So you have your Shopify store up and running. Fantastic. You’ve got your products, you’ve got your payment gateway and now you are ready to take Perth’s ecommerce world by storm! There is just one problem: when people go to Google, they cannot find you.
Sound familiar?
Here’s the thing about Shopify. It’s great for getting an online store set up in a hurry, but will not make customers magically appear. That’s where solid Shopify SEO optimisation comes in – and you know what? The vast majority of Perth businesses are doing it wrong.
If you are serious about eCommerce SEO, you need a strategy that extends beyond the basics.
Let me take you through the things that do work.
But why even SEO Shopify?
Well, consider how you shop online. The last time you flipped to the second page of Google? Exactly. If your Shopify store isn’t in one of those top spots, you might as well not exist.
The great thing about doing your Shopify SEO right is that unlike paid ads (which empty out your bank account the minute you stop paying), excellent SEO keeps working for you. Day and night. Even while you’re at the beach or after having slept.
For Perth eCommerce businesses, in particular, it’s huge. You’re up against local stores and big national brands. The playing field isn’t completely level, but sharp SEO can give you a real chance of being noticed.
The Technical Stuff Nobody Talks About
This is where to begin businesses everywhere, Peru, because this small part plays a big role. (The first line of this paragraph should give people the whole point in less than 15 words. If they read on, they’ll get a good understanding of everything else too.) Technical SEO.
To most Shopify store owners, there’s no point lying in them but not other brands. And that could be a big mistake. You can boast the most magnificent product descriptions in all the world, but if search engine spiders from Google hardly read your site? It was just like talking to the air.
Speed Is Larger Than You Think Important
More than ever, your site has to be fast. Quick is not “fast.” Actually fast. Since 2018, Google has made mobile page speed a ranking factor for searches on mobile devices, a move which means slow sites will be displaced in search results. According to their figures, 53% of mobile users leave a page after three seconds if it doesn’t show up fast enough.
While Shopify provides a basic starting point here, you must optimise further. Compress all of your product images. Everyone. Use lazy loading to make images only load when someone scrolls up to see them. Remove any apps you don’t actually use, they will just drag everything down.
For Perth companies – we do technical SEO audits all the time – the biggest problem is slow loading times. So fix this first
Mobile-Friendly or No Sale
Here’s a statistic that should scare the pants off you: over 70% of eCommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. Research by both Google and SOASTA discovered that when page load time goes up from one to three seconds, bounce rates rise 32%.
At five seconds? A full 90-fold increase takes place.
Check your site on real machines. Take out your mobile phone, open up your store and try to buy something. Is it difficult? Then it needs work. For more techniques on mobile optimisation, read our guide “How to optimise websites for mobile seo.”
URLs and Site Structure
Shopify generates URLs automatically, which is great until they’re a mess. “yourstore.com/collections/products/blue-widget-12345” when “yourstore.com/blue-widget” would rank better.
Clean URLs are simpler for Google to decipher and easier for site visitors to remember. Lots of work here to organise your collections logically, based on how customers REALLY are going to be searching. Selling outdoor gear? Dissect it: camping, hiking, fishing. Simple.
The On-Page SEO Checklist for Your Shopify Store
This is where you actually explain to Google what your pages are about. Get this wrong and you’re asking Google to guess. Google doesn’t like guessing.
Title Tags That Don’t Suck
Your title tag appears in search results. It’s your first impression. Maybe your only impression. For product pages, tell what the product is and give them a reason for people to click. “Blue Running Shoes” is boring.
And the story is better told in “Men’s Trail Running Shoes — Waterproof & Comfortable.” Don’t let them go over 60 characters, or Google will terminate them.
Meta Descriptions People Actually Read
Those are the tiny snippets beneath your search result title. Shopify allows you to customize all of these, so do it! Write as if you’re persuading someone to click.
Explain to them what differentiates your product. Don’t leave them blank, because then Google just takes some random words from your content and that’s what you want to show up in the search results.
Headers and Product Descriptions
The differences is that your headers and product content make all the difference between a store that ranks, and one that does not.
- Use H1s for headings, H2s for subheadings. Folks skim, so make it scannable.
- Avoid wholesale manufacturer descriptions and simple feature lists.
- Your product descriptions have a two-fold purpose: You need people to find you (SEO) and then convert them into buyers.
- “[Include] actual’s search terms people are using, [but] write for humans. Google spots keyword stuffing.
- Tell a story. Aid customers in visualizing using the product. That’s what converts.
These fundamentals provide the context Google needs while keeping your customers interested. Get those right and you’re already way ahead of what most Shopify stores are doing.
Content Strategy Beyond Product Pages
If you believe SEO is all about optimising your product pages, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
Blog Content That Actually Helps
- Launching a blog on your Shopify store will allow you to set informational searches people make prior to purchasing outright in your crosshairs.
- Someone who’s Googling “how to choose running shoes for flat feet” is still not ready to buy. However, if your blog post solves their question like a charm, where do you think they will go to purchase?
- Write the tutorials you already write, get blog traffic by answering customers’ common questions.
- Output even Perth-based businesses can develop content about local angles. Stock products best suited for WA climate? Got advice for Perth-specific situations? Use that local knowledge.
Collection Pages That Work Harder
- Your collection pages should not just be a grid of products. Add actual content to them.
- nWrite a paragraph or two summarising what’s in the collection. Why these products? What are they good for?
- This provides Google with more context and gets you ranking for broader category terms.
Blogging and optimised collection pages go hand in hand to cast your net wider. You not only hope that foodies search for your specific products, but you’re building authority and catching customers at any stage of their purchase decision.
That’s smart eCommerce SEO.
Local SEO for Perth Shopify Stores
Local SEO for Perth businesses Even if you are selling online, local SEO can provide you with a competitive advantage in Perth. Especially if you also have a physical shopfront.
Google Business Profile Setup
Get your Google Business Profile straight, because this is how things are being found. Keywords Go through every field and optimise them, including adding your Perth location, uploading photos and posting updates.
And most importantly, gather reviews and reactivate the good ones (and the crabby ones). Demonstrating that you’re active and responsive is about trust building.
We assist Perth businesses to take control of their online reputation and Google Business Profile optimisation – it’s so important for local visibility.
If you want to go into more depth on what really makes local SEO tick, take a look at our 7 local SEO ranking factors every local business needs to know guide.
We assist businesses in Perth maintain their online reputation and Google Business Profile (GBP) optimisation because it is that critical for local visibility.
Local Link Building
By securing links from other Perth businesses, directories in your local area and websites throughout Western Australia you are sending some serious local signals to the Google bot.
These associations help Google to understand you’re a bona fide member of the Perth business community, which can increase your visibility on local search results despite big national brands.
Popular Shopify SEO Mistakes That Perth Stores Commit
Let me spare you some grief by telling you where a lot of people screw up.
Duplicate Content Everywhere
Shopify can cause duplicate content when the same product is across multiple collections. Google is viewing multiple URL’s with the same content.
You can utilise canonical tags to inform Google which version should be treated as the primary one. This is a technical SEO area where professional assistance comes in handy.
Ignoring Alt Text for Images
- In order for Google to know what it’s looking at in an image, every product image should have descriptive alt text applied.
- Don’t write “image1. jpg” – describe the photo. “Women’s leather ankle boots tan” is so much better.
Forgetting About Internal Linking
- Cross link between associated products and blog posts so customers can find more.
- This keeps people on your site for longer, telling Google that your content is valuable.
Not Tracking What Matters
You cannot improve what you do not measure. Have the right analytics to know which products people find through search, what keywords bring traffic, where they drop off.
With our SEO reporting for Perth Clients, we’re concentrating on the stuff that really influences your bottom line.
It’s nice to be No. 1, but sales are better.
Getting Professional Help
Hey see, you can do your own Shopify SEO. There’s nothing stopping you. But here’s what typically happens: You spend months of learning, testing and making mistakes — followed by a prolonged period of fixing them. Maybe you get decent results. Or perhaps you unwittingly damaged your rankings because SEO is a lot more complicated than it appears.
We partner with Perth eCommerce businesses to ensure their Shopify stores are ranking well and driving real customers. We’re full service; from technical audits to keyword research and content to competitive analysis for link building, we can help with all of your eCommerce SEO needs.
Now what would be the benefit of doing this with an SEO specialists who actually already know the Perth market? We know what kind of local customers are looking for and what’s working in Western Australia.
Your Shopify SEO Action Plan
Begin with an appropriate SEO audit to know where you stand right now. Get your technical basics right before you start with speed, mobile-friendliness, site structure. Then, you can optimise your on-page factors such as titles, descriptions and product content.
Beef up your content strategy with a blog that serves as an answers page for customers. Focus on quality relevant Perth and Austrailan backlinks. Follow everything and change according to whatever the data tells you. SEO needs ongoing attention
The Bottom Line
Setting up an online store is a snap with Shopify. But let’s make it easy for Perth clients to discover your business? That requires intentional Shopify optimization for SEO.
The stores that saturate search results aren’t just lucky. They are simply repeating a winning process: Solving technical issues, making good content, and earning authority by acquiring quality links.
Got your Perth eCommerce store ready to rank where it should? Contact us on (08) 6102 5800 for a consultation or book in now.
We will also demonstrate precisely what’s wrong and how you get your Shopify store in front of more people from Perth who are already searching for a business just like yours!
Because who cares if you have a great product if no one can find it.
