Getting organic traffic is something that every eCommerce store owner dreams about. Targeted traffic coming to your site for free sounds like a pipe dream, but it is exactly what millions of website owners do every day. Now, it is a little more difficult for an eCommerce site to get that kind of traffic.
This is why some platforms that your store could be built upon are better than others. Shopify, for instance, has a lot of built-in features that make it much easier to take care of your SEO. Any kind of help you can get from your platform should come very welcome. SEO is complicated and there are a lot of moving parts to keep track of.
That’s why there are agencies dedicated strictly to SEO because it can be very difficult to do on your own. In this article, however, we will give you several Shopify SEO tips to help you bring in a lot of organic traffic.
Optimize your site structure
There are a few situations in which site owners, and even SEO experts, focus a lot on what Google wants and ignore the users. Luckily, when it comes to site structure you are killing two birds with one stone.
Your site should be structured in a way that allows Google to crawl your site effectively and understand what the topic is. The more easily Google can access the relevant content then the better it can know where to rank your pages.
On the other side of the coin, a site that is well structured is easy for a visitor to navigate. A good user experience is then had and they are more likely to stay on the site and convert from there. Whether your conversion goals are for them to sign up for a newsletter or to make a purchase, they are not likely to hit the mark if the site is hard to navigate.
It all comes together when they stay on your site, look at lots of pages, and don’t bounce back to the SERPs. This sends a signal to Google that the site satisfied their search and that the content is good. This helps raise your site in the rankings as it will be seen as an authority on the topic.
The best way to structure it is to break it down into categories and have each category in the menu bar that is easily seen. Then, make sure to have a lot of your relevant pages interlinked within the content.
Make sure it’s responsive
As more and more people use their phones as a computer, it makes sense that your site needs to be mobile-friendly. In fact, Google has stated that it is a major goal to create a system in which sites that are mobile-ready and have few of the issues associated with responsive pages will be rewarded over sites that are not.
When your site has been online for a while and you have access to the analytics, you will surely find that most of your traffic is coming from mobile and tablets. Desktops are being used less and less.
Luckily, this is not something you have to worry about since Shopify templates come responsive out of the box. You do need to keep a few things in mind.
For instance, links that are too close together will be difficult for people to press since they are using their finger and not a mouse. Google will take note of these things.
Use content marketing
Even with all the features built into Shopify for SEO you still need content. It is the content that will bring people in, to begin with, and is what keeps them on your site. Just working on technical SEO is not enough. In fact, many content marketers will tell you that content marketing is better than technical SEO.
The way it works is that you build authority by using various channels with lots of content. All of the content should be curated according to what your ideal user’s needs. It starts with using organic SEO and writing content on your site to rank on Google. This involves using the keywords that your audience is actively using in search and then crafting good content around those keywords. Which means having a blog on your store site.
Then, make sure to have a consistent presence on social media. Your ideal customer is likely using just one or two platforms so it’s important to figure out which ones they are most likely using and focus there. This means that if your target audience is gamers under 25 then you shouldn’t deal with Facebook as they are not hanging out there. If your ideal customer is a middle-aged housewife then Facebook is the ideal place to focus.
To shore up your authority create a podcast and Youtube channel. On these channels make sure to be creating content that is helpful to people so they will keep coming back for more. Over time you will be seen as a trusted source of information and head over to your site to buy your products.
Not only are you going to be bringing in traffic through these sources, but Google will also take notice that a lot of traffic is coming in this way and use social proof to give you more authority. And more authority means better rankings.
Use structured data
I mentioned how important content marketing is and that it is more important than technical SEO. Well, one way that technical SEO is crucial is to make sure to use structured data on your site.
There are predefined formats for different types of features on your site. This is the structured data and it helps Google understand what is happening on your site. For instance, if you have a FAQ section then there should be some structured data that allows Google to know that this is what the section is. The same goes for a recipe or a how-to list.