Last Updated on by Dan S
Originally Published April 21, 2017.
Getting your Shopify site to rank in Google
In this post, we will discuss methods that Shopify Store owners can utilise in order to better rank in the Google Search Engine.
First off, this isn’t a cheat guide or quick scheme. Google spend a large amount of money and time on their Search Engine so that it can provide the best possible results to the customer. In order for your Store to rank well, we suggest you play by the rules and put the hours in!
With that said, here are some things you SHOULD NOT do.
- Don’t pay someone $XYZ to give you X amount of Backlinks (These don’t help and Google can penalise your Shopify site)
- Keyword Stuffing – Just because you mention the word T-Shirt on your store in every sentence, on every page, 800 times, it doesnt mean you will be #1 for T-Shirt on Google
- Duplicate Content – Google does not like duplicate content. So if you think you can copy & paste great articles, guides, product descriptions from other sites and use them to rank higher, you are wrong
Right, now we have covered some of the common practices to avoid and debunked some myths, lets see what we can do.
Be Unique.
This is so important. It’s what can set your site apart. If you have a product you are dropshipping from China through AliExpress then the chances are, someone else is doing the exact same thing. Google doesn’t need to offer sites up to the customer all selling the same product with the exact same picture, title, description etc. By simply changing these elements, getting a better picture taken, rewording the description and writing a more compelling description, you will become unique. This will also be a big bonus if you use Google Product Listing Ads as you will instantly stand out against competitors.
Be Trustworthy.
Google’s aim for it’s search engine is to be continually used worldwide, every day. You probably use it. Have you asked yourself why? It’s because you trust the results you are given when you search. They are relevant and more importantly, natural. This is why it’s important for your site to be trustworthy. This means being upfront to customers, not being fraudulent, providing the customer with good content, maintaining a secure site and becoming an authority in your sector/industry/niche.
Useful Content.
Your Shopify store doesn’t just have to be a website with products to sell. There are Millions of websites online selling products and unless your product is 100% unique, your products will appear elsewhere. How you can get ahead of the game is by providing something else to the customer, a way they can discover your store. For example, if you are selling shoes then having a page on your site called “Leather Shoe Care” could be beneficial. On this page you could have a guide to leather shoe care, a video demonstrating shoe care and then at the bottom, some links to shoe care products on your site. This will not only serve as useful piece of content to your customers, it can also drive sales from visitors landing on the page from a Google search.
Complimenting Content.
Building on from the last point in the above section on useful content is how content can compliment each other. An isolated page on your website where a user can land on the page but then have no where else to go can often result in that user hitting the “back” button. If we take the above example, without the links to products in your store, the customer will likely read the guide on Shoe Care and then leave your site. This is because they came for some information, received it and then had no other paths to go.
By having content that compliments other content, you can build paths for customers and visitors to channel through. For example, if we were selling watches on our site, we could have a guide called “Watch care”. The guide could have a general introduction to watch care, some pointers and links to some products you sell. The guide could then be improved by breaking it down into sections. You could link to guide which is specific to “Watch Strap care” and a guide specific to “Insurance for Watches”. Then each of those guides could link to specific products on your Shopify store.
Paid Advertising.
Paying for Advertising can be a crucial part of ranking better in Google. Those of you who know about Google PPC may know that you can get your site seen on the front page of Google for specific search terms if you pay for it. This can be very cheap or very expensive depending on what industry you are in. Paying for Advertisement is how you can quickly and efficiently raise awareness of your Shopify Store. The long term benefits of Paid Advertising can help your Shopify store rank higher in the natural search engine rankings. This is because you are raising the awareness of your store.
Customers might talk about your store if they have a good (or bad experience), they might mention your store in a forum, they may have a blog where they will sing your praises, they might tweet/fb/instagram/youtube etc about their purchase, your store might grab the attention of press in your industry and so on. So to summarise, Paid Advertising can lead to a short term sale and a long term boost in the the search engine rankings.
Partner Up.
Partnerships can be great for getting your Shopify store out there and ranking higher on Google. It sort of ties in with point 2 about being trustworthy. A partnership with an established brand can open up your Store to a larger audience and gain an all important link between your Store and that brand. For example, your Shopify store could sell print on demand products. An established brand might be interested if you could put their brand on merchandise. That brand could then offer your merchandise to their audience. You could agree a profit share with that brand and in return they might link to you from their website, put you on their social media, mention you in an email or blog post and so on. Google will then identify this relationship though any links and you could see a nice uplift in traffic and ranking.
Conclusion.
All the points we have mentioned with the exception of Paid Advertising shouldn’t cost you anything except time. This list isn’t exhaustive, there are other methods which can lead to your store ranking better in Google. We have found these methods obtainable and executable without spending too much time or money on it. Obviously, the more energy and effort you put in, the more rewarding it will be.
