Yep, the rumors are true. Blogging is still an effective ecommerce SEO strategy. King Content has not left the building. And you don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to incorporating a blog strategy on your ecommerce website. 

When blogging on Shopify, or any platform for that matter, there’s no secret sauce that will make your blog shoot to the top of page one of Google. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few best practices you can follow to get closer.

How to Add a Blog to Shopify

You can’t have a blogging strategy without a blog. Thankfully, Shopify already includes a blog by default. This default blog is called “News,” but you have the option to rename it or create multiple blogs to better fit your industry or needs.

Adding individual posts to your blog is also simple. Under Sales Channels, click Online Stores > Blog Posts > Add Blog Post. 

There is a lot of SEO value that can be gleaned from your blog post, and setting up Shopify SEO is relatively easy.

9 Tips for Blogging on Shopify

Now that you know how to publish blogs to your Shopify store, let’s talk about how blogging on Shopify and following the tips below can help you improve the overall SEO value of your store. 

Review Your Meta Data For Best Practices

Think meta data is no longer relevant? Think again. While your meta title and meta description may not be a major ranking factor like it was ten years ago, it still holds some weight and can help Google understand what your blog post is about. 

So after you write that killer blog, scroll on down to the bottom of your Shopify blog editor and write an SEO-optimized meta title and meta description. 

Best practices for your meta title include using your target keyword, keeping the length to under 60 characters, and including your business name. 

Use your meta description as an opportunity to give Google and a searcher more insight into what the page is about. Keep your description between 155-160 characters, include relevant keywords, and throw in a call to action. 

Optimize Your Headers with Keywords

Headers and subheadings should include both exact match keywords and keyword variations to the extent that it still feels natural. Headers send signals to Google about the relevancy of a page and are a great opportunity to help your reader understand the page as well. 

Use Targeted Anchor Text When Linking to Collection Pages

Gone are the days of “Click here to shop our products!” Both the user and Google are able to identify hyperlinks, so use anchor text to your advantage by incorporating keywords. Make sure your anchor text is relevant to the landing page you’re sending the user to – this sends Google a signal about the relevancy of the landing page. Not sure how to do that? Our SEO consulting agency can help. (See what we did there?)

Keep Your Tone Conversational

One of the top SEO tips for Shopify we can share is to answer the user’s question in a thorough and conversational way. Imagine you’re a college student asking your chemistry professor a question about a tough topic you don’t quite understand. If your chemistry professor just reads you a passage from the textbook, you still won’t quite understand. But if she conversationally explains the concept in a different way using her own experience and or anecdotes, you’re more likely to get it. 

Add In Visuals

It’s no surprise that people are less likely to read large chunks of text these days. We like getting our information quickly. So when blogging on Shopify, utilize images, infographics, page breaks, videos and other visuals to keep the user engaged. Best of all, these elements can be enhanced with schema markup, giving you another avenue to appear in a search result. 

Be as Mobile Friendly as Possible

As of 2019, 81% of Shopify traffic and 71% of Shopify orders came from mobile devices. Shop Pay makes it easier than ever to make purchases via mobile devices, so when adding blog posts to Shopify, be sure they are as mobile-friendly as possible. While a blog might not be the highest converting avenue, you never want to deter a shopper due to a poor mobile experience. 

Double E-A-T It Up

We love our acronyms, don’t we? E-E-A-T, or Double E-A-T, is an SEO concept that has been around for a few years and stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Basically, it’s a quality indicator designed to help Google better serve searchers. When it comes to SEO for Shopify, E-E-A-T isn’t a direct ranking factor, but that doesn’t mean it can’t impact the overall SEO value of your website. 

How does blogging on Shopify play into building E-E-A-T? Remember when we talked about how to add a blog to Shopify? Part of that process can include building author bio pages and ensuring there is an author bio on your blog post. This shows the user (and Google) that there is a person, not a robot, behind the blog post. By sharing how the blog author is a subject expert, you are directly contributing to Double E-A-T.

Share Your Brand Voice

Your brand voice can help build a community with your audience and is an important part of your brand identity. Regularly blogging on Shopify gives you an opportunity to practice and establish your brand voice. It’s the place where you can really get into the weeds about what your brand stands for and why you do what you do. 

Nurture – Don’t Always Sell

Here’s the thing: your blog is likely going to be one of the lowest converting sections on your website – and that’s normal. Blogs don’t need to rank for high-volume, commercial-intent keywords to be valuable (that’s what your collection pages are for!). 

Instead, use your Shopify blog to focus on less competitive, lower-intent keywords and nurture the audience that comes to you. They may have found you by searching for informational content about your industry, and by nurturing them and establishing your brand voice, they will know where to return when they are ready to convert. 

Start Blogging on Shopify with Digital Position

Okay – we don’t always follow our own advice and may try to sell you a little bit. But we hope we nurtured you, too! 

When running an ecommerce business, it can be hard to know how ecommerce SEO plays a role in your overall success. Digital Position offers Shopify SEO services to help you take your Shopify store to the next level.