Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is an excellent tool for businesses when it comes to internet operations. SEO refers to the long-term process that enhances the visibility of your business on the web.
Whenever you think of starting up an online business, you should think of Search Engine Optimization. It is considered an excellent path capable of enhancing the success of online businesses. SEO is a significant tool since most companies rely on the online market.
eCommerce platforms such as Shopify mainly rely on SEO to attract the attention of prospects, promote sales, generate leads, and acquire more profit from the business. The reality is that Shopify experiences various SEO issues that need business operators to fix them.
This article discusses further information about different Shopify SEO challenges and how to fix them to enhance your business’s success. Let’s get into details!
Redirect Product Pages
Most online entrepreneurs reach a point where products get out of stock. The problem came in when a recent customer had already bookmarked the page only to come back and realize that it is an empty sheet and nothing is available.
If you are not keen, then you are likely to lose most of your long-term potential customers. You can opt to redirect your customers to the other pages that have some of your other products. This is mainly meant to retain your customers and manage the bounce rate.
Note that reducing your bounce rate is one of the ways that you can use to make your site visible to various users and your site to rank high on the search engine. This increases the number of customers who get your way due to the visibility of your business site.
Eliminating some product pages and not directing the customer to more relevant pages can result in high converting visitors being dropped off. This will make them go and shop somewhere else.
Solution
Shopify business operators can apply for the 301 redirect pages. Note that this option is found on the backend of the Shopify stores. You can make the application by following the procedure below.
- On the left of the side menu, choose the navigation option.
- Opt for the add your first URL redirect.
- Start by inputting the URL to the old page and then the page you would like to redirect to.
Sitemap Problems
The ultimate goal of the XML sitemap is to aid the Search engine spider crawl across all the pages of your business site. Also, it helps to get your business site indexed from time to time. Analysis has revealed that once you create a page on your Shopify site, it automatically generates an XML sitemap.
This is primarily meant to save much of the time required to generate the XML sitemap. Also, it gives you a chance to make your site more visible.
The major problem is that when the sitemap is not handed to Google or any other search engine, you will have to take the risk since not every page of your business site is not indexed. This means that Google is not capable of crawling and indexing your site.
Solution
You need to generate a Google webmaster account and upload the sitemap on the web. This is mainly meant to urge Google to crawl across the site through the sitemap to elevate your search engine visibility.
Mobile Ecommerce
Currently, the Google algorithm is gradually adopting the mobile-first indexing policy. Studies have revealed that more than half of Google users access the site using their phones. This indicates that SEO mobile capabilities need to be given immediate concerns.
The other study done in recent days has revealed that ecommerce is living mobile devices. The analysis says that 21% of ecommerce comes with the mobile device option. These figures are relatively low compared to the available number of mobile users.
Solution
To solve this problem, you can opt to create a mobile commerce wing to enable your business to send push notifications. The notifications remind them about the abandoned carts to enhance the rate of conversion.
Doing this will make your SEO strategies bulletproof since Google will likely change the equation. You can acquire services such as BuildFire, which comes with a Shopify integration store.
Setting Image ALT Tags
When it comes to setting the image ALT tags, the SEO aspect has become more debatable. The reality remains that the Alt tags have a significant value to the well-being of the ecommerce store.
Sometimes, a picture may not successfully load due to slow connection, timeout, or an error. At this point, the browser is likely to show the picture box with its Alt attribute. For example, if you are selling different online tools like online charting tools then ALT tags should contain keywords like best online charting tool, charting tools etc. They are used mainly by individuals with screen readers who might have trouble viewing the content.
Shopify always requests to set the ALT text at every image level. This means when you apply a similar image across the site; then you have to repeat the same procedure.
Solutions
The only solution is to check out how you write the ALT text for your images. Ensure that they are descriptive in nature for ease of understanding.
Robot TXT Access
Similar to other platforms that concentrate on business, Shopify can limit the access for users that can edit their FTP. This is also applied to robots, txt files, and other things that generate files.
The challenging SEO part states that there is no XML sitemap declared on the page. It then informs you that Shopify is likely to help you create one.
Solution
The only solution to this complexity is to identify why the Shopify team members decided to disallow Nutch and insert a considerable crawl delay on the site.
Final Verdict
The online business market has proved to have significant results only when every aspect has been executed in the right way. There are numerous Shopify SEO difficulties that need business operators to understand how to solve them. The above are some of the significant issues and how you can solve them.
