Your Complete Shopify SEO Checklist Part 1: Content
Why is SEO important for my brand?
Want to drive more traffic to your Shopify store? Improving your site’s SEO should be a key part of your strategy. For the uninitiated, SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” and covers a broad range of strategies that all focus on one goal: improving a site’s searchability so that it ranks better in Google (and other search engine) results.
Imagine you’re shopping for a bridesmaid dress, and you’d ideally like it to come from a sustainable brand. You navigate to Google and search “sustainable bridesmaid dress blue”. Think of Google as a detective, taking that phrase you supplied and scouring the internet for the most relevant sites (and products) to show you in response. How does Google know which sites to show you on the first page versus the fifth page? That algorithm - who gets ranked in what position, depending on the keyword that was searched - is where SEO strategy comes in. By improving your site’s SEO, you help to ensure your site is visible to the people who can most directly benefit from it.
A caveat: SEO is not a magic bullet solution that will get you instant traffic! It’s all about sending good signals to Google over the long term, which tends to pay bigger and better dividends over time. You will almost never see immediate results from the SEO improvements you make, but that shouldn’t make it any less of an important part of your business strategy. Think of it like this - if you make some of the below fixes, 6 months from now you’ll be reaping the benefits of (free) additional traffic to your site. A year later, if you’re still keeping things optimized, that traffic will likely have grown exponentially as your site’s authority increases. Sounds worth it, right? I thought so.
This post series will be broken into three parts that I consider to be the main pillars of SEO strategy: content, UX and technical adjustments. You’re currently reading part 1, on content.
This series is kicking off with a copywriting deep-dive, and here’s why: your site’s content and copywriting presents one of the most accessible opportunities to improve SEO, even without any technical know-how. Think about it: Google is pulling search results for users based on the keywords - or copy - that they type in, so doesn’t it make sense that your site’s copy is going to have a huge impact on whether or not Google finds and displays your site to its users?
Before we get started on the actual copywriting, though, let’s take a moment to discuss keyword research, which is going to be a key part of your workflow if you want to produce SEO-friendly content.
You and I both know that not everyone visiting your online store will become a buyer.
But what if I could help you to bump up that percentage?
Let’s do keyword research!
Keyword research is the process of identifying the strongest words and phrases you can use to capture Google’s attention. Your brand’s main offerings will be the jumping-off point for keyword research. To get started, come up with a short list of the main concepts related to your brand, expressed as short phrases. For example, some of Reformation’s keywords might be:
Bridesmaid dresses
Wedding dresses
Sustainable women’s clothing
Vacation dresses
Carbon neutral fashion
If your brand has existing name recognition - like Reformation - then you’ll also want to include the name in some of your initial searches, like “Reformation dress.”
Once you’ve compiled that list of essential phrases, which are called your seed keywords, it’s time to do research on each. The goal at this stage is to expand your list to include any phrases or keywords that get high search volumes in Google. You may also find, as you research each of your seed keywords, that other phrases begin to appear that you want to capture. This is good: keyword research is all about exploring your options.
Best keyword research tools to use for free (or with a free trial):
Moz or SEMRush: these are the top two SEO platforms, and both offer free trials. Since these platforms are so in-depth, I’d recommend starting a free trial and pulling all the data you need for the year ahead.
Google Keyword Planner: this does require a credit card to be input, although you’ll only be charged if you enable a paid ad campaign. It’s a little less intuitive of a platform than Moz or SEMRush, but there are tons of explainers online.
Wordsteam free keyword tool: this is the most bare-bones option, but it’s also totally free.
As you start to research, remember that you’re looking for keywords with both specificity and relevance, not just total search volume. For example, if you’re Reformation, you’ll likely see “women’s dress” gets the most search hits of any relevant keyword. That’s all well and good - and you can certainly include the phrase on your site, I won’t stop you - but is it specific enough to actually be useful? Likely not. Your goal is to strike a balance between the broad and the brand-specific so that you capture relevant organic traffic.
Here’s what the keyword research results look like for “organic cotton dress” in SEMRush - notice how Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD) are broken out for each:
Have you taken the time to research relevant keywords to your brand? Great! Let’s move on to the content nitty-gritty. SEO copywriting can be broken up into a few broad categories:
Meta titles + descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions are short pieces of copy that you can assign to each page of your website, which then guide how the page will be displayed in Google search results. Here’s an example of where meta copy populates in Google search results:
Writing e-comm meta titles + descriptions
The goal of your site’s meta titles and descriptions is to be as descriptive and concise as possible. Google puts character limits on both of these pieces of copy to ensure that they’ll fit in each search result, which is why brevity is a virtue here.
Here are your character counts to live by:
Meta titles: max 55 characters
Meta descriptions: max 155 characters
*Note that these character counts are not hard-and-fast rules - you’ll see in Shopify’s settings that they allow you to enter far longer descriptions, for example - but know this: the further you go past Google’s recommended character counts, the more likely they are to scrap your meta copy and choose different text from the page to display in search results. That’s why you’ll sometimes see super-random, or cut-off, copy in some of Google’s search results, like so:
If you don’t designate length-appropriate meta titles and descriptions, Google can (and will!) go rogue and use any copy they want from the given page. Don’t let that happen to you!
Got it? Good. There’s no “right” way or formula to write meta titles and descriptions, but here are a few tips to note:
Meta titles should be broken into a “Page Title” | “Brand Name” format to give users clarity on both what page AND what site they’re clicking into.
Here’s an example of what I mean: if you’re Reformation, you’re going to want to title your main Bridal page something like “Bridal Salon | Reformation”.
Meta title and description copy should use universally understood language, NOT brand-specific terms.
Remember, you’re writing this copy for people who haven’t discovered your site yet. Existing Glossier customers might be familiar with the phrase “Balm Dotcom,” but people unfamiliar with the brand are likely to be searching for just “Lip Balm.”
And on that note - make sure your product type is clearly included in every product page’s meta title.
Here’s an example from a luxury clutch brand I worked with: every clutch style had a different women’s name, but nowhere on the actual product page was the word “clutch” ever used - including in the page titles! This resulted in pages with meta titles like “Maya Red Gloss,” which sounds lovely but didn’t actually tell Google - or shoppers - what the product is. It’s really easy to get so caught up in your own brand story (and terminology) that you forget customers still need to find you somehow - and any shopper searching for high-end red clutches on Google would never find these products.
Have a critical piece of info that may make users click? Include it in your meta descriptions.
Because you have a few more characters to work with in the meta description, it’s a great spot to include any relevant info (or keywords!) that you think users may be looking for. For example, A’Court - a new brand founded by Rebecca Taylor - includes her name in their homepage’s meta description, since she’s a person of interest in the fashion world:
Updating meta titles + descriptions in Shopify
Updating meta titles and descriptions is super-simple in the Shopify backend, but the process does depend on the page type:
Homepage:
Navigate from Shopify Admin to Online Store → Preferences
Update the page’s meta copy in the top “Title and Meta Description” section
Click “Save”
Product pages:
Navigate from Shopify Admin to Products, select the product you’d like to update
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the “Search Engine Listing” section, click “Edit,” and add meta copy accordingly
Click “Save”
All other pages:
Navigate from Shopify Admin to Online Store → Pages, select the Page you’d like to update
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the “Search Engine Listing Preview” section, click “Edit,” and add meta copy accordingly
Click “Save”
*Remember: Shopify’s character suggestions do not match Google’s - keep your page titles to ~55 characters and descriptions to ~155 characters, or you’re risking them getting cut off/replaced with another piece of page copy!
Alt text
Alt text is a short piece of copy associated with an image that describes and contextualizes that image for vision-impaired users (and Google!). Once you’ve assigned a piece of alt text to an image on your website, it gets baked into that image’s code as an attribute so that people using screen readers or text-to-speech apps can find and read it. Alt text makes online images accessible to everyone. To learn more about the nitty-gritty of alt text, read my newsletter on it.
The goal of good alt text is to clearly and succinctly describe an image as it appears. You aren’t trying to pack your alt text with keywords or brand-related backstory. (Although if a relevant keyword naturally fits in - great! We love that.) Alt text should also be brief: although there are technically no character limits in place, extremely long alt text descriptions can be burdensome for people using screen readers. 140 characters is a good maximum alt text length to keep in mind.
There are two different ways to update alt text in Shopify, depending on whether the image is used on a product page vs. the rest of the website.
Updating alt text on Shopify product pages:
Navigate from Shopify admin to “Products”
Click into the product you’d like to edit
Click into the desired image (or video) in the product’s “Media” section
Click “Add Alt Text”, then once added, click “Save Alt Text”
Exit the media preview - you’re good to go!
Updating alt text on all other Shopify pages:
*Note: any alt text you add to a piece of media in the “Files” section will update the alt text across all usages of that media, except on product pages. I know - it’s confusing! But this is good news if, say, you have an image that’s used on both the Homepage as well as a few blog posts. You only need to update the alt text for that image once if you do so in Shopify’s “Files” section.
Navigate from Shopify admin to “Content” → “Files”
Click into the piece of media you’d like to edit
In the media pop-up, scroll down to the “Alt Text” box and add in alt text
Once done - click “Save”
Keyword-rich longform content
Any type of relevant, helpful, keyword-rich content that you add to your site is useful. However, Google’s search formula rewards long form content (1000+ words) for a few reasons:
Long content keeps visitors on your site longer
More copy gives Google more data to crawl, helping them to better categorize your site and optimize it in search results
High-quality, comprehensive content tends to generate more (and better) backlinks
Writing quality longform content is the number-one most important thing you can do to improve your site’s organic traffic over time. If you’ve ever clicked into an article that you hoped would be helpful, only to find it was essentially just word salad, you’ll know what I mean. Good content keeps people engaged with your site, which helps boost your site’s authority.
Hopefully all that keyword research you completed earlier helped you notice patterns around useful content to create. I’d recommend grouping your keyword research into relevant groups based off of your product offerings or services so that it’s easy to reference. From there, it’s time to start the fun, creative part: brainstorming new content.
Need some help coming up with e-comm content ideas? Here are a few things to consider:
Can you phrase a keyword or phrase as a question, and then answer it? Continuing with Reformation as an example, a prime question to answer might be: “How are we reducing carbon emissions in 2023?”
Are there content gaps on your site that your direct competitors are covering? Maybe you’re a small skincare brand and you notice competitors are writing long form blog posts on their product’s formulations. Use competitor research as a way to identify and fill in those gaps.
Where should I be adding new longform content to my Shopify site?
Blogs are a natural fit for this type of keyword-rich content, and I think every fashion, beauty and home goods brand would do well to have one on their site. But you have other options, too:
About the brand/brand story pages
Look Book pages
Sustainability pages
How to style/how to use guides
When in doubt, check what your competitors are doing - and aim to do better. Remember, if your existing customers aren’t interested in reading every page of content, that’s fine! Your goal with all of this content creation is to help capture new, relevant organic traffic. If your current customers read and enjoy it, too, that’s the icing on top.
Making regular content updates
Regular content updates send good signals to Google. If you allow your site’s content to go stagnant, it’s naturally perceived as out-of-date and will eventually fall in search rankings as a result. The best way to make sure you’re staying on top of “fresh” content creation is to monitor your highest-traffic pages and ensure that you’re adding - or editing - existing content every 60-90 days.
Before you feel totally daunted by this: content updates don’t mean you need to do a total overhaul! Content refreshes can be as simple as adding an additional photo, writing a few new sentences of copy, or updating links to reflect current events. Even minor changes let Google know your site is active, up-to-date, and still a great place to direct its users.
This is part 1 of a 3-part series, Your Complete Shopify SEO Checklist. Part 2, on UX, is here! Check back soon for part 3 on technical SEO. Questions? Comments? Get in touch.
