The most common SEO issue I often observe with Shopify stores is the lack of unique and optimized product descriptions. Many Shopify store owners tend to rely on the default product descriptions provided by suppliers or manufacturers, resulting in duplicate content across multiple websites. To address this issue, it is crucial to invest time and effort into creating unique, compelling, and keyword-rich product descriptions for each item in your store. Customizing product descriptions helps search engines understand the relevance and uniqueness of your content, improving your store's visibility in search results. Additionally, optimizing other on-page elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, and heading tags is essential. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into these elements to enhance their SEO value.
One common complaint I often hear from my clients about their Shopify stores is the lack of advanced blogging features. Blogging is a great way to drive traffic and improve SEO, but on Shopify, it can be a bit tricky. Shopify does have a basic blogging platform, but it's not as flexible as some other platforms like WordPress. For example, it's not as easy to customize your SEO settings for each post or categorize and tag posts in a detailed way. This issue can make it a bit harder to fully optimize blog posts for SEO. But don't worry, it's not a deal breaker. There are workarounds and third-party apps that can help. Plus, creating high-quality content that's useful to your audience is the most important part of SEO, and you can definitely still do that on Shopify. Regards, Irina Poddubnaia, Founder and CEO of TrackMage.com
The most common SEO issue in shopify is the incorrect canonicalization they have when linking to products in the navigation menu. Its not the worst thing in the world, but its definitely not a best practice. It can be fixed by editing the .liquid theme files.
An arduous task, especially when it comes to adjusting the URL structure. The absence of an exact solution for managing categories can make it even more daunting. However, there is a technique that I personally favor: leveraging breadcrumbs alongside robust and relevant internal linking. Not only does this approach alleviate the headaches associated with URL adjustments, but it also paves the way for substantial improvements in SEO performance.
The most common SEO issue observed in Shopify stores is suboptimal page titles and meta descriptions. Many store owners either use generic titles that lack relevant keywords or duplicate them across multiple pages. Similarly, meta descriptions are often missing or poorly crafted, failing to entice users to click through from search results. This significantly hampers the store's search engine visibility and click-through rates. To address this, store owners should ensure that each page has a unique and descriptive title, incorporating targeted keywords to improve ranking. Meta descriptions should be compelling and accurately reflect the page's content, encouraging users to visit the site. Implementing these improvements can lead to enhanced organic traffic and better overall SEO performance for Shopify stores.
Due to Shopify's hosting locations in the US and Canada, UK stores frequently end up ranking for more keywords in the US than their intended market, the UK. This geographical misalignment can severely limit their reach and conversions. Moreover, Shopify's internal links default to non-canonical pages, which can significantly undercut a store's SEO potential. It dilutes the link equity, making it harder for search engines to identify and rank the most authoritative version of a page. Lastly, a surprising number of Shopify stores fail to correctly set up Analytics, which can lead to distorted insights. Often, it results in most revenue being tracked through a referral, typically Shopify's payment portal page, "Shop". This can obscure valuable insights about the customer journey and traffic sources, making it harder to optimize SEO strategies.
Working in the SEO department at Viddyoze, the most common SEO issue I come across within Shopify stores is not creating a blog altogether or writing very few blog posts, which are ultimately what is going to drive a relative amount of traffic. Filling your website with blog posts (strategically) with related search intent keywords will fuel more of the right traffic to your store. Also, it’s a good idea to consider focusing some of your blog posts on commercial keywords, e.g., (your brand) coffee flavors or the advantages of the video editing software you are selling. Many Shopify stores don’t incorporate this, which may be holding them back. Further issues I notice is bad anchor text and a lack of internal links which doesn’t provide any benefit to your SEO score at all. By “bad anchor” text, I mean text like “click here for more info” or “see this link”. It’s much better to use related keywords to the page you are linking to. “Click here” provides no value for SEO.
Shopify websites are built for purpose = to handle e-commerce business owners with less technical SEO background (or time) and it's done a superb job fulfilling it's roll. However, every time the team at Digital Search Group has onboarded a new Shopify SEO project, we are faced with one of the biggest crawl budget-eating issues of all, and means you face Parameter URLs, Pagination, and other unnecessary/unwanted index bloat. If left to grow into a monster without being treated, this can grow into a huge problem, one that suffocates your indexation, leaving Google's crawl budget of your best pages completely ignored due to the unwanted content. To remedy this issue, you can install and configure: https://apps.shopify.com/sitemap-noindex-seo-tools.
When compared to other platforms, improving SEO on Shopify stores comes at a higher cost. While the opportunities for enhancement are similar, the plugins and tools required tend to be 20-30% more expensive than those available for platforms like WordPress. These additional costs add to the challenge of justifying what is already a long-term investment.
Analyzing SERP for "The most common SEO issue I see with Shopify stores is the "Meta Madness." It's like a bad hair day for your website's search engine visibility. Many store owners neglect optimizing their meta tags, leaving them bland and unappealing to search engines. Just like a catchy headline, your meta title and description should entice both search engines and potential customers. Don't be afraid to sprinkle in relevant keywords and showcase your unique selling points. Another issue is the "Speed Snail Syndrome." Slow-loading pages can drive visitors away faster than a cheetah chasing its prey. Optimize your images, leverage caching, and minimize code to ensure your Shopify store zooms ahead of the competition. Remember, SEO success is all about making your store stand out like a ripe avocado in a sea of bland fruits." Headline- Unleash Shopify Success: Conquering Common SEO Issues!
For Shopify ecommerce stores, if you place the same product in multiple categories you will drown your site with duplicate products and a world of cannabilisation issues. This is because Shopify creates a new product page for every category you add a product to, by default. To rectify this, ask your developer to do the following: Open your Shopify admin panel > Sales channels > Online store > Themes > Actions > Edit code Find the “Snippets” folder and find the “product-grid-item.liquid” file > Find the following line of code: <a href=”{{ product.url | within: collection }}” class=”product-grid-item”> Replace it with the following line of code: <a href=”{{ product.url }}” class=”product-grid-item”>
The most annoying SEO issue I observe with Shopify stores is the poor URL structure. Shopify's default page creation often results in long and cluttered URLs. This problem arises due to automatic addition of elements like 'products', 'collections', 'blogs', or 'pages' in the URL, which are not needed and contribute to the URL length. This practice doesn't just impact SEO negatively, it can also affect the user experience as it lacks the straightforwardness often seen in other platforms like Magento. Although Shopify doesn't provide a direct solution to alter this inherent site hierarchy, there are a couple of best practices I implement a to organize product categories better. I add mega menus on the homepage and use breadcrumbs schema markup to help Google understand categories and sub-categories. Interlinking related categories with each other using relevant keywords as anchor texts also aids in better navigation and improves SEO.
Shopify sites have been plagued with WPM URL issues in Google Search Console since January 2023, but the latest issue is that the majority of those legacy URLs now show as 404 errors, creating large swathes of 404s in all Shopify GSC dashboards. There are multiple threads on the Shopify forums of store owners complaining about it.
A typical SEO issue with Shopify stores is the absence of a trailing slash redirect. It is essential because they assist both users and search engines in locating specific website pages. The problem arises when both versions of the URL: https://example.com/page/ (with a trailing slash) and https://example.com/page (without a trailing slash) exist or are accessible on the website. In such cases: 1. Search engines treat them as two pages with similar content, which Google generally disapproves of as it can dilute the page's ranking potential. 2. Backlinks get divided between the two versions, potentially reducing the link authority for each. 3. Search engine bots spend both versions instead of recognizing that they point to the same content leading to inefficiency in indexing. By implementing trailing slash redirects, you can prevent problems and maintain an organized URL structure, which is highly beneficial for SEO.
When it comes to Shopify stores, I find bad site structure and navigation to be the most common issue. Search engine crawlers will have a harder time indexing and understanding your material if your online shop is chaotic. Make sure the categories, subcategories, and individual pages in your store can be easily navigated. Use a simple, human-readable naming scheme for your URLs to help both humans and search engines. Utilize descriptive anchor text for internal linking, directing users and search engines to relevant pages. Your Shopify store's search engine rankings can be improved with careful content organization.
One of the more common frustrations of using a Shopify store is that you cannot really control how the URL structures turn out with the basic plan. Shopify comes with preplanned site structures, and subfolders, so it doesn't give you much room for the direction you go in. This means that for growing your site you have the option to either post in your blog, or create new products. The problem is that with bigger sites, they might not want to have their URL structure look like, "www.website.com/blog/post-title". More seasoned website owners might see more value into grouping content by categories, and instead of showing the subfolder of /blog/, to show a URL structure like, "www.website.com/category/post-title". If you're brand new to building websites and site structure, then it's fine to stick to the preloaded version you get with CMS. If you're looking for more control over this, than you may need to hire a Shopify developer to help you make changes.
marketing manager at Zennaxx
Answered 3 years ago
Url parameters Some Shopify stores may generate different URLs for the same content when using shorting filters or pagination, causing duplicate content problems. HTTP and HTTPS versions If both HTTP and HTTPS versions of your stores are accessible, search engines might consider them duplicate content. As content is the most important parameter of SEO, it has to be focused. Auto-generated tags In Shopify, product tags are pretty useful for customers to find and organize the products in the store. Auto-generated tag pages might not always provide a coherent user experience. Customers may encounter unrelated or irrelevant products on these pages, leading to frustration and decreased conversions. Search engines might index auto-generated tag pages, which were not intended to be visible to users. These pages can appear in search results, leading to a suboptimal user experience.
One of the most common SEO issues I see with Shopify stores is a lack of internal link diversity and authority. Internal link diversity is a measure of how many unique pages within your site are linked to. The more internal link diversity you have, the better your site will be crawled and understood by Google. It is also a measure of the authority of the page that is linked to. The higher the page authority, the better the link will be understood and valued by search engines. If your site does not meet these metrics, then you should consider doing an internal link audit to get your site in shape.
Internal links help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website, and they distribute authority and page rank throughout your site. Some Shopify stores lack proper internal linking, which can make it difficult for search engines to crawl and index all of your pages. Implement a logical internal linking strategy to connect relevant pages within your store.
As CEO of a high growth ecommerce marketing agency, I've reviewed a hundreds of Shopify stores. One recurring SEO pitfall I've identified pertains to product descriptions' originality and relevancy. It's a widespread tendency for merchants to either adopt manufacturer-provided descriptions or duplicate content from elsewhere. While seemingly time-efficient, this practice critically undermines the store's search engine visibility. To illustrate, imagine a Shopify merchant dealing in artisanal candles. Instead of penning distinctive, comprehensive descriptions for each candle variant, the owner opts for indistinct phrases like "Handmade candle made with love." This insufficient specificity neglects to spotlight the key elements such as scent profiles, ingredients, or production techniques, which are critical to enhancing user engagement and optimizing search ranking potential.