What is Shopify SEO?

Driving traffic is a priority for any ecommerce business. But how can you attract visitors to your online store without investing heavily in ads and marketing? The solution lies in mastering ecommerce SEO.

Ecommerce search engine optimization (SEO) involves optimizing your website to align with search engine best practices and updating your content to match what your customers are looking for.

Shopify, a top-tier ecommerce platform, has enabled numerous entrepreneurs to start their online businesses. Yet, merely having a store isn’t enough.

Achieving real success means making your store easily discoverable by potential customers, which is where Shopify SEO becomes essential.

This guide covers the essentials of ecommerce SEO, such as keyword research, site structure, and creating content for product pages. Along with this SEO checklist, you’ll be equipped to improve your rankings and enjoy the benefits of SEO.

Why is SEO so important?

Without an SEO strategy for your store, you could be missing out on valuable traffic and revenue. Online stores can anticipate that 35% of their total traffic will come from search engine results pages, with 33% of revenue generated from this organic traffic. This makes SEO the marketing channel with the highest potential for driving both traffic and revenue.

Paid advertising costs are increasing

Relying heavily on paid advertising channels like Facebook or Instagram for sales can reduce your profit margins. While generating organic traffic takes time, it has the potential to become your most cost-effective acquisition channel.

Investing in SEO to boost organic traffic requires time and effort, but its long-term benefits make it the most valuable and sustainable way to attract customers. SEO should always be a priority, even though its returns are not immediate.

Ranking first in search engines can get you up to 30% more daily traffic

There’s a joke in the SEO community that if you wanted to hide a dead body, you’d place it on page two of search results. This highlights how the first page, especially the top spot, receives significantly more clicks than the 11th position.

If you have a page already performing well in organic traffic without any SEO optimizations, you likely can boost its traffic even further with minor adjustments.

Essentials to improve your Shopify SEO

Before diving into improving your Shopify store’s SEO, there are a few essential steps to take:

1. Purchase a custom domain. Your store needs its own domain to succeed in SEO. Custom domains build trust with potential shoppers coming from search engines and are more memorable. If your store still uses brand name.myshopify.com, it’s time to upgrade to a custom domain like brandname.com. Custom domains typically cost between $10–$20 per year. 

2. Make sure to install Google Analytics on your site. This free tool allows you to track your website traffic and understand visitor behavior. Check out our guide on how to set up Google Analytics on your Shopify store.

3. Ensure Google Search Console is installed on your site. This tool provides insights into which queries your pages rank for, their ranking positions, and the number of clicks they receive, among other valuable data. Learn how to set up Google Search Console on your Shopify store.

4. Use a mobile-ready theme. Shopify offers several free themes designed with responsive web in mind. If you’ve customized your theme or built a new one, it’s wise to test its mobile readiness using this Google tool, even if no recent changes have been made.

5. Remove password protection. If you’re still setting up your product pages, you may want to keep your store locked from the public and search engines. However, if your store is password-protected, search engines can’t crawl or rank your pages beyond the homepage.

6. Be on a paid plan. While stores on free trials can be crawled and indexed, you’ll miss out on the benefits of your SEO efforts if you’re not on a paid plan, as it takes longer than 14 days for a new store to rank.

Once these steps are completed, you’re ready to go. Use this SEO guide to boost your store’s organic traffic and visibility in search engines like Google and Bing.

Technical SEO In Shopify

Technical SEO is akin to the unseen mechanics of a car engine. Much like fresh oil keeps a car running smoothly, technical SEO plays a crucial role in enhancing your website’s search performance. 

It ensures your site is optimized for search engine crawlers, with fast page speeds and mobile-friendly design. Technical SEO also enhances user experience by improving site structure, navigation, and internal linking, while ensuring meta tags accurately describe page content for both search engines and users.

Issues in these areas can hinder your rankings until addressed. By resolving these issues, you’ll experience benefits such as increased user engagement due to faster access to important content and pages, as well as heightened crawling activity from bots, leading to sustained organic traffic growth.

Create a logical internal linking strategy

It’s common to underestimate the importance of internal linking, especially when first establishing your online store. I get it—compared to creating new pages and promoting your business, it might not seem critical.

However, internal linking goes beyond inserting links into relevant anchor text across your site. It involves creating pillar pages that pass authority to numerous other relevant pages and blog posts, or vice versa. This is achieved through a well-structured navigation system from your homepage, designed to enhance both user experience and search engine crawling.

Now, how can you apply this strategy to your own business?

Let’s consider our hypothetical content demo store, JMI Sports, specializing in sports equipment. Suppose customer feedback prompts us to expand our cricketing equipment  line with three new flavors. Here’s our next steps:

1. Conduct keyword research: Using a tool like Ubersuggest, we analyze the search volume for terms like ‘wicket keeping helmet’ (5000 monthly searches), identifying a new category for our product line.

2. Create product pages: In Shopify, navigate to ‘Products’ > ‘Add product’ to meticulously fill in details from titles and descriptions to SKUs and shipping information for each new product.

3. Create a collection page: Under ‘Products’ > ‘Collections’, build a new page and aggregate the new product pages. When setting up the collection page, adhere to on-page SEO guidelines by incorporating the main keyword in the page title, description, and URL structure. This approach ensures your product offerings are not only accessible but also optimized to attract organic traffic and enhance visibility on search engines.

Include the new page in the menu. In our Shopify store, navigate to Online store > Navigation > Main menu. Here, effortlessly integrate our new wicket keeping helmets collection into the navigation menu under ‘Shop’.

Integrate a breadcrumbs app into your store. A tool such as Category Breadcrumbs ($4/month) simplifies displaying a ‘breadcrumb trail’ for customers, showcasing their navigation path through your category structure. This allows them to easily backtrack by clicking on the relevant link.

Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and fix site errors

Earlier, we emphasized the importance of creating a Google Search Console account. Once this is set up, the next crucial step is submitting your sitemap. 

By doing so through Google Search Console, your ecommerce site becomes accessible for search engine crawlers to explore and index. 

This process involves the bots navigating through your homepage, product categories, collections, and individual product pages, ensuring they appear in search engine results.

Shopify automatically generates a sitemap for all stores, so there’s no need to create one manually unless you’re an advanced SEO manager. 

For Basic plan users, Shopify provides an auto-generated sitemap. However, Shopify plan or higher users with international domains must submit the sitemap file for each domain.

The next step involves resolving any potential site errors. After submitting your sitemap, wait for the crawl to provide insights, bookmarking this section to revisit in approximately a week. Here’s what to do next:

1. Log in to Search Console and access the Coverage report by navigating to Index > Coverage. Focus initially on errors displayed in the graph, selecting ‘Error’ from the options like Valid with warnings, Valid, and Excluded.

2. Identify and address any 404 errors or redirect issues reported. For instance, ‘Submitted URL not found (404)’ indicates pages that do not exist on your site, leading to a page-not-found message for users and detrimental effects on SEO. Export this list to your preferred spreadsheet program for further action.

3. ‘Redirect error’ occurs when a Googlebot encounters difficulties navigating to a new page location. Review and export these URLs for resolution.

To resolve 404 and redirect errors effectively:

Consult your spreadsheet for 404 errors, noting appropriate redirection targets. For instance, redirect discontinued product pages to related or collection pages.

Use Shopify admin under Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects to add and save redirects. For detailed steps, refer to our help article on creating redirects or consider bulk import for multiple redirects.

Now, addressing redirect loops involves identifying broken redirects using Shopify export data and Google Search Console insights. For ease, utilize spreadsheet programs to consolidate and filter errors for efficient correction.

Finally, verify your efforts by monitoring the Coverage tab in Search Console regularly, ensuring all errors are addressed and site performance optimized.

Optimize your images to load quickly and be found by search engines

Search engines not only scan the text on your webpage but also analyze your images. Optimizing images doesn’t mean compromising on visual appeal—it enhances their display to potential shoppers.

Reducing image sizes is crucial for your store. According to HTTP Archive, images typically constitute 46% of a webpage’s total size, potentially slowing down page loading times if not optimized.

Shopify, as hosted ecommerce software, manages CDN and ensures secure, fast image loading, simplifying this technical aspect. Nevertheless, here are straightforward methods to optimize image file sizes for better search engine indexing:

Utilize JPG or PNG formats. Shopify automatically serves images in WebP format, which offers superior compression, reducing file sizes by over 30% compared to JPEG and PNG. 

Stick to JPEGs and PNGs when uploading images to your site using native image programs. For instance, on a Mac, use Preview to export images as JPG or PNG via File > Export.

Tip: Use JPEGs for photographs and PNGs for custom graphics or illustrations, avoiding GIFs unless necessary for animated images.

Reduce image file sizes. Larger image files contribute to slower page loading. Resize images to standard resolutions, typically 72 pixels per square inch (PPI). Shopify provides a free image resizer tool for beginners.

Include images in your sitemap. Enhance visibility by ensuring images appear in search results, particularly for visual searches like apparel. 

Shopify includes primary product images in the sitemap. For comprehensive image coverage, consider installing Image Sitemap ($4/month), an app that creates and submits an .xml Sitemap to Google Search Console for all images linked to products, blog articles, and pages.

Optimize alt attributes thoughtfully. Alt attributes serve as text alternatives for images, crucial for web accessibility and image SEO. Describe images clearly to assist users with impaired vision and improve image ranking in search engines. 

For example, instead of “premium leather cricket ball,” use “Image of JMI sports premium leather 4-pc cricket ball.”

Name images descriptively. When saving images, use plain language in file names that match keywords on the page. For instance, if your page focuses on wicket keeping helmets, save the image file as “wicket-keeping-helmet.jpg.” This ensures that your product images can appear in image search results alongside relevant queries.”

This approach ensures your images are optimized for search engine visibility without compromising their visual impact.

What Is On-page SEO In Shopify?

On-page SEO is essential for directly communicating to both readers and search engines the content and purpose of your webpage. Search engines evaluate specific on-page factors to determine the ranking of your page in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

These factors include keyword relevance, topic focus, meta information, the URL slug, and the optimization of images, among other elements. 

In this section, we will delve into the fundamentals of ecommerce keyword research, interpreting search intent, and providing tips for optimizing content to improve the ranking of your pages for targeted keywords

Keyword research

A straightforward approach to understanding keywords is to view them as queries people enter into search engines. This often mirrors conversational language, sometimes resembling a more direct “caveman speak” style, such as typing “buy new iPhone” instead of “I want to buy the new iPhone.”

Let’s first distinguish between two types of keywords: short tail and long tail.

Short tail keywords are typically two or three words long and have high search volumes. For example, “mens shorts” receives 38,000 monthly searches according to ahrefs keyword explorer.

Long tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer phrases of four words or more and generally have lower search volumes. For instance, “mens shorts with pockets” registers 40 monthly searches in ahrefs keyword explorer.

How do people use keywords in search engines to buy products?

Understanding how people use keywords in search engines to make purchasing decisions is crucial for choosing the right keywords to target for your page’s ranking. Keywords align with different intents behind search queries, which can be categorized as follows:

1. Navigational queries: These are searches aimed at finding a specific website or webpage. For instance, users might type “facebook” into the search bar to locate Facebook’s website directly.

2. Informational queries: These searches typically start with phrases like “how to,” “what,” or “why.” Content that provides valuable information relevant to the query tends to rank well for these keywords.

3. Transactional queries: These searches indicate an intent to complete a purchase, often by directly typing a product name into the search bar, such as “samsung galaxy.”

Understanding the customer journey in search engines is essential. It involves tracking how users progress from being unsure about their product choices to confidently deciding to make a purchase.

Let’s consider the example of smartphones. If you’ve been using smartphones for a while, you might be interested in exploring the latest iPhone model or other options available on the market for your next upgrade.

Initially, you might start with an informational query like “best smartphone.” This query leads you to buyer’s guides listing top smartphones, typically clicking on the top-ranked result. After reviewing several articles, you might find yourself intrigued by the new iPhone model but also interested in the features and reliability of the new Samsung Galaxy.

To compare these options, you’d conduct another informational query, such as “apple iphone vs samsung galaxy.” Reading through these articles gives you a clearer picture of which smartphone suits your needs. 

Suppose you decide to reconsider the new iPhone. In that case, you proceed with a transactional query like “buy iphone,” leading you to Apple’s website where you complete your purchase.

Understanding these search behaviors helps in effectively targeting keywords that align with user intents throughout their decision-making process.

How to choose a keyword?

Now that you understand how users progress through the purchase journey and how to interpret search intent, let’s delve into effective keyword research methods.

Keyword research can initially seem daunting. You might wonder where to begin, how to find keywords, how to assess their ranking potential, and how long the process will take. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you find answers to these questions.

1. Where to start with keyword research: Start by defining your product or the category it belongs to. For instance, if you’re on Shopify, an ecommerce platform, you’d want your page to rank for terms related to ecommerce. Identify a broad term that describes your product.

2. Use tools for competitive insight: Utilize both free and paid tools to gain competitive insights. Recommended tools include Keyword Surfer and MozBar, which are Chrome extensions.  Keyword Surfer provides keyword volume directly on Google’s search results pages (SERPs) and in the browser’s address bar. MozBar offers metrics like domain authority and page authority, indicating the strength and trustworthiness of websites and specific pages.

3. Applying the data: Once you have insights into a short tail keyword, refine your focus on identifying a relevant long tail keyword. Short tail keywords can be highly competitive, especially for new businesses, so finding a unique selling proposition (USP) is crucial.

Use Keyword Surfer to start short tail keywords for further exploration in the “Keyword ideas” list. Look for long tail variations that align with your USP. After compiling a list, export it as a CSV file for future reference when optimizing your pages.

By following these steps, you can systematically gather and analyze keyword data to enhance your SEO strategy and improve your chances of ranking well on search engines.

Match search intent and create pages relevant to your keyword

No matter which type of search query your page targets, it’s important to understand that Google and other search engines prioritize pages that are most likely to satisfy the searcher’s intent without prompting them to conduct further searches or navigate away. 

Specifically for Google, this means minimizing the need for users to hit the “Back” button and explore alternative search results.

When selecting a keyword to target, you can gauge the search intent by examining the top 10 results on the search engine results page (SERP). Perform a search for your chosen keyword and take note of whether the pages listed are articles or product pages. Focus solely on the organic listings, disregarding ads labeled as “Ads” on the left side, as well as other SERP features like People Also Ask, images, videos, or local listings.

For instance, if you find that 9 out of the top 10 results are product pages, it indicates that users searching for this keyword likely have transactional intent—they are looking to make a purchase. Conversely, if most results are articles, it suggests that users are seeking informational content.

To further refine your understanding of search intent, utilize tools provided by Google or other search engines. For example, when optimizing a page targeting “cricket bats,” review the “Related searches” box at the bottom of the SERP. These related search terms provide insights into what users expect to find from their queries.

Since “cricket bats” is a short tail keyword, users may rely on these suggested terms if they don’t immediately find a suitable result among the top 10 listings. These phrases can be valuable as potential long tail keywords that you can incorporate into your content strategy. 

Consider using them in subheadings, product descriptions, meta descriptions, and titles to optimize your page for better search engine rankings. We’ll explore how to implement these strategies in more detail later on.

Do Proper Content optimization for better google rankings

Optimizing your content is crucial for improving your page’s search engine ranking for its target keyword. This includes refining the content itself, meta descriptions, and title tags. The process of content optimization becomes straightforward once you have identified the keyword you want to rank for.

To grasp content optimization, ask yourself: “How can I clearly communicate the purpose of this page to visitors?” Use this question as a guide to assess your pages:

Does the heading clearly convey the page’s content?

Are keywords or variations of them used in subheadings and throughout the body text?

Does the URL slug include the keyword, and is it of appropriate length?

Is the page title compelling, and does the meta description encourage clicks?

Are the image file names relevant, and do they have descriptive alt text?

Let’s explore specific strategies for on-page content optimization in detail.

Change your keyword into your heading

For transactional pages like product pages, incorporating your primary keyword into the page titles can be effective if it serves as an identifier. However, this approach is typically more suitable for collections pages. 

Ideally, product names should be compelling and descriptive.

For navigational pages such as About or Contact pages, it’s best to focus on the page’s purpose or function. Use clear and direct titles such as “Contact us,” “Get in touch with [brand name],” or “How can we help?” The objective is to ensure clarity and simplicity in navigation.

Understand the topic behind the keyword and build it into your page

Incorporating keywords into your pages should never involve keyword stuffing or awkwardly using grammatically incorrect long tail keywords. This outdated tactic was once used to artificially boost rankings, but search engines have evolved significantly to understand content contextually.

When optimizing pages for specific keywords, the initial step is to thoroughly comprehend the topic you’re targeting, as discussed earlier, and then comprehensively cover that topic.

If you’re utilizing a paid SEO tool to gather keyword insights, the process becomes simpler by collecting keywords related to a topic. However, achieving this is also feasible with free tools. Let me demonstrate how I might optimize the new collections page for wicket keeping helmets on JMI Sports.

Begin with Google. Start by examining the bottom of the search results where Google displays related searches and autocomplete suggestions. This provides ideas for related searches and helps in crafting the collection page’s content.

Compile a list from related searches and autocomplete suggestions. Create a new Google Doc and list all the relevant entries. From this list, identify suitable phrases to use and eliminate irrelevant ones. Next, proceed to draft a title and description for the page.

Draft a title and description. To create an effective description that serves both users and SEO purposes

Upload to your store. Once satisfied with the collections page content, upload it to your store.

While this example specifically focuses on collections pages, you can replicate this process for any page type, such as product pages or blog posts.

Build your keyword into the URL or slug

The URL is what you type into your browser’s address bar that typically ends with .com, .ca, etc. The term “slug” refers to what comes after the first forward slash in a URL path. Slugs and URL paths are used interchangeably but mean the same thing.

Once you’ve selected a domain name, your URL is fixed and cannot be changed. However, slugs can be customized or altered. Note: If you decide to change slugs, ensure you set up redirects to the new pages, as detailed earlier.

The primary reason for embedding keywords into the slug of each page is to clearly communicate to both users and search engines what the page is about. It’s also important to avoid keyword stuffing in your URL and slugs.

Consider this example:

Original URL:

Modified URL suggestion:

Why make this change? Keyword stuffing in URLs doesn’t enhance search rankings. Modern search engine algorithms no longer reward repetitive keyword appearances in URL strings. Avoid diminishing your click-through chances by overusing keywords or stuffing them into your URLs.

Here are some general guidelines:

Avoid using hashes (the pound sign) in URLs. Hashes are typically used to navigate within a page, such as within a table of contents.

Be cautious of case sensitivity. It’s advisable to use lowercase letters in URLs or slugs to ensure consistency across different systems, even though most Content Management Systems (CMSs) today are not case sensitive.

 Use hyphens to separate words in URLs. For instance, “/collections/mens-short-with-pockets” is more readable than “/collections/mensshortswithpockets.” Avoid underscores and spaces, as they can appear as “%20” in URLs, making them less user-friendly.

 For a comprehensive list of safe characters to include in your URLs, refer to the Character Encoding Chart provided by Perishable Press.

These principles help ensure that your URLs are clear, user-friendly, and optimized for search engines without resorting to outdated practices like keyword stuffing.

Include your keyword into the meta title and description

Your meta title and description serve as crucial means to inform both users and search engines about the content of your page and to entice clicks from search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Shopify automatically populates the title and meta description fields with the product or collection names and descriptions, ensuring there are no glaring errors with empty meta fields. 

However, if these fields haven’t been customized for each page, the meta data may fail to effectively communicate the page’s relevance or appeal to users and search engines.

Here’s how to craft effective meta titles and descriptions for your pages:

Ensure your page title is concise, typically under 55 characters. Incorporate your target keyword to aid search engines in understanding the page’s topic, while maintaining readability. Avoid using overly simplistic language, as search engines are capable of comprehending the page’s context even with the inclusion of stop words (e.g., the, if, and, a, etc.).

Craft a meta description within a maximum of 145 characters. This is where you can make your product page or blog post enticing to searchers. While including your keyword can contribute to its ranking, the primary focus should be on appealing to the potential customer. Learn more about effective strategies for writing meta descriptions here.

Build your keyword into your image naming system

When integrating keywords into your image naming strategy, ensure your files are saved with names that reflect your target keyword, such as “wicket-keeping-helmet.jpg” and utilize the keyword as the alt text when uploading the image to your store.

If you’re uploading multiple images and unsure how to name them, use descriptors like “wicket-keeping-helmet-juniors.jpg” for a photo of the junior’s helmet label.

As mentioned earlier in optimizing images, it’s crucial to carefully craft your alt attributes. Alt text serves as a description when a browser cannot display the image and aids in web accessibility. Describe the content of the image plainly to assist people with visual impairments in understanding its context. While including your target keyword naturally in the alt text is beneficial, prioritize clarity and accessibility over stuffing keywords into alt text.

Build rich snippets with product details and user generated content

Rich snippets are enhanced search listings that provide details like product price, availability, and other specific information directly on the search engine results page (SERP). They often include user-generated content such as customer reviews and ratings, offering a quick overview of a product without requiring users to visit the page.

Google’s SERP example displays rich snippets featuring star ratings, number of votes, price, and stock availability, which can significantly increase click-through rates by up to 30%, as reported by Search Engine Land. This increase in organic clicks rivals the impact of investing 30% more budget into paid search ads, making it a valuable strategy for driving traffic to your product pages at no additional cost.

While implementing rich snippets and structured data falls under technical SEO, the effort can yield substantial benefits. Shopify’s free themes automatically include structured data and rich snippet functionality for product pages, ensuring that essential information like price and availability is eligible to appear on SERPs. However, Google decides whether to display this information.

If using a third-party theme or a custom-built one, ensure it supports structured data and rich snippets. If not, you have several options:

1. Manually integrate structured data: If you’re comfortable with coding, you can write schema markup into your theme. Refer to resources from Schema.org and Google to correctly implement the necessary values.

2. Use apps or hire experts: Consider apps like Smart SEO, Schema App Total Schema Markup, Rich Snippets for SEO, or Schema Plus for SEO to automate the process. Alternatively, hire an expert to handle this technical aspect.

Displaying user-generated content and star ratings in SERPs typically requires apps or custom coding. Before proceeding, ask yourself:

Do you have a product reviews app?

What is the average star rating and sentiment of your reviews?

Ensure the app supports schema markup to enable review snippets in SERPs.

Shopify offers a free product reviews app that supports schema markup. Once reviews are submitted, the markup is added to your page, and Google will eventually display these reviews in search results after crawling your site.

Note that rich snippets may take time to appear in search listings, so patience is key. Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to check for any display errors and ensure the markup is correctly implemented.

Off-page SEO in Shopify

Off-page SEO encompasses various aspects such as managing reputation through customer service and maintaining an active presence on social media. 

However, its core focus lies in acquiring backlinks—links from external sites that direct users to your website. 

The quality and relevance of these backlinks significantly impact your page rankings in search engine results. As highlighted earlier, the placement of clicks on search engine results pages underscores the importance of securing top rankings.

There are two primary approaches to building links to your website: proactive efforts and passive efforts.

Prepare a Link Building Strategy

Active link building involves strategizing and implementing a plan to acquire links from specific pages, driven by clear objectives and understanding of why these links are valuable. It can be a time-intensive process due to its competitive nature, as journalists, influencers, and writers receive numerous pitches regularly. Therefore, crafting a compelling pitch is crucial.

When requesting links, certain principles should guide your approach:

1. Clearly communicate the benefit to them upfront. While your aim is to secure a link, highlight what value they gain from linking to your content. Perhaps their current link is outdated or missing essential information.

2. Avoid requesting links from direct competitors. This may appear obvious, but many link requests are directed to competitors in the same product or topic area. For instance, if you sell athletic gym shorts and find a buyer’s guide by a competitor, it’s prudent not to seek links from them.

With these principles in mind, let’s explore some effective tactics for active link building:

Foundational links

Foundational links encompass connections from social media profiles, local business directories, and specialized directories within your industry. 

If you haven’t already established profiles on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, among others, it’s advisable to create them now. 

Additionally, setting up a Google My Business profile is recommended, regardless of whether you operate a physical retail location. 

This step can enhance your local SEO efforts, potentially attracting more local customers. While the SEO benefits from foundational links are modest, their setup is straightforward and expands your brand’s visibility across various channels.

PR campaigns

Traditionally, a press release campaign involves distributing a press release to media outlets with the aim of securing coverage in local, regional, national, or industry publications. Getting featured in press publications can drive traffic to your website and provide valuable high-authority backlinks, which are beneficial for SEO.

Instead of outsourcing to a PR company, consider pitching your own stories for publicity. If you have an intriguing product or a compelling story, share it with bloggers and journalists who cover topics relevant to your business. Tailor your pitch to the right publications and ensure your story is compelling to improve your chances of success.

While journalists receive numerous pitches, they are always on the lookout for noteworthy stories. Targeting the appropriate publications and offering a compelling narrative can significantly enhance your likelihood of getting coverage.

Skyscraper technique

If your brand engages in content marketing or is contemplating it, adopting the skyscraper technique could be instrumental in acquiring backlinks. Originated by internet marketer Brian Dean, this method involves identifying high-quality content from your competitors, creating something even more valuable, and then proactively reaching out to relevant individuals to earn their links.

To effectively execute this technique, you’ll require an SEO tool to identify backlinks to your competitors’ websites and a tool to locate email addresses for outreach purposes. It’s important to emphasize that success hinges on investing in developing exceptional content and meticulously planning your outreach strategy, which demands careful preparation and substantial effort.

Guest blog

When you’re blogging to increase traffic to your own site, you understand that it takes time to see results. Guest posting provides an opportunity to reach a new audience while you continue to grow your own. It not only directs visitors back to your website but also enhances your search engine optimization through backlinks.

Identify and connect with websites, publications, or influential bloggers in your industry who have the audience you want to engage. Propose writing a guest post tailored to resonate with their readership. Ensure the topic aligns closely with your business to maximize its potential for driving traffic.

Broken link building

Broken link building involves identifying pages that link to content that no longer exists, recreating similar content, and persuading website owners to replace the broken link with a link to your content. This strategy leverages the negative impact on SEO caused by linking to non-existent pages.

To successfully execute this technique, you’ll need an SEO tool to crawl pages and identify broken links, as well as an outreach tool to locate email addresses for outreach. The Wayback Machine is a useful tool for researching what was previously on the broken page.

Here’s a step-by-step outline for implementing broken link building:

1. Select a website within your niche that publishes content relevant to your business (e.g., if you sell skincare products and essential oils, target websites in the aromatherapy sector, including competitor sites or blogs).

2. Use your SEO tool to identify pages with 404 errors, pages with the most backlinks, or pages where you know your product or collection could be relevant. Use the Wayback Machine to review the content that was previously on those pages and determine if you can create similar content.

3. Avoid copying text from the defunct page to avoid copyright issues. Instead, create original content that addresses the same topic.

4. Utilize your outreach tool to find the contact information of the content manager or website owner. Reach out to them, explaining the issue with the broken link, its negative impact on their SEO and user experience, and suggest linking to your relevant content as an alternative.

Implementing broken link building requires strategic planning and effort but can yield valuable backlinks and improve your site’s SEO. For more detailed information, you can explore resources such as ahref’s blog.

Unlinked mentions

Unlinked mentions occur when your business is mentioned on another website without a hyperlink back to your own site. 

For example, your business might be referenced in an article about comfortable loungewear apparel, but the article does not include a direct link to your homepage. 

Tools like Google Alerts or SEO platforms such as Ahrefs can alert you whenever your site is mentioned online. Once you decide that obtaining a link from the mentioned site is valuable, you can reach out to the writer or content manager and request that they add a link to your business in their article.

Passive link building

Passive link building involves activities that may not directly enhance SEO but can contribute to long-term SEO success through ongoing engagement and positive reputation building:

1. Offer Exceptional Products or Services: Creating outstanding products or services naturally generates word-of-mouth buzz. When people find value in what you offer, they are inclined to share it with others, leading to organic mentions and referrals that can boost your online presence over time.

2. Deliver Outstanding Customer Service: Exceptional customer service not only retains customers but also encourages positive word-of-mouth. Focusing on consistently excellent service ensures that your business is positively spoken about, which indirectly contributes to SEO as satisfied customers may mention your brand in reviews or social media.

3. Engage Actively on Social Media: Responsiveness on social media platforms is crucial. By promptly addressing customer inquiries and feedback, you demonstrate reliability and care, which can encourage organic sharing of your brand among users’ networks.

4. Connect with Social Media Influencers: Building relationships with influencers involves more than networking; it’s about fostering genuine connections. Sharing content or products that align with their interests and values can lead to endorsements or mentions, amplifying your brand’s visibility and credibility.

5. Participate in Online Communities: Engaging thoughtfully in forums, discussion boards, and blogs relevant to your industry builds your reputation and authority. By contributing valuable insights and solutions without overtly promoting your business, you can attract potential customers who are seeking information related to your offerings.

In essence, these passive strategies may not directly focus on SEO tactics but can significantly contribute to building a positive online presence, which in turn supports long-term SEO benefits through increased visibility and credibility.

Conclusion

When customers are searching for products within your category, ensuring your store appears at the top of search results is crucial. This requires dedicating time and effort to understand and implement the rules that govern search engines, optimizing both the structure and content of your site accordingly.

Initially, tackling SEO for your store might seem daunting. However, once you grasp the fundamentals and address any initial challenges, it becomes a matter of refining pages for better rankings and identifying new keywords to target with new content. 

Although the results may start off slowly, consistent effort over time will lead to noticeable improvements. Ultimately, SEO acts as a powerful mechanism to attract new customers to your business.