DEV Community

Bessie Perkins
Bessie Perkins

Posted on

Shopify SEO Guide to Perfect Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

If you want to make more sales in Shopify, then you need to optimize all parts of your website.

The best way to start is through your title tags and meta descriptions. These are particularly important as they are the first two things clients see when they use search engines.

If you're not sure how to polish these two areas, worry not! In this Shopify SEO guide, you'll learn the tips and tricks of optimizing title tags and meta descriptions.

Analyze Search Queries

It's all about determining the search queries clients may look up when searching for a store like yours.

For example, if you are selling sweaters, you may get clients searching for terms such as "women's wool sweaters" or "men's gray sweaters." Once you have listed these words, run them through your Google Keyword Planner tool.

Another way to analyze queries is to run backlinks through Ahrefs. A website with numerous backlinks comes with higher competition, so it's best to avoid the keywords for which this website ranks well.

It's best to choose keywords that have low to medium competition. Since advertisers are not giving much thought to them, they give you a better chance of ranking high in search engines.

Make the Title Tag SEO-Friendly

Now that you have a list of keywords, it's time for you to use them in the title tag. Doing so can significantly help your SEO as it's the second most important on-page factor after content.

Should you forego editing your title tag, Google will automatically make one for you. While it's okay, it's not the best for your website.

To prevent this from happening, make sure to follow these Shopify SEO tips:

● Ensure that the title tag contains 50 to 55 characters.
● The content should be unique yet understandable.
● The title should match the content of your Shopify store.
● It should provide an answer to a person's search query.
● Don't forget to include the keywords you have researched earlier.

Before saving your title tag, make sure to preview your work first. You can do this through Shopify or Portent's SERP preview tool.

Work on your Meta Description

While Google has said that it does not factor meta descriptions in their rankings, it's vital that you perfect them as well.

That's because this 155-character description works well in captivating the user's attention. Not only will this benefit clickthrough rates, but it can boost your search engine rankings as well.

As with the title tag, it's important to use your keywords in this field. You can try capitalizing thought-evoking words such as "cheap," "durable," and "organic" to get more attention.

When writing a meta description, you may need to observe different strategies per page. For example, for your home page, you need to emphasize your brand, what you do, and what sets you apart from other companies.

As for your product pages' meta descriptions, you need to focus on two things: the products or services you offer and the reason why people should buy them.

If you sell hundreds of products, optimizing each one of them can be a backbreaking task. While this Shopify SEO guide recommends that you polish all of them, work on the top-performing ones first. After all, they are the ones that are highly visible on the web.

Should you find yourself having writer's block, seek inspiration from your competitor's meta descriptions. Don't copy them outright, though, as it's essential to keep your meta description and the rest of your site unique.

Monitor Your Title Tag and Meta Description

More than just perfecting your title tag and meta description, you need to monitor their performance as well. That way, you could make the necessary changes.

Before evaluating these areas, give Google at least two weeks to crawl your optimized title tag and meta descriptions.

RankTank

One option is to check your progress through RankTank's meta and rich snippet testing tool.

All you need to do is enter your website's URL. Here, you can compare your pages' HTML code with their corresponding Google snippets.

If you're unhappy with the results, you can go ahead and make the necessary changes.

Google Webmaster

Under 'Search Analytics,' tick the boxes corresponding to Impressions, CTR, Clicks, and Position. Click on the 'Pages' option below these. The results will help you see if your meta descriptions have low clickthrough rates.

For those that do, you can optimize them with the console's Phrase Research tool.

You can also try to check a specific page and click on the 'Queries' option. This will show you the best keywords you should include on your page.

If you have advanced technical knowledge, you can also try split-testing results through Amazon Mechanical Turk or SERP Turkey.

Improving your store's title tags and meta descriptions are vital for SEO. By perfecting these areas, your website can rank higher, and you get to enjoy more sales and better revenue.

Top comments (0)