A Simple Yet Slam Dunk Shopify SEO Checklist for eCommerce Startups in 2023

Are you an eCommerce startup looking to make a name for yourself in the digital world? You may have the most innovative product, the most user-friendly website, and the best prices in the market, but without proper SEO optimization, your website would be no different than missed basketball shots where customers simply bounce back and land in the hands of your rivals.

Like a basketball team, you need to have the right plays and proper teamwork in order to win the game. Because just as a basketball team can’t win without proper teamwork and strategy, your website won’t rank high without proper SEO optimization.

By following this simple yet sensational Shopify SEO checklist, then, you can ensure that your eCommerce startup is executing the right plays to win the game of search engine rankings.

Your Shopify Technical SEO Checklist

Just like a basketball team trains and prepares before a game, optimizing the technical aspects of your eCommerce store is crucial for it to perform at its best on the court of search engine rankings.

Technical SEO is like training and preparing your website to ensure it plays at its highest level, providing your customers with a seamless shopping experience.

Just as a basketball team needs to train and prepare to execute their plays effectively, your website needs to be technically optimized for search engines to crawl and rank it higher in search results.

In this section of the Shopify SEO checklist, we’ll take a closer look at the technical aspects that require training and preparation to ensure your eCommerce store executes all the right plays and earn the win in search engine rankings.

1. Website Speed

Just as speed is an important factor in a ball game, website speed is a crucial factor that can affect your search engine ranking and user experience. According to Google, the ideal website load time should be under 2 seconds. To optimize your website speed, you can:

• Use a reliable hosting service
• Optimize your images and other media files
• Minimize the use of external scripts and plugins
• Use a content delivery network (CDN)
• Enable caching

2. Mobile Optimization

Mobile optimization is another essential technical SEO element, much like the five starting players on a basketball team help optimize a team’s game and performance.

With the increasing number of mobile users, it’s essential to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. You can optimize your website for mobile by:

• Using a responsive design
• Reducing the file size of your website
• Optimizing your website’s fonts
• Ensuring that your website’s layout is mobile-friendly

3. Site Structure

Site structure refers to the organization of your website’s pages and content.

Much like how you’d structure your team by assigning roles and marks for each player to penetrate your opponent’s defense, building a well-structured site can make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website’s pages.

To optimize your site structure, you can:

• Use a logical and hierarchical structure
• Use descriptive and meaningful URLs
• Use internal linking to connect related pages
• Use a sitemap to help search engines crawl and index your website

4. Schema Markup

Schema markup is a type of structured data that helps search engines better understand your website’s content. By using schema markup, you can enhance your website’s appearance in search engine results pages (SERPs). To implement schema markup, you can:

• Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
• Add schema markup manually to your website’s code
• Use Shopify apps to implement schema markup

By following these technical Shopify SEO checklist items, you can optimize your Shopify store and improve your search engine ranking. Remember, technical SEO is an ongoing process, so be sure to regularly monitor your website’s performance and make necessary adjustments.

Shopify On-Page SEO Checklist

On-page SEO, on the other hand, is all about optimizing the content on your website to make it more attractive to both search engines and your target audience.

When it comes to eCommerce stores, on-page SEO can be the difference between a product getting noticed or being buried in obscurity. Just like tuning an instrument, on-page SEO requires a delicate touch to ensure that everything is working in harmony.

To start, it’s important to understand that on-page SEO isn’t just about stuffing your website with keywords. Instead, it’s about using those keywords strategically to create content that both search engines and customers will love.

Once again, imagine you are a coach leading a sports team. You wouldn’t expect your team to win without a solid playbook, would you? You need that secret sauce if you’re going for the win.

Similarly, on-page SEO is like a sports team’s playbook. You need to have the right plays by targeting optimal keywords and conducting proper keyword research.

You need to establish key roles and positions by laying out your meta titles and header tags.

And most of all, you need to execute these plays well by creating quality content and working together as a team by passing the ball around to one another to win the game.

In this section, we’ll take a closer look at the importance of on-page SEO for eCommerce stores and provide a checklist of on-page SEO items to consider to ensure your website is fully optimized.

1. Keyword research

Keyword research is like a sports team’s playbook. Just as a team needs to know the right plays to execute in order to win the game.

Plays, like keywords, are situational.

Just as the right play allows you to penetrate your opponent’s thinking and defenses, you need to also understand the mind of your customer and know what keywords your target audience is using to find products like yours.

Conducting thorough keyword research allows you to establish the language and terminology that resonates best with your ideal customers, ensuring that you attract the right audience to your website.

By identifying the most relevant and popular keywords, you can fine-tune your content and on-page optimization to maximize your visibility in search engine rankings.

2. Meta titles and descriptions

Meta titles and descriptions can be compared to the key roles and positions in a basketball team. Just as players have specific roles on the court, meta titles and descriptions play a crucial role in attracting clicks and boosting your website’s ranking.

Your meta titles and descriptions, for example, are sort of like your point guard, and your customers can take the roll of the ball.

The point guard then helps bring the ball into your side of the court, taking customers from search engine pages to your website.

This is why crafting compelling meta titles and descriptions that incorporate your target keywords is important. By doing so, you can increase your click-through rate (or possessions), drive more traffic to your side of the court, and score points on the search engine results page.

3. Header tags

Header tags can be likened to the big scorers on a team. Just like how a basketball team relies on its top players to score points and win games, your website depends on strategically placed header tags to drive visitors towards the ultimate goal of converting them into customers.

Header tags are an important element of on-page SEO, and they play a crucial role in helping search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your content.

By using header tags to indicate the main sections and sub-sections of your content, you can improve your play and the user experience and make it easier for readers to navigate your website.

Just like how a skilled point guard passes the ball to the team’s big scorers to set up a scoring opportunity, your website’s content should guide visitors towards your header tags to provide them with the information they’re looking for.

By including your target keywords in your header tags, you can also improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site.

4. Internal linking

Now, link building is another important part of every SEO strategy. Internal linking, specifically, refers to the practice of linking between pages on your own website.

In other words, think of internal linking as the passing plays and assists in a ball game. Just as players pass the ball to each other to score points, internal linking helps guide customers to other relevant pages on your website.

It also helps search engines understand the structure of your website, making it easier for them to navigate and index your content.

By including internal links in your content, you are working as a team to create a seamless user experience and increase the overall performance of your website.

Ready to Make Your Team Number 1?

In conclusion, implementing a comprehensive Shopify SEO checklist is crucial for eCommerce startups looking to gain traction and increase their search rankings. Just like a basketball team needs to work together to win the game, optimizing your Shopify store requires attention to detail and a well-rounded approach.

From keyword research and meta titles to internal linking and technical SEO, each aspect of your optimization strategy plays a crucial role in achieving success. The right “plays” or keywords, “positions” or meta titles and headers, and “passes” or internal linking all work together to help you score more traffic and conversions.

By following this Shopify SEO checklist and incorporating these metaphors into your approach, you can ensure that your eCommerce store is performing at its best. So don’t wait any longer, take action today and start seeing the improvements in your Shopify store’s search rankings.