Shopify, These Are Your Biggest SEO Problems
Shopify needs to solve these glaring SEO problems. In the meantime, here's how to separate your store from the rest.
For the past two years, the following Shopify SEO problems have gone unsolved.
With Google’s Core Web Vitals update in May 2021, the costs of un-evolving SEO are about to skyrocket for Shopify’s million+ merchants and the platform as a whole.
So what are Shopify merchants to do? And what are some ways that Shopify can give users added capabilities without tanking their site speed — and their Google rankings?
Here are a few working solutions for merchants, and polite suggestions for the developers at Shopify, courtesy of an SEO manager.
The Core of Shopify SEO Problems
It doesn’t matter whether you use WordPress or Shopify: the more apps you use, the more additional code you have on your website (particularly in the header), the slower your site is, the worse your rankings on Google are.
This is particularly an issue for Shopify SEO because of the platform’s business model:
Shopify has so many users that it can’t meet everyone’s needs. Instead of encouraging a customization free-for-all à la WordPress, Shopify has taken Apple’s Pareto Principle Model: Meet 80% of the needs of your customers in the name of usability.
The e-commerce giant’s answer to any merchant’s need is, invariably, here’s an app for that.
The 80/20 rule has worked great for Shopify — but it’s about to become 60/40 with Google’s next algorithm update.
Want to implement these fixes but not sure where to start? Email us and we will be in touch shortly.
Though Google’s Core Website Vitals Update is no secret, Shopify’s SEO has remained stagnant for the past three years that I have been using the platform. This leaves merchants largely on their own facing Google’s largest update in five years.
#1 Stop with the Apps
All those apps are ruining your Shopify store’s SEO. I don’t care what app developer-written content on Shopify’s help boards tells you to do:
Having a slow website is no longer an option.
Shopify SEO Speed Problems Are Direr Following Google’s Lastest Update
In preparation for the next Google update, merchants should delete all apps that are not paramount to the survival of their e-commerce businesses.
Delete every app that is not 100% necessary to your business’ health.
Though this is an easy fix, smart retailers will soon find themselves with a lean store with less than ideal functionality.
Want to implement these fixes but not sure where to start? Email us and we will be in touch shortly. Unfortunately, this leaves merchants between a rock and a hard place: Abandoning important (but not critical) functionality permanently, slogging through customizations yourself, or paying someone like me to do it.
The best thing for Shopify SEO would be if the platform made some changes. Shopify, here’s where to start.
#2 Bloated Sites Are a Major Shopify SEO Problem. Why Not Automatically Generate a Lean Version?
It makes sense to have a more visually complex desktop version of sites. As all Shopify customers build their store via desktop, it is common for them to prioritize desktop visuals over mobile functionality.
Shopify Solution:
The best way to remedy this would be for Shopify to allow merchants to essentially create a stripped-down, accelerated version of their site — or create it for them. There are many apps on the Shopify App Store — one of whom I pay $30 a month per store — that do this.
Merchant Workaround:
Not sure how to improve your mobile store? Start with gutting your site of all animations, visually pleasing layouts, and interactive product and collections elements that largely only look good on desktop.
Unfortunately, creating a minimalist Shopify store is not enough to meet Google’s new Core Page Speed criteria for a “good” site.
You have two options here: go into the Liquid and cut out excess JavaScript and CSS yourself, hire someone to do so, or pay a monthly fee to generate an AMP version of your site.
#3 Assume That People Will Be Adding More Content
Content remains king in SEO, as they say. With that in mind, Shopify should make it easy to add content without lots of additional customization.
This means making it easier to add content to product collections pages and blogs (not articles) without having it look super awkward.
As it stands, it doesn’t make sense to add more than 100 words of content to a collections page on Shopify without additional customization because all content will appear above the products. This is not ideal — especially on mobile.
Shopify Solution :
On collections pages, the first 100 words should appear above the fold — meaning the products — and the rest appeared below them.
Merchant Workarounds:
Duplicate your theme and start messing around with Shopify Liquid. I have created alternate collections templates that split the content into two.
#4 Create Editable Collections Pages From Vendor Tags, Not Duplicate Content
As it stands, product vendor tags automatically create duplicate content on your Shopify store. Here’s an example:
Selling a pair of Gabriela Hearst platform shoes? Your natural instinct would be to add “Gabriela Hearst” as the vendor and then create a collections page based on products with Gabriela Hearst as the vendor. Wrong!
Filling out the “vendor” will create a separate page from your collections page.
In other words, Shopify forces its vendors to create duplicate content. Not good.
Merchant Workaround
Though this seems sloppy, sent your vendor as your store name. Then, remove the hyperlinked “vendor” from your product pages.
Though this does not give your customers an easy way to see more by X company, it does remove the duplicate content issue, allowing you to rank for X company in the first place.
Shopify Solution
Stop automatically creating a vendor page. Also, give your merchants an option to edit the vendor page or use it as a collections page.
#5 Shopify SEO Problems with Duplicate Content Arise from the Inability to Edit Tags
Once you create a tag, there is no way to delete it. There is also no way to add content to a tag page, meaning that you won’t rank for that keyword unless you are a fortune 500 company.
This is true for both blog and product tags.
Shopify Solution
Allow your users to edit their tag pages and delete tags after creating them.
Merchant Workaround
Be very deliberate in your tag creation. I have had some success with hiding my clients’ existing product pages and blog post tags. In the former’s case, I then create a collection page with the criteria, include products with X tag.
#6 Create an Easy-to-Use Template for Landing Pages
I have some of the least compelling landing pages on one of my Shopify stores and I know it. Why? Because I put page speed above all else.
The easiest way for people to create compelling landing pages on Shopify is to download a page builder, which is 1) expensive, 2) will slow down your site and 3) cumbersome.
The fact that landing page builders are made by third-party companies is palpable: They’re always slow and never work quite right.
The next Google update will penalize sites with slow speeds and CLS — also known as Cumulative Layout Shift. External code is a big factor in CLS and a great way to slow your site to a crawl.
Shopify Solution:
Add a sleek landing page template in free Shopify themes. Additionally, set higher standards for third-party developers selling expensive add-ons on your App Store.
Merchant Workaround:
If you are using a landing page builder, delete it now. Try using a simple page with some compelling images. You can also experiment with making an HTML button.
If you want to go a step further, try making an alternative landing page template in Shopify Liquid.
#7 Pay Closer Attention to Product Duplication Based on Categories and the Shopify SEO Problems That Arise
Though it may make sense to have different product slugs based on the category it’s in, my sites have had several duplicate products (one with the canonical URL and one with a category-specific URL) show up in Google SERPs.
Though Shopify supposedly always uses the root product URL as the canonical, my experience is that this works better in theory than in practice.
Shopify Solution:
Take a closer look at canonical tags — especially for third-party developed themes.
Merchant Workarounds:
I have yet to find a way to deal with this issue. If anyone has a suggestion to add to this article, email me at inquiries@housefm.com.
#8 Improve Automatically Generated Shopify Redirects
For some reason, Shopify’s automatic redirect generator doesn’t always work. This has been true across many themes I’ve used.
Shopify Solution:
This should be an easy internal fix, no?
Merchant Workaround:
Do all redirects manually, no exceptions. Then, test every redirect.
#9 Look for Duplicate Page Titles
I have noticed duplicate H1s on several themes I have used.
Shopify Solution
Duplicate H1s is a very simple thing to double-check in your own themes and in third-party submissions.
Merchant Workaround
Wondering if any of your pages have 2 H1s? In Chrome, right-click on your page and look up “H1”. If there are more than 2 <h1> tags, you are in trouble.
Luckily, it’s an easy solution. Go into the corresponding Liquid file and search for H1s again. Often, it’ll pull both the website title and the product name, for instance, as H1s.
You’ll want every page to have a unique H1, which means making sure that your website name is only the H1 on the homepage. It can be an H2 on other pages.
#10 Consider Google Ranking Factors When Designing and Approving Themes
Google is far from the only search engine, but the reality is that the majority of U.S. customers will reach Shopify merchants’ stores through Google.
In other words, optimizing for Google shouldn’t be an afterthought for Shopify and third-party theme developers. It should be mandatory.
If you are a Shopify merchant, the best time to start preparing for the next Google algorithm update is now.
If you work for Shopify, consider the challenges posed by the app model and consider Google ranking factors from the drawing board.
Burgess Powell is an SEO manager specializing in Shopify e-commerce stores. Unlike other SEO managers, 100% of content is created in-house, as well as all technical SEO fixes. As Burgess believes in the importance of small businesses, she offers discounted rates for entrepreneurs.