Focus on the fundamentals

We often get caught up on all the SEO audit tools (and there are a lot) telling us we have issues that need to be fixed. From page speed to heading 1 tag, to hreflang, and yes, even structured data. But we forget about the key fundamentals that impact your Shopify SEO efforts the most.

Site audits are low-hanging fruit that MAY help, but it's not what will make your SEO efforts skyrocket.

Instead of asking yourself if my title tag is optimized, try taking a step back. Instead of asking what Google wants, ask what your customers need.

• Do your product photos show your products well enough?
• Do your product descriptions explain the benefits and features that will solve their problems?
• Does your product description or FAQs bust objections your customer may have?
• When was the last time you even reviewed your product descriptions?
• Does your customer support, pre-sales and post-sales, answer questions to solve your customer's needs?
• Is your customer service proactive, solving issues before customers get upset?
• Do your welcome emails help customers to understand the value you offer?
• How many emails are you sending per week to your customers?
• Are your emails providing educational value or is it just "buy me" focused?
• Is your company and product positioning nailed down and functioning like a well-oiled machine?

"But Ilana, what does any of this have to do with SEO?"

It's way easier to have an SEO checklist that says x number of items need to be fixed. But your customer doesn't care if you did everything recommended on the checklist.

SEO isn't just about running a site audit and making all the errors go away. That's not even possible.

SEO is about providing information so that when someone searches for your offering, you show up in search results.

That means your business as a whole has to fire on all cylinders.

I read once that we need to hear something nearly seven times before we take action. For example, you may take a part of your product description and use it on your socials. It may be added to your customer support email template, or highlighted in one of your welcome emails. This creates a consistent message (marketing) that can build your customer's confidence in you.

That's because SEO is just one part of your overall marketing strategy.

Instead of getting yet another SEO checklist that reminds you to optimize your meta description, try looking at other areas in your business.