Swap from Shopify to WordPress for best SEO?

[Luke P]

I've run an small ebay store for 2-3 years, finally branching into an online store.

I've created one in shopify and starting to look into SEO services and some have mentioned doing a site in wordpress would be better for SEO.

Is that true, and is it worth investing in a site on Wordpress to do this. Either way I think I will use a professional to initially get SEO set up and ensure the website is optimized for this whichever platform I use.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I've run an small ebay store for 2-3 years, finally branching into an online store.

I've created one in shopify and starting to look into SEO services and some have mentioned doing a site in wordpress would be better for SEO.

Is that true, and is it worth investing in a site on Wordpress to do this. Either way I think I will use a professional to initially get SEO set up and ensure the website is optimized for this whichever platform I use.

Ask one of these people who told you this if they are willing to work on a 'pay by performance' basis and then see how that goes?

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Hi Luke,

I love Shopify's simplicity as a platform but, in my experience, Wordpress gives you far more control over your destiny in terms of technical SEO.

Wordpress is installed on your servers and you can pretty much do what you want with it. You own it and you don't need to adhere to any terms and conditions or worry about your content / site being removed.

Shopify, on the other hand, does have some limitations because they don't really let you anywhere need the engine of the site, especially near their servers. When you're renting on somebody else's land then there is always potential risk.

However, SEO success is not based entirely on your platform but the quality of the content on your pages and the popularity of that content. I've seen some slow, god-awful sites rank at the top of google for some very competitive terms.

Many people think SEO is just a few meta tags and keywords on some pages and that's job done, but it's far from that.

If you create a real SEO strategy that's fit for purpose then you will get the results you want, but you need to put a lot of effort in. This isn't a 'set it and forget it' type of thing.

Keywords, content, technical, speed, usability, user-journey - they all matter. You need to know what you want our of your efforts rather than just blindly adding blog pages and sticking some links into them.

Also, it's important that you get the right customer to your site. SEO is often a 'drive for show, putt for dough' business. Visitors mean f-all if they do nothing for you when they get there.

Focus on the niche customers / searches and become an authority for your audience. Write awesome, digestible content. Solve their problems, be useful and don't do the hard-sell.

If you do this then your popularity will rise and people will start to share your content, link to you and do your marketing for you.

Anyhow, here's a good breakdown of Wordpress vs Shopify SEO (not my site) - https://www.stylefactoryproductions.com/blog/shopify-vs-wordpress

I hope that helps.

Matt

 

[Markmiller1]

Quality SEO effort is all that matters the most, it really doesn't rely on the platform.

 

[Luke P]

Thanks guys for your comments and help. I will have a more in depth look at the SEO options

 

[antropy]

Wordpress, OpenCart, even Magento allows more SEO functionality than Shopify. Alex

 

[Darren_Ssc]

SEO functionality

May be a silly question but what is 'SEO functionality'?

 

[UKSBD]

May be a silly question but what is 'SEO functionality'?

The ability to control noindex, nofollow, canonicals, redirects, robots.txt, semantic markup, headers, etc, etc.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

The ability to control noindex, nofollow, canonicals, redirects, robots.txt, semantic markup, headers, etc, etc.

So, just trying to understand. With Shopify you have to use an app for such stuff rather than traditional means? And, if you can't build your own app you have to rely upon a third party who'll charge you a subscription?

 

[antropy]

So, just trying to understand. With Shopify you have to use an app for such stuff rather than traditional means? And, if you can't build your own app you have to rely upon a third party who'll charge you a subscription?

I can't quite tell if you are being sarcastic or generally asking a question? Alex

 

[Peak District SEO]

Shopify is a nice platform but as someone said there really isn't the flexibility to control all you need to control. Depending on the size of your webshop and your needs. Looking at Wordpress with WooCommerce is a good option. More and more companies are using Woo these days.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I can't quite tell if you are being sarcastic or generally asking a question? Alex

Have a go at answering and we'll see?

Seriously though, my understanding of Shopify is that it's pretty much a closed platform. So what are the limitations regarding seo that can't be fixed by way of some sort of add-on?

 

[Elle Rish]

I love Shopify's simplicity as a platform but, in my experience, Wordpress gives you far more control over your destiny in terms of technical SEO.

I agree with this. WordPress itself, and with tons of WP plugins and extensions (available for free or paid), gives you a lot more controls and features to perfectly optimize your landing pages. Just do your SEO keyword research, analyze those keywords, and tweak every element of your page in WordPress is very easy. You can also give it a try!

 

[fisicx]

....and with tons of WP plugins and extensions (available for free or paid)

As soon as anyone burbles on about adding plugins it shows a lack of understanding on how to build an effective wordpress site. Plugins affect performance - they can slow things down and in some cases prevent the thing from running at all.

A well configured WordPress install should need the bare minimum of plugins. A good developer will incorporate as much functionality as possible in the theme functions. For example, people add a plugin for Google Analytics when it just needs a single line in the theme header.

 

[Elle Rish]

As soon as anyone burbles on about adding plugins it shows a lack of understanding on how to build an effective wordpress site. Plugins affect performance - they can slow things down and in some cases prevent the thing from running at all.

Yes, you're definitely correct. I'm currently managing an EDD WordPress website, and some plugins do really affect the performance of our website. But, some plugins are a lot of help too. Just need to find the good ones among the rest.

In my phrase, "tons of WP plugins and extensions", what I'm just trying to say is that there are tons of plugins you can choose from to optimize your eCommerce WordPress. Not dumping tons of plugins in your website.

 

[fisicx]

But, some plugins are a lot of help too. Just need to find the good ones among the rest.

Most aren't much help - they are just there because people are lazy.

 

[StephenSumner]

A well configured WordPress install should need the bare minimum of plugins. A good developer will incorporate as much functionality as possible in the theme functions. For example, people add a plugin for Google Analytics when it just needs a single line in the theme header.

Or, even better, deploy Google Tag Manager to manage all your marketing scripts etc

 

[Peak District SEO]

We are going to be updating our WordPress support page shortly. It will provide some info for business owners and developers alike, about how to make the most of e-commerce using WordPress and Woo commerce. Check out our website for more info.