We all know that SEO is an important part of promoting our Shopify eCommerce sites. Over 60% of traffic that lands on eCommerce sites are organic traffic from search engines. This just goes to show the importance of ranking your site on Google. Whether you are a novice or an expert, I am positive you have tried your hand at search engine optimization for your Shopify site. You may have even read up on some of the best practices to follow to optimize your website, however, do you know which common mistakes you should watch out for?
This post will educate on what these pitfalls are and how to sidestep them.
Mistake 1 – Not adding redirects
Your products going out of stock is no new news for an eCommerce site. In fact, it is good news. It means customers love that particular product and can’t get enough. The issue arises when a visitor saves that page as a bookmark and when they return, they get the error that the page does not exist.
What to do? The solution is simple; you have to add 301 redirects on all such pages. This way, your returning visitors will be automatically redirected to the current page where they can find the product they need.
Mistake 2 – Forgetting about your sitemap
The XML sitemap of your site helps Google’s spider index your entire website including all its pages. This is a very important part of SEO for your Shopify site. In the event that you did not submit your sitemap to Google, your pages may not get indexed, and it makes it that much more difficult for your site to rank organically.
What to do? Create a Google Webmaster account, now known as Search Console. Submit your sitemap XML by going into the appropriate options. Your sitemap may take days or weeks to get indexed.
Mistake 3 – Going crazy with blog tags
Maintaining a blog is recommended for every website, not just Shopify eCommerce sites. Blogs help you bring traffic to your site, engage your current visitors, and even rank in organic searches. When you create a blog post, I am sure you add certain tags to that post. Tags are used to specify a certain category in your blogs. For example, if you are writing a blog on hottest selling wrist watches when you add the tag watch, a separate page gets created where all blog posts that contain that tag are listed.
If you get overzealous with these tags, you will end up creating several random pages that will not have any title or Meta description updates.
What to do? Decide on just 5-10 tags that would cover a wide range of topics and use only them.
Mistake 4 – Not describing your images
Shopify eCommerce sites are filled with images. You can easily have 5 to 10 images per page depending on your theme. Here is something most website owners may not know. Search engines, including Google, are unable to understand what the image is about unless there is proper description given to it.
What to do? Go into your site’s theme settings and click the homepage tab. After that under slideshow banner, add the description in the “Alt Text” box.
Mistake 5 – Not Integrating site with Analytics
Google Analytics is a tool that lets you analyze your website’s traffic, know where they came from, which pages they visited when they landed on your site, your overall daily traffic, landing pages, exit pages and an abundance of insight about your website. If you are not using analytics, you will definitely lose out on the information that could be useful in understanding your visitors and improving your website.
What to do? Create a Google Analytics account and add your website. You will get a tracking code that you can copy and paste into the backend of your site in the Google Analytics section. You are ready to go.
By avoiding these mistakes, you can ensure that your SEO efforts are not being wasted and you get the results from your organic marketing that you are expecting. A well-planned SEO strategy can make all the difference between an average performing Shopify site and a super successful Shopify eCommerce store.
