SEO Tips from the Net trenches
Patience and best practices bring you to the top of organic search
The pedigree of this advice comes from 20 years of experience online, from my days working with Internet Direct, TUCOWS and a decade as a freelance web designer. It’s by no means definitive, but I hope it’s useful.
This past year, I’ve been working with Shopify and Kit to help merchants promote their site with CPC (cost per click) advertising on Facebook and Instagram, but I’ve also been sharing my SEO (search engine optimization) knowledge for our clients who need a hand with organic search results. I’m sharing some of what I know here, dear readers, in the hopes of fostering best practices and helping people set appropriate expectations with their SEO efforts.
- Some useful and free advice from an SEO expert
- More useful information about SEO from Shopify
- Google’s bit about submitting your sitemap to them for indexing
To improve SEO placement on your store, you’re going to need use what are considered “best practices” by Google. They’re intentionally vague about what those best practices are, but from my experience, the two factors Google is looking to see from a store is that it be both credible and current.
If you follow the below guidelines you can build up both your credibility with search engines as well as build a store that looks like current information.
Make sure you submit your sitemap.xml to Google
We’ve got a doc on that practice here that steps you through the process. By updating your site using Webmaster Tools, especially after an addition of pages or products, you insure that Google serves the newest version of your site.
Keep a blog, or update your site regularly
All search engines put priority over sites that are updated regularly, since they’re invested in delivering live information rather than information that might be outdated.
Get your site listed or written about by independent blogs or in the news
Simply having someone write about and link to your site also helps build online credentials and again improves your site ranking.
Make sure all of your images have ALT tags
Most of our themes don’t really use them, but Google and other search engines see them regardless. Be descriptive about each photo you use. There’s actually a pretty good free app in our app store that can get you up and running.
Stick within the “best practices” rules
Search engines are built not to be exploited, and if you come across anyone who claims that they can get your site to to the top of the search quickly, that’s probably using some sort of code exploit. It might work briefly, but Google will push you to the back of the search order once they patch that exploit.
Finally, consider an app like Yotpo Reviews (which has a free version)
Giving your customers a way to write up reviews of your product builds both your credibility and makes your site current.
No single tactic you can take to the top of the search engine, but a constant presence, where you build your online credibility, will get you to the front of the search page in due time. It doesn’t happen overnight, but with patience and perseverance you can steadily climb Google’s organic search results and drive more organic traffic to your store.
If you’d like more SEO tips and tricks, check out the SEO Best Practices video presentation from ShopLaunch, our bi-weekly event helping entrepreneurs and small business owners succeed.
