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There are few things that can impact your Shopify store more than SEO.
The better you rank on search engines, the more traffic you will get to your site and the greater chance of conversions. If you’re looking for a way to improve rankings on Google, this blog post is for you!
In this blog post I’ll share 12 tips that will help increase your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Your title tags are the first thing a user will see when they search for you and should be descriptive of what page that user is on, so make sure to include specific keywords in them! It’s also important to use keywords sparingly because overusing them can cause Google to penalise you.
2) Optimise your website for mobile users
Mobile and responsive design are important factors in ranking well on Google. Make sure that the desktop version of your site is optimised as well to account for smaller screens so it will be easier for visitors to navigate around.
3) Speed is vital if you want to rank well and convert.
If your site loads slowly it will have a negative impact on your rankings. You can use tools like Google Page Speed or GTmetrix to check the speed of your site and make sure you’re loading in under five seconds. If not, consider implementing caching plugins, restructuring links with anchor text, and reducing page load times by using images only when necessary.
Google’s “Core Web Vitals” has already been announced. Although the update is still waiting to be released, there are many updates about how it will work. One thing is for sure, speed will be one of the ranking factors.
4) Write meta descriptions to entice users to click
When you’ve written a new post or page, it’s important to write a meta description which will entice users to click on your content. This can be done by including keywords in the description and writing an enticing introduction that explains what they’ll find if they visit the site.
5) Add the keyword you’re trying to rank for to your URL Slug
Once you’ve written content for your post and are ready to publish, double-check the slug of the URL. You should add your keyword in there somewhere if possible. The best practice is to include it similar to: myblog.com/keyword-here so that Google can easily find it when they’re crawling the web.
6) Make sure you add ALT text to all your images
Be sure to add a description of what is being depicted in the image (alt-text) so that search engines know it’s not just blank space on your page and users see links as clickable objects with descriptive words.
7) Obtaining Backlinks from external sources
Okay I’m not one of those people saying backlinks are dead.. but they are harder to get than ever before and it’s a whole new ball game.
Google now looks at the overall “link profile” of a site when ranking it, and there’s no longer any magic number for how many links you need in order to rank well. What this means is that backlinks still have value but if your goal is to attract high quality relevant websites to link back to you.
Try find leaders in your space and offer to write content for them or offer value that would encourage them to link back to you.
8) Create content people are already searching for on Google
You can use tools like Answer The Public to find out what people are looking for on Google. You can then create content that answers those questions and includes links to products related to the topics you are writing about.
9) Link back to high quality relevant resources
Linking your content to other sites that have authority establishes your credibility and can help you rank more favourably with Google. In saying that Make sure that you avoid including low-quality links as these can sometimes have a negative effect on an article’s ranking.
10) Test, Test, Test and Test some more.
Make sure you test your sites UX (User Experience) on different devices and browsers to make sure it is user-friendly.
A fast-loading, clear and tidy site that also ranks highly will keep customers on your page and help them find what they need.
11) Make sure you’re checking up on your Competitors
One of the best ways to improve site performance is through competitor analyses. Compare your content with that of others can help you create an excellent product for your audience.
To check out the competition, take a look at what they’re doing. Why does it work for them? What topics might you be able to cover that will give you an advantage over their content? Some good tools are SEMRush and ahrefs for this.
Alternatively you can just go onto Google and search to find who is ranking well and see what they are doing.
12) Consistently Blog Posting
Make sure you are consistently blogging on your website . This is something that can be done with little effort, but has a great return on investment. I get it, it can be tedious but it’s worth it.
Provide your readers with a blog post that contains at least 800 words, and more than one paragraph (i.e., “bullet points” are not enough).
Need help putting this together? Get your FREE no-obligation Strategy Session. Call today on 03 9068 6905 to book your free consultation, or you shoot me through a message here: https://digitalbond.com.au/strategy/
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