5 SEO tips for selling internationally on Shopify

If you sell your products to customers in other countries, we want to make sure search engines know that as well.

I thought it was time to give a few SEO tips for selling internationally. Especially since Shopify's settings aren't always clear.

If you take nothing else away from this article, know that what you may think is best for your customers, isn't always what's best for SEO. We often assume that we know what our customers want. But Google is a bit more picky and can't always "figure it out" on their own. Sometimes, they need you to spell it out for them.

The great thing about using Shopify is that you don't need another app to sell internationally.

When you use Shopify Markets, they handle it all for you, but you have to set it up correctly for SEO.

1. Set up unique URLs for each market

There are many ways you can build out your unique URLs with domains, subdomains and subfolders.

Type of URL	URL
Current website for US	example.com
Unique domain for Canada	example.ca
Subdomain for Canada	example.com.ca or ca.example.com
Subfolder for Canada	example.com/en-ca

 

Choosing between subdomains and subfolders is entirely up to you. I prefer subfolders as it's easier to see the language and region directly in the URL, but it's not required.

But why does it matter if we use unique URLs or not?

If you don't use unique URLs, how does Google know if they should show the English or French version of your site in search results?

In the US, we may not think that's a big deal since English is the primary language. But in Canada, for example, where English and French are widely used, it's a huge deal.

Shopify's docs also state very clearly that Markets that use shared domains, content isn't indexed by search engines.

2. Tell Google about your international pages

When we are talking about international websites for SEO, there are two key pieces to consider: language and region (which determines the currency)

The technical explanation is that Google uses code called hreflang and it looks something like this:

1. <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-ca" href="example.com/en-ca" />
2. <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-ca" href="example.com/fr-ca" />

In the above #1 example, the hreflang="en-ca" is telling Google that the URL example.com/en-ca is in English and is targeting customers in Canada.

Then you'll notice in #2 above that hreflang="fr-ca" is telling Google that the URL example.com/fr-ca is in French and is targeting customers in Canada.

The first part of the hreflang tells Google what language the content is in (e.g. English or French).

The second part of the hreflang tells Google the country or region and is most often used to set the currency based on the location.

However you set up your URLs in Shopify Markets (e.g. subdomain or subfolders), just make sure that you select the language AND currency.

Shopify will do the rest and automatically add hreflang to your site for you. No need to edit the code or use a third party app.

One other important factor in telling Google about your international pages, is your sitemap.

Again, Shopify to the rescue! When using Shopify Markets, Shopify will automatically include your market URLs to the sitemap.

3. Avoid automatic IP detection settings

Google doesn’t want you to use IP location to automatically adapt your content.

Do not use IP analysis to adapt your content. IP location analysis is difficult and generally not reliable. Furthermore, Google may not be able to crawl variations of your site properly. Most, but not all, Google crawls originate from the US, and we do not attempt to vary the location to detect site variations. Use one of the explicit methods shown here (hreflang, alternate URLs, and explicit links).

This article explains the issue of automatically adapting content based on IP and its negative impact on multi-currency stores.

This is where Shopify's default settings don't always align with SEO.

Just because you can in Shopify, doesn't mean you should.

When you first set up Shopify Markets, they assume you want to automatically redirect users based on their location.

This is bad for SEO!

This is especially problematic if you don't use unique URLs for each market.

I know what you're going to say.

"But I want it to be easy for my customers and I just want it to work automatically for them."

Do so at your own peril.

What if I'm traveling to Australia but I live in Canada? I don't want to pay in AUD if I'm from Canada. By using automatic redirects based on IP address, you are preventing customers from using their preferred currency and language.

What's worse is that there is no way for customers to work around it. Most likely, they will simply leave your site.

No good for you or your customer!

To turn off automatic IP detection, go to Online Store -> Preferences and scroll down to Automatic redirection.

Another tricky setting in Shopify when you're setting the currency to the Market, is the option to "Use local currencies".

Do not select Use local currencies option.

Instead, set the correct currency for the region.

This is another confusing setting that Shopify uses that will automatically detect the users currency.

The Use local currencies option will mean that Google see's USD pricing because they almost always come from a US based IP address.

So although Shopify makes it sound easy and simple to just allow customers to pay in their regions currency, this setting is terrible for SEO.

4. Allow customers to select the currency and or language

The best approach is to allow customers to select the language and currency that they wish to use with a drop-down or link.

There is usually a setting in the theme that you can toggle on to show currency options at least. The exact location of this option and how it looks may vary per theme.

It is acceptable and normal for customers to choose their currency and language from a drop down. Despite what marketing guru's tell you.

5. Don't over do it.

One of the biggest mistakes we can do as a business is to try and be everything to everyone.

I often see merchants add every possible currency to their drop down because "what if someone from Aruba wants to buy my snow gear?"

Really?

Ask yourself how often you are really going to sell to someone from any given country. If it's frequent, then consider adding a market. If not, they can purchase from your store using your store's currency.

I recommend picking one or two Markets when first venturing into selling internationally.

Once those markets take off, then consider adding another.

We should not see 50 different currencies in your drop down.

I look at a lot of stores every day with JSON-LD for SEO.

These are some of the biggest SEO issues I see as it relates to selling internationally and Shopify Markets specifically.

Hopefully this will help you set your site up correctly with Shopify Markets.