4. Not Enough Page Content for Search Optimization
Some Shopify store owners limit product descriptions to the bare minimum: name, image, price, and size. That’s not enough for a good customer experience, and it doesn’t give you enough eCommerce content to work with for SEO. At the very least, you need a paragraph to describe the product and include a keyword or two.
5. No Blog Posts
A surprising number of eCommerce stores completely ignore Shopify’s blog post functions. Don’t fall for these common misconceptions:
- “Blog posts don’t matter for eCommerce stores.” (False)
- “Blogging doesn’t help SEO that much.” (False)
- “Visitors don’t read blogs anyway.” (False)
- “I’m too busy.” (Maybe true but solvable)
If your Shopify site doesn’t have a blog, you’re missing out on a crazy number of opportunities to improve your organic search traffic, make your audience happy, keep people engaged with your brand, and attract new customers. Unlike paid ads, blog posts are practically free and they keep working their magic for years.
How Do You Make Shopify SEO-Friendly?
Now that we’ve discussed the five biggest Shopify SEO problems, it’s time to talk solutions. We’ll cover these SEO tips in the same order.
1. Perform a Sitewide SEO Checkup
Fixing Shopify’s link-equity-killing duplicate page issues requires carefully managing your site’s link profile and canonical tags.
First, make sure the most up-to-date and search-optimized pages have the canonical tag. Second, keep a list of these “chosen ones” and always use them for internal linking. That way, you keep your link juice flowing and those pages get a boost in search rankings.
2. Keep Tabs on Website Traffic and Keyword Trends
Use free tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Screaming Frog to regularly check your website traffic. What you learn can help your SEO efforts massively.
Are you seeing a spike in page visits for leopard print sneakers? That’s a sign that you should ditch the variant tag and create a separate page.
Any time people are likely to search for a specific color — black dresses, rose-gold shoes, gold purses, or another trend — you can maximize your search rankings by treating the item like a unique product.
3. Prioritize Your Most Important Products
It’s not easy to manage content if you have 500 different items on your store. We get it. SEO is like flossing.
A patient tells a dentist: “I don’t have time to floss my teeth every day.” So the dentist says: “I’ll make you a deal. To save time, just floss the teeth you want to save.”
If you want your products to rank high on Google, there’s no way around it. Start with your biggest sellers and give them the full content optimization treatment. Then, move on to the next 50 or 100 products.
4. Keep Product Descriptions Simple — With the Right Keywords
Some owners have trouble creating product content because they misunderstand what a description should be. Unless you have a particular brand voice that calls for it, there’s no need for flowing phrases and word pictures about relaxing with a glass of wine.
What search engines want — and many customers — is a short but detailed description:
- What the product is
- What makes it special
- What options are available
Keyword research is the most important factor for SEO success. Use relevant keywords in every description, like “comfortable running shoes,” “fall fashion,”or “date night dresses.”
5. Create Blog Articles To Attract New Customers
Content marketing works wonders for SEO. Blog articles and videos have a stupendous return on investment ratio, often more than 150%.
What if you feel overwhelmed? The easiest solution is to partner with our team. We can literally handle everything, from content planning and writing to SEO optimization and posting on your site.
For DIY blogs, keep things simple by organizing your content around topic clusters. Pick subjects that your target customers care about, do some research on related keywords, and focus on creating high-quality information that helps your audience. Buying guides are great for this.
The Solution to Shopify SEO Problems for People Who Don’t Like Coding
One of the reasons small business owners love Shopify is precisely because it’s a breeze to use. There are apps for everything so you don’t have to code.
Some Shopify SEO problems require HTML editing to solve, but you don’t have to mess with it. Call our team instead. We can perform a comprehensive SEO analysis for you.