“I can’t get my products found in Google!” I hear it all the time, client after client. How do you create SEO friendly product pages in Shopify?
Don’t be surprised when I tell you that you are overthinking the whole scenario.
- No… Google is not Magic
- No… Google will not make up words for your page to be found for
- Yes… you have a lot of work to do!
So what work would you need? Well the basics of SEO stand true for any and all content on the web.
Create Original Content
If you are dropshipping you should try to make sure that your descriptions are unique. If not remember that you need to use words that you want to be found for. You can also test your page to see if there is a copy using this plagiarism test tool – https://www.copyscape.com/
Write enough content
No… 5 words all in bullets is not enough.. ever. Remember in Google’s eyes “content is king”. You need words on the page. If you are worried about it visually not looking great, reach out to us, or another Shopify Expert to discuss adding features like tab strips or accordions to your page to make the content searchable, but somewhat hidden to the user at first glance. I always recommend the “third grader” model to my clients as well.
You are an expert. You will talk about your product differently. But could you explain this product to a third grader? The use of common words like this will make all the difference in your Shopify product pages
Add Alt Tags
For every image you upload to your product gallery, make sure you add alt text to the image (Hover over the image, and click ALT). Each one should be unique, and define what the picture is about, and of course use the words you want to be found for. Imagine describing the image to a visually impaired child
Optimize your Meta Title, Description, and URL
At the bottom of every page in Shopify is a section called “Search Engine Preview”, and there is no surprise that this looks just like a result would look on our favorite search engine. To the right of this is a link that says “Edit Website SEO”. Click on it and see the magic!
The innovative folks over at Shopify were smart in that most small business owners don’t think about SEO until it is way too late. So they simply grabbed the Title you entered at the top, the first 160 characters of your description, and then a simplified version of your title for the three fields that are shown.
Your Page Title is the title that will most likely be shown on Google (it is also the one that appears at the top of your browser). You should edit this to include words you want to be found for, but that also sells your product
Your Meta Description is the content usually shown under the title in search engine results. This is your elevator pitch. Sell Sell Sell, but write it in well written english using the words you want to be found for
Your URL/Handle. This field can get tricky if done after a site is live. You will want to watch for broken links, redirects etc… but often people don’t even look at this. you should, and include words you want to be found for here as well.
Now what?
Well now you have in introduction to SEO on Shopify. The bigger question is did you connect the Google Search Console so Google even knows about your changes? NO? Reach out today and we can get you up and running!