Your Shopify store might not be ranking in Google search results because while a good-looking storefront can go a long way towards effective SEO, there is more to it than that. Issues with keywords targeting, indexing, site architecture, product content, technical SEO, page speed, and authority could all contribute to low visibility despite your great products.
Fortunately, most issues with Shopify SEO sites are diagnosable and fixable. An appropriate SEO audit will tell you whether Google doesn’t have access to your site or doesn’t think it’s worth ranking in your search queries.
Don’t rush to fix other ranking factors until you find out whether Google even indexed your important pages.
A page can’t possibly rank organically until Google adds it into the index. Shopify takes care of many technical SEO issues by default, including sitemap generation, yet store owners still have to keep track of their crawling and indexing using Google Search Console. Shopify itself suggests submitting a sitemap and tracking indexing of the store by Google.
How to fix it
Use Google Search Console:
Check whether any errors appear like “Crawled – currently not indexed.” Ensure that important pages are crawlable for Googlebot.
Submit your Shopify sitemap if you haven’t done it yet.
Another widespread SEO error made by Shopify is using keywords based only on their search volume.
The number of searches per month doesn’t tell anything about whether you should target certain keywords.
For instance, imagine that you are selling high-quality leather office bags. Choosing the broad term like “bags” will be overly competitive and commercial at the same time. More targeted terms like “leather laptop bags for professionals” might have lower traffic but higher buying intent.
How to Fix It
Create clusters of keywords by:
And then associate each primary keyword with its corresponding page.
A product keyword must refer to a product page while a category keyword to a collection page, etc. Informational keywords can be more suitable for blog posts.
So, several Shopify pages won’t compete for the same keyword.
Using the manufacturer’s product description without modification is not an optimal SEO approach.
In fact, Shopify recommends writing readable, unique content and not just taking manufacturer descriptions verbatim, as the same text can be published on many other websites.
Why this is important
Consider that there are 50 online shops selling the same coffee machine. They all have the same 100-word product description given by the manufacturer.
This leaves you with very little unique content to let Google know why your page is different from the rest.
What to do about it
Write product descriptions based on consumer needs.
Not instead of:
“High-quality stainless-steel bottle with double-wall insulation.”
Tell consumers:
Include original photos, specifications, FAQs, comparison data, and useful buying guidance.
The idea is not necessarily to make the product description longer. It is to make the page more useful.
The title tag of your website is one of the strongest indicators of the topic of that particular page.
An e-commerce platform like Shopify will have product titles like:
“Classic T-Shirt | Brand Name”
while the real opportunity is:
“Men’s Organic Cotton T-Shirt | Brand Name”
The latter option gives a lot of additional information.
The Shopify platform offers merchants the possibility to customize product, collection, page, and blog search listings.
Fix it
Create unique title tags that contain the main keyword organically. For instance:
Weak:
Running Shoes | ABC Store
Better:
Men’s Trail Running Shoes | Lightweight & Durable | ABC Store
Also write a useful meta description that explains why someone should click.
Do not turn the description into a list of keywords. Write it for a real searcher.
Google has to learn about the relationship between your homepage, collections, subcategories, and products.
A typical e-commerce structure is as follows:
Homepage -> Category -> Subcategory -> Product
According to Google’s ecommerce documentation, internal linking allows it to learn about the relationships and hierarchy of pages. If products can be accessed via an internal search box only and are not linked correctly, Googlebot might miss some of the products while crawling.
How to fix it
Check your navigation.
Ensure:
For instance, an article named “How to Choose a Hiking Backpack” might contain internal links to your hiking backpack collection and certain products.
This would be helpful for both users and search engines.
A beautiful store can still lose organic visibility if it provides a poor page experience.
Large images, unnecessary apps, excessive third-party scripts, animations, tracking tools, and poorly optimized themes can all contribute to performance problems.
The important point is not to obsess over getting a perfect score from one speed-testing tool. Instead, identify genuine performance problems that affect users.
Start by checking:
Compress images without destroying their quality. Remove apps you no longer use. Review scripts that load across every page.
Practical example: If a store has installed ten apps that add pop-ups, reviews, upsells, analytics, social feeds, and tracking scripts, but several are no longer being used, removing unnecessary scripts can be a more sensible first step than redesigning the entire store.
Most shopify retailers only concentrate on individual products.
This is incorrect.
Collection pages can be used to reach category level searchers and also serve as crucial nodes for your website’s architecture.
Examples are:
The collection page can be used to define the category, explain the factors to consider when buying, feature products in that category, and have internal links to other pages.
How to fix it
Optimize your collection pages by ensuring that they have:
Product organization
Do not stuff hundreds of words just for the sake of reaching an arbitrary number.
Images can cause problems for SEO and usability if used improperly in ecommerce stores.
Shopify suggests that you use proper alt text and proper keywords in appropriate page elements like image alt text.
How to solve this problem
Do not use:
Use rather:
Do not include your keywords in alt attributes all the time; just provide proper description for the image that will be helpful for users.
Remember to properly resize and compress images.
On-site optimization isn’t enough by itself to ensure good rankings.
When you compete with well-established sites that have powerful backlinking portfolios, simple inclusion of keywords on product pages isn’t sufficient.
Here’s where the concept of authority comes into play.
How to solve the problem
Generate content that other sites will actually refer to:
Useful tools/calculators
Promote the material through proper outreach, partnerships, public relations, and connections within the industry.
Don’t purchase many low-quality backlinks. Fewer quality links can be far more beneficial than numerous irrelevant links.
This is one of the most underappreciated reasons why business owners believe their Shopify SEO “just isn’t working.”
SEO is not an instantaneous traffic switch.
Google needs time to discover, crawl, process changes, understand content, determine relevancy, and rank pages relative to other search results.
Even Shopify points out that Google does not always index all pages on a website and that merchants cannot force Google to re-index a page immediately.
How to fix it
Monitor performance through relevant KPIs:
Don’t measure the success of your SEO efforts based only on the movement of a single keyword ranking from position 18 to position 12 after just two weeks.
If your store does not rank, do not implement every possible thing at once.
Do it in this way:
Step 1: Indexing check
Ensure that Google can crawl and index crucial pages.
Step 2: Technical SEO check
Check canonicalization, redirects, robots.txt file, availability of sitemap, broken links, mobile optimization, and site speed.
Step 3: Targeted keywords check
Make sure that each page is optimized for some particular search intent.
Step 4: Optimize product and collection pages
Get rid of duplicated or thin content.
Step 5: Internal links optimization
Connect your crucial pages in a logical way.
Step 6: Increase your authority
Create valuable content and receive relevant backlinks.
Step 7: Measure and repeat
Use Google Search Console and your analytics data to determine what is done right and what needs further improvement.
This method is more trustworthy than just installing one more SEO app and waiting for magic.
If your online store sells a few items only, then SEO can be done by yourself.
However, professional assistance will prove beneficial in case:
There are problems with your Shopify theme
Good Shopify SEO service cannot limit itself to guaranteeing rankings only. Instead, it needs to tell you how your store prevents you from success and provide you with evidence based on the analysis of your website statistics, prioritize solutions and track progress.
Just like that, when choosing Shopify SEO service provider, find out if it follows the process of technical audit, keyword mapping, optimization of content and links, competitor analysis, performance monitoring and testing.
Correct Shopify SEO services will be individual for your online store rather than following a generic check list for all clients.
Why is my Shopify site not showing up on Google?
There could be many reasons why your store isn’t showing up on Google. It can range from lack of indexed pages, site technical problems, mismatched content and search intent, and even competition with other more optimized sites. Always check Google Search Console before embarking on SEO.
How long does Shopify SEO take to work?
There isn’t an exact timeframe that applies to every site. The time it takes will depend on factors such as the site’s authority, competition, site technical status, and content among others. Remember SEO results should be determined by trends in impression, clicks, rankings, indexed pages, and conversions.
Does Shopify have built-in SEO?
Yes. Shopify has some SEO-related technical functionalities that are built in the system, including the creation of a site map, certain elements of structured data and infrastructure. That notwithstanding, SEO goes beyond built-in functionalities and needs other considerations like keyword research and technical audit.
Does use of Shopify SEO app enhance rankings?
The SEO app can help with some SEO tasks, but there will be situations where the use of app will not solve all your SEO needs. There are several reasons for SEO issues, such as poor search intent, poor content, poor site structure, indexing, etc.
Should your Shopify store not rank on Google, you must know that the solution is not usually just about “more keywords.” The problem might be associated with indexing, site architecture, low product content quality, ineffective keyword optimization, technical issues, poor performance, lack of internal links, or lack of authority.
The best way is always to analyze first before trying to optimize anything. Make sure that Google is able to crawl and index your site, that you know which of your pages should rank, make them better in order to fit the true search intent, and create authority around your most valuable commercial pages.
For those companies that lack time and technical know-how in order to complete the task themselves, Webdesign Discovery could be a good choice as a part of Shopify SEO services aimed at problem identification and fixing them, building visibility, and laying the foundation for further organic growth.
SEO is not about optimizing your Shopify store. It is about optimizing your site for crawling, indexing, evaluation, and recommendation by Google.