Advanced Shopify SEO Agency
Standing out online has never been more competitive. With online shopping in Australia forecast to surpass 20% of all retail sales in 2024, ranking at the top of the organic search results requires a strategic approach.
Working with Safari Digital means partnering with a team of dedicated eCommerce SEO specialists. We take the time to understand your business, your products, and what your target customers are searching for online.
By understanding your product, your customer, and your unique value proposition in the market, we can effectively implement a Shopify SEO marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals. Our team of Shopify SEO experts work closely with your internal team to setup, track, and optimise your strategy for maximum search engine optimisation growth.
Understanding your customers
Ecommerce SEO isn’t just about building traffic, it’s about building the right kind of traffic. We know that vanity metrics might look great on your SEO report, but they don’t always align with your key performance indicators of growth.
Before we can dive into your strategy, we need to understand your customers and your business. Our search engine optimisation approach means working with your internal team to understand your products, seasonality, margins, and value proposition. By understanding how your customers shop, who your competitors are, and the gaps that exist, we can effectively plan a strategy that considers your unique requirements.
Planning our approach
Armed with information around your current website performance, in-demand products, and competitors, we can get to work formulating an SEO strategy for your collection and product pages.
Understanding search intent is the key to effective Shopify SEO services. By understanding the rationale and psychology behind different search queries, our SEO consultants can effectively attract customers from their first informational search to the lucrative transactional searches that drive conversions and revenue.
For Shopify SEO, we want to focus on the collection pages where we can group and target high-search volume, competitive search terms that generate broad search visibility. We take a considered approach to ensure that we focus on low, mid, and high-competition search terms that become the focus of your SEO strategy.
Customised Shopify SEO services
Armed with competitor insights, product insights, and keyword research, our team of Shopify SEO specialists can get to work. For Shopify SEO and all eCommerce SEO services that we offer, we start by implementing the foundational on-site and technical elements of your campaign.
During this phase, we create new collection pages, consolidate existing pages, and create a content schedule that informs the next step in your SEO strategy. Once the on-site and technical SEO elements for your Shopify SEO strategy are in place, we can then get to work creating informational content resources and our off-site strategy for backlinks and PR exposure.
Search engine optimisation is constantly changing and evolving. Working with our team of SEO experts means that your Shopify store will constantly be improved and optimised to meet changing user demands and search ranking signals for maximum visibility.
Shopify SEO Case Study
BONIIK SEO Case Study
Safari Digital partnered with Korean Beauty specialists BONIIK to increase monthly organic traffic from 9,000 monthly visitors to 45,000+ monthly visitors over the course of two years. Leveraging a strong product range and growing market opportunity, our Shopify SEO campaign aimed to bring awareness to the K-Beauty segment in Australia.
Our Strategy (Shopify SEO Checklist)
Define your URL structure
Your URL structure plays an important role in how your Shopify website is structured. A well-planned URL structure ensures that as your website grows, it maintains a logical and cohesive site architecture that users and search engines can easily navigate.
Site speed optimisation
Shopify site speed is largely determined by the theme that you choose. If you haven’t already chosen a theme, we’ll work with you to ensure you’re choosing one that isn’t bloated with unnecessary features or design overkill that can slow down your site. If you have already landed on a theme, our developers will work to ensure that it is as fast as it can be.
Configure tracking and analytics
SEO isn’t just about winning more traffic; it’s about understanding your customers and ensuring that you meet their needs. Tracking through Google Search Console and Google Analytics is a must for understanding key metrics that determine how we approach your Shopify SEO strategy.
Install relevant SEO apps
There are a few SEO apps that can help (they don’t do the SEO for you though!) your SEO efforts. Apps like SEO Pro and plug In SEO unlock a suite of SEO features that make working on and maintaining your SEO much easier for our team and for your internal team.
Keyword research
Keyword research determines how we approach your campaign. We use keyword research to create clusters that we create on top level collection pages, as well as the long tail keywords that we target on your product pages. Keyword research also helps us to understand what your competitors are doing and how we can bridge those gaps.
Page title & meta data optimisation
Page titles and meta data play an essential role in how search engines and users understand your website. Think of page titles as the title to a book. They inform the reader what they can expect to find inside. Similarly we use page titles to tell users (and search engines) exactly what they can expect to find on the page.
Content schedule
Once we’ve implemented your meta data using our keyword research, we get to work with a content schedule that defines where we will allocate our content writing resources. In most cases, the focus is on those top-level collection pages that drive users for general search queries. We can work independently or work with your internal team to create a content schedule that we work on together.
Optimise images (Alt text)
Shopify is a visual medium. Users want to see what your products look like before ordering. As such, you’ll likely have a lot of visual media. To ensure that we are leveraging visual search, we work to create descriptive file names and keyword rich alt text that clearly coveys to search engines what each image is all about.
Internal link strategy
Internal links play a key role in how search engines crawl your site, and how users navigate through different pages. We use internal links to promote better website crawlability for search bots, and to ensure that we’re maximising the visitor experience by creating clear pathways between related products and collections.
Structured data
Adding structured data to your Shopify website can be done in a few different ways. From making changes to your website code, to using a plugin that pulls various product elements to auto-generate this data. We work to ensure your products contain the correct schema markup for rich search results that display data that drives click through rates.
Link building
Google and other search engines use off-site signals like backlinks to determine the trust of your site and how it ranks in the search results. For most people, backlinks are the most complicated element of a successful SEO strategy. By working with a team of Shopify SEO experts, you’ll be able to rely on someone else to navigate the complexities of link building.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shopify good for SEO?
For SEO experts and for those taking the DIY route, Shopify is one of the better options on the market from an ecommerce SEO perspective.
Shopify does a lot of the SEO heavy lifting for you right out of the box which ensures that sites will generally perform quite well in organic search.
Things like automatically generated “rel-canonical” tags, auto-generated robots.txt and sitemap.xml, SSL certificates, content delivery, automatic meta data generation, and reasonably good hosting all come as standard.
It’s important to remember that Shopify is not a ‘set and forget’ SEO platform. Just like any ecommerce CMS, Shopify requires ongoing SEO work to get the best results.
How long does it take to see results from SEO?
The time it takes to see results from the work that we do will depend on a number of key factors. In general, SEO takes anywhere from 3-6 months to start “working” – but it will depend on where you start. Some of the most important factors to consider when projecting SEO timelines include:
- The age of your website
- Your current rankings and position in the market
- The strength of your competitors
- The size of your website and scope of your focus
- Any previous SEO work that has been done
- Existing content on the website
- Number of collection and product pages
Once we’ve conducted an initial SEO audit of your website, we’ll be able to provide you with an accurate timeline and forecast for SEO results based on these unique factors.
What do Shopify SEO services involve?
Shopify SEO services are a complete solution addressing the on-site, off-site, technical, and content elements of an SEO campaign. Our clients enjoy a complete Shopify SEO agency solution that lets them focus on their business, not on their organic marketing strategy. This includes keyword research, content writing, technical optimisation, and link building.
Do you offer enterprise-level Shopify SEO services?
Yes! We work with small to enterprise level clients who utilise Shopify as their chosen e-Commerce CMS. We have extensive experience working with some of Australia’s biggest eCommerce brands and retailers on the Shopify platform. We can work independently or collaborate with your internal marketing and development resources to solve complex problems and develop lasting SEO solutions that accelerate growth.
How much does Shopify SEO cost?
The cost of SEO for Shopify websites will depend on the size and competition of your ecommerce store. The more competitive your niche, the more products that you have, and the more SEO resources that are required to achieve your desired outcome, the more you should budget for SEO.
In general, Shopify SEO services in Australia start at $1,800 (+GST) per month for small eCommerce retailers and can cost $10,000+ per month for large Shopify eCommerce stores. During your initial SEO consultation, our team will assess your unique position and provide you with a customised SEO quote.
How do you do SEO in Shopify?
Basic SEO vs. advanced SEO in Shopify are two very different things.
Out of the box, Shopify will provide you with an SEO checklist that includes configuring search console, submitting a sitemap, configuring Google Analytics, checking that your site is indexed, and optimising for basic meta-attributes.
These basic tasks do not guarantee SEO rankings for your Shopify store. An advanced Shopify SEO strategy ensures that your eCommerce store is optimised for the right keywords on the right pages. The approach requires a considered strategy that checks off the on-site, off-site, technical, and content elements required in every successful SEO strategy.
Which is better for SEO – WordPress or Shopify?
When it comes to launching an eCommerce business, many people will be stuck between WordPress (WooCommerce) and Shopify.
Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce SEO solution that provides a whole host of features as standard. Compared to WooCommerce, Shopify is extremely easy to set up, has a smaller margin for error, and is easier to monitor and track sales. While WooCommerce is an excellent eCommerce CMS that provides more flexibility, it also requires considerably more technical expertise to master and maintain.
When it comes to choosing between WooCommerce vs. Shopify, there is no right or wrong answer. It comes down to what you’re looking to do and the features that matter most to you and your team in an eCommerce CMS.
Should I optimise products or collections?
Both!
With that said, optimising your collection pages is the best way to build long term website traffic. Unlike product pages which may be subject to availability and stock, collection pages will always be a pillar of your website’s SEO performance.
Hypothetically, if 50% of your website traffic comes through a single product and that product goes out of stock or is discontinued, then your website can potentially lost half of its traffic in a single move. Comparatively, if we focus on ranking collection pages with multiple products then losing a single product will not impact your SEO performance.
For most Shopify SEO strategies, we focus most of our on-site and off-site resources on optimising collection pages which drive long-term traffic.
Why should I choose Safari Digital?
Let’s face it, there’s no shortage of SEO agencies in Australia to choose from. Many of them claim to be specialists, when in actuality they offer every single digital marketing service under the sun. For us, our point of difference is that we exclusively offer SEO services. We don’t dabble in any other facets of marketing. As a result, we’re able to spend 100% of our time, energy, and focus on developing the most comprehensive search engine optimisation strategies. For our clients, this single channel focus means that we have an advanced understanding of the intricacies of SEO and have extensive experience solving complex problems and providing comprehensive SEO solutions.
Get in Touch
What are you waiting for? Our team is ready to work with you to create a custom SEO strategy that will inundate your business with high-converting leads.
