You’ve created your first-ever Shopify store. Great! But your work isn’t done yet. It has to be optimized and ranked on Google so it receives the traffic it deserves.
It is not an easy thing to do, but it isn’t that hard either. Shopify is considered a leading platform due to its easy-to-use and friendly features, so there is more and more competition for you if you choose to sell on this platform. With a bit of knowledge of how things work and some guidance, you won’t struggle much. There are multiple things that you should know in this regard, but the main one is SEO. Performing SEO on your site can bring it quite close to getting ranked.
But this isn’t the only thing, though. In this article, we’ll tell you more about this and everything else and guide you through the whole process of ranking your Shopify store on Google.
Ranking Your Shopify Store on Google: The Complete Guide
Below, we will discuss everything that has to be done for your Shopify store to achieve a good ranking on Google. We’ll list the points and elaborate on each one so following them is easy for you.
- Perform On-Page SEO on Your Store
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “On-Page SEO”, it basically refers to optimizing the aspects of your site that you can interact with. To perform on-page SEO on your store, the following are the things you can do:.
- Keyword Research and Incorporation
Keywords are the terms and phrases that appear in the search queries of users. Adding them to your store will make it more relevant to those queries and it will start appearing more in Google SERPs.
This makes it important that you add only those keywords that suit your store. For that, research is required.
Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs can be used for effective keyword research. When it comes to Shopify stores, it is recommended to find long-tail keywords for products. They usually have low competition and it is easier to rank your store’s products on them.
Once you’re done with the keyword research, strategically add what you found to your store. Here are some of the best places where you can add keywords naturally.
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Headings
- Product descriptions
- Image alt text (if present)
- Internal Linking
Internal linking is a great way to distribute authority among your Shopify store. It is the process of adding links to different pages and products of your store to relevant anchor text and buttons.
If your store has a product category page or pop-up, it is the best place to add internal links. Users will select what they are looking for and the link will redirect them to it.
Besides authority distribution, this also helps in retaining the attention of users, making them stay on your Shopify store longer. The more time they spend on your store, the higher its chances of getting ranked.
- Work on Your Store’s Technical SEO
“Technical SEO” refers to optimizing the Shopify store in a way that the technical requirements of Google are fulfilled. It includes multiple things and you have to fulfill each one of them.
- Site Speed
Users don’t wait too long for a site to load. If it doesn’t open up in 2-5 seconds, they leave and go elsewhere to search for what they were looking for. This is why, Google prefers to rank pages and online stores that load fast.
You should ensure that every page of your Shopify store loads quickly. For that, multiple things can be done and those are:
- Enable browser caching.
- Compress images.
- Use a highly responsive store theme.
Once these things are done, you can check the loading speed of your Store’s pages by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
- Mobile Optimization
Mobile phones make up almost 78% of the traffic that is received by an e-commerce store. Google checks whether a site is optimized for mobile devices before ranking it. Considering this, it is highly important that you make your Shopify mobile-friendly and responsive.
Mobile optimization is a lengthy task and you might need to hire a professional to do it. But if you’re not willing to hire someone, you can follow this detailed guide by Adobe and do it yourself.
Lastly, to check whether your Shopify store is mobile-friendly, you can use the Mobile Friendliness Test Tool by Microsoft Bing.
- Clean URL Structure
URL structure is something that most people overlook. Make sure you’re not one of them as it plays a major role in technical SEO and website ranking.
Use a clean URL structure. One that’s descriptive, includes keywords, and accurately shows what the page is about. For instance, rather than having URLs like “http://example.com/page/u45AHF0W123/” for your Shopify store, you should have ones that look like this:
“http://example.com/page/wrist-watches-for-men/”
URLs like this help Google better understand what’s going on the page and it gets ranked accordingly.
- Leverage Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to get your Shopify store ranked higher among Google SERPs.
This is because it drives traffic from multiple sources to the store. Upon seeing that a store is receiving so much audience from external sources, Google ranks it high among the SERPs as well.
Having said that, content marketing includes a couple of things. From creating content to publishing it on different channels, everything has to be done with care. Below, we’ll discuss these things in detail.
- Create High-Quality Content
For effective content marketing, the content has to be of high quality. This means that it should be very informative, readable, and must be easy to understand for the readers.
These qualities have to be ensured regardless of what type of content you’re crafting. It doesn’t matter if it is a how-to guide, a product comparison, or just a piece of promotional text.
One of the best ways to make sure your marketing content is of high quality is to proofread and paraphrase it once you’re done writing it. While doing so, you can give special care to making it readable and clear without having to worry about these things during the writing process. For assistance, you can use a paraphrasing tool.
Such a tool will help you understand how you’re supposed to paraphrase the content accurately and improve its quality if needed.
- Optimize the Content for SEO
Just like with the store itself, your marketing content also has to be optimized for search engines. This has to be done so it pops up in front of the users when they search for something related to it. Once it does, they will probably read it and land on your Shopify store.
To perform SEO on your marketing content, here are some of the things you can do.
- Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout it.
- Add internal and external links to it.
- Come up with a good title tag and meta description for it.
- Publish Content on Multiple Channels
With the marketing content creation and optimization out of the way, it is time to publish it on multiple channels.
Each of them will drive a set of audience to your Shopify store, which will boost the overall traffic it receives, and consequently, its ranking among SERPs. Some of the most popular channels that experts suggest publishing content on are:
- Blogs
- Social Media
- Emails
Do keep in mind that the marketing content might have to be altered a bit to make it appropriate for each channel. This is because the general requirements of every channel are different.
That said, you don’t have to fully rewrite it; minor changes will suffice. For example, emails are shorter than blog posts. So, once you’ve got your content published on different blogs, you can summarize it manually or with a summarizing tool and use it in emails.
- Get Authoritative Backlinks to Your Store
Backlinks act as a vote of confidence for Google. If your Shopify store receives multiple of these, its authority increases in the eyes of search engines and consequently, its ranking improves.
That said, backlinks work even better when they are obtained from a well-established and credible site.
You can get backlinks for your store by reaching out to authoritative sites. Or you can wait till you’ve established yourself as an industry leader and let the backlinks come to you without asking.
This is how you can rank your Shopify store on Google. With everything covered, our post comes to an end.
Final Words
To rank your Shopify store on Google, you need to focus on SEO and optimize your website for search engines. Start by performing on-page SEO, which includes keyword research and incorporation in title tags, meta descriptions, headings, product descriptions, and image alt text.
Additionally, internal linking helps distribute authority and retain user attention. Work on your store’s technical SEO by ensuring fast site speed, mobile optimization, and a clean URL structure.
Leverage content marketing by creating high-quality content and optimizing it with relevant keywords, internal and external links, and compelling titles and meta descriptions. Publish your content on multiple channels such as blogs, social media, and emails. Lastly, focus on getting authoritative backlinks to increase your store’s authority and ranking.
