Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101

Discover SEO basics with our comprehensive guide. Learn essential techniques to boost website visibility and drive organic traffic.

Overview of Search Engine Optimization?

Whenever we want to find any information, ask questions, research, or find a product, the Search Engines like Google and Bing would definitely be one of our go-to choices for most of the time. According to Google, there are 8.5 billion searches per day, which means everyone, every day on Earth searches something on Google at least once. This is a huge traffic for your brand to connect with your audience.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is a process and constantly improving the visibility and appeal of your website to search engines like Google, which means appearing higher and more engaging in the search results.

The importance of SEO

If you rely on advertisements to grow your business, you might find SEO to be a form of free advertising. Organic traffic generated by SEO can be incredibly valuable. When customers search with purchase intent, they are already looking to buy a product. Most of the time, they'll click on one of the top three results on the page. That’s where you want to be for your targeted keywords to maximize your conversion rate.

Even though your keywords might be targeted by Google ads, appearing at the top organically boosts your brand's recognition and credibility. It's much easier to reach the top of search results through ads than organically, but organic results are often seen as more trustworthy.

For example, Search Engine Optimization would help you strategically improve your traffic by targeting your potential audiences via the search box query matching their intent. First, you will need to come up with a product or service, and then target your desired keyword with short tail and long tail. Once it starts to work, you need to optimize the conversion rate by improving the meta title, and meta description in a more engaging way, improving your product images, structure data (price, reviews, and stock status), and even the website performance for a lower bounce rate.

I know SEO can seem like a lot of work, but it will pay off in the long run for your brand and business.

The Fundamentals of SEO

Keywords researching

First, you'll need to identify keywords that your potential audience is searching for. This involves targeting both short-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are broader and more competitive, while long-tail keywords are more specific and often less competitive.

For example, "candles" is a short-tail keyword, while "handmade soy candles in NYC" is a long-tail keyword. The latter is more specific and may attract a more targeted audience.

On page SEO

Once you have your keywords, it's time to optimize your website. This includes creating engaging meta titles and descriptions, improving product images by compressing them and adding ALT tags, enhancing content structure with a clear hierarchy, and adding internal and outbound links. All these elements help make your website more attractive to search engines and users alike.

Our Avada SEO Suite can help you with most of the On-page audit tasks. Explore our on-page SEO auditing features

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO involves activities that take place outside your website but can significantly impact your rankings. This includes building backlinks from other reputable websites and increasing your social signals. Guest blogging can also be a great way to gain backlinks and drive traffic to your site.

To learn more about off-page SEO, please refer to these recommended resources. (Semrush, Neil Patel)

Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures that your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy for search engines to crawl. This includes optimizing site speed, ensuring mobile compatibility, submitting an XML sitemap to search engines, and managing your robots.txt file to control how search engines crawl your site.

For technical SEO, you can explore our app's web performance optimization suite and other technical SEO tools as well.

More of SEO

Content marketing

Content is king in SEO. Regularly updating your site with fresh, valuable content like blog posts, videos, and infographics can help attract and retain visitors. High-quality content can also earn you backlinks from other vendors automatically since you are becoming a source of truth.

One of the missing pieces of SEO that is often overlooked by Shopify store brands is the lack of blog development. Imagine that people will find a review of a product before buying it; if your brand provides content with essential knowledge about choosing proper products or reviewing a product's pros and cons, you have a huge chance of winning that potential customer.

Find it hard having a good blogging experience on Shopify admin? Get your blogging dream up and running again with SEOon Blog app with an intuitive, Notion-like editor.

Local SEO

For businesses with a physical location or those serving specific areas, local SEO is essential. Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing, ensure your business is listed in online directories, and encourage customer reviews.

Analytics

Tracking and analyzing your website's performance is crucial for understanding what works and what doesn’t. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your traffic and search performance.

For example, Google Search Console can show you which pages are getting the most traffic and which keywords are driving that traffic, even the Core Web Vitals data regarding the site.

Conclusion

SEO is an ongoing journey that requires patience and dedication to see significant results. The key to building a strong online presence and attracting organic traffic to your e-commerce store lies in consistency, relevance, and always prioritizing the user experience. Stick with it, and over time, you'll see your efforts pay off.