Adding keywords for SEO to your Shopify store

Keywords are words or phrases that people enter in search engines (also known as search queries). For example, a person might search for blue shoes in Canada. Both blue shoes and Canada can be considered keywords that are contained within this search. To make your store display higher in search results, you need to determine the keywords that your customers might use to find your products, and include those keywords in your content.

You can use online tools to research keyword ideas and understand how many monthly searches a keyword gets. Prioritize keywords that are specific to your products and business and are also searched for often. Keep in mind that the more traffic your keywords get, the more competition your store has in searches, so your store might not be displayed near the top of search results.

There are four main places that you can add keywords to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) for your online store:

  • page titles
  • meta descriptions
  • ALT tags
  • a page’s body content

Understanding page titles and meta descriptions

The title tag and meta description are two of the most important elements of SEO. They're displayed in search engine results, and provide information to people who are looking for things related to your products. A good title and description encourages customers to click the link in search results to visit your store.

Page title

The title tag is one of the most valuable fields that you can edit to improve a page's performance in search results. The title is displayed as a clickable link in search engine results, so the title also needs to be appealing to potential customers.

You can optimize the title tag for SEO in the following ways:

  • Use a unique, descriptive title.
  • Include your most important target keywords for each page near the beginning of the title.
  • Enter a title that is 60 characters or fewer. Most search engines shorten longer titles.
  • Make sure that your title tag is easy to understand.

Meta description

A meta description is the brief bit of text that is displayed in search engine results after the title tag. The meta description can be set for webpages, product pages, collection pages, and blog posts in Shopify. Make sure each page has a unique meta description that uses plain, direct language. A good description encourages more people to click the link to your store.

Adding a title and meta description to your pages and store

You can add a title and a meta description to your pages and to your store's homepage. The page title and meta description have the following character limits:

  • Page title: You can enter up to 70 characters in the title. To avoid shortened titles in search engine results, consider keeping your title up to 60 characters. Learn more about page titles.
  • Meta description: You can enter up to 320 characters in the description. Make sure to include relevant keywords to help new customers find your page. Use natural, readable phrases, rather than lists of keywords. Learn more about meta descriptions.

If you enter more text beyond the character limit, then your page title and description will be shortened in search engine results.

Edit the title and meta description for a page

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Pages.
  2. Click a page that you want to edit.
  3. In the Search engine listing preview section, click Edit website SEO.
  4. In the Page title field, enter a descriptive title. This title is displayed as a link in search engine results.
  5. In the Description field, enter a description for the search engine listing.
  6. Click Save.

Add a title and meta description for your online store's homepage

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.

  2. Enter a title and meta description for your store, following SEO best practices.

  3. Click Save.

Tips for improving your page title tags

To increase your SEO traffic and boost your store's visibility in search results, you can improve your page title tags. Review the following table to learn about tips on how you can improve your page title tags:

Strategies for enhancing SEO through effective page title tags
TipDescription
Target the primary keywordFocus on unique, descriptive title tags incorporating your most important target keywords. For example, for Star Wars themed shirts, use Star Wars Button Down Shirts rather than just Star Wars.
Add a secondary keywordEnhance your title tags by including secondary keywords. Use tools such as Google Search Console for insights into effective keywords, or Google Keyword Planner for keyword suggestions. For example, expand Sectional Sofas to Modular Sectional Sofas & Couches to also target modular sofas, modular couches, and sectional couches.
Highlight special product characteristicsEmphasize unique product features to stand out. For example, for a cruelty-free body butter product, use Body Butter - Natural & Cruelty Free instead of just Body Butter.
Mention enticing customer benefitsFeature special benefits clearly, adding any relevant limitations to maintain transparency. For example, transform Men's Denim Jeans to Men's Denim Jeans - Free Shipping on US Orders $60USD+ to attract clicks.

To learn more, review our article on writing effective title tags.

Set image alt text

While search engines can read the text in your content, they can’t read the images. You can use descriptive alternative (alt) text to help search engines find your content. Alt text is also an important accessibility feature for people who have visual impairments.

When you’re writing alt text, use keywords from the page where the image is displayed. Use readable phrases that clearly describe what is being displayed in the image, not what you want someone to think about the image.

You can set alt text for a product image, collection featured image, or blog post featured image. The process is a little bit different for a product image than the other two.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

  2. Click the product with the image that you want to edit.

  3. Click the image, and then click Edit alt text.

  4. Enter descriptive alternate text for the image.

  5. Click Save alt text.

To set the alt text for a collection or blog post featured image:

  1. Click the name of the collection or blog post that you want to edit.
  2. Under the image, click Update, and then click Edit image.
  3. Enter descriptive alternate text for the image.
  4. Click Save.

Add keywords to the H1 header for a page

An H1 header is the main heading at the top of a page. When you create a product page, collection page, webpage, or blog post, Shopify uses the title that you enter to generate the H1 header for the page. The largest text size on a page is often the H1 header, and search engines use them to determine what the page content is about. When you enter a page title, include your main keywords so the H1 header automatically includes them.

Steps:

  1. Select the product, collection, webpage, or blog post that you want to edit.
  2. In the Title field, enter a descriptive title that includes your keywords.
  3. Click Save.

Using keywords in page content

When you write content for a product or collection description, webpage, or blog post, use readable, unique phrases that include some of your keywords. Search engines compare a page's contents with its headers to make sure that the page is about what it claims to be about. When you write product descriptions, avoid directly copying text that's provided to you by a manufacturer because that description might already be used by other websites.

Focus on quality writing over quantity, but keep in mind that search engines use longer content to better understand your page. Make sure that every page has at least 250 words of descriptive text, and that informational pages and blog posts have at least 500 words.

Common questions

What happens when I leave the title tag blank?

Your theme uses your shop name followed by the title of the content, or it uses the title of the content followed by your shop name. If this is what you wanted to use anyway, then there's no need to edit the title tag at all.

Where's the title tag in my Shopify theme? Can't I edit my HTML pages directly for this?

The title tag is only included in one file of your Shopify theme: theme.liquid. The theme.liquid file is used on every page of your website. The Liquid tag that outputs the title tag in your theme.liquid file is {{ page_title }}.

Your website isn't made of static HTML pages that you can edit piece by piece. Content is output dynamically by a relevant template.

My employee wants to edit my webpages directly instead of my theme.liquid file. How do I get FTP access to my website to edit the HTML of each page?

There's no FTP access to your web pages. The code for your title tag is in your theme.liquid file. The code is inside the head element in theme.liquid. For more information about Liquid, refer to the guide to SEO for theme designers.

I edited my title tags. Why can't I view my change when I visit Google?

You might need to wait a couple of weeks for your edits to display in search engine results. It can take some time for search engines to crawl and re-index your content.

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