Adding keywords for SEO to your Shopify store

Keywords appear in search queries that people enter in search engines. For example, a person might search for blue shoes in Canada. The keywords in this search would be blue shoes and Canada. To make your store appear higher in search results, you should try to find out which keywords your customers might use to find your products, and add those keywords to your content.

You can use online tools to get keyword ideas and find out how often a keyword is used in a search query. It’s best to choose keywords that are specific to your products and business, but that appear often in searches. Keep in mind that the more traffic your keywords get, the more competition your store has in searches, so your store might not be shown 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

Edit the title and meta description for a page

The title tag and meta description are two of the most important elements of SEO. They are shown 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.

You can also set a title and description for your online store.

Steps:

  1. In the Search engine listing preview section, click Edit website SEO.

  2. In the Page title field, enter a descriptive title. This title is shown as a link in search engine results. You can enter up to 70 characters in the title. Learn more about page titles.

  3. Enter a description for the search engine listing. Make sure to include relevant keywords to help new customers find your link, and to include your store name. Use natural, readable phrases, rather than lists of keywords. You can enter up to 320 characters in the description. Learn more about meta descriptions.

  1. Click Save.

Set a title and description for your online store

Steps:

  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.

Page title

Search engines compare the title tag with your page content to determine whether the page title matches what the page is about. The title is shown as a clickable link in search engine results. You can optimize the title tag for search engines in a few ways:

  • Use a unique, descriptive title.
  • Include your most important target keywords for each product, collection, webpage, or blog post near the beginning of the title.
  • Enter a title that is 70 characters or fewer, because most search engines will shorten longer titles.
  • Make sure that your title tag is readable.

Meta description

A meta description is the brief bit of text that is shown 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.

Set image alt text

Search engines can read the text in your content, but 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 shown. Use readable phrases that describe what appears 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 content with its headers to make sure that the page is about what it claims to be about. When you write product descriptions, make sure that you don't copy 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 know that search engines use longer content to help understand your page better. 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.

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