Drive Traffic To Your Shopify Store With SEO Yoast

Learn How to Drive Traffic with SEO Yoast 🚀

Now that your Shopify store is up and running, it's time to greet the vast array of visitors that are browsing through your website.

To get things started, simply roll out the red carpet and invite those customers to take a gander through the virtual shelves - it’s that simple.

However, it should be noted that generating a decent volume of traffic for a store is one of the most challenging aspects of running an online business.

Nonetheless, the SEO Yoast tool can assist Shopify stores when it comes to attracting a continuous stream of shoppers.

So, for today’s guide, we are going to share seven search engine optimisation methods for merchants to increase traffic for their business using the Shopify SEO app by Yoast.

The Shopify SEO Strategy 📈

Thanks to innovative ecommerce platforms like Shopify, building and launching an online store is now easier than ever, but starting a company is one thing and directing/ encouraging browsers to make a purchase is another.

Therefore, many businesses are attempting to establish a reputation through various forms of marketing, with paid advertisements being particularly popular.

However, if you're eager to hear our advice, there is just one crucial strategy that you should focus on and this strategy is known as Shopify SEO.

See, when an SEO strategy is implemented correctly into an online store, merchants can begin to expect a steady flow of website traffic which many businesses come to rely on.

As platform specialists, we can tell you that there are numerous actions that merchants on Shopify can take to boost the SEO of their online store and we’re going to walk through seven of them, beginning with product and store data:

N0.1: Improve Product and Store Data

A huge aspect of SEO consists of ensuring that a store’s content is easy to read and understand by users and search engines alike. Therefore, we’d recommend removing any technical barriers that a bot might encounter when crawling your store's pages.

Additionally, structured data is essential for the comprehension part of search engine optimisation efforts.

Structured data, in the form of Schema.org, provides search engines with a sort of glossary to your site. With structured data, merchants can properly specify what each different element entails.

Furthermore, online stores can determine their readability and transparency by including as much useful information as possible for search engines to analyse.

See, there's structured data for practically every aspect of your site, but review and product data are particularly important for Shopify stores to obtain.

Why? Well, these two types of data provide Google with information about a store’s products and indicate where users can discover customer reviews for the product at hand.

Search engines such as Google can then use this data to completely comprehend a store's items and consumer opinions.

So, naturally, this approach brings a higher ranking in search results for the business and if executed well, products from your store could also appear as a highlighted rich result complete with star ratings and features for shoppers to browse through.

In a nutshell, the SEO Yoast tool automatically generates product structured data for all of a site's products, which is connected to the rest of the store's structured data on Shopify.

As a result, it’s vital to get your website's structured data right and fortunately, the Shopify SEO app by Yoast is available for merchants on the platform to download directly from Shopify App Store.

N0.2: Create Titles, Product and Meta Descriptions ✍️

Product descriptions are another important piece of the SEO jigsaw puzzle when it comes to generating website traffic. Both customers and search engines alike rely on product descriptions to learn about a product, as they help to form an impression of the product and how customers could use it.

Nevertheless, merely listing a few characteristics or relying on generic manufacturer descriptions won't cut it. Instead, merchants on Shopify should aim to stand out by writing product descriptions themselves.

As a result, good product descriptions will provide a store with personality and will help browsers to trust the business.

Additionally, valuable product descriptions will provide search engines with more clues on what to rank those products for, thus, increasing the chances of showing up for relevant searches.

Furthermore, the same may be said for meta descriptions and product titles. All of these elements provide information that search engines utilise to rank products online.

This means that relevant products should appeal to potential buyers who are skimming the search results for the correct link.

N0.3: Build Solid Shopify Collection Pages

While you might want to rank for individual product pages, the collection pages are more likely to rank for higher-level product terms.

You may be tempted to add a thousand words of SEO content to your collection pages, but be mindful, as this approach could backfire.

It’s also important to test if any of the changes made to your store's collection pages have had a positive or negative effect. To do this, simply review your Shopify collections and avoid creating too many of them with just one product.

It’s also worth noting that if you have a product and a product page collection, these two attributes might compete.

Nonetheless, if you take the time to set them up correctly, fill them with products that need to be there and add relevant content, collections on Shopify can provide the groundwork for your store’s SEO.

Additionally, be sure to provide sufficient metadata on your collection pages, such as; a title, meta description and imagery.

Last but not least, always create titles that adequately describe an item, whilst including a key phrase.

N0.4: Create Blog Entries 📝

Did you know that content marketing is a great way to get your products in front of a broader audience via search engines such as Google? That’s right, adding a blog/ journal to your Shopify store should be the first thing on your to-do list.

Why? Well introducing a blog space to your store will allow you to go into greater detail about your store's products and services, which aids the development of the relationship between a business and its potential consumers.

On average, blogs are much wordier than product pages, so merchants will have a bigger chance of these words appearing in search engines.

However, retailers on Shopify may find it useful to implement a blog to assist customers with their purchasing process.

As few consumers will purchase from a store that they have not visited before, it would be a good idea to provide shoppers with numerous options to learn more about your business and its products.

Naturally, stores on Shopify should conduct keyword research for their business and its inventory as this will reveal the keywords that browsers are utilising and the search volume each phrase generates.

Additionally, be sure to set up a content strategy so that your efforts are streamlined and focused.

N0.5: Utilise an Internal Linking Strategy

Internal linking is one of the most important aspects of SEO, as online stores will be able to identify their most significant articles and link back to them in other forms of content. This way, popular articles will receive a boost of visitors browsing through related posts on site.

See, an internal linking strategy not only aids search engines when it comes to discovering content but also plays an active role in determining which sections of content are the most important.

Internal linking can also help online stores on Shopify to perform better. So, naturally, merchants won't want to include too many links (if any) within a store’s product descriptions, as the goal should always be to convert browsers as opposed to directing shoppers elsewhere.

Other areas of an online store can also be great for linking to useful material, whilst directing viewers and the likes of Google to content that will enable shoppers to better comprehend the site and its products.

Furthermore, a blog/ journal provides a fantastic opportunity for merchants to define their business and its inventory whilst referring to the appropriate product pages.

Thus, it should be understood that including comparable products within a website's content could be very beneficial, just be careful not to overdo it with the links.

Equally, stores on Shopify can also use this method to enhance their collection pages.

Been there and done that? Then now is the time to focus on your store’s navigation. A good place to start is by asking yourself if the most essential pages are quickly reachable via the navigation bar on your store's site?

N0.6: Install A Shopify SEO App 🖱️

It wasn't long ago that SEO meant getting your hands dirty as a fair bit of coding was once necessary to make online stores perform how you wanted them to. Thankfully though, many of these tasks are now solved by the likes of a Shopify SEO app.

SEO apps come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from little ones that focus on one single problem to large suites that appear to cover everything.

The SEO Yoast tool for stores on Shopify is one of the newest apps on the block and we decided the moment to share our knowledge of Yoast, SEO and all things related to Shopify has come.

For those of you who don’t know, the SEO Yoast tool is well known for its efforts in helping WordPress and WooCommerce stores achieve fantastic outcomes and luckily for us, the company recently announced that its tool would be available for stores on Shopify to use as well.

In a nutshell, the Shopify SEO app by Yoast enables online businesses to set up in the best possible way by generating website traffic with SEO, but that’s not all.

Thanks to the brilliance of the Yoast application, stores on Shopify can now access the SEO and readability analysis tools to ensure that their store's content is SEO-friendly.

As a result, apps such as this one by Yoast can guarantee that a store is up to the task (in the technical sense), whilst making the assignment of adding structured data to a store so much simpler.

N0.7: Keep your Store Clean and Focused

Directing traffic to your Shopify store with search engine optimisation is all about keeping those browsers on site. It is in nobody’s interest to see all of those potential customers bounce back to the search results after they've landed on site.

Therefore, part of a search engine optimisation routine clean up is to make sure that your store is as streamlined and focused as possible. This naturally applies to the design of the store, but also the website's loading time too.

Do you know what they say? Speed is of the essence, as fast-loading websites offer visitors a better user experience than that of their competitors.

As a result, merchants that have stores with speedy loading times will also obtain a much higher chance of converting browsers into paying (and returning) buyers.

While Shopify takes care of a lot of technical aspects for its merchants, there's still a lot that store owners can do to reduce the loading time of their website.

For instance, installing too many apps is a bad idea. Also, product images should be appropriately optimised and resized to encourage product pages to load quickly.

If you feel like going the extra mile, why not optimise the theme of your store if you know how to code? To do this, simply remove any items that are preventing your site from loading quickly.

Drive More Shopify Traffic with SEO Yoast 🚗

So, we've outlined seven critical areas of SEO that merchants should focus on to increase their store’s website traffic on Shopify and as a parting note, we’d like to remind you all to be sure that your site’s structured data is accurate and full.

Most importantly merchants should always produce optimised; titles, meta descriptions and blog content as well as checking for broken links to improve a store’s ranking in search.

So, what are your thoughts on our guide to the SEO Yoast app for merchants on Shopify? Reach out and let us know.

If you’re actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to assist you with your business, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to get started!