If you’re running a Shopify store, then you know just how important it is to have a strong SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy.
After all, if people can’t find your site when they search for the products you sell, you’re losing out on many potential sales.
SEO is essential for online stores looking to increase traffic from potential prospects.
In this blog post, we’re going to focus on three key areas: technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO, all of which you can use to boost traffic for your Shopify store.
Let’s get started!
What is Off-Page, On-Page and Technical SEO
Let’s first start off by defining what each is.
Off-Page SEO are the efforts you make outside of your website to increase its traffic and ranking.
On-Page SEO concerns changes you make on your website to increase its traffic and ranking.
Technical SEO is about the technical aspects of your website to increase its traffic and ranking.
In short you could summarise that:
- Off-page SEO is anything you do for your website’s SEO that happens elsewhere
- On-page SEO is anything you do for your website’s SEO that happens on your website
- Technical SEO is anything that you do for your website’s SEO that impacts it being crawled or indexed
While each one is important, they vary in the way they show their importance.
Off-page SEO is important because it helps search engines like Google see that other people value your site.
You are not just saying how great you are, others are too. Off-page SEO is not something that you have control over but you can influence it.
On-page SEO is important because it makes the contents of your website understandable to the search engine.
This makes it possible for us to type a search query into Google and be met with relevant search results.
On-page SEO is something that you do have control over. You can tell the search engine what your content is about so they can categorise it accordingly.
Technical SEO is important because it helps search engines crawl and index your content.
This is where you let Google know that you have a piece of content on the web and by them crawling it, they are able to rank it according to its relevance.
In the next section, we will break each one down.
What is Off-Page SEO?
These days, it’s not enough to have a well-designed website.
You also need off-page factors in order for your site to increase in expertise, authority and trust.
These off-page (external) influences that affect your website’s ranking are difficult to control, but there is still a lot you can do.
The most important aspect of off-page SEO is making sure that other reputable sources are searching for, talking about and linking to your website.
This is because Google considers all of these as indications that people find value in your website.
It involves using techniques like keyword research, link building (which we’ll talk about later), and content marketing strategies, like writing blog posts on subjects related to what people search online.
We’ve created a list of the most common off-page SEO strategies you can implement.
1. Link Building
A great way to increase off-page SEO is by building quality backlinks from other websites relevant to yours.
A backlink (inbound link) is when another website links to your website.
Google’s algorithm measures mainly the number of backlinks a site has.
The key ingredient for effective link building is to create great original content.
So the process here is to encourage other authoritative websites to link to yours.
Link building is all about cleverly crafting meaningful relationships with the right people to help your website thrive.
Journalists, bloggers, and influencers are a few sources you can reach out to for backlinks.
It’s important to note that link building is all about building a relationship. It is not advised to go out and ask people to “link to your website”.
You’ve got to give to get.
There are so many ways to go about it but here are just a few.
One way to go about it is by offering to guest post on their website.
Another is to let them know that you have linked to them on a blog.
And another is to let them know that they have some broken links on a web page and let them know that they can replace them with yours.
2. Content Marketing
When you are creating content, ask yourself, “what’s in it for my readers?”
When you are doing off-page SEO, another website you are targetting likely has a similar audience.
Hone into what their audience wants and needs and how you can help them.
With the answers to these questions, you can create content that is designed with a specific goal in mind.
When you reach out to those websites, you have something of VALUE to offer.
Here are a few ways to create off-page content:
- Guest Posting: Write guest posts on other authoritative sites so that Google knows there is a connection to the other domain.
- Infographics: Create infographics for social media and other blogs to make use of.
- eBooks: Create downloadable content that your prospects are interested in.
- Whitepapers (authoritative reports): Create detailed reports on any topical or pressing issues within your industry.
3. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is an excellent way to tap into a new audience, reach potential prospects and get your name out there.
This partnership allows you access to the influencers’ follower base, who already know and trust them because they’ve earned it!
They’ll share your story with their audience on your behalf by sharing content that highlights what makes YOUR brand unique.
Instead of you creating the content, they do.
What is On-Page SEO?
With every update, Google becomes smarter about anticipating what you want and need.
Google’s algorithm is a living system involving machine learning whose purpose is to provide the best possible experience for users.
The more clearly you can convey the meaning of your content and avoid writing in circles or using confusing language that leaves Google scratching its head as to what it is about, the better the chances of your website ranking higher.
By optimising your website and blog posts, you are helping Google better serve its customers and, in turn, increase your traffic, rankings and potential prospects.
We’ve created a list of the most common on-page SEO strategies you can implement.
1. Title Tag
Title tags are HTML code that defines the title of the web page.
For example, our blog post has the title “How to Do Email Marketing For Shopify Business”.
This is called your <H1> title tag. H1 is the standard naming convention for a heading while the inclusion of the </> identifies it as a title tag.
By adding your main keyword to the title, you are able to fully optimise it.
Also by keeping it shorter than 60 characters you are able to keep it from being cut off in search results.
2. Heading Tags
Heading tags are HTML that rank headings based on importance, with <H1> the highest and <H6> the lowest.
For example, the image below from Hubspot shows that:
H1 is the title
H2 is the subheader
H3 is the subsection
H4 is the sub-sub section
It is not common to go over H3.
Source: Hubspot
3. Keyword Research
Keyword research gives you an idea of what keywords are being used by potential customers so you can target them more effectively through your content marketing efforts.
Google has publically stated that “the most basic signal that information is relevant is when a webpage contains the same keywords as your search query.”
Keyword research is a great way to find out what content your pages could or should have.
And it can also help you determine the sections that you should include in a post.
For example, using Semrush’s keyword overview tool can give you data on a specific keyword.
When we typed in the keyword “on-page SEO” we can see there is a volume of 21.8k globally. Meaning that there is 21.8k global searches for this keyword within a given time frame.
We can even see related questions for that keyword. This can help us determine what our content could be based on and its headings and subheadings.
What is Technical SEO?
The technical characteristics of a website are important to search engines like Google.
When users are looking for information on the internet, they will seek it out and visit specific sites if those websites potentially meet their needs.
Search engines have made it easier by giving websites with certain features greater preference when reviewed by their algorithms than other sites. These privileges can help websites ultimately rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages).
By implementing technical SEO, search engines can now easily understand your website and remove any technical problems that could deter it from being ranked.
In other words, it’s a method of improving your search engine rankings by fixing any glitches in coding or formatting that could prevent you from being found online.
We’ve created a list of the most common technical SEO strategies you can implement.
1.Robots.txt
Hubspot defines a robots.txt as “a text file that instructs search engine bots on how to crawl a website’s pages.”
A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can not access on your site.
Google Search Central states that “a robots.txt file is used primarily to manage crawler traffic to your site, and usually to keep a file off Google.”
Essentially these are web pages that you don’t want to be crawled, for example, repetitive pages or pages that don’t have value. Keeping your website as value-adding as possible allows users to find pages that might answer their queries or satisfy their needs. Remember that you want people to click on your website and spend time there. The longer a person stays on your site and explores, the better.
Note, however, that a robot.txt file is not meant to protect sensitive information like addresses and bank details. Here’s a resource on how to block content from being crawled.
Here are some tools for further elaboration:
2. Canonicalisation
Moz defines a canonical tag as “a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page.” They continue that a “canonical tag tells search engines which version of a URL you want to appear in search results.”
This helps prevent search engines from crawling web pages that have duplicate content.
For example, let’s say you have two pages with very similar content. You would want to choose the one that you actually want to rank on Google rather than the duplicate.
3. Site Speed
Site speed is a measure of how fast your content can be loaded.
The faster your site loads, the better it is for your site to rank on search engines and increase conversions.
We all know how annoying it can be when a site takes ages to load!
It provides a faster browsing experience to visitors, which makes them more likely to interact and potentially buy from you!
Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights that can help you test your website’s load time.
As you can see, there are a number of things that you can do to improve your Shopify store’s SEO.
And while it may seem like a lot of work, the payoff can be huge.
With the right approach, you can start seeing more traffic and increased sales from your eCommerce store.
So what are you waiting for? Start implementing these tips today and watch your business grow!
Need some help with SEO? Our team of experts are here for you.
Contact us today for a free consultation!
