Introduction
Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches per day, and search operations account for up to 80% of traceable web traffic. It’s not surprising that 82% of marketers say that search engine optimization has a positive impact on business goals.
“Search engine optimization is an excellent form of inbound marketing, where the consumer has a need and finds you to solve it,” says Greg Bernhardt, an SEO specialist at Shopify. “SEO is about positioning your web content to communicate better with search engines, which in turn can deliver the search you receive with the solution you provide.”
So, how can you optimize your website for search engines? Whether you run a blog or an online store, this checklist will help guide you through the entire process.
Basic SEO Checklist
Buying a domain and setting up a website doesn’t automatically mean the site is ready for search engine optimization. Let’s start with the basic SEO checklist. Setting Up Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows website owners to monitor their site’s traffic and track search performance and discover any issues that may prevent their site from ranking.
Go to the registration page to create your Google Search Console account. Verify your domain so that Google can confirm you are the website owner before providing services to you. Learn how to verify your Shopify domain to use Google services. Setting Up Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing is the second largest search engine in the United States and accounts for 15% of all searches.
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service from Microsoft that allows you to add your store to the Bing search engine. Open a free Bing Webmaster account by going to the registration page, then add and verify your site on the Bing search engine to appear in search results. Submitting a Sitemap
A sitemap tells Google and other search engines about the organization of your site.
All Shopify stores automatically generate a sitemap file, displaying your individual web pages. If you are using the WordPress content management system, install the Yoast SEO plugin to create a sitemap. Shopify store owners can access their sitemaps at www.yourstore.com/sitemap.xml.
Submit your sitemap to Google and Bing through the Webmaster tools accounts you just created. Setting Up Google Analytics
Google Analytics shares data about how people interact with your website. Once installed, you can segment general visitors to monitor how people engage with your site after arriving through a search engine.
Set up a Google Analytics account and add your web property. Then, add a data stream by entering the Google tag ID into the website hosted by your content management system, such as Shopify or WordPress. Consider SEO Tools
Keeping track of changes in algorithms, search rankings, and competitor keywords is challenging but essential for online businesses. There are paid and free SEO tools you can use to achieve your search goals. You are already one step ahead by setting up Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Paid SEO tools: Moz for a comprehensive SEO marketing package, Ahrefs, a comprehensive SEO tool for auditing, research, tracking, and more, Semrush, another tool for keyword tracking and exploring competitor sites, and Keywords Everywhere for the simplest keyword research.
Tools
Free Search Engine Optimization: Surfer SEO is a free Chrome extension for research data and content guidelines. Keyword.io offers free keyword suggestions. Screaming Frog helps find crawling errors on your site. MozBar is for SEO research on the go.
Online Shopify stores come with built-in search engine optimization features to help you optimize your content. Some things are handled automatically: canonical tags are added to pages to prevent duplicate content from appearing in search engine results pages, and robots.txt and sitemap.xml files are created for your website, along with title tags that are automatically generated by the template and include your store name.
We also recommend downloading an app like “Plug in SEO Optimizer” for your Shopify store. It is similar to “Yoast SEO” in WordPress. It will help you perform SEO audits, fix broken links, add redirects, and optimize title tags and HTML meta descriptions, among other things. Check if your site is indexed.
Your website must be indexed by a search engine to appear in search results. The quickest way to find out if your site is indexed is by performing a site search (e.g., site:yourdomain.com).
If nothing appears, then your site is not indexed. Remember, for new sites, it can take about a week after submitting the sitemap for indexing.
Stores on Shopify’s free trials are indexed. If you are not on a paid plan, the work you do will disappear as soon as the trial period ends. It is also important to remove password protection from your pages, even if you are still working on some of them. This way, Google can start crawling and indexing your site. Your Shopify domain is indexed in Google. On-page SEO checklist.
On-page SEO Checklist
Preparing your individual pages for ranking requires time and effort. After all, you will be competing with some well-known brands. Follow this checklist to confirm that your web pages are optimized as much as possible. Conduct keyword research.
Use keyword research tools from Moz, Ahrefs, or Semrush to determine keyword search volume and get keyword ideas. (When we say “search volume,” we mean the approximate number of monthly searches for a specific keyword).
Choose keywords that your target audience is likely to search for and identify the search intent for each. Then, assign keywords to content types. Each page on your site – product pages, category pages, blog posts, and the homepage – can rank for different keywords.
For instance, blog posts can target informational searches (“What is aromatherapy?”), while product pages target lower-volume keywords but indicate purchase intent (“Buy aromatherapy bottles”). Optimize your title tag.
Title tags (H1) are the main headings of the page and typically contain the primary keywords for the page. Search engines use this information to understand the context of the page.
There has been some debate about how many H1 tags you can use on each page. The best practice still includes including only one, but if you’re optimizing a larger website, consider testing the split of H1 tags on each page.
Please note that page titles in Shopify are the default H1 tag for pages created through Shopify. Write compelling title tags.
Appearing in search results is only part of the task. You also need to convince users to visit your page over all other options. Title tags – the clickable blue links that appear in search engine results – help do that.
Best
The practices to improve title tags are: Write engaging page titles that can be read by humans. Clearly describe the content of the page, include important keywords, and make it enticing enough to click. Keep your title tag under 60 characters. Backlinko found that title tags between 40 and 60 characters have the highest click-through rate. Include main keywords at the beginning. Encourage searchers to click your result and prove to search engines that your site reflects the searcher’s term by loading the main keyword into your title tag. An example of a title tag and meta description in Shopify’s e-commerce guide.
Improving your meta description
The meta description is a small snippet of text that appears below the title tag in search engine results. The copy you write here should clearly describe the content of the page and be enticing enough to click.
The meta description serves two purposes: Providing your target audience with a first impression of you in search results, so it should be compelling if you want to attract more potential customers to click on your page link and visit your Shopify store or e-commerce site. Mark Hardgrove, CEO of The Hoth.
Google has confirmed that there is no specific character count for displaying or truncating the meta description. However, research from Moz indicates that many meta descriptions are truncated around 155 to 160 characters. Mark Hardgrove, CEO of The Hoth, knows the value of meta descriptions, “Meta descriptions serve two purposes: providing your target audience with a first impression of you in search results, so it should be compelling if you want to attract more potential customers to click on your page link and visit your Shopify store or e-commerce site.”
Include targeted keywords and best text at the beginning of your meta description, and try to avoid exceeding 155 characters. Include a keyword in your page title
URLs tell search engines about the content of your page. Include the target keyword but make sure your URLs are short and straightforward by avoiding excess words.
Because both search engines and visitors read your URLs, you should follow some best practices:
Make URLs readable.
https://yourdomain.com/pink-socks
? https://yourdomain.com/index.php?24551=p44=?
Use hyphens instead of underscores.
https://yourdomain.com/pink-socks
? https://yourdomain.com/pink_socks
Include targeted keywords.
https://yourdomain.com/mens-yellow-socks
? https://yourdomain.com/polkdotsocks-yellow-white-for-men
Your goal is to keep the structure of your URLs simple. Organize your content so that URLs are created in a way that can be understood by humans. Read Google’s guide on URL structure to learn more. Write descriptive alt text for images
To ensure your images appear in image results, name each image file something descriptive (e.g., don’t name an image “83798.jpg”).
Write descriptive alt text that explains the content of each image – a good practice that helps search engines understand the content of the image and facilitates access to the content for people who are blind or visually impaired. The alt text box in Shopify’s admin.
Add schema markup
Schema markup helps Google better understand the content of your website. It structures the data in a specific way that allows page information to appear directly in search engine results, leading to increased click-through rates and traffic to the site.
For example, this article from Shopify that ranks for the phrase “online selling sites” uses schema markup. The Shopify guide to online marketplaces displays Q&A boxes through schema markup.
If
You used this list to improve an e-commerce website, so here’s an example of how “Couplet Coffee” utilizes schema markup to display its five-star rating and customer reviews. “Couplet Coffee” showcases product ratings and customer feedback in Google search results.
Setting up schema data requires continuous learning. Follow the “Getting Started” guide from schema.org or seek assistance from a web developer. Content checklist
As Jake Mondy, founder of Custom Neon, says, “Relevant, engaging, helpful, or even entertaining content on your site encourages visitors to stay longer, which helps improve search engine rankings.”
Let’s review the SEO content checklist to help you optimize your website’s content. Create a content marketing strategy
Developing and executing a comprehensive content marketing strategy can take months. If you’re quickly using this SEO checklist, use these exercises to get started. Consider customer questions. Assume the questions customers might ask when they are aware of your product category but not fully informed. Use keyword research tools to match questions with search terms. Content ideas should be aligned with the actual terms people are searching for. Use tools like Answer the Public and Google Autosuggest or Keywords Everywhere to find these questions. Help customers get more value from products. Have you noticed how many stores selling food products include simple recipes? This is a smart approach for many products – often, customers are not expert users and may not understand the tips and tricks to get the most out of their purchase.
Chris Zakher, an SEO strategist at Intergrowth, says, “The blog is important because it’s a way to show Google you know what you’re talking about.”
“When you publish useful and informative content on your website, your visitors will share it and other websites will link to you. This will show Google that you have expertise, that you’re an authority, and that you’re trustworthy. From there – as long as your site is technically sound – your rankings will improve.”
Formatting content for readability
Clear and concise content is valuable.
However, there’s usually a need for the word length necessary to fully answer a question and have a chance of appearing in search results. Most questions deserve at least several hundred words, but many exceed that; the average of the top 10 results on Google contains 1,447 words.
Robert Lehman, owner of Fair Wind Fasteners, says, “Great content uses keywords and search terms in H1, H2, and H3 tags. This allows Google and other search engines to understand the content of the page, and establishes the site as an authority in that content, increasing rankings throughout the site.”
To prevent visitors to your site from feeling overwhelmed by walls of text, use the following content formatting tips to make your content easily digestible: Add a table of contents using jump links – a tactic that can secure the featured snippet. Use multimedia such as infographics, videos, or charts. Break sections using bullet points. Use Hemingway to vary sentences and keep paragraphs short. Add subheadings to help readers scan quickly. Include Q&A sections.
While having more words is associated with higher rankings, quality is much more important than quantity. Don’t add hundreds of extra words if customers don’t need them. Robert Lehman, owner of Fair Wind Fasteners, emphasizes the importance of quality content. “Great content uses keywords and search terms in H1, H2, and H3 tags,” he says. “This allows Google and other search engines to know the content of the page and establishes the site as an authority in that content, which increases rankings across the site.”
Fix
Duplicate content
All content on your website should be original and written solely for your site.
Duplicate content refers to the existence of similar content on two different web pages. This makes it difficult for search engines to determine which of the pages should be ranked.
If you own an e-commerce business, for example, do not use product descriptions from manufacturers. Writing your own unique descriptions reduces duplicate content and gives you a better opportunity to sell the features and benefits of your products.
Use a canonical URL if you cannot avoid duplicate content on dynamic pages. This will tell Google which page to prioritize. You can do this by adding a rel=”canonical” link to the header of any page containing duplicate content.
Read this guide at
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/seo-checklist-online-store
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