Services like Shopify have made it possible for people to start their own successful e-commerce websites with little or no experience. One of the things that are the most difficult to grasp for newcomers is SEO or search engine optimisation. Shopify has already made a good job of making its websites SEO-friendly. However, it doesn’t mean you should leave it there.

Chances are you are competing with hundreds or even thousands of similar sites to yours and being able to rank on the first page for important terms is what could help you get over the top. Let’s take a look at how you can optimise your Shopify site for SEO.

Organise It

The first thing you want to do to improve your SEO is organising your content and making sure that you provide clear and simple navigation. If you went to a department store and found that clothes were lying around everywhere with no signs directing you towards the right section and no one to help, then you would probably leave instantly. It is no different with an online store.

Bad engagement metrics will translate into lower Google rankings, so make sure that your site has a clear home page where people can find what they want quickly in as few steps as possible.

A Home Page > Product Category > Product page structure is usually the best. This is not only to make things easier for users but for search engines to crawl as well.

You also want to make sure that you have an About Us page, a Contact page, and a functional search bar. All of this will contribute to user experience, which will benefit SEO.

Choose the Right Keywords to Target

While keywords don’t play as important a role as they used to, they are still the foundation of good SEO, and you need to know how to target the right keywords if you want to succeed with your strategy. You don’t need to use fancy tools to start building a keyword list, however.

The best way to start is to make a list of 5 topics that are important to your customers. These have to be closely related to the product you’re trying to sell. Then, try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and see which keywords you would search to find your site.

There are tons of places where you can find inspiration for topics and keywords. One of the easiest is to look at your competitors and check their meta descriptions and titles. You should also check the alt text on their images.

Build Links

Link building is also very essential to SEO, and without links from authority sources, you will not be able to rank. There are plenty of ways that you can generate links. The most common and efficient way is to release top-quality content through the right channels. Suppliers may also have a policy that allows authorised retailers to get a link, so ask them if they can link to your site.

Know that unlinked brand mentions will also boost your SEO, so anything that will get you press coverage helps here. This could be contests or raffles, challenges on social media, or by getting active in your local community through sponsorships or special events.

These are all steps that you should take if you want your site to get increased visibility on search engines. Remember that SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it process, and you will need to constantly be at the top of your game if you don’t want to get outclassed by the competition.