The Shopify SEO Guide (2024)

Shopify is more popular than ever. More and more store owners are migrating their website to the e-commerce platform. While the setup with existing templates and drag and drop turns out to be not that complicated, the visibility of the store often fails.

Shopify SEO is just one way among many to generate more traffic and thus more sales. These are actions on and off the website that signal to Google what type of products your Shopify store is about.

Then Google’s algorithm decides which websites best match the user’s search query and on which position the websites should be displayed in the search results (SERPS).

Should you optimize your Shopify store for search engines?

This question can be answered with a resounding yes. The advantages of high visibility on Google are obvious.
If you have a store with great content that shows up in Google’s organic search results, you get free traffic.

In order to tell search engines that your website is the best for that search query, there are a few things you can do. What these are and which adjusting screws or strategies help you to be found better on Google, we reveal to you here.

The guide is an accumulation of best practices, as well as experience from years of SEO work in different industries.

Based on your product range, you can already filter out the first keywords. Keywords are search terms that users and thus potential buyers enter into the Google search mask. Which keywords are relevant for your store can be found out in different ways.

Ask yourself what you would search for to find your product on Google. This can already be a first approach for a selection of keywords. To check your guess or determine even more appropriate keywords, there are a number of tools. With the help of these, you can create a structured list of the most important keywords.

One of them is Google’s free Keyword Planner. This allows keywords and the associated monthly search volume to be viewed. Specifically, it means that you can see exactly how often people enter the respective search term in the Google mask.

Once you have done your keyword research and found a set of relevant keywords, you move on to the targeted implementation of these in your store.

In any keyword research, the most important principle is that the keywords used should match the user’s search intention.
Specifically, search intent and associated keywords break down into three different categories.

Navigational (user searches for a specific page)
Informational (user searches for information)
Commercial (user wants to buy something)

Unless you have built a brand, your potential customers may not find you through the navigational keywords. Rather, the focus should then be on commercial keywords that describe the product, for example. Example of a commercial keyword would be “handbag damen”.

Furthermore, informational keywords such as “ledertasche reinigen” can also be very interesting for you and your customers, as they will attract the attention of your potential target group. Even better here would be keywords that your target audience would search for before buying to learn about the product type.

You have now created a structured keyword list that best describes your topic and meets the user’s search intent. The next thing to do is to place these keywords in your Shopify store. This is at least as important as the keyword selection itself. Especially with the headlines and meta titles there are some more aspects to consider.

Whether it’s a category page or a product page, the most important search term on a page should always be found in the H1 heading. Google weights these more heavily than subheadings. The H1 heading is the hierarchically most important title on a page. For this reason, it only makes sense to place the keyword here as well.

If you use other headlines, you should also include synonyms of the keyword or the keyword itself in natural language, if it makes sense thematically.

A distinction must be made here between the meta titles and descriptions of the various page types. For example, products require a different format than blog posts. However, the idea behind it is always the same. The snippet – that is, the joint display of meta title and meta description in the search results should encourage clicks.

To achieve this, the so-called AIDA formula can be used. Accordingly, the snippet should generate attention, arouse interest, trigger a desire and cause an action in Google users.

Such a snippet of a blog post on Shopify can look like this.

The keyword used in the example above would be “Shopify SEO” and is placed right at the beginning of the title. Ideally, you should also place the keyword in the meta description of the respective page to stand out in the search results. Namely, the searched keyword will be highlighted in the results.

As you continue to place keywords, remember to only signal to users and search engines what the content is on that particular page. The increased spamming of keywords brings neither your visitors nor you any added value.

Starting with the technical basics on the website itself, two very important analytical tools should be installed first. Among other things, clicks, impressions, keywords and many other insights about the visitors can be read out.

The accumulation of this data can be crucial for further action later on. For this reason, the tools should be installed in the first step. This allows the data from day 1 to be collected. If you already have a store and the tools are not yet in use, they can also be integrated afterwards. This refers to the two completely free tools Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

To connect your Shopify Store and Google Search Console, click here.
Using Google Search Console, you can then determine exactly which search terms the user entered on Google to get to your site.

This information can be very valuable as it helps you understand what people are searching for on Google, what problems they are having and how they are finding your website. Number of clicks, impressions and average click-through rate are also displayed in the tool. In addition, you have an insight into which pages of your website have been indexed or crawled.

Especially important for your store is the automatically generated sitemap, which can be submitted to Google Search Console. This contains all products, blog posts, categories and images and helps Google understand and index your site. Finally, you can use Search Console to diagnose problems on your website.

Once Google Search Console is set up, the sitemap can be submitted directly. Sitemaps make it easier for search engine crawlers to grasp the structure of the website in order to eventually index the pages.

To find the sitemap of your Shopify store, enter the following line in the URL line of your browser:

https://ihreshopdomain.de/sitemap.xml

Once the XML sitemap has opened, copy the link and navigate to Index > Sitemaps in Google Search Console. There you can paste the URL and submit the sitemap.

Learn how to connect your Shopify Store and Google Analytics here.
With Google Analytics you have a huge overview of data with which you can measure your success and plan clear future strategies. In this way, you learn more about your visitors or customers with the help of demographic data.

In addition, you can also see on which pages the user moves and when he clicks away. How many conversions were achieved last month? Which products sell the most? Which one the least? And how much revenue was generated in the last few months? All these questions and much more can be read out with the help of Google Analytics.

The Core Web Vitals are official ranking factors of Google and consist of the three metrics LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). Specifically, the loading time of the individual web elements is measured. They were introduced by Google to improve the user experience on websites and can therefore be especially crucial for stores to optimize conversions.

FID (First Input Delay)
The FID represents the time between the user’s first interaction with your store and the browser’s response to your action. For example, scrolling, clicking, and tapping on and in various elements counts as interaction.

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
The CLS measures the visual stability of your store while loading. As soon as elements crisscross during loading, the user cannot interact with the elements. There is a delay or, for example, clicks on buttons that lead to the wrong destination because something interfered with loading before the destination button.

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
The LCP is the time until the largest single element in the store is fully displayed to the visitor. Usually these are sliders, popups or larger images.

You can measure how your Shopify store performs in the Core Web Vitals with the PageSpeed Insights tool, among others.

Structured data is additional code that helps search engines like Google better understand your website. The structured data is used, among other things, to mark information already contained in a product or service.

Rich snippets can look like this:

A quick overview of adding structured data to your Shopify store:

1. select structured data
Go to https://schema.org/ and select the structured data you want to add. For online stores, we especially recommend the following structured data.
For example, you can use it to provide the following information:

• • Brand
  • Reviews
  • Category
  • Color
  • GTIN
  • Material
  • Product image

2. add structured data
To add the structured data, you can either add it directly in the HTML editor or with countless other SEO plugins for Shopify.

3. check structured data

Using the following tool https://validator.schema.org/ you can check if your implementation was correct. If no error messages are displayed, you have created an ideal condition for rich snippets.
Use 301 redirects when changing URLs

As soon as a URL is changed in your online store, a 301 redirect should be added from the old URL to the new one. This signals that the content is now at a new address. Additionally, you prevent search engines and users from seeing a 404 error message “The page could not be found”.

To add a 301 redirect on Shopify, go to Online Store > Navigation > Create URL Redirects. After that, the following window will open, where you can insert the 301 redirect. Then press “Save forwarding”.

A well thought-out URL structure can enhance the user experience in your store. If the user already notices during the search on Google that the URL contains the entered search term, he is more likely to click on the page. Legible immediately makes it clear what the content on the target page is.

Use these tips to optimize your store URLs for better results:

If your website loads slowly, the user tends to leave your website sooner. Image optimization is a simple but effective way to improve the loading time of your Shopify store.

The accumulation of different keyword signals will help Google to compile the best result for the searcher.

Here are a few tips to help you optimize your Shopify product photos for search engines like Google and for users:

1. use descriptive file names

You should already take care to name the images correctly before uploading them. Using garden chairs as an example, a product could be, for example, “garden-chair-brand-size-color-foldable.jpg”. Mention various features already in the title. In this way, you create ideal conditions for Google to understand what the image and the subsequent product page of the image are about.

2. insert keywords into the alt text

In addition to using keywords in the file name of your product bidder, you should also include them in your alt text. The alt text is the text that appears when someone moves the mouse pointer over an image or the image is not displayed at all – it is the alternative and descriptive text of the respective image.

People with visual impairments use screen readers to understand what the content of the displayed image is. For this reason, you should be careful with the naming of the image and describe the subject depicted.

However, by including keywords in the alt text, you also help search engines understand what the featured images are about. In conjunction with other keyword signals, this can lead to better rankings in organic search results.

3. use high quality images

In addition to integrating keywords, it is also important to use high-quality images. The images should be sharp and well lit. Users often find the product they are looking for via the image search. Compared to the competition, you should stand out positively.

4. reduce the size of your images

If your images are too large, they can slow down your website. This can have a negative impact on the user experience of your website. After all, nobody likes slow-loading websites.

Therefore, before uploading, you should reduce the size of the product photos.

For example, you can use the Photoshop image editor to reduce the size of your product photos.

5. compress your images

In addition to resizing the images, you should compress them. With tools such as compressjpeg.com you can reduce the file size of the images without losing quality. This will make your images load faster.

The Robots.txt text file is a manageable set of rules of your Shopify store for search engine crawlers. With this you can, for example, prevent search engines from indexing certain pages, directories or files, or block certain crawlers from your store.

Once you create a Shopify store, there is already a Robots.txt with pre-written rules. For most store owners, these rules will be perfectly sufficient. The content of the file can be inspected at the following link: deinedomain.de/robots.txt

Should you wish to edit the Robots.txt of your Shopify store, this can be done as follows.

• In the admin area click on Onlineshop > Themes
• In the current theme, navigate to Actions > Edit Code
• Under Templates > Add a new template robots.txt can now be selected.
• Then click on “Create template
• Here you can now make all the necessary changes

Now you know that a good ranking in search engine results is important to increase traffic and thus sales of your Shopify store.

But what if potential customers are looking for businesses, like yours, in the local area?

Local SEO, as the name suggests, focuses on optimization for searches conducted in a specific location. In particular, factors such as the location and opening hours of your company are taken into account.

Searchers on Google looking for a product + location most likely have the search intent and thus the willingness to buy the searched product locally.

If your Google My Business profile is not set up, you may be missing out on valuable visitors and sales.

In our detailed guide to Google My Business, we reveal the most important tips for improving your business profile on Google.

Once you have set up your Google My Business profile, you should expand your local SEO strategy. Local search queries can be analyzed with the Keyword Planner just like other keywords.

Once you’ve been able to locate relevant keywords, it may make sense to create your own landing pages or blog posts around the selected keywords.

Furthermore, you should add NAP data to your website in the footer. NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone. This NAP data should be used consistently throughout your online presence.

Local backlinks from websites in your region are also helpful. Backlinks are links from other websites that link to your websites. If, for example, you build backlinks in the form of directory entries, you must also ensure that the NAP data is used consistently.

Besides directory listings, backlinks from bloggers in the area can also boost your local backlink profile.

The Shopify SEO guide from UnitedAds helps you to take search engine optimization of your store into your own hands. Whether you’re just starting out or have been at it for a while, keep a constant eye on your progress and stay current.

Shopify is a great way to build appealing online stores of any kind. With barrier-free entry, Shopify is suitable for professionals as well as beginners.

However, an appealing Shopify store alone will not be enough to attract customers. However, with Shopify, its implemented features and apps, and this guide, you have a solid foundation to stand out from your competition.

When it comes to search engine optimization of your Shopify online store, you need to keep in mind that SEO is not a sprint, but a marathon. Even if the implementation of most measures can happen within the first months, results will only be visible after 6-12 months.

However, if you approach the whole thing strategically, show patience and invest in your website, the hard work will pay off.