Shopify monopolizes the eCommerce space in the U.S. It is one of the largest eCommerce platforms in America, second only to Amazon. Shopify’s value is best understood through the stories of its users. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a 35-year-old mom-and-pop store was forced to close its doors and needed to get online. They listed over 1,000 items for sale, went live on Shopify in three days and sold more pieces of a particular product than they ever have before. With success stories like these, it’s easy to see why online store owners are choosing Shopify more than any other platform.
Some of the biggest names that trust Shopify are Allbirds, Heinz and Kylie Cosmetics that need no introduction. Their success comes as no surprise as the platform’s usability and built-in SEO Shopify tools can propel any businesses of all sizes. Shopify stores have collectively made over $200 billion in sales — and working with the right Shopify experts can place your brand high up on that list.
Shopify store owners looking to boost sales on Shopify need an exceptional Shopify search engine optimization (SEO) strategy which is bolstered by cutting-edge technology. With the growing number of transactions done online, your brand needs to be visible and stand out from your competitors, and SEO is how you ensure visibility and site authority.
According to Statista, the number of people buying goods and services online, or digital buyers, is expected to grow to over 2.14 billion people worldwide in 2021. A robust eCommerce marketing strategy is necessary to meet this demand, and Shopify is the eCommerce platform of choice for over 1 million businesses in 175 countries worldwide.
In this blog, we walk you through what makes Shopify a groundbreaking eCommerce tool and how Shopify SEO can bring in consistent profitable results. We discuss:
• How Does the Shopify eCommerce Platform Work?
• How to Set Up Your eCommerce Shopify Store
• 10 Reasons Businesses Choose Shopify eCommerce Solutions
• Top 5 Ways to Use SEO for Shopify Store Success
• Shopify Services Pros and Cons
How Does the Shopify Ecommerce platform work?
Firstly, Shopify is more than an eCommerce platform. Most people would know it as an online store builder or a point-of-sale (POS) for offline transactions, but Shopify experts refer to it as a software-as-a-service (SaaS). It means that Shopify charges its users fees for the use of its technology.
Signing up on Shopify enables users to set up an online store, manage inventory, process payments, fulfill orders and much more. You can choose the look-and-feel (called themes) of your online store and use tools (or apps) to add functionality. You can either build your Shopify site from scratch or enlist the help of a Shopify agency to migrate your existing site.
With the help of Shopify experts and Shopify SEO tips, you can get set up quickly and begin growing your profits.
How to Set Up Your Ecommerce Shopify Store
Shopify’s technology is designed to be plug-and-play. You bypass the years coders spent on building the software (and the costs many small to medium business owners wouldn’t otherwise afford) to have an all-in-one eCommerce solution that’s ready to go, as soon as you are.
So, how easy is it to set up your Shopify store? We break it down into three simple steps:
1. Select Your Shopify Plan
The benefits of a Shopify site are limitless and Shopify makes it easy to investigate its true capabilities with a free trial. Once it’s time to decide on a plan, Shopify offers 10 and 20 percent discounts on annual and biennial plans, respectively.
2. Make Your Store Uniquely Yours
You can work with free or paid Shopify theme offerings, but it’s essential to make it your own and let your brand identity shine. Create your Shopify site with your unique business name, custom domain, logo, brand colors and more.
3. Choose Your Site Functionality
Determine your goals for your website to know precisely how to make your site perform at its best. Select from over 4,000 Shopify apps to add site functionality such as a Shopify SEO app, OptinMonster for email subscriptions and Smile.io for loyalty programs.
Bonus Tip: Looking to go global? The basic steps are the same but with a few added international features available — improved language and currency support and international domains. You can seamlessly create yourshop.com for your U.S. store and, for example, fr.yourshop.com for your France store, set the language to French and collect payments in euros with ease. With the help of a Shopify SEO app, you can boost your brand visibility on a global scale.
10 Reasons Businesses Choose Shopify Ecommerce Solutions
Whether you have one Shopify site or are working with a Shopify agency to manage multiple eCommerce stores, businesses choose Shopify because it’s simple. It offers powerful SEO for Shopify tactics and tools, and provides a business owner with the foundation for a successful eCommerce marketing strategy.
Shopify is a valuable tool that anyone can plug and play. But more so, it’s a focused marketing strategy together with SEO Shopify expertise that makes the difference and will drive sales.
Here are the top 10 reasons businesses choose Shopify:
1. Easy Management
Easily manage omnichannel sales with Shopify’s eCommerce tools and in-person sales with your Point of Sale (POS) system. Use your admin panel and allotted number of staff accounts to manage inventory, orders, payments and shipping from a single dashboard.
2. Scalability
As your business grows, your Shopify site can perform better and grow with you. It only takes a few clicks to upgrade your plan — you never have to worry about additional hosting costs, investment in site security and bandwidth limits with the seamless Shopify Plus.
3. Franchise Friendly
Your Shopify site is optimized for growth and equipped with enterprise-level support. Adapt your Shopify site to accommodate more locations and international expansion. Increase your customer’s options for currencies, payment gateways and more.
4. App Integrations
A robust customer relationship management (CRM) system is indispensable to effective communications. Shopify integrates with CRM software such as Salesforce and social media platforms to help turn passive subscribers and followers into paying customers.
5. Payment Options
Shopify has over 100 payment gateways integrated into the platform giving you and your customers flexibility. With its built-in gateway called Shopify Payments (available in select countries), no transaction fees are charged on top of standard credit card fees.
6. Sell Anywhere
Promote your products and sell on multiple sales channels from one management platform. Shopify’s sales channels include Facebook, Instagram, Walmart Marketplace and Amazon. You gain an additional analytics source and maximize sales opportunities.
7. Marketing Tools
With built-in tools for audience targeting, automation and campaign creation, you reach more of your potential customers. Popular marketing tactics include promoting exclusive discount codes and e-coupons through organic SEO Shopify content and paid ads.
8. Store Insights
Shopify’s advanced eCommerce analytics is vital to measuring the success of your marketing campaigns such as email and SMS. Evaluate your performance in real-time and gather detailed data and reports on your sales activity to improve your approach.
9. Support
In line with its global hosting capacity, the platform offers unmatched 24/7 support. You can access discussion forums in the Shopify Community, where you can learn directly from a Shopify SEO expert on how to improve SEO on Shopify and boost your sales.
10. SEO-Friendly
Without the need for an extra step, Shopify has been developed with most of the crucial SEO features that online stores need. Your site’s elements such as structure, on-page optimization and other ranking factors required by standard-practice SEO for Shopify are covered.
SEO is crucial to your eCommerce Shopify store success, so let’s dig deeper. Here are the Shopify SEO basics through the eyes of a Shopify SEO expert.
Top 5 Ways to Use SEO for Shopify Store Success
SEO gets your online brand to rank higher on search results, to be more easily found by your prospects and it opens the door to more Shopify site visitors. In a nutshell, without a robust SEO for Shopify strategy, you’ll miss out on sales and new leads. You need to broaden your knowledge of the steps to take to improve SEO on Shopify.
Hit all the marks for higher search rankings with these tried-and-true Shopify SEO tips:
1. Monitor Mobile-Responsiveness
Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in its ranking algorithms. Shopify’s core website build is created with responsive design. Still, you need to monitor its mobile-friendliness across all browsers and device types as you add content and modify your Shopify store.
2. Maintain Lightning-Fast Load Times
Search engines base your page experience on your load times. For example, Shopify’s premium hosting and global server network is the reason why Kylie Cosmetics, despite selling out collections in less than 15 minutes, never goes down. Your role is to maximize your Shopify store’s fast load time by minimizing all elements that can slow down your site.
3. Offer High-Caliber Website Security
Security layers boost confidence in your site — for users and search engines. Shopify is compliant with the payment card industry (PCI) standards for credit card transaction security and issued SSL certificates for every Shopify store to protect site data, and your task is to make sure it’s activated (using https:// instead of http://).
4. Optimize Your Site Structure
Remember that search engine algorithms aren’t human — it takes its cues through pieces of code. Shopify makes it simple to include SEO elements that help search engines crawl and index your site. Ensure you fill your title tags, create customized URLs and add alt text to your images to make your site easier to “read” and rank.
5. Create a Keyword and Content Strategy
The bottom line to ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs) is to prove you are a high-quality site on all fronts. Find the keywords relevant to your brand and the exact search terms your target audience uses, and include them in your content to boost your site relevance and visibility.
You don’t have to be a Shopify SEO expert to see that optimizing for search and improving your customer experience goes hand-in-hand. Luckily, much of the Shopify SEO work is already done for you. You need the help of a Shopify SEO app and eCommerce SEO company to supercharge your results.
Shopify Services Pros and Cons
We’ve covered everything you need to know about the Shopify platform and how to improve SEO on Shopify. But it’s always good to understand what challenges are faced when using a new platform. So let’s delve into Shopify’s pros and cons.
Let’s make your decision easier with a quick overview of Shopify services:
| Shopify Pros | Shopify Cons |
| + Primarily designed for eCommerce: The popular alternative to achieve a similar functionality is to add the WooCommerce plugin to a WordPress built website. But most business owners would naturally avoid the extra work. | − Transaction Fees: Shopify Payments functionality is available in only 17 countries, so if your business operates outside of them, you will have to choose a different payment gateway — subject to Shopify transaction fees. |
| + One-time payments for paid themes: Themes would cost a one-time payment of $140 − $180, versus an annual payment of around $49 to $79 for a paid theme on competing content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress. | − Monthly Price: After your trial, plans start at $29/month, including ultra-reliable hosting and 24/7 support. Many popular CMSes are free to use but you manage and pay for hosting. |
| + Seamless Integration: Most Shopify apps are paid because you pay a premium for the way they are tightly developed and work with little to no hiccups. | − Not Drag-And-Drop: Some clients will expect a website builder to be drag-and-drop, but Shopify uses a third-party page builder for that functionality. |
We understand — Shopify services can be a lot to take in. Choosing an experienced Shopify agency is how you build a winning eCommerce store that’s backed by a robust strategy using SEO Shopify proven tactics.
Getting Started on Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
Enlist the help of a Shopify agency and professional Shopify services to maximize its outstanding design, functionality and Shopify SEO capabilities through a comprehensive eCommerce marketing strategy.
Ecommerce marketing has everything to do with making your brand name and products known to as many people as possible. Some pillars of a high-converting eCommerce marketing strategy include email marketing, social media advertising, online review generation and most importantly — search engine optimization to build a solid foundation for organic traffic.
At our eCommerce SEO company, we use proven eCommerce optimization techniques to improve your SERP rankings and conversion rate. We ensure your Shopify store impresses your site visitors with striking (and optimized) photos, fast check-out and an overall seamless buying experience that makes your customers want to purchase again.
Shopify’s most recent development is directly taking on eCommerce giants like Amazon. The platform has introduced its own marketplace called the Shop App. It has a long way to go before it knocks Amazon from the number one spot, but Shopify is on the right track to providing a modern and elevated customer experience — including personalized shopping and search priority given to local shops.
Trust Thrive Internet Marketing Agency to be the first to know about key Shopify developments like this and find every eCommerce marketing opportunity to propel your brand. We follow proven processes that work. Check this success story out – we helped an eCommerce business boost its average position on SERPs by 76 percent!
Our Shopify SEO company has been around since 2005 and is a certified Shopify Partner. Our SEO experts are active in the Shopify community and are in the best position to deliver the conversions and sales you need.
Contact us today to receive a custom Shopify SEO strategy and grow your brand through a sales-focused eCommerce approach.
