Shopify SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform that provides businesses with all the tools needed to sell online. However, it has several technical SEO flaws that can affect a website’s rankings and sales.

For example, it limits the length of page titles and meta descriptions to 70 characters. This can have a negative impact on SEO because Google measures title length in pixels.

Faceted navigation system

Faceted navigation allows visitors to search for a product based on specific attributes, such as size or color. This makes it easier to find the right product for their needs, which can result in higher conversion rates. However, it can cause SEO problems if implemented poorly. Here are some things to keep in mind when implementing this navigation system on your eCommerce site.

For one, faceted navigation may create duplicate content on your website. This can create a bad user experience for search engines, and it could also lead to diluted link equity. To prevent this, you can use canonical tags to link to the eCommerce category page that users started their searches on. This will help avoid duplicate content and diluted link equity.

Another problem with faceted navigation is that it can clog your search engine results pages (SERPs). This can create a bad user experience, and it can also waste crawl budgets. To fix this, you can use canonical tags and set up a sitemap to control the way search engine bots index your website’s content.

You should also consider using JS solutions that eliminate the creation of new URLs when users apply filters. This will avoid the problems of duplicate content and dilution of link equity, but it should be used carefully.

Another option is to use a no-index tag on the faceted navigation pages. This will prevent them from being indexed by search engines, but it will also stop internal links from passing ranking signals to those pages. Alternatively, you can use a redirect to send search engine bots to the correct version of your eCommerce site.

Ultimately, the best way to resolve faceted navigation issues is to continuously monitor and prioritize them. This will allow you to satisfy both your website’s visitors and search engines without sacrificing one for the other. You can do this by running a site: search on your website and check the number of faceted navigation results that appear. If the number is high, it’s time to make a change. By addressing these issues quickly, you can improve your organic search performance and increase sales.

Duplicate content

If you run a business, it’s crucial to use unique content that is optimized for keywords. This will help your website rank better in search engines and increase your chances of getting customers. However, some brands make the mistake of copying or scraping content from other websites. This is considered duplicate content and can hurt your rankings. Duplicate content may also cause a dilution of backlinks, which can hurt your SEO performance.

While some duplicate content is unavoidable, there are ways to prevent it. You can use a tool to identify duplicate content and fix it. In addition, you can use strategies to improve page speed and prevent 404 errors. For example, you can compress and optimize images, use a faster theme, install fewer apps, and minimize broken links. These are easy steps that will greatly affect the speed of your Shopify website.

Duplicate content refers to substantive blocks of identical or similar content that appear on multiple pages within a domain or across domains. This is a common problem that many eCommerce sites face and can have serious consequences for SEO performance. Fortunately, Google does not penalize duplicate content in most cases, but you may have trouble ranking for certain keywords.

One of the most common causes of duplicate content is boilerplate text. This is the content that appears on most, if not all, of your web pages. It is important to eliminate this duplicate content by implementing a tool like Copyscape to check for duplicate content.

Another common problem is duplicate product descriptions. This is because eCommerce stores often copy and paste manufacturers’ descriptions to save time and money. While this isn’t intentional, it can cause problems because Google can detect it and consider both versions to be competing for the same keyword.

Using the rel = canonical tag is a good way to avoid duplicate content. This snippet of code tells search engine crawlers which version of a URL is the original and sends all link and ranking signals to that page. In addition, it helps reduce the likelihood of duplicate content resulting from a server error or when a page is deleted.

Canonical URLs

Canonical URLs are a way to signal to search engines which version of a page is the preferred one. This can be helpful if your site has multiple versions of the same content, or if you have duplicate content on different URLs. Using canonical tags can help you avoid the problems of duplicate content without having to manually edit your pages.

Canonical tags are a piece of HTML code that goes into the head> section of your webpage. They indicate to search engines which version of a web page is the canonical one and tell them to treat all other versions as duplicates. They are especially useful if you have multiple versions of the same page on your website, or if your site uses dynamic URLs.

One of the biggest issues with Shopify is its default product URL structure, which creates multiple urls for each item based on how it’s nested within collections and categories. This creates a lot of duplicate pages and can affect your SEO. To solve this issue, you can use an app like ReRank to check for duplicate meta tags and identify the ones that need fixing.

The easiest way to fix this is by adding a canonical tag to the collection page for each product and linking that page to the direct product URL. The canonical tag will ensure that the shortest URL is used, and will not create duplicate pages. This is an easy fix for many websites, and it will improve the user experience and SEO of your site.

There are several other ways to fix this problem, but they can be more complicated and require you to change your site’s code. If you’re not familiar with programming or front-end development, it’s best to hire a Shopify expert to handle this task for you.

Non-canonical URLs are when a page is available at more than one address, usually with and without WWW. This can confuse search engines, and it may cause your website to be penalized if Google doesn’t understand which canonical URL is correct. In most cases, search engines will choose the canonical URL automatically. If not, you’ll need to mark it as such.

No backlinks

The structure of an e-commerce website plays a crucial role in SEO. If the site is poorly structured, it will be difficult for search engines to understand its content and determine its relevance. This can cause your website to rank lower in search engine results pages (SERPs). To fix this, you should optimize your URL structure by removing unnecessary parameters and creating a streamlined URL. This will help Google identify the content of your page and boost its rankings.

If your Shopify store does not have any backlinks, it will be difficult to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). The best way to get more backlinks is by writing quality content and asking other websites to link to it. This can be done through guest posting or by purchasing links from reputable sources. However, you should make sure that your backlinks are of high quality and come from authoritative websites.

A common mistake that businesses make is optimizing their product pages for keywords that are too broad. This can lead to low conversions and a poor user experience. To avoid this mistake, you should focus on a single keyword with transactional intent and optimize your content to match it. You should also consider implementing rich SERP snippets, which increase click-through rates and attract a more targeted audience.

Another common mistake is failing to implement internal links. This can be problematic for your SEO efforts because it will result in a slow-loading website that will frustrate your visitors. To fix this, you should add a few important links to your homepage and product pages. Additionally, you should optimize your homepage title tag.

Finally, you should also optimize your collection pages for SEO. This will help you rank higher in SERPs, which can lead to more traffic and sales. You can do this by focusing on keyword research and by including relevant keywords in your collection pages.

In addition, you should monitor your SEO efforts regularly to see if they are working. This will help you determine what improvements you need to make and how quickly you can see results.

Shopify Development Trends: Most Shopify store owners focus on their digital marketing alongside their web development. Keeping up with the cutting-edge Shopify Apps in ensuring a frictionless checkout for their online store, with additional tools to fill the Shopping Cart. Online shopping continues to grow year-over-year as the user experience improves with tailored customer service practices. Behind the scenes, are Shopify partners such as TheGenieLab. We are helping business owners and shopkeepers to drive continuous improvements through digital marketing services. Furthermore, they are providing Web Development in Shopify, BigCommerce, and other eCommerce store architectures. If you need a hand in any aspect of eCommerce, feel free to reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com