SEO has, indeed, come a long way. What used to be generalised in the past has become more precise in its approach. And this could not be more obvious in this Shopify SEO Checklist that’s made especially for small businesses.
Of course, your focus shouldn’t be limited to just the keywords you need to pinpoint and target. SEO has evolved to a point when it can now be subdivided into numerous categories such as on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
This checklist pretty much covers all of the most important facets to set you up for success.
Gather all your important keywords
Keyword research can never be skipped since it’s what determines your direction and the content you’re going to create going forward. For this, tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs remain the most reliable.
These tools give you an insight into the keyword search volume (i.e. how many users are searching using specific queries on search engines).
Take note of both informational (e.g. what are the uses of coconut oil) and buyer-intent keywords (buy coconut oil), so you can plant the type of content you’re going to make accordingly. Remember that you’ll have to create and maintain blog posts, product pages, and your homepage.
Use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to the fullest
Google pretty much has a straightforward guide on how to set up both, so I suggest you do so for your website as soon as possible. Here are other steps you need to take:
- Submit the sitemap generated by your store on Search Console. Doing so allows Google to figure out how your website is laid out and will only quicken its indexation in the search results for the keywords it’s targeting.
- To ensure it’s going to get indexed, take the time to use Search Console to inspect crawl errors. This will pinpoint a page that might not get indexed because of a particular issue that you need to address ASAP.
On the whole, these tools would help you with fundamentals like ensuring optimal website loading speed and practically point you toward where you should be going, especially via Google’s recommended practises.
Choose the right theme
By investing in a premium theme and one that’s guaranteed to be mobile-friendly, you’re already taking big steps in the right direction. Minimalism has been the name of the game for a while now since it boosts user engagement, so it’s highly recommended to go with that approach when choosing.
Start optimising your store page and web pages
This is where the focus becomes more narrow. I suggest you stick to these essentials:
- Keep your meta descriptions and page titles short. For the latter, it shouldn’t exceed 60 characters. For the former, keep it below 150 characters.
- The same brevity applies to URL tags. Also, they should at least bear the page title or include the main keyword. Check that each word is properly separated by a dash, and refrain from using special characters and other symbols.
- Title tags should contain the main keyword, while meta descriptions can also contain them and/or one secondary keyword.
- When planning your meta descriptions, make them as catchy as possible. Calls to action should actually encourage visitors to click.
- Take note of the header tags you’re using. There should only be a single H1 tag for every Shopify page.
- On images, be sure you’re inputting alt tags that describe each image and use it as an opportunity to include relevant keywords.
Plan and create your content
A Shopify store typically creates content that informs or sells. At best, you want to impart value where needed and possible. This can be done by following all of these tips:
- Create content that’s highly relevant to the keywords you’re including and targeting.
- Aim to write at least 500 words of blog posts to answer essential questions your audience may have regarding your products and the problems they’re dealing with.
- Your content should provide value in such a way that it highlights the perks of your products while helping your customers tremendously as well. For example, if you’re selling juicers and blenders, why not throw in recipes that are vegan-friendly and keto-friendly for your more health-conscious audience?
- When writing product descriptions, do your best to aim for uniqueness and creativity. Remember: it’s not just about ranking for keywords but selling as well.
- Add testimonials and reviews whenever possible to your product pages. Transparency only ever boosts trust – and conversion rates.
Begin link building
Off-page SEO is primarily concerned with looking for ways to earn those coveted backlinks to make your pages rank higher than the competition.
Nowadays, spam is out of the question. You’ll immediately see this by analysing your competitor’s backlinks.
- Go with establishing lasting partnerships with other people in your niche. Once you take the time to reach out and nurture relationships, the backlinks almost become automatic.
- Stay on top of any mentions your products are getting, particularly those made by the press. Even a simple news article by a respectable media company can already provide a huge impact on rankings once it links back to you.
Conduct reputation management via social media
This Shopify SEO Checklist also includes the steps that you should be doing consistently in the long run. Create social accounts for your brand and get it verified.
Not only have social media channels like Facebook become marketer-friendly platforms, but they’re also great for protecting your brand identity and reputation. They pretty much function like doorways for your audience to readily reach out to you.
Be sure to stay in communication with them and quickly act on any issue that a client may bring up.
Conclusion
Overall, we chose to create this Shopify SEO Checklist because it contains both strategies that have consistently worked and those that are already imparting success to store owners. At best, these are just steps that help you pinpoint what steps you need to be doing.
Even so, you still have plenty of freedom to exercise your creativity in how you present your content and engage your audience. As many experienced online marketers will say, that’s only rightly so. Standing out from the rest is just as important.
