Shopify offers a solid ecommerce solution. However, their blog platform is absolutely lacking in comparison with WordPress for any real search engine optimization (SEO) on Google, Bing and Yahoo
Why does this Matter?
With a Shopify blog you aren’t being seen online as much as you SHOULD be or as much as you think you are. Therefore, you are LOSING MONEY by not reaching potential customers. We beg any and all of our Shopify clients into using a WordPress subdomain on their Shopify site. You should be getting the revenue being spent on products and services you sell into YOUR pocket, not a competitor’s.
Here is how a blog helps you gain site traffic…
By placing fresh content on your site’s blog that includes keywords (terms people search such as “outdoor kitchen contractor”) is the best way to gain an increase in your search engine rankings. You should also have a list of strong keywords on which to write articles on that not apply to your business or products but is popular, trending, or easily searched.
You should also have a calendar with due dates so the articles get written. (By you or a ghostwriter who can write in your tone—hint: we do this)
Once you have a solid article written that is beneficial to your customers, you will then need to optimize it so Google will gobble up this content and rank you on that keyword.
This is where the Shopify Blog Problems Emerge
There are several things wrong with the Shopify blog platform. The areas that Shopify lacks are essential to SEO but WordPress has built in. Because of the list below, you should STRONGLY consider using a WordPress blog on your Shopify site so you can be FOUND on Google. If not, we have a workaround, but it’s messier.
Here are the important differences with as little “tech speak” as possible. Let’s pretend you own an outdoor kitchen building company in New England.
Shopify Blog VS. WordPress Blog SEO:
Shopify Poor Link Structure | WordPress Solid Canonical Links
When you post on Shopify the link that Shopify generates isn’t normal. Shopify places a long strand of unneeded numbers into the URL.
The post should be simply:
www.manchesteroutdoor.com/best-grills-in-new-england
Instead Shopify turns it into :
www.manchesteroutdoor.com/blogs./news/1348912-best-grills-in-new-england
This easily violates every good rule of SEO. Your URL should be as streamlined as possible. Also Google prefers the keywords you are targeting to occur early in the URL. This unnecessary insertion by Shopify does three things:
- It pushes important keywords farther back in the URL.
- It includes meaningless terms into the URL, which “confuses” Google.
- It can cause keywords to be truncated altogether.
In contrast, when you post with WordPress blog posts generate URLs that are beautifully attractive to Google and other search engines.
Shopify Has No Categories | WordPress Solid Category Options
A key factor to being found on search engines like Google and Yahoo is to stack posts under categories that are parallel to frequently searched terms. This is called siloing a site. When there is a lot of content stacked under a silo, the search engine thinks, “They have a lot of topical depth on this subject. We should rank them higher on this topic.”
An example of a good category might be outdoor-grills.
Shopify offers no ability to categorize posts, instead requiring you to you use tags which don’t work nearly as well as categories (OR you can start a separate blog for each needed category which is an end user NIGHTMARE!)
An ideal URL link should read, where the category outdoor-grill is a highly searched term:
www.manchesteroutdoor.com/outdoor-grills/best-grills-in-new-england
You cannot approximate this in Shopify:
www.manchesteroutdoor.com/blogs/news/56759-best-grills-in-new-england
It is mind boggling that Shopify hasn’t remedied adding categories yet as it is a super easy fix. WordPress blogs come default with categories and tags enabled. It is as simple as checking a category box to apply before you post.
⇒ Plug-ins, Plug-ins, Plug-ins
Shopify has no real blog plug-ins to upgrade search engine boosting, keyword frequency, measures alt image tag checkers, and other things needed for good search engine optimization.
On the other hand WordPress has hundreds of thousands of plug-ins to help improve user experience AND get your blog its best results on search engines. One of the best on WordPress is the Ultimate SEO + plug-in. This is a very powerful plug-in but it is highly complex. It can typically take half day to optimize all the settings inside its 17 modules, but we know what we’re doing.
How To Fix The Shopify SEO Problem:
Keep using Shopify for you main ecommerce site
BUT…
Do NOT use the blog inside of Shopify unless you absolutely have to. By absolutely have to, we mean like you or a loved one are under a threat of death if you do not continue using it. The best way forward is to park a WordPress blog as a subdomain on your main Shopify site.
Your blog would be WordPress powered and appear at:
www.blog.manchesteroutdoor.com
Instead of
www.manchesteroutdoor.com/blogs/news
Ideally you will skin the blog to look exactly like your full Shopify site with ALL the same navigation functions on the blog as on your full shopify site. In this way your users won’t realize they are jumping domains.
(By the way, subdomains DO pass on Search Engine Credit to the main url. This use to be debated, but now it has been shown by testing and stated by Google to be so.)
So www.blog.manchesteroutdoor.com passes on SEO credit to www.manchesteroutdoor.com
While the initial set-up is not for the faint of heart, but once you establish keeping your WordPress site up to date is SUPER EASY (literally one or two clicks) and posting new content is also a breeze.
If you have a Shopify site, Stratedia will be happy to get your WordPress blog in place and skinned to match your Shopify site
GET TO THE TOP!
If you have questions or concerns about setting up your online shop, give Stratedia a call at 860.415.0430 or visit us online at stratedia.com. We‘re ranked #1 as the top seo company CT by Clutch.co! Let Stratedia help you, GET TO THE TOP!
