta description, make sure it is attractive and powerful enough for the reader to click upon, while remaining under 155 to 160 characters. Remember to include your keywords and be the strongest at the beginning to attract readers.

The title, as well as the description, must properly explain the content on your page, as you want to convince the reader to click on the link. And don't forget to add your focus keywords to your URL.

Step 5: Optimize Your On-Page SEO

SEO isn't all about the text; almost 23% of web searches come from Google Images. So, you have to make sure that all the images you use are copy-righted and not plagiarized, as that lowers the chances of a higher Shopify store rank. The image should be of high quality, and the file name of your image should be descriptive while containing keywords. Always remember to write a descriptive ALT tag for your image, containing a detailed yet necessary description of the image.

Adding a schema markup can drive more organic traffic as well as a better click-through rate (CTR). You're probably wondering what schema markup is. Schema markup helps a search engine understand the content on your website correctly and add snippets to the search engine result page. This will eventually increase the place of your Shopify store in the SERP.

Now that you've reviewed and edited all your meta details, it's time to incorporate the new and improved meta details into each page of your Shopify store. But before doing so, you must review the final changes, double-check spelling and grammar, and if you're still not sure, you can always use grammar-check tools like Grammarly or Quillbot. Moreover, also remember to review the new on-page changes you've made using an SEO tool, like the ones mentioned earlier in this article.

How to Generate Backlinks for Your Shopify Store.

Backlinks, or incoming links, are those links that come to your site via another website. Sites that have more backlinks are believed to have a higher and better organic ranking on search engine results pages.

But why are they so important? Because backlinks are considered votes, similarly to clicking "yes" on a voting machine, each time you click a backlink, it signals to the search engines that this website has credible and valuable information, meaning it should be ranked higher, which improves your Shopify store's rank on the search engine result page.

So, how do you go about creating a backlink for your website? You can come up with a few strategies, like collaborating with other publishers or competitors. This will not only reward you, but it will also reward your collaborative partner too.

Moreover, you can use link-explorer tools to understand the competitors' backlinks. This can help you come up with prospective collaborators. You can also look for press coverage. Try making use of a brand monitoring tool too to look out for mentions of your Shopify store that are unlinked, and then you can reach out to the publisher and ask them to link your Shopify store.

As you build and expand your Shopify store, remember that the connection between search engine optimization and a prospective client is inevitable. As search engine technology advances, these two factors appear to move in perfect sync, implying that the simplest way to improve your Shopify store's rank on a search engine result page is by pleasing the users.