SEO - Shopify start up

[Shane - Gymstop]

Hi all,

I have recently gone live with my website gymstop on Shopify, it has been a week and I've had no purchases (I expected this, yes). I have had views, mainly from Twitter. I am wondering the best practice for SEO.

I would like to do it myself, as funds are tight. Anyone got any good ideas?

Thanks,

Shane

 

[fisicx]

Google likes content - lots of it. And good internal navigation. And optimised page titles and descriptions. And different products to everyone else.

The problem you have is site with almost no indexable content and very few trustmarks. If funds are tight then you will struggle. People with a lot more money and experience at this work day and night on their marketing and still fail to succeed (in many cases).

You have put together a shopify shop on a shoestring and hope to compete with everyone else selling the same or similar products. Sorry to say but it's no longer as simple as this. Don't believe the adverts that suggest it is.

There are loads of things you can do to the site but website reviews are only for full members. But even if you had the best site ever you would still need to invest time and money in marketing. The chances of ranking well for anything useful just isn't going to happen.

 

[SDLBiz]

Set up a blog alongside the store and integrate it with Shopify. Even if you create one article on a weekly basis comparing products, it can drive traffic to your store and hopefully the content itself will convert them into customers. The more content you write, as long as it is unique, the better results you will receive. This is the most effective way in my opinion.

 

[Shane - Gymstop]

Set up a blog alongside the store and integrate it with Shopify. Even if you create one article on a weekly basis comparing products, it can drive traffic to your store and hopefully the content itself will convert them into customers. The more content you write, as long as it is unique, the better results you will receive. This is the most effective way in my opinion.

Thank you for your comment. I have considered a blog, I have a few friends all current do their own fitness blog and wondered if they would publish on mine. I really like this suggestion!

 

[SDLBiz]

Thank you for your comment. I have considered a blog, I have a few friends all current do their own fitness blog and wondered if they would publish on mine. I really like this suggestion!

It would be even better if they promote your products on their blogs In all seriousness, it would be great if they did publish on your blog to drive traffic to your store however if you are looking to convert them into sales, you should make comparison articles which I find more effective.

I know for a fact that when I want to make a purchase online, I do my research to find the best product. The large majority of the time, I read blog articles comparing different products which are similar and giving a review of each. This is how I often make my decision on which product to buy and usually purchase the product reviewed in the article as I trust it more. If you link your products to the blog post, you are more likely to convert them into sales.

Another bit of completely unrelated advice is to include real customer reviews in your product descriptions. People love reading what other people think and even if you copy them from another store for the same product (making sure you refer to the place where the review was made of course, to avoid getting into any trouble), it will make your products look more appealing and may receive more sales.

 

[fisicx]

A blog is pointless. Everyone has a blog and it won't acheive anything useful. The problem is the shop. Very few products, no indexable content and no trustmarks. Until you fix this the site isn't viable with or without a blog.

Forget SEO, just building a site that converts will be a start. Join UKBF as a full member and get a website review.

 

[Lee Watkinson]

Hi all,

I have recently gone live with my website gymstop on Shopify, it has been a week and I've had no purchases (I expected this, yes). I have had views, mainly from Twitter. I am wondering the best practice for SEO.

I would like to do it myself, as funds are tight. Anyone got any good ideas?

Thanks,

Shane

Hi Shane,

The website looks good - that's a plus point with Shopify I believe.

I'll drop you a quick message with some advice.

 

[fisicx]

The website looks good - that's a plus point with Shopify I believe.

Looking good isn't much use if he isn't converting. The theme you use is almost irrelevant - the only thing that matters is the content. And this is where is is severely lacking. And not helped that he is selling the exact same items as a gazillion other websites.

 

[Lee Watkinson]

I agree, but it's a start and more likely to convert if the visitors are there.

 

[SDLBiz]

A blog is pointless. Everyone has a blog and it won't acheive anything useful. The problem is the shop. Very few products, no indexable content and no trustmarks. Until you fix this the site isn't viable with or without a blog.

Forget SEO, just building a site that converts will be a start. Join UKBF as a full member and get a website review.

I love how you offer WordPress installations whilst saying a blog is pointless (Don't worry, I know what you mean as you are referring to this situation, just thought it was funny)

Honestly, having a blog can't hurt anyone, yes, everyone does have one - for a good reason. Even if it attracts one extra visitor a month, that visitor could convert into a paying customer. You can use that blog to inform people about your products, whilst providing some value to them as they are receiving a small amount of education. It is a win-win, look at how Shopify themselves blog. I know for a fact that i've learnt a lot more about their platform thanks to their blog than their actual site and will be using them as a result.

I agree with the rest of your post though.

 

[fisicx]

Even if it attracts one extra visitor a month, that visitor could convert into a paying customer.

But he isn't converting. Once you get people buying your stuff you know the site is viable. You can then start blogging if appropriate. But he is selling commonly available products. People looking for those products will be using all sorts of channels and will expect to land on the product page. This is why a blog in this case isn't the right thing. The focus should be on the category pages and then the product pages.

When you were looking for help with shopify did you do a google search (or a search on shopify)? Did you care if the solution was on a blog post, a KB article or a forum thread? All that mattered was the result not the means of delivery. If Shane put some effort into writing great product descriptions with lots of reasons why a product was so good for whatever then google would index and rank the content. Someone searching for the best vest for competitive arm wrestling would see the result in Google, click, read and buy. Much better than a blog post.

 

[SDLBiz]

But he isn't converting. Once you get people buying your stuff you know the site is viable. You can then start blogging if appropriate. But he is selling commonly available products. People looking for those products will be using all sorts of channels and will expect to land on the product page. This is why a blog in this case isn't the right thing. The focus should be on the category pages and then the product pages.

When you were looking for help with shopify did you do a google search (or a search on shopify)? Did you care if the solution was on a blog post, a KB article or a forum thread? All that mattered was the result not the means of delivery. If Shane put some effort into writing great product descriptions with lots of reasons why a product was so good for whatever then google would index and rank the content. Someone searching for the best vest for competitive arm wrestling would see the result in Google, click, read and buy. Much better than a blog post.

I understand your point and agree completely with the product description, they need to be more detailed.

Your point about him not converting, he hasn't got a blog yet so experimenting with it won't harm anyone because at the end of the day, if it works then excellent and if not, it won't cost him much except for his time. They may expect to land on the product page, in which case link it in the post or as an advertisement at the side, however a lot of people may also be looking for information about the product who are new to training at the gym and don't know about protein etc.

In response to your question, I was researching e-commerce platforms and came across the Shopify blog and it was one of the articles which persuaded me to choose them, although I forgot which specific article it was. The delivery didn't matter however a blog was more appropriate for the delivery. It was comparing features and why it was the best etc and yes, to some extent it could be placed in a product description, however a blog post is in my opinion, a more trusted source of information. A product description, although it is helpful, is more sales driven and some people may question it. An informative blog post on the other hand, although the motive is to convert sales, it is also to inform and more people will trust it as a source of information.

You have made some very good points however I believe you should at least experiment different ways because one way might work for one business but not for another so the only way you will know is by trying. After all, creating a blog is better than paying someone a ridiculous amount of money to try all of these 'SEO tricks' which don't really work.

 

[ikooloo]

I'll add two cents here... I had a quick look and agree with both previous posters; improving descriptions will help (although that won't give you overnight search results or even likely rank high enough to show in a very competitive sector). Similarly a blog will help - all content is good but this won't be quick.

I have a couple of questions if that's ok:
Obviously you haven't sold anything but can you tell us how many visitors you have had to the site? Where are they stopping? Are they looking at products; putting stuff into the basket? You can tell this if you have google analytics installed. If you don't, I would suggest doing that.

Also - what, if other, 'marketing' are you doing to bring people to the site? I looked at your twitter feed and you may want to think about using more and relevant hashtags but I am sure there are other things you could do.

Finally, what research dd you do and where do you sit in the marketplace? For example; you're selling 4 multi-grain bagels at £3.49 but musclefoods (biggest player by miles in this market) is selling them for £2.99... You'll need to think about how and why people would buy this from you...

Hope this helps a little
Andrew

 

[Kat Haylock]

Just a reminder to future posters that only Full Members are permitted to ask for/receive a website review. Thanks!

 

[Shane - Gymstop]

I'll add two cents here... I had a quick look and agree with both previous posters; improving descriptions will help (although that won't give you overnight search results or even likely rank high enough to show in a very competitive sector). Similarly a blog will help - all content is good but this won't be quick.

I have a couple of questions if that's ok:
Obviously you haven't sold anything but can you tell us how many visitors you have had to the site? Where are they stopping? Are they looking at products; putting stuff into the basket? You can tell this if you have google analytics installed. If you don't, I would suggest doing that.

Also - what, if other, 'marketing' are you doing to bring people to the site? I looked at your twitter feed and you may want to think about using more and relevant hashtags but I am sure there are other things you could do.

Finally, what research dd you do and where do you sit in the marketplace? For example; you're selling 4 multi-grain bagels at £3.49 but musclefoods (biggest player by miles in this market) is selling them for £2.99... You'll need to think about how and why people would buy this from you...

Hope this helps a little
Andrew

I will take a look at the descriptions over the weekend, I never knew this had such a large impact on rankings. I will start a blog, and arrange for a few of my friends to write some posts in exchange for free supplies!

I will install Google Analytics now, I have had around 100 visitors since last Sunday. I tried to use a relevant ask possible, the links take up a few characters! I should probably use a link shortener... I don't know why I didn't think of that! I have thought about affiliates - someone offered to give me a IG post, for only £200...

I have been selling on eBay for the past few months (I know how much people love that here). I try to be competitive with price, as I do not have very high overheads. The pricing on the website is a little out as I used a percentage, the forumla to round up to the closest 0.25/0.49/0.5/0.99 etc... This will change over the weekend, I have written a plan to sort these!

 

[fisicx]

I will take a look at the descriptions over the weekend, I never knew this had such a large impact on rankings.

Page titles, descriptions, images, alt tags, internal linking, headers, footers, category pages, T&C, privacy policy, returns pages, your contact details and everything else on the site will affect how Google indexes and ranks the site.

 

[Mike EMF Business]

Try other platforms, it will improve your visibility online
Try you tube, social media, online marketing is the full time job
Blog was a good idea but do not spend hours on it. The problem is you will try to make it better and better and it takes time. Website needs a few tweaks as per all these comments above but it is just the door to internet.

 

[Lucas Di Carlo]

Hi all,

I have recently gone live with my website gymstop on Shopify, it has been a week and I've had no purchases (I expected this, yes). I have had views, mainly from Twitter. I am wondering the best practice for SEO.

I would like to do it myself, as funds are tight. Anyone got any good ideas?

I know how frustrating it can be to make your first and second sell, and ultimate grow your business. Your primary concern seems to be time. Unfortunately, SEO is a long-term strategy. If you want to get short-term results and you have a small budget, then Google and Facebook Ads may be an option. If budget is an issue, then Affiliate marketing could help but it depends on your business. You have plenty of alternative to SEO but if you want to reduce your customer acquisition cost SEO is a great tool that you must use.

 

[aflat9]

Content - target a keyword and get linking! Google likes new content on a website, it keeps it fresh!

 

[monyms]

hi i have a website ans i have good sale but i want more sale and more user for my web
please help me my website is monyms.ir
my name is mohammad alikhani from iran
please Guidance me how i did this?
thank you

 

[MathewIzzard]

Hi,

Have you tried to contact bloggers that relate to your products and would be willing to promote them on their website / social media?

Thanks,
Mathew.

 

[StrategyGBD]

Shane,

Your situation is common. There is a LOT of misinformation promoted about eCommerce, SEO, and "magical instant" traffic appearing once a site is built. The truth is that this causes many businesses to fail, and I would hate for yours to be listed among that group.

It is crucial to understand the importance developing and establishing Brand Identity (I can provide a link to an article explaining more, but I'm too new to offer it here) as a foundation for traction & conversions...especially since statistics prove that a site has only 8 seconds to secure attention before a (new) visitor churns: never to return. So, even if traffic is getting to your site, if the visuals & messaging there do not instantly show why that visitor should do business with you - rather than the competition - then, you're out of luck.

So, set the stage first with the Brand ID. Then, you need an effective Promotional Strategy (Marketing/PR/MarCom), followed by effective ongoing Promotional Campaign (tactics). An equally common mistake made by early stage business owners is to put tactics before strategy. SEO is technically a tactic, FYI.

If you check my profile, there's a downloadable eBook there that would help you tremendously. Contact me if you need more help, insights, direction...

 

[Colin Forrest]

SEO is key, you are right to think about it. Content is king. If you want to get more sales then you have to do two main things. Firstly you have to make your website findable. To do this create content. Some might say a blog is useless - it is not. The reason blogs are such a prevalent part of SEO strategies is because they work. Don't just try and feature on your own blog though, get guest blogging and try and get your name out.
The second thing is to have a diverse keyword search portfolio. You have quite a mix of products on your site so you should be able to make quite a comprehensive keyword mix to attract potential customers who are searching for a variety of different terms.

 

[TheConsulter]

The brand identity is important. If you work with creating strong brands you will get more success. In this case you could sponsor famous social media people who can promote your product to their followers.

Best of luck!

 

[Alexander Sadlier]

wow I didn't realise there was so much to Google indexing. I'm trying to do similar thing to you. Looks like there is a lot to learn.