So you’ve decided to grow your ecommerce business with Shopify. Congratulations, you’re on the path to success!
Shopify is a simple yet powerful tool that many companies have found easy to use, and the key to scaling their ecommerce businesses. We have worked with many large, successful companies using Shopify and we’d love to work with you too. Whether you’ve found this article helpful or you need help with your ecommerce SEO, get in touch for a chat about your requirements.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the dos and don’ts of Shopify SEO, from how to start to how to expand, so you can learn SEO best practices and make your business thrive.
Click the Jumplinks to skip ahead if you’ve arrived for something specific.
- Setting the foundation: why your custom domain is crucial for SEO
- The Shopify SEO toolkit: essential tools for research and tracking
- How to index your Shopify website
- How to do keyword research for your Shopify website
- Content that converts: writing SEO-optimised product descriptions and blogs
- Technical SEO deep dive: optimising site speed, structure, and crawlability
- Authority building: mastering off-page SEO and high-quality backlink strategies
- Testing and tracking: how to audit your SEO performance and test new ideas
- Future-proofing your store: optimising Shopify content for AI
Setting the foundation: why your custom domain is crucial for SEO
Your domain name is the foundation of your digital marketing strategy. This address is visible to every user, but more critically, your domain and the accompanying site structure are the essential starting points for search engines to crawl and determine your website’s ranking on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Therefore, your domain must be simple, easily recognisable, and directly relevant to your business.
Shopify users can create their websites on a “myshopify.com” subdomain, which is a simple, convenient, and cost-effective way to get your website up and running. However, if you use their domain to host your brand, you won’t benefit from building your own independent brand. If you win any backlinks for creating helpful content, it’s Shopify that benefits, particularly if you eventually migrate to your own domain and those links get left behind.
We recommend that you invest in your long-term success and buy your own domain. It should be short, relevant and descriptive of your brand as its own entity. You can buy a domain name from Shopify or from a third-party provider.
It’s exciting to purchase your own custom domain so that you can establish your own professional and recognisable brand. It’s easy to purchase through Shopify as it offers straightforward integration and hosting options. However, if you buy from a third party, you’ll have much greater control over your DNS settings, portability and hosting. Whichever route you choose, you can manage the core settings directly in your Shopify domain dashboard.
Achieving this foundation is the first critical step toward scaling your Shopify store to enterprise level. If you have grown to become an enterprise-level company or are achieving significant scale with Shopify, contact us. We specialise in optimising large, complex e-commerce platforms ready for the next stage of growth.
The Shopify SEO toolkit: essential tools for research and tracking
No SEO tool does everything that you need, as they all perform different functions. For example, Google Analytics gives anonymised data on what users do once they land on your website, but Google Search Console focuses on what users see on the SERP before the user clicks. To guide your decision on the SEO tools you need, our SEO specialists have outlined the most essential, high-performance tools they rely on every day.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics, or GA4 as it’s currently known, is a free, powerful tool for tracking and analysing your website traffic, user acquisition, and much more. It allows you to compare in-depth recent statistics from your website and gives valuable insights into where you should focus your SEO efforts.
Set up Google Analytics for Shopify.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is also a free Google software, but for tracking and analysing search results and certain SERP features. This helps you track individual pages of your website for keywords, clicks, and average page ranking, so you can see which pages are being seen and which need your attention.
Set up Google Search Console for Shopify.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an effective tool for tracking relevant keywords for your website, as well as providing keyword insights and competitor research. This can be helpful for targeting specific keywords that you can realistically rank for. It is also known for its extensive backlink analysis, which can help make your site look more attractive to search engines.
Whilst there is a free version, we recommend the in-depth paid version if your budget allows.
SEMRush
Semrush is another useful tool for keyword tracking and page rank, although this one has a broader toolkit, focusing on content marketing and competitor analysis.
SEOMonitor
SEOMonitor also tracks keywords and the pages that rank for those keywords. It is really useful for forecasting and content auditing as well as the more common keyword tracking and page ranking.
Whilst some of these tools can be expensive for a start-up, using their free versions can help you make the right choices that lead to a big impact on your website’s rankings. Try playing around with a few and getting to grips with how they work – it will help you improve your SEO knowledge in the long run.
How to index your Shopify website
Before publishing your website, you have to make sure the search engines know it exists. To do this, you need to submit a “sitemap”. The good news is Shopify makes this easy, and all you have to think about is submitting it to Google Search Console.
After submitting a sitemap, make sure your website is indexed by doing a quick search for it in Google. If nothing shows up, don’t worry. Indexing can take a week or more after submitting the sitemap. Whilst you’re waiting, just double-check your website settings and your website’s status in Google Search Console. Remember that search engines can’t crawl or index a page that is password-protected.
How to do keyword research for your Shopify website
Once your site is up and running, the next stage is to make sure it’s optimised on the Shopify platform. You might be wondering how to get Shopify to rank for keywords. By using Ahrefs, Semrush, SEOMonitor, or another keyword tracker, you can start to look for keywords to target on your page. For a detailed look at keyword research, be sure to check out our essential guide to keyword research.
Search volume
Whilst search volume is an important factor in deciding what keywords to target, you must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking “higher volume is better”. It’s more of a balancing act.
Search volume is the average monthly estimate of how frequently a specific keyword is searched for, providing a relative measure of its popularity with your audience. It’s important to note that this is not a precise figure to expect!
Targeting a high search volume is, in theory, good because it means more people are going to be looking at your website if you rank. However, it only works if the keyword you’re targeting is relevant to the page you’re trying to rank. There’s no point targeting the keyword “bread rolls” because it has a theoretical 4,000 searches a month if your page has nothing to do with bread rolls!
Let’s say that there are 4,000 people a month who want bread rolls, or are trying to get closer to understanding what they want. If you don’t sell them, why would they want to click on your website? This moves us towards what we call “search intent”, and it’s a vital thing to consider when choosing keywords. Another consideration is keyword difficulty.
Keyword difficulty
Keyword difficulty is a metric used in various tools, but it isn’t a standardised unit of measurement. It typically refers to how difficult the tool believes it would be to rank for a particular keyword. Use the metric to help you take a strategic approach and build your Shopify website’s visibility with realistic optimism.
Keyword intent
As stated before, intent is arguably the most important factor when it comes to picking out which keywords to target. Intent simply refers to what the user is looking for, be it an informational guide, a product, or something else entirely. It’s tricky to get an objective measure of intent, as it can be subjective. Of course, there are obvious keywords. “How to build a deck” is going to be an informative intent, and the user will be looking for a guide. “Diamond ring for sale” is clearly commercial intent, since they are looking for something to buy. But phrases like “where can I get a good paintbrush?” may be a mix of both.
You need a good understanding of what your users are searching for and what each page is meant to achieve. Be strategic with your keyword targeting. Consider that informational keywords on a page that is trying to sell something, is unlikely to be relevant to what the user is looking for, and they’ll click away. Pretty simple when you think about it – you have to give the users what they want!
To learn more about search intent, check out our guide on how to use search intent to shape a content strategy.
Keyword cannibalisation
The last thing to consider when picking target keywords for Shopify is whether or not some of your other pages are also using the same keyword. If two or more of your pages are targeting the same keyword, it means they’ll be competing with each other. This means Google may have a hard time deciding which page best serves intent, potentially resulting in lower rankings, and traffic could be split between the two pages. This is called keyword cannibalisation and can happen if you frequently use broad terms such as “garden chairs” instead of niche and specific keywords like “sustainable reclining garden chairs”. To avoid this, you can use Google Search Console to analyse your own website and see what keywords are already being targeted so you don’t duplicate.
To learn more about keyword cannibalisation, check out our complete guide.
On-page optimisation: fine-tuning your Shopify pages for higher rankings
“On-page SEO” refers to everything you do on your website to get it to rank higher and attract more users.
Optimise headings
Search engines like to look at headings for a good indication of what a segment will be about, so it is important to optimise them to be the most relevant and the most targeted they can be. Firstly, a website page should have hierarchical headings. This means the main title is “Heading 1”, which Shopify actually selects automatically. Any subsequent headings are “Heading 2” and any headings within those sections should be “Heading 3” and so on. There’s no limit on how many hierarchical headings you can have, although make sure it makes sense!
The other golden rule of heading optimisation is keywords. Try and target a variety of your chosen keywords across all your headings to ensure you’re telling the search engines exactly what you want your page to be noticed for.
Optimise metadata
The meta description and meta title may be what users will see on the SERP. Google may decide to give users an alternative, and there have recently been sightings of Google appearing to test AI summaries for a webpage instead of using supplied meta information.
An important thing to remember is the meta title is one of many factors for ranking and demonstrating the page’s relevance to a topic. The meta description, on the other hand, has no effect on keyword rankings. Don’t spend too long working on them, but if you offer a persuasive and enticing meta description, Google may decide to use it, and it may help your click-through rate (CTR). Look to include a “call to action”, or CTA, included, such as “learn more” or “buy now”.
This means your meta title should be interesting and ideally include your primary keyword and brand name to let search engines and users know exactly what the page is about and who is providing it. One thing to consider is the meta title’s length. Your meta title should be 40-60 characters to maximise your word count whilst fitting on the page without being truncated (cut off early). There are many useful tools to help with metadata length and helping you visualise your page in the SERP, including Mangools’s free SERP simulator.
Optimise URLs
URLs are what search engines mainly use to locate and identify your page, so it helps to keep them simple and keyword-orientated. Usually, just including a simple primary keyword is suitable for your URL – try not to include any filler words or messy numbers. A neat hierarchy in your site structure can also help users and search engines identify where they are in your website. For example:
- https://yourdomain.com/white-comfy-and-durable-shirt-for-men?266492=23=?
This URL is messy, has no hierarchy, and has too many filler words.
- https://yourdomain.com/products/shirts/mens/white
This URL is neat, concise, and allows both users and search engines to see the hierarchy of the site and easily navigate it.
Alt-text for images
Alt-text for images are essential for accessibility reasons, but also great for search engines to recognise what a picture is showing. Naming the image file something descriptive is a good starting point. Then be sure to provide an alt-text description that simply describes the picture. Don’t keyword stuff in alt text, as that will actually be detrimental to your website and anyone accessing your website using a screenreader or accessibility technology.
Content that converts: writing SEO-optimised product descriptions and blogs
Good content is the backbone of SEO for Shopify. Without good content, your website will suffer no matter how good your SEO skills are. So, here are some of our top tips to make sure your content on Shopify is the best it can be.
Creating relevant and unique content
Understanding what your customer needs is essential in being able to help them, whether they are close to making a purchase or have their credit card in hand. Anticipate user questions and engage with them directly in the copy. Adding comprehensive FAQs or helpful tips to your product and service pages is a powerful tactic. This detailed, user-focused content increases your relevance to E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trustworthiness) signals with search engines, which helps improve rankings, while simultaneously converting users, a true win-win. Check out Ben Garry’s article about writing category pages and product pages for ecommerce websites for some extra help.
Format content for readability
Reading a long, winding article is difficult for anyone, and many users will click away if they’re faced with a huge chunk of content. To avoid this, make sure to use subheadings, break up text with bullet points and infographics, and use short, simple sentences that avoid jargon. Also consider adding jumplinks to the top of long articles, so users can skip to what they’re looking for instead of scrolling all the way down.
Include reviews and accreditations
Search engines will most likely rank more credible websites higher. They determine who is credible based on many factors, including other sites linking to it, the quality and amount of customer reviews, and any awards or accreditations owned.
By putting good reviews and accreditations front and centre on your Shopify website, you can easily prove your credibility to Google. At the same time, this will show off your knowledge and quality to potential customers.
Technical SEO deep dive: optimising site speed, structure, and crawlability
Make your site easy to crawl
Focus on creating a clean, logical site structure that works for both Google and your users. Start by ensuring your site hierarchy is clear: link from the homepage to main collection pages, and from those collections to individual products. As I mentioned earlier, use descriptive URLs and proper internal linking to help Google’s bots easily crawl every page.
To handle product listings, be mindful of product variants (like different colours or sizes). The best practice is to manage these using canonical tags. Canonicalise variant pages back to the main product URL to consolidate ranking power and prevent duplicate content penalties. For navigation, implement simple, visible menus and use a consistent breadcrumb trail so users and bots always know their location within the site. This ease of navigation boosts user experience (UX), which is a major ranking factor, making your structured store a win-win for SEO and sales.
Don’t forget to keep your sitemap updated and try to avoid creating orphan pages that don’t have any links.
Internal linking
Internal linking is an important element of SEO for Shopify websites. It refers to the linking of one page to another within your website. Linking together different relevant pages in your own Shopify site builds your credibility, which we all now know is an important thing to have!
Optimising anchor text
The anchor text refers to the phrase that is used to link to another page. For example, if I would include a link recommending our informative (and very engaging) blog on the importance of link building for SEO as a way to give my users more relevant information on SEO, then the anchor text would be the phrase linked. In this case, “the importance of link building for SEO”.
It is important that the anchor text is relevant and descriptive of the blog it links to, as that will be how a search engine recognises it.
Is it mobile-friendly?
The next thing to check is whether your website is optimised foron different devices. If your website is slow to load on mobiles or simply doesn’t work, Google is less likely to recommend your website. Thankfully, every theme on Shopify is mobile-friendly, but it can’t hurt to check just in case.
Authority building: mastering off-page SEO and high-quality backlink strategies
Backlinking is when other websites link to your website. This tells Google your website is one that other people trust, and the more credible websites that link to your Shopify site, the higher you’ll likely be regarded by search engines. But how do you get other people to endorse your website?
What are your competitors doing to get links?
Using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush, you can answer that question by analysing competitors and figuring out how they do it. Why are people linking to your competitors but not you? Try to discover trends that could help you attract other websites to you. Do they have more relevant information, better SEO, or are they simply more well- known? If it’s simply a familiarity contest, there are a few ways to put yourself into the spotlight.
Create partnerships
Reaching out to potential partners is a great way to establish relationships with other creators and get some links to your website. Whether it’s social media influencers or other websites that also require backlinks, a mutually beneficial relationship can be built. Similarly, journalists are always looking for new stories, and creating relationships with them can help give them useful sources and give you useful backlinks. This is something that our Digital PR team helps ecommerce businesses with every day.
Testing and tracking: how to audit your SEO performance and test new ideas
Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, and it’s important to stay on top of these developments. It can be quite hard to know what’s changed, or even how to increase rankings. That’s where SEO testing comes in.
SEO testing is the methodical process of creating a hypothesis, making a change to a website, and measuring the resulting impact on organic performance. It moves your optimisation efforts beyond industry best practices by determining what truly works for your specific audience and website. By using SEO testing tools and running controlled experiments, you can achieve continuous, evidence-based improvements.
To facilitate this effective analysis, you can try one of two core types of testing:
Time-Based Testing (Before-and-After Analysis)
This is the simplest method, where you monitor a change on a page or group of pages over a fixed time period (e.g., 4–6 weeks) and compare its performance against the time period immediately before the change. If you see an uplift in traffic or impressions, the change is likely a positive one. However, this is the least accurate method because external factors, such as Google algorithm updates, seasonal demand, or competitor actions, will confound your results, making it nearly impossible to isolate the true effect of your optimisation.
SEO Split Testing
Instead of comparing two time periods, you compare two groups of pages simultaneously. You divide similar URLs into a Test Group (where you apply your change) and a Control Group (which remains untouched). Because both groups are running at the same time, this method mathematically isolates your change from all external market noise, providing statistically significant results. While harder to set up, requiring specialist tools, split testing provides the most accurate evidence of a change’s impact
Future-proofing your store: optimising Shopify content for AI
AI is a constantly evolving new part of all of our lives. And with every new version, it becomes clearer that AI is going to be an even bigger part of SEO in the future than it is now. So how can you use SEO and Shopify to get ahead of the curve?
The answer is, keep doing pretty much everything we’ve covered in this guide. Research shows that around 75% of Google AI Overview’s cited sources come from the top 12 organic rankings, meaning you just have to keep good SEO best practices to be ranked.
However, using FAQs and answering long–tailed keywords like questions may help, as AIOs typically show up in SERPs for informational intent. This can include questions, guides, and the like. So maybe think of creating a few more “how to” blogs or, answer some common questions consumers may have about your business, and you’ll be seeing your Shopify cited in some AIOs. Take a look at Rhianne Moriarty’s article about optimising for generative AI search.
Supercharge your Shopify ecommerce store’s revenue when you partner with Impression on SEO
Thank you for staying with us to learn more about some of the most important SEO best practices to help with your Shopify plans. At Impression, we are always looking to partner with ambitious ecommerce businesses on large Shopify projects. Just get in touch today and step up your Shopify growth with us.
