As a small business owner in Sydney, you know how important it is to stand out online. After all, with so many businesses vying for customers’ attention, it can be tough to get noticed. That’s where small business SEO with Shopify comes in. By optimizing your website for search engines like Google, you can increase the chances that people will find your site when they’re looking for products or services like yours. By using Shopify as your e-commerce platform, you have access to a number of built-in SEO features that can help you boost your visibility.
Small business SEO with Shopify: tips for making the most of Shopify’s built-in features
Use descriptive, keyword-rich page titles and meta descriptions.
Page titles and meta descriptions are the snippets of text that appear in search engine results, so they’re important for letting people know what your website is all about. And when you’re running a small business, every little bit of SEO help can make a big difference.
Here are some tips for making the most of page title and meta description for small business SEO with Shopify:
- Be descriptive.
Make sure your page titles and meta descriptions accurately describe the content of the page. This will help both search engines and users understand what your site is all about. - Use keywords.
Incorporate relevant keywords into your page titles and meta descriptions. This will help search engines understand the topic of your page and make it more likely to show up in search results. - Keep it unique.
Each page on your site should have its own unique title and meta description. This will help avoid duplicate content and make sure each page is optimised for different keywords. - Make it compelling
Your page titles and meta descriptions should be compelling and informative. This will help entice users to click on your website when it appears in search results. - Use modifiers.
Add words like “best”, “top”, “guide” in your titles to make it more attractive. - Use schema markup.
Adding schema markup to your page titles and meta descriptions provides additional information to search engines about your page. - Test, Test, Test.
Try different versions of your title and meta description to see which perform better, and adjust accordingly. - Keep it updated.
Remember to update your titles and meta descriptions as your content changes.
Optimize your images with descriptive file names and alt tags.
Images can be a great way to make your website more visually appealing and engaging. But they can also help with SEO, as long as you take the time to optimise them properly.
- Give your images descriptive, keyword-rich file names.
For example, instead of using a generic file name like “IMG1234.jpg”, use a descriptive name like “red-floral-dress.jpg”. - Use alt tags to describe the content of your images.
Alt tags are used to provide a text description of an image for users who are visually impaired or for when the image does not load properly. For example, “red floral dress on hanger” - Use appropriate file types for your images.
JPEG and PNG are the most common file types used for web images, as they offer good image quality and small file size. Avoid using BMP or TIFF, as they are not optimised for web use and will slow down your page load time. - Optimize images to reduce file size.
Large image files can slow down your page load time, which can negatively impact your SEO. Use image optimisation tools to reduce the file size of your images without sacrificing quality. - Use images to break up text on your pages.
Search engines prefer sites with a good balance of text and images. Adding relevant images to your pages can help break up long blocks of text and make your pages more visually appealing. - Use images to create an emotional connection with your audience.
Images are a powerful tool for creating an emotional connection with your audience. Use images that are relevant and appealing to your target audience to help them engage with your content. - Use images to supplement your content.
Use images to supplement your content, for example, add images of products or services you offer or images of your team.
Use the built-in app for your small business SEO with Shopify.
Shopify has a number of apps that can help you with small business SEO with Shopify, including one that’s built into the platform. This app can help you with things like keyword research, meta tags, and sitemaps, making it a great starting point for optimizing your site.
Here’s how to utilize the building-in SEO app with Shopify:
- Use the built-in SEO app to conduct keyword research and find the best keywords to target for your website.
- Use the app to optimise your meta tags, including page titles and descriptions, to ensure they are descriptive and keyword-rich.
- Utilize the app to generate and submit a sitemap to search engines, helping them to better understand and crawl your website.
- Use the app’s analytics and reporting features to track your website’s search engine performance and make data-driven decisions on how to improve your SEO.
- Take advantage of the app’s suggestions and recommendations for improving your website’s SEO, such as optimizing images and creating redirects.
- Use the app’s integration with Google Analytics to gain insights on how to improve your website’s SEO and track your progress over time.
Create a blog with keyword-rich content.
Creating a blog with keyword-rich content is a great way to improve the SEO of your small business website on Shopify. By regularly adding fresh, relevant content to your site, you can help search engines understand what your business is all about and attract more traffic to your site.
Here’s a list of tips for creating a blog that will boost your SEO on Shopify:
- Research keywords that are relevant to your products or services and that have a high search volume.
- Use those keywords in your blog post titles and throughout the content.
- Plan out your blog posts in advance with a content calendar to ensure that you’re regularly adding fresh content.
- Use internal linking to connect your blog posts to other relevant pages on your site.
- Optimize images and use relevant captions.
- Use header tags (H1, H2, etc.) to organize your content and make it easier for search engines to understand the structure of your post.
- Share your blog post on social media and other platforms to increase reach.
- Track your blog’s performance in Google Analytics to see which post are performing well and which need improvement
- Guest blog on other sites to expand your reach and drive more traffic back to your site.
- Keep an eye on the competitors’ blog and try to create better content.
- Try to answer the questions that your customers might have through your blog post.
- Make sure your blog post is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.
Use built-in redirects feature for your small business SEO with Shopify.
Shopify’s built-in redirects feature allows you to easily redirect visitors from one URL to another. This is useful for small businesses using Shopify as it can help improve your SEO by:
- Fixing broken links.
If you’ve changed the URL of a page on your site, a redirect will ensure that anyone who clicks on an old link will be taken to the correct page. - Consolidating content.
If you have multiple pages on your site that cover the same topic, you can use redirects to send visitors to a single, more comprehensive page. - Improving the user experience.
Redirects can be used to send visitors to the most relevant page on your site, ensuring they find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. - Fixing duplicate content issues.
If you have multiple pages with similar content, search engines may view it as duplicate content, which could harm your SEO. By using redirects, you can consolidate the content into one URL, and avoid duplicate content issues. - Increase the number of pages that search engines will crawl.
Using redirects, you can also increase the number of pages that search engines will crawl. By redirecting pages that no longer exist, you can ensure that search engines will find the new pages you have created.
In conclusion, utilizing Shopify’s built-in SEO features can improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can take advantage of these powerful tools to boost your online visibility and grow your business.