SHOPIFY SEO GUIDE: HOW TO BOOST YOUR ECOMMERCE WEBSITE’S SEARCH RANKINGS

4 min readSep 20, 2023

As an eCommerce business owner, you know the importance of driving traffic to your online store. And with billions of websites on the internet, getting your store noticed can be challenging. Although optimizing your website for SEO might seem overwhelming and time-consuming, it’s simply a matter of comprehending how search engines function and how users utilize them. By applying this knowledge to your website’s content and methodically making some easily accessible backend adjustments, you can enhance your search engine rankings. Therefore, in this Shopify SEO guide, we will cover all the essential steps you need to take to optimize Shopify store for search engines.

Why Is SEO So Important?

The Organic Search Has The Ability To Generate The Major Of Traffic

Not having an SEO strategy for your online store can lead to missed opportunities for traffic and revenue. According to Wolfgang Digital, search engine results in pages account for 35% of total traffic and 33% of revenue for online stores. This makes SEO the most lucrative marketing channel for generating high-quality traffic and revenue. Additionally, Organic traffic generated through SEO tends to be of higher quality than other forms of traffic, as it is generated by users actively searching for specific products or services.

Long-term Results

Relying solely on paid advertising channels such as Facebook or Instagram for sales can reduce profit margins. While generating organic traffic through SEO may take time, it is a sustainable acquisition channel that can provide the best value for money in the long run. Although increasing organic traffic through SEO requires time and effort, its compounding effect can make it the most cost-effective way to attract customers and result in a higher return on investment (ROI) compared to other forms of marketing. Therefore, SEO should be a priority for any business, despite the fact that its return may not be immediate.

Increased Visibility And Improving Competitive Advantage

In the world of SEO, there is a joke that if you want to conceal a dead body, you should hide it on page two of the search results. This is because the first position in search results attracts the majority of clicks, significantly more than the eleventh position. If you have a page that is already performing well for organic traffic, even without any search optimization, there is a good chance that you can increase traffic by making small tweaks to the page. Moreover, by implementing effective SEO strategies, businesses can gain a competitive advantage in their industry and reach their target audience more effectively.

Before Starting: Essentials To Improve Your Shopify SEO

Before you start optimizing Shopify store for search engines, it’s important to understand the essentials of the Shopify SEO guide. Here are some essential things you need to set up and prepare before you jump into improving your Shopify SEO:

Integrate Google Analytics to your store site: Google Analytics is a free tool that provides valuable insights into your website traffic and user behavior, allowing you to track and analyze your website’s performance. You can learn more about how to set up Google Analytics for your Shopify store in this article.
Connect your website to Google Search Console: By connecting your Shopify store to Google Search Console, you can see which keywords are driving traffic to your site, which pages are being indexed by Google, and if there are any issues with crawling and indexing your site. Google Search Console can also help you identify any technical issues with your website that may be impacting your SEO. For example, you can see if there are any crawl errors or if any pages are being blocked by the robots.txt file.
Pick up a Shopify responsiveness theme: Shopify offers a variety of responsive themes that you can choose from to make sure your store is optimized for mobile devices. You can browse through the Shopify theme store to find a responsive theme that matches your brand’s style and aesthetic. Once you’ve picked a responsive theme, make sure to test it out on different devices to ensure that it looks good and functions properly on all of them. You can also use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how your site performs on mobile devices and identify any issues that need to be fixed.
Eliminate password protection: If you are still in the process of creating and organizing your product pages, it might be best to keep your store password-protected. However, if your store remains password-protected, search engines won’t be able to access your pages beyond the homepage, which can prevent your pages from being crawled or ranked on search engine results pages.
Ready for a paid plan: If you want to improve your SEO, having a paid plan can give you access to more tools and features to help optimize your store. A paid plan will also remove the Shopify branding from your website, making it look more professional and trustworthy to potential customers. Additionally, you’ll be able to accept payments and sell products without any transaction fees.

Once you complete all the essential checklists above, you’re good to go. Follow this Shopify SEO guide to improve your website’s search engine ranking and visibility, increase your organic traffic, and create a competitive edge.