Shopify & SEO: Are they friendly?

SEO works to ensure that your store is high on search engine rankings, based on the key queries you require. Shopify store owners will be pleased to know that there are a number of Shopify SEO tips for optimization that will raise your store higher up on the list for delivery, in a simpler way.

Search engine optimization for Shopify store

Several years ago, each Shopify SEO specialist promised to get businesses on Google’s the first page; however, today, no one can give make a 100% guarantee of presence in the top, and the term "exit to the top" takes an average of four months. The first relates to the question “How to SEO Shopify?”.

Is Shopify good for SEO?

Some tips of promotion are no longer working, and some are just gaining momentum. Before you need to figure out the process of optimizing your Shopify store for SEO.

SEO is divided into internal and external optimization

Internal optimization allows search robots to qualitatively and, more accurately, identify that your particular page can meet a specific request, and your store has value. This includes optimization of the title, h1-h6 headlines, alt images, the speed optimization of the site load, and much more. External optimization is driving traffic, placing donor external links on niche sites with thematic anchors. How to do SEO on Shopify? Let's figure out how you can optimize your Shopify store internally.

Attention! Shopify - is a SaaS platform that differs from a standard store. It already includes a number of Shopify SEO tips for optimization, but there are a number of limitations that can not be overcome.

Download speed analysis

How does site load speed affect the position on this issue? Good question. In the majority of cases, download speed can be reduced by search engine optimization for Shopify store.

Speed is one of the ranking factors in Google searches. A fast-loading store has high conversion rates and customer satisfaction. The main tool for determining the download speed — Google PageSpeed Insights.

But here there is one pitfall, which is missed by ordinary optimizers who are not familiar with Shopify. This is a SaaS platform, with a flexible front-end, but with a static back-end. We have repeatedly received the requirements of optimizers, in which there is simply a list of Google PageSpeed tips. Now, we reveal the secret - not all of them can be implemented for this platform. This is entirely normal.

How to improve SEO on Shopify?

Pay attention to the ways in which you can increase download speeds:

1. Minimize JS and CSS. Be prepared for the fact that the CSS and JS of most Shopify applications will not be available to you, because they are connected from the application development servers, and will not be in the assets of your store. Work with the styles and scripts that are in your assets folder.
2. Optimize all the pictures in your store. We use services from compressor.io and tinypng.com. Believe me, this is important and will allow you to accelerate your site by up to 40%. We had situations where client downloaded images were 10 MB, which resulted in the page load speed falling from 6 to 30 seconds.
3. Check for errors in the browser console. If you have 404 errors, then you lose download speed. The browser spends time on loading unsuccessful files which do not exist. Eliminate errors, the console should be clean.

What is your download speed at this moment? If your site takes more than 5-6 seconds to load on a mobile phone, then you lose about 53% of visitors who will prefer to go to other, faster sites. If you want to know more about improving speed and Shopify Speed Performance, review these 3 things to Improve Shopify Speed Performance.

Validity

Check your Shopify store for validity at validator.w3.org. Pay attention to the errors, as you’ll need to eliminate them. This can be an unencrypted tag, duplicate id, and other invalid layout issues. You have to eliminate all critical validation errors.

Mobile first

In the spring of 2018 Google announced the official launch of the priority Mobile-First sites over conventional non-adaptive sites webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html. This means that if your site is adaptive and is tested on the Check-Up Optimization tool for mobile - you get priority in search results.

Google conducted experiments for a year and a half and finally took this decision when most of the websites have already switched to responding. How important this metric is in ranking among other factors is difficult to say (Google keeps secret the formula for calculating the ranking, it also contains hundreds of factors at the moment), but we definitely state that this factor is one of the keys. We suggest you take a test on the Optimization Test Tool for Mobile, and if you receive a number of comments - you will need to fix them with the help of a qualified development team.

Alt image

Install the application to auto-generate alt-attributes for images: apps.shopify.com/lion-seo. In addition to the issuance of sites, Google also has a search function for images. Having a correct alt in the picture will give you a higher position in this area and increase your Shopify SEO optimization.

Social meta snippet

You may ask, What does any of this have to do with Shopify and SEO? This is a snippet for Shopify, which adds an open graph, Twitter markup. If you do not have these tags, you can download the snippet here. Just plug it in and it will automatically populate.

Content is everything!

If you read Google's tips for 2010 webmasters, and then you review the optimization trends in 2018, you will find the same focus - content. The availability of relevant, quality content that solves visitors’ problems is a huge advantage. We are all looking for solutions to our problems on the Internet. How to cook a pizza, which model today is the latest version of the iPhone, what is Bitcoin, and much much more. We watch movies, read articles, access news - and expect all of these things to come directly to us in a high-quality format. The best content should help us answer all these questions and, if you treat your store as a means to improve your customers’ lives, you’ll help do just that.

Search engine optimization and Shopify

• Include fully complete descriptions of goods. Think about key page requests, fill in headers for goods and pages, and pay attention to product titles, product URLs, alt, and descriptions. These should display a key query, according to what you need to be in the first position. Don’t abuse this function, though - the key query should not be more than 4-5% of the text on the entire page.
• Download colorful product images in high quality. Here's a tip from Shopify on how to take photos of goods with minimal costs: shopify.com/blog/12206313-the-ultimate-diy-guide-to-beautiful-product-photography
• Post reviews. For example, with this free application: apps.shopify.com/product-reviews
• Create content on your blog with articles relevant to your products. Disclose details, useful nuances, and display reviews. Be experts in what you sell.

Shopify store optimization  - this is a necessary measure, without which your shop will struggle to sell. Really! Still, think it's not for you?