If you run an online store with Shopify, you probably want your products to be visible on Google — not just through paid ads, but also in the natural, so-called "organic" results. This Shopify guide will tell you about some targeted SEO measures you can take so that Google and other search engines give you good rankings and increased traffic to your site.
Note: This article is written for those who have already built their online shop. Parts of the article are quite technical and advanced. If you are still in the planning phase, you probably need an article on how to set up your Shopify online store with SEO in mind right from the start. Follow SmåSeo on Linkedin, as a useful checklist on this topic will be made available shortly :)
Shopify and SEO: Is it a good match?
Shopify is one of the world's most popular CMS (Content Management Systems) for online stores and is becoming increasingly popular. The number of users has almost doubled since 2017.
But what is the relationship between Shopify and SEO? What steps can you take to improve page health, searchability, and ranking?
Shopify actually has a range of built-in functionalities that make search engine optimization for your online store easier, and the chance to rank high in search results better.
Among other things, Shopify offers the following SEO features:
Blog: Shopify offers a blog function, which can help you attract traffic from customers at different stages in their customer journey.
Redirects (301s): Shopify has a built-in tool for redirected URLs.
Noindex tags: With Shopify, you can relatively easily implement noindex tags for pages that you want to keep out of the index.
Structured data: The CMS allows you to use structured data for products and different types of pages, which helps Google display search results in a more visual and engaging/click-inducing way.
Generally speaking, Shopify, like most globally popular CMS, is improving in terms of search engine optimization and handling thereof.
That being said, Shopify is also known for a few weaknesses when it comes to search engine optimization.
Shopify’s biggest SEO weakness
Shopify's biggest weakness regarding search engine optimization is duplicate content.
Duplicate content occurs when exact copies or similar content exist on two separate URLs. This creates problems for search engines, as they will struggle to determine which of the two (or more) URLs should be the so-called canonical version - in other words, which URL should be shown in search results.
In the worst case, you risk search engines deciding on a competitor that sends clearer indexing signals.
But how does duplicate content arise on Shopify? Shopify often auto-generates content in two different but related ways:
Duplicate product pages
Duplicate collection pages due to pagination
The way Shopify internally links to products is particularly problematic here.
Below you will find some tips on how to solve Shopify's problems with duplicate content, internal linking, and indexing signals. SEO Tip 6 deals with this problem specifically.
In addition, this SEO Shopify guide provides you with a range of useful SEO tips to avoid the common Shopify pitfalls, so that your online store can be top of the class - and top of the search results. 🎊
Not sure what SEO actually is? Read the article "What is SEO and how does it work?" first.
🕵🏽♀️ Shopify SEO Tip 1 — Keyword Analysis + Optimization
— Keyword Analysis
Regardless of which CMS you use for your online store, it is crucial for good ranking that you conduct thorough keyword analysis. This will help you understand which keywords your customers (and competitors!) are using to find your products, and provide you with information on how to optimize your product and category pages.
Here are some ways to find good keywords:
Google AdWords:
If you run paid ads, you can export your keywords from Google AdWords. Check especially the AdWords keywords with high conversion rates.
Even when the search volume is relatively low, a high conversion rate indicates that this keyword is more transactional.
Optimize the landing pages for those that generate the most revenue for your website first.
Google Search Console:
Check Google Search Console to find the keywords that your online store is getting clicks/views for today.
Also, check which pages users land on for the different keywords. Are these the pages you want to rank for the keywords being used? If not, streamline your keyword strategy.
Google Keyword Planner:
Research your high-priority keywords and generate new ideas using Google's own keyword tool, Google Keyword Planner.
There are also other tools that can help you find related terms and variations of keywords. Some useful tools here include keywordtool.io (paid) or answerthepublic.com (free).
Content gap analysis
If you don't want to pay for a more advanced and expensive SEO tool, an SEO consultant can help you conduct a one-time audit of competitors and their existing content.
Using a "content gap analysis," you can find out what type of content competitors are visible for that you're missing.
— Keyword Optimization
Shopify allows you to optimize key elements for good ranking. Specifically, you should customize:
meta titles
meta descriptions
URLs
To adjust these elements, you just need to navigate to the page you want to modify and scroll down to "Search Engine Listing Preview."
Where possible, use your main keywords in these elements, especially in the meta title, as this is a direct ranking factor. But before you start the optimization process, you should create a good plan of action, so that optimization is carried out in a structured and targeted way.
An experienced SEO consultant can help you conduct in-depth keyword analysis and optimization plans, so that you can optimize your website efficiently and smoothly.
If you want to do the job yourself, however, I have some tips for you:
Here's what you should do:
Optimize high-traffic and high-converting pages first.
Create a table with an overview of selected URLs and which keywords should be used on them.
Don't use the same main keyword for multiple URLs at the same time. Each URL should be optimized for a unique main keyword to avoid creating duplicate content.
✍🏽 Shopify SEO Tip 2 — Create unique product descriptions
As mentioned in SEO Tip 1, each product should have unique meta titles and meta descriptions. However, if you want each product to be indexed separately, you should also add unique product text to each product page.
Due to the number of products, this can often be an almost insurmountable task for most online stores. Unless you have resources to hire a freelance copywriter, you should proceed strategically and take one thing at a time.
Here's what you should do:
Use the sales report to prioritize products that you sell the most of. You can find the report under Analytics > Dashboard > Top Products By Units Sold.
Again, consider using a freelance copywriter to quickly produce unique content for your top pages and products.
Remember that product descriptions should always be written with the buyer in mind, i.e. try to answer everything a potential customer is most likely to wonder about. It is an advantage to highlight key features of the product, which helps both conversion rates and rankings.
Make sure the text is readable. Do not create a large block of text: use paragraphs, subheadings, and visual text elements if possible.
📰 Shopify SEO Tip 3 — Use the Shopify blog function
Shopify offers a blog functionality, but sales are usually the highest priority for most shop owners, which understandably makes online stores product-focused.
Unfortunately, it is now becoming increasingly difficult to rank high with "just" products.
Although we may assume that the intention behind a keyword is initially commercial, Google may decide to display informative articles first, then list a product page as the third search result.
If you see that this is the case for some of your most important keywords, you should at least consider getting a blog.
It may be important for you and your sales figures to create information-oriented content, related to various points on the customer's buying journey, as Google increasingly refers to information pages first, then product pages.
Here's what you should do:
Identify your top priority keywords for yourself and your customers. Start with, for example, the top 10 keywords so that the process is not overwhelming.
Perform a manual Google search for each keyword on your top list.
The results page that appears contains a lot of free tips for you as a shop owner. Note which types of content Google chooses to rank in the first three places for these keywords. Is it primarily information-heavy articles? Or are there transactional product pages? Is it perhaps a mix of the two? Remember that Google's primary goal is to answer the intention the user had when searching for the keyword, and the search engine has become quite good at figuring out the intention itself. You should take this as a hint.
If you see primarily mixed or transactional content, you should still categorically evaluate your product pages to see if you are answering the user's intention well enough (SEO Tip 1 and SEO Tip 2).
If you see primarily informative content - such as in-depth articles on topics related to your product - you should consider creating blog content that uncovers the information needs of searchers.
Running a blog requires time and, if you need to hire a copywriter, money as well. I often find that for this reason, it is categorized as a low-priority "luxury measure."
But remember that the blog is most effective when created in a targeted way, always with a good keyword strategy in mind. You shouldn't just write about "anything" - you should strategically uncover the needs of potential customers, who are at different stages in their buying journey.
Especially when Google chooses to display information results instead of products, such blog posts can directly contribute to capturing visits that would otherwise be lost. This contributes to increased visibility, increased traffic, and ultimately increased sales.
🧭 Shopify SEO Tip 4 — Optimizing page structure
According to Shopify itself, the CMS automates some of the best SEO practices:
Content follows a logical hierarchy of categories.
Pages do not use iframes.
URLs use standard characters and have a simple, readable structure.
However, you can take some steps to further optimize your online store to improve your search results:
A) Optimizing store navigation.
B) Using descriptive texts as file names for images.
C) Using descriptive texts as link texts for internal links.
A) — Optimize store navigation
Menu titles should describe their content.
Menu items should be in an order that makes sense for your store.
Menu items should be in an order that shows their relationship to each other.
The link text of menu items should be descriptive and match the title of the page they link to.
If possible, pages should not be more than 3 clicks away from the homepage.
B) — Use descriptive file names for images
When you save an image using a camera or an image editing tool, the file name is often a string of numbers, letters, or dates that are difficult to read.
Descriptive, readable file names for images are better for search engines because they reveal more about the content of the images. This also maximizes the chance that the images will appear in an image search for important keywords, which can increase traffic significantly, especially for online stores.
NOTE: You cannot change file names in Shopify itself. To use more descriptive file names, you must upload new images and replace the old ones after manually changing the file names.
C) — Use descriptive link texts
The same principle applies to link texts. Descriptive link texts help search engines understand and categorize the page you are linking to.
You should not do this:
Click here to see more dog chews.
Best practice is:
Check out more dog chews.
(Note that these are not real links, so clicking on them won't do anything 🤓)
↪️ Shopify SEO Tip 5 — Use redirects
Shopify makes it easy to create redirects, which are page redirects where the content has moved to another URL. This is particularly important when you decide to move content with high traffic numbers to a different URL.
A redirect signals to search engines that the content was not removed, but is simply located somewhere else. This way, you do not lose traffic. The new page also inherits all the link signals the old page may have received, which is important for ranking.
You can find Shopify's redirect tool here:
Online store —> Navigation —> URL Redirects
Here's what you should do:
If you are considering moving important content from one URL to another, remember to set up a redirect.
The only thing to remember here is that you actually need to delete the original page before the forwarding works. This also means that you must be absolutely sure that you will not need the original page in the future.
👯 Shopify SEO Tip 6 — Avoid duplicate content + Improve internal linking structure
Now that we've talked about redirects, my recommendations are becoming a bit more technical. If this exceeds your knowledge horizon today, you can book an SEO course with me or let me do the job for you :)
— Duplicate product pages
Shopify stores allow the /products/ pages to be visually displayed on two different URL paths:
Canonical (preferred) URL path: /products/
Non-canonical URL path: /collections/.*/products/
A canonical URL is the URL that should be indexed in search results, because it's where the product truly "lives".
The * in the example stands for whichever page stands between /collections/ and /products/.
Non-canonical URLs, on the other hand, are marked in the source code with a link pointing to the canonical URL. This is to signal to Google or other search engines that this URL is almost identical to the canonical URL and does not need to be indexed.
This helps the system understand that this is duplicate content and gives good instructions on how to handle the content.
Shopify links from collection pages to non-canonical versions of all your product pages. It may also link to non-canonical versions of URLs when the site uses internal "swatch" links that point to product variations, such as color variations. This creates a website architecture built on non-canonical pages, i.e., pages that you really don't want to be indexed because of duplicate content.
Best practice is to link to canonical URLs, so that search engines - when they visit and crawl your online store - get a better understanding of which pages are the most important and what should be indexed.
Here's what you should do:
Adjust the source code in the product.grid-item,liquid-file. This is a bit technical and you should preferably have a coding background when doing this.
Alternatively, you can get help from a technical SEO consultant.
— Product variants and variable URLs
When we talk about product variations, such as different color variations of the same product, there is one small point to remember.
Different URLs for product variations often generate a problem with duplicate content because the text and images on the page are almost identical. That is why only one of these variations should be a canonical URL, i.e., the preferred/indexable URL.
However, your online store may benefit from allowing all these product variations to be registered as canonical URLs that should receive their own search result. This depends on your customers' search behavior and your resources for creating unique content for each product version.
Questions you can ask yourself here are:
Do your customers search for keywords based on product variations? (e.g., colors, sizes, etc.)
Do you have the resources to create unique content for all product variants?
Is the content unique enough to be considered a non-copy of the original?
Read more on Search Engine Journal: "What Are SEO Best Practices for Color Variations?"
— Duplicate collection pages (pagination)
In addition, Shopify creates problems with duplicate content for collection pages.
Many Shopify websites create duplicate content through the page pagination mechanism. When you are on a paginated URL in a series, the link to the first page will contain "?page=1". This creates a duplicate of the first collection page.
However, paginated pages will almost always be duplicate pages because a URL with "?page=1" will almost always contain the same content as the original non-parameterized URL, i.e., the address without "?page=1," and so on.
Here's what you should do:
A developer or technical SEO consultant can adjust the internal linking structure for you so that the first paginated result always points to the canonical page.
🕷 Shopify SEO Tip 7 — Ensure Healthy Crawling and Indexing Signals
— Optimize Robots.txt
It is best practice for websites to have a good robots.txt file in place.
In robots.txt, you provide instructions to search engines on what they are allowed to crawl/visit and what they are not allowed to crawl.
There are certain pages search engines do not need to use their so-called "crawl budget" on. These include, for example:
Admin area
Checkout
Orders
Shopping cart
Internal search
Policies page
Shopify generates a standard robots.txt that includes some disallow rules.
Shopify's standard robots.txt automatically excludes these from crawling, so you don't need to worry about them.
Here's what you should do:
In most cases, Shopify's own generated standard file for robots.txt is sufficient. However, as your online store becomes more complex, you may need to customize robots.txt. In that case, you will need to create a robots.txt.liquid file with custom rules.
IMPORTANT!
Do not touch the robots.txt file unless you are very confident in what you're doing and familiar with coding. This is because a small mistake could instruct search engines not to visit your website at all, which could have almost fatal consequences for your online store.
If you feel knowledgeable enough, Shopify has created a guide for you to read on how to create a liquid file. Additionally, Go Fish has also created a useful guide on Shopify's robots.txt.
If you prefer to leave such tasks to professionals, you can contact a developer or technical SEO consultant.
— Optimize Sitemap.xml
Sitemap.xml files help search engines understand how your online store is structured and which pages should be indexed. This makes crawling much easier for Google & Co. and is therefore considered best practice for SEO.
You can find your XML sitemap as usual at yoururl.com/sitemap.xml.
Usually, Shopify will automatically generate multiple XML sitemaps – one for each page category (e.g. product pages, category pages, blog posts, etc.). Shopify will then create a main sitemap ("sitemap index"), which contains links to all these sub-sitemaps.
Again, in most cases, Shopify's self-generated sitemap index is sufficient.
Here's what you should do:
The most common issue here is orphaned pages. These are "parentless pages", i.e. URLs that do not have links to themselves from other posts on the same website. They exist on your online store but are not important enough for you to link to them in any way.
Internal links are an important ranking signal for search engines. If you have many pages of such low quality/importance that you don't even link to them, it's wise to remove them from the sitemap.
To find orphaned pages in your sitemaps, you can crawl your sitemap.xml with a crawling tool or ask an SEO consultant to do this.
They can determine if your sitemaps contain pages that are not important enough to be crawled, so they can be removed from your sitemaps.
🍞 Shopify SEO Tip 8 — Implement Structured Data
Structured data helps Google and other search engines display your search results in a visually engaging way. This increases the click-through rate and thus the traffic to your site.
Generally, Shopify does a decent job with structured data. However, it's worth doing a double check and implementing some extras along the way.
Here's what you should do:
Markups that are important for online store owners:
“Product” markup:
This type of structured data is probably the most important for most shop owners, and Shopify takes care of this for you. If you have "product" markup implemented, Google gets targeted information about product name, description, and price, etc.
“Breadcrumb” markup:
Breadcrumbs are essential for online stores, especially in a time when more than half of visitors browse on their mobile devices. If your online store uses breadcrumbs (and it definitely should!), it's great for Google to mark breadcrumb links with "breadcrumb" markup.
“Article” markup:
If you use the Shopify blog, you should also implement "article" markup. You can use "BlogPosting," but it seems like "article" performs best in Google results.
“Review” markup:
If your products have (good) reviews, you may want to consider implementing "Review" markup as well.
Structured data can be implemented by a developer or technical SEO consultant.
If you don't have resources for your own developer, you can use Schema App Total Schema Markup. Distilled also provides more tips on structured data and online stores.
🏎 Shopify SEO Tip 9 — Optimize Page Speed
Today, page speed is a ranking factor. While Shopify pages may seem a bit slow, tests show that they actually perform quite well compared to other e-commerce CMS platforms.
For instance, Shopify uses Fastly CDN and browser caching, which makes page speed quite solid. However, there are things you can and should optimize, as page speed is a ranking factor.
Here's what you should do:
You can "lazy-load" your images with the lazysizes library
You can automatically compress images with Crush.pics (see Tip 11)
You can delete Shopify apps that you don't use (see Tip 11)
You can manually reduce and compress large images on high-priority pages
You can migrate tracking codes to Google Tag Manager
If all of this seems a bit overwhelming, a developer or a technical SEO consultant can help you.
🧔🏽♂️ Shopify SEO Tip 10 — Double-Check Fast Simon
Fast Simon is a digital solution that adds personalization functionalities to your store. If your online store uses Fast Simon, you should make sure that the solution is implemented correctly and that it doesn't cause indexing issues.
Here's what you should do:
Double-check that Fast Simon previews the content on your website, so that Google won't have any problems with crawling and indexing.
This will give Googlebot a server-side rendered version of your website, which will make it easier for it to interpret the content.
Search Engine Journal has published a case study about Shopify and Fast Simon.
📲 Shopify SEO Tip 11 — Use Some Shopify Apps and Delete Others
Shopify sites are generally heavy on the code bit, and this is largely due to the apps you can add to increase the functionalities of your online store.
Apps can cause what is called "code bloat" in developer language, meaning they often generate lots of unnecessary source code (especially JavaScript and CSS).
Search engines have to spend energy crawling this code. In addition, unused code dramatically affects page speed, which in turn affects rankings.
Here's what you should do:
Remove all Shopify apps that you don't use.
My tip is to go through your apps every quarter and delete everything you don't use.
Make sure you don't delete apps that are essential to the functionality of your online store.
Get these Shopify's SEO apps:
Crush.pics: This app compresses large images, which lowers page speed. This can be an important step for you, as online stores often depend on a large number of images.
Schema App Total Schema Markup: This app is recommended to use when you don't have a developer who can help you with structured data (see Tip 8).
Yotpo Reviews: This app helps you add product reviews, so your page can get "review stars" in the search results — which contributes massively to an increased click-through rate and thus increases traffic to your page.
Rewind Backups: This app backs up your page. It's wise to implement this before making major changes to the page, including adding a bunch of redirects.redirects.
Congratulations! You have made it through a large and quite technical list of SEO tips for Shopify. 🎉🥂🍾 Were the recommendations a notch too complex? Talk to me and I'll make all of this less daunting.
Sources:
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