One of the top platforms for e-commerce stores is undeniably Shopify, which is serving more than 1 million companies worldwide across 175 nations. Businesses that need to sell goods online like Shopify, as it is user-friendly and functions well. However, it has a specific set of SEO issues like other platforms meant for e-commerce and if not resolved, the visibility of your store can fall.
If you have ever wondered “How to fix Shopify SEO mistakes?” then this blog post is for you.
Let’s explore popular Shopify SEO mistakes and find smooth methods to resolve those, as well as Shopify SEO tips to reach your store’s true potential by improving its visibility.
1. Ignoring Keyword Research
Mistake: One of the most typical Shopify SEO mistakes is that many store owners assume they know what their consumers are searching for, which makes them miss the significance of conducting in-depth keyword research. Because of this, they frequently aim for extremely competitive and wide phrases, which makes it challenging to rank well in search results.
How to Avoid It: Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to identify relevant long-tail keywords that are specific to your products. These more specific terms, like “women’s waterproof hiking shoes” instead of just “shoes,” are easier to rank for and attract more targeted customers. Keyword research needs to be a priority in your Shopify SEO strategy!
2. Overlooking Meta Titles and Descriptions
Mistake: Another common Shopify SEO mistake is that store owners confuse search engines and decrease click-through rates by either leaving meta titles and descriptions blank or repeating them across numerous pages.
How to Avoid It: Your Shopify store should have distinct, keyword-rich meta titles and descriptions for each page and this cannot be missing from your Shopify SEO strategy. These should entice visitors to click on your link by describing the content of the page. An interesting description increases click-through rates, and a well-optimized meta title can help you rank higher.
3. Poor URL Structure
Mistake: A common Shopify SEO error is that search engines find it more difficult to understand and rank pages created with Shopify’s default URL structure, which may be clumsy and ambiguous and uses numbers and parameters that don’t convey the purpose of the page.
How to Avoid It: To avoid Shopify SEO mistakes, make sure to customize your URLs to be clean, descriptive, and easy to read. For example, instead of “www.shopname.com/product12345,” use “www.shopname.com/mens-leather-jacket.” Clear URLs help search engines and users understand the content of the page, which improves your Shopify on-page SEO.
4. Failing to Optimize for Mobile
Mistake: Even though having a mobile-optimized website is essential given the development of mobile purchasing, many Shopify companies ignore this, which results in bad user experiences and sluggish load times, both of which hurt rankings. This is a major issue for your Shopify on-page SEO.
How to Avoid It: To solve this important issue, ensure your website operates perfectly on mobile devices and has an optimized and responsive Shopify theme. Resources like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help you in this process. A popular solution for the mentioned issue is reducing the amount of code and compressing data and image sizes to improve load speed and performance on mobile devices.
5. Using Duplicate Content
Mistake: Many Shopify businesses duplicate material, which hurts SEO, by using product descriptions from the manufacturer or copying the same text across several sites.
How to Avoid It: To prevent this common Shopify SEO error and level up your Shopify SEO optimization, you should produce original content on each page and item. To avoid Google’s penalties for duplicate content, concentrate on creating unique, captivating descriptions that showcase the special qualities of each product and organically include pertinent keywords.
6. Failing to Optimize Images
Mistake: Slowing down the website and increasing the load time is a major risk and image files with large sizes can be a reason for this to occur. Another issue related to images is uploading those without descriptive alt text, resulting in the search engines not being able to “see” the image and you end up missing out on valuable SEO opportunities.
How to Avoid It: One of Shopify SEO best practices is to compress images before uploading them to your Shopify store to reduce load times and add keyword-rich alt text to every image. For example, instead of “image1.jpg,” use “mens-leather-jacket.jpg” to help search engines index your images better.
7. Slow Site Speed
Mistake: Particularly on mobile devices, a Shopify site that loads slowly can result in increased bounce rates, irate consumers, and worse search engine results. This is slowing down your Shopify SEO optimization process.
How to Avoid It: Reduce the amount of third-party programs that might be slowing down your website, use lightweight themes, and compress your photos to improve site speed. Areas that require development for your shop may be found with the use of tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights.
8. Overlooking Canonical URLs
Mistake: Canonical URLs are automatically generated by Shopify, although they might not always be accurate. Duplicate content problems may arise from this if the same page is indexed more than once under various URLs.
How to Avoid It: If you want to avoid Shopify SEO mistakes, always verify that the canonical URL for each product page is valid. To guarantee that search engines know which URL is the primary one for crawling, you may correct this by making changes to the Shopify theme code.
9. Neglecting Sitemap Optimization
Mistake: Shopify generates sitemaps automatically, but many store owners don’t submit them to Google Search Console, resulting in missed opportunities to have all pages indexed by search engines.
How to Avoid It: Regularly submit your sitemap to Google Search Console to ensure all your pages are crawled and indexed. This helps search engines keep track of new and updated pages, improving your store’s visibility in search results.
10. Not Taking Advantage of Schema Markup
Mistake: Many Shopify store owners miss out on using schema markup, which can enhance their search engine listings with rich snippets such as ratings, prices, and product availability.
How to Avoid It: Implement schema markup for your product pages to help search engines display key information directly in search results. This can increase your click-through rates and provide a competitive edge.
11. Skipping the Blog
Mistake: Some Shopify store owners don’t take advantage of blogging, missing out on a major opportunity to improve Shopify SEO and attract organic traffic through content marketing.
How to Avoid It: Avoid Shopify SEO mistakes by starting a blog and regularly publishing articles that target relevant long-tail keywords related to your products. Blogs can drive traffic, establish your store’s authority, and improve overall SEO. You can write about trends, how-to guides, or customer success stories, linking back to your products and categories.
12. Ignoring Internal Linking
Mistake: Failing to use internal links is a missed opportunity to improve Shopify SEO, guide visitors through your site and help search engines understand your site structure. Internal linking is an important factor for avoiding SEO errors on Shopify.
How to Avoid It: Fixing Shopify SEO issues includes incorporating internal links in your blog posts, product pages, and category pages. For instance, if you have related products, you can link those together or give links to those in your blog posts. Basically, if you are talking about your service or product, link those to the product pages, as it improves the navigation for users. By doing these, you help search engines like Google crawl your site better.
Shopify is a very useful and powerful e-commerce platform and if used properly, it can be a super tool for your business. Keep in mind the top Shopify SEO tips that we have discussed and do not ignore SEO mistakes, as those can limit your company’s true growth potential. By avoiding these common pitfalls or regularly fixing Shopify SEO issues — such as failing to optimize keywords, meta tags, and images — you can improve your store’s visibility and attract more organic traffic. Regularly optimize your site for mobile, submit your sitemap, and use schema markup to stay ahead of the competition.
Need help improving your Shopify SEO? Contact us for tailored SEO solutions that will boost your store’s performance and drive results!
