This post is really quite self-explanatory from the title. It does exactly what it says on the label!
I take you through the Shopify SEO tools, apps and tips provided by Shopify and also cover some other, great external tools you can use to generate more traffic for your Shopify store.
Why are these tools and apps important? Well, in the simplest of terms, SEO still matters. It matters a LOT.
While many of the rules of SEO have changed down the years, one thing hasn’t: without it, you get the tumbleweed blowing through your store! What’s a store without traffic? It’s a closed one.
You get the picture. SEO matters to your business. What’s more, it’s generally highly competitive, so you need to be good at it.
While SEO will always take some time and some know-how, there have never been more tools available to make your life easier.
And the ‘80-20 rule’ applies: do the basic 80 percent of things that get the best results and you may be able to ignore the final 20 percent that take a LOT of extra work.
Balancing the need to attend to SEO to get traffic with the time commitment that takes you away from other areas of the business makes it critical that you use time-saving tools. This is especially important if you are managing SEO yourself but also applies if you are hiring someone to look after it.
The following SEO tools and apps for Shopify can improve your ranking, generate more traffic, and help you become a much happier, less frazzled store owner!
The best Shopify apps for SEO
There are more Shopify SEO apps available than those listed below. But these are some of the best ones, arranged according to which specific area of SEO they help with (some are more general and these are at the end):
Plug In SEO
https://apps.shopify.com/plug-in-seo
Price: FREE
Free trial? Not applicable
What does it do?
- Helps you identify the key issues that it’s worth spending time and money on to fix
- Provides quick analysis of what you should be focusing on
- Automatic, regular checking to keep you on top of your SEO
Who’s it for?
If you get 80% of SEO right, the other 20% is probably not worth spending too much time or money on. That’s what this app is all about.
It’s an excellent time saver, ignoring all the ‘noise’ and just telling you what it’s worth you spending your time and money on with your search engine optimization: that includes page titles, headings, meta descriptions, speed, article structure, content, and much more.
It’s a popular little app with 86,000 store owners using it already; it has excellent reviews.
Link-building
Free? Yes, but paid plans are available.
Main features/benefits
- Makes linking to related products on your other stores/websites more automated
- Creates related/relevant links that boost rankings using artificial intelligence
- Can be used on WordPress, Drupal etc. to embed your Shopify store products
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Reduce the time they spend on manually creating links to products
- Rapidly create links between several websites that need to link to each other
Image optimization
Free? Yes
Main features/benefits
- Optimizes images so that they rank higher in Google image search
- Quick and simple way to get your images SEO-ready
- Very popular and best-reviewed: used on over 50,000 Shopify stores.
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Get by with little technical expertise in image optimization
- Find a quick and simple way to generate more traffic from their images
- Retain a strong image-focus with the products/services they sell: images help you sell!
Free? No – $9.99/month with a 30-day free trial available.
Main features/benefits
- Easily resizes and compresses images for optimal page load times
- Improves rankings in Google image search by optimizing filenames and alt tags
- Provides tools for creating enhanced images for users
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Have a little more functionality for image optimization – and don’t mind paying a monthly fee for it
- Speed up image-loading times on their store
- Rank higher in the SERPS for their images
- Edit more eye-catching images for a better user experience
Titles and meta descriptions
Free? No – $10.00/month with a free 7-day trial.
Main features/benefits
- Improves how your store title & description appears in the SERPS
- Helps you target better keywords to achieve higher rankings
- Analyses existing meta tags and provides quick recommendations
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Regularly add or update titles & descriptions
- Spend a little time optimizing meta tags – this is important!
- Get by with no technical expertise in this area
- Pay a monthly fee rather than a one-off charge
Free? No – $20.00 one-off fee.
Main features/benefits
- Rapid analysis of your existing meta tags
- Customize and take control of your store’s title & description in the SERPS
- Suggestions for fixes to rank your site higher with the search engines
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Get by with little technical expertise in meta tags and who need help writing & optimizing them
- Receive suggestions for improvements to existing tags
- Rank higher using simple on-page SEO methods
Free? No – $4.99/month. 7-day free trial available.
Main features/benefits
- Automated meta tag generation to aid with on-page SEO
- Speeds up process of creating titles and meta descriptions by 80%
- Additional benefit: ‘structured data’ provided to Google etc.
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Save time on the task of meta tag writing for products, collections, blogs etc.
- Succeed in this area with limited technical know-how
- Ensure they provide the search engines with all they need to rank their sites
Providing ‘structured data’
Free? No – $69 one-off fee.
Main features/benefits
- Delivers the latest info about your store required by Google using JSON-LD markup (the latest ‘champion’ of Google)
- Single-click addition of your store to Google’s Knowledge Graph
- Makes it easier for search engines to get the correct data – even if your site themes change
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Meet the new recommendations from Google for providing up-to-date website information
- Be up-to-date with ‘enhanced’ search results e.g. information on product prices, stock levels, average ratings, etc.
- Ensure they are giving their store the best possible chance to rank well with the search engines
Free? No – $30 one-off fee.
Main features/benefits
- Applies the latest JSON-LD search presentation technology
- ‘Informs’ the search engines about all key details of your products
- Helps search engines read your store with mark-up codes
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Provide the search engines with all they need – without requiring in-depth technical expertise
- Inform the search engines about all the key information relating to products and services.
- Help the search engines extract all the relevant information to display in the SERPS
Developing content
Free? No $14.95 – $49.95/month with a 14-day free trial available.
Main features/benefits
- In-depth keyword research directly within Shopify
- Analysis of your store’s existing content and suggestions for increasing its visibility with search engines
- AdWords assistance to help you save campaign costs
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Achieve better rankings with their content e.g. articles, blog posts, product info etc.
- Research the keywords that your content should be based around
- Optimize content so that it stands out and ranks
Developing social SEO
SEO Metriks Marketing Platform
Free? No – from $7.99/month with a 7-day free trial available.
Main features/benefits
- Keyword research and recommendations for targeting
- General SEO audit with key problems and solutions identified
- Assesses your link profile, social media & general marketing performance when compared with the competition
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Go beyond pure SEO and need help with other aspects of marketing
- Improve social media performance
- See how their store stacks up against competitors
- Cover basic SEO – but in a slightly more advanced way
Free? No – $4/month with a 5-day free trial available.
Main features/benefits
- Helps you share great-looking content on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
- Optimizes meta tags for higher search engine rankings
- Makes NoFollow & NoIndex markup much easier
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Place more emphasis on social content
- Have more control over how content appears on social media networks
- Look after traditional SEO basics too – all from one app
Sitemaps
Free? No – $3/month with a free 7-day trial.
Main features/benefits
- Provides help in creating an automatic sitemap for your store
- Updates the sitemap daily
- Provides a guide for submitting to Google
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Submit a sitemap themselves rather than relying on a web developer
- Create a sitemap easily and effectively – and keep it updated
- Submit their sitemap to Google and the other search engines so they have all the info they need
All-round SEO
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Quick analysis of page titles, headings, meta descriptions, speed, article structure, content, etc.
- Identifies all the main SEO issues– those worth spending time and money on – with automated SEO checking
- Excellent reviews with 86,000 store owners using it
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Get a quick snapshot of their SEO
- Understand where they should be focusing time and money on with SEO
- Save time and money – ignoring the aspects of SEO that matter least
Free? No – from $10.00/month, with a free 5-day trial available.
Main features/benefits
- Scanner to identify all major SEO issues
- Diagnosis report on the general health of your SEO
- Automatic fixes or access to an SEO guru to help fix more serious issues
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Get the basics of SEO on their site up to scratch quickly and easily
- Diagnose where the main problems lie
- Put SEO on ‘autopilot’ for while and fix the main on-page SEO related issues
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Full on-page SEO audit for all store pages, collections, social, blog etc.
- Helps with keyword research and identifying which keywords to target
- Provides information about the SEO strategies of your main competitors
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- See how their store stacks up against the competition’s quest for traffic
- Fix major SEO issues quickly and effectively across the whole site
- Accurately research and identify new keywords
Optimizing product pages
Free? There is a free version and a paid $15.99/month version with a free 14-day trial.
Main features/benefits
- Optimizes your product pages for more social shares (Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc.)
- Helps you target long-tail keywords for higher conversions rates
- Tracks ranks for your main set of keywords
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Ensure that they are targeting the right keywords on their stores.
- Need keyword suggestions, page-placement ideas, and tracking of keyword performance
- Optimize posts for sharing on the social networks
Other SEO Tools – beyond Shopify-recommended ones
If the above apps do not cover exactly what you need, you could always check out the following trusted SEO tools – many of which perform slightly differing tasks and assists SEO in other ways. Again, some of them are free, others have paid versions, and some offer free trials.
For building links
Free? No – either $27 or $47 one-off or $47 one-off PLUS $17/month for the Platinum version – with a free 14-day trial.
Main features/benefits
- Aggregates multiple data sources from across the Web
- Helps you find influencers and authority sites that are excellent to link to
- Provides assistance with outreach campaigns to influencers
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Increase the amount of high quality links on their site
- Fins the top influencers in your market
- Improve the process of outreach to influencers
Free? There is a free version and a paid $24.99/month version with a 14-day trial available.
Main features/benefits
- Automating some of the job of outreaching to links – saving time
- Streamlines the entire link-building process
- Helps with prospecting and the time-consuming job of finding email addresses
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Increase the amount of backlinks they get for SEO purposes
- Reduce the time they spend on prospecting and outreach
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Checks pages for broken links
- Allows you to check how many outbound links a particular page has
- Identifies the amount of links a broken link has pointing to it
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Step up their link-building
- Try broken-link building: identify resources in your niche with broken links and then re-create the content to replace the broken link with yours
- Wants a free tool rather than a paid
For keyword research
Free? No – $40-120/month
Main features/benefits
- Advanced tools for in-depth research of keywords
- Identifies and suggests ‘low competition’ keywords
- Important insight for improving your AdWords campaigns
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Take a slightly more advanced approach to keyword research
- Identify lower competition keywords that can improve rakings in the SERPS
- Make their AdWord campaigns more effective (CPC rates)
Free? Yes
Main features/benefits
- Identifies the top keywords for your competitors
- Identifies which pages attract the most organic search traffic on your competitors’ sites
- Advises you of all keywords that competitors rank for
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Get a head start on the competition – by knowing what they’re up to
- Replace a competitor at the top of the SERPS for particular keywords
- Identify where you can optimize your store for better performance against competitors
The essential FREE Google SEO tools
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Excellent web stats and insights into search
- Provides insights you can use to target particular keywords
- Important measurements of page impressions, clicks, CTR, etc. for optimising conversion
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Compete and sell! It’s a must-have tool!
- Track progress with your SEO and campaigns
- Improve user experience by making important tweaks to your site
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Essential keyword research data and insight for targeting keywords
- Reports on search volumes for keywords and other important data
- Alternative keywords suggested
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Better target keywords using the number-one keyword authority (Google)
- Ensure they are targeting the right keywords that will convert
- Expand their options with keyword suggestions
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Identifies duplicate titles & descriptions that need fixing up
- Provides insight into the number of pages on your site that are indexed with Google
- Alerts you of potential security issues
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Be competitive on Google! It’s a must for everyone!
- Fix up any duplicate meta tags that may be causing problems
- Sleep easier about the security on their store
For site audits
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Drills down deep into your site and reports how you’re doing with SEO
- Identifies where improvements/fixes are recommended
- Identifies problems with site architecture – e.g. where key pages are multiple clicks from the homepage
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Improve their site architecture
- Assess large sites for site architecture competence
- Identify where SEO improvements can be made
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Audits every post and page for its SEO strength and provides recommendations how to improve
- Easy to create effective titles & meta descriptions
- Number one plug-in for WordPress sites – very popular!
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Get a good, all round free SEO checker that will audit each post & page
- Use a simple but effective tool that’s loved by many
- Get help with titles, descriptions & keyword insertions
to do this.
Tracking performance
Free? No – $49-450/month with a 30-day trial available.
What does it do?
- Provides SEO audits, mobile optimization analysis & keyword research
- Researches competitors to see how you’re tracking against them
- Comprehensive reports
Main features/benefits
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Take a more advanced approach to their SEO – with extensive performance tracking using a complete SEO platform
- Measure performance against competitors
- Create regular reports about performance
Tools for optimizing content
Free? Yes, fremium.
Main features/benefits
- Helps you locate influencers and provides content ideas
- Tracks who shares content on Twitter
- Provides alerts for nominated keywords when used around the Web
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Keep up with the buzz – and find content that’s trending in their niche
- Generate new content ideas
- Identify influencers in their field
Free? Yes.
Main features/benefits
- Helps you understand what Google Analytics data is saying
- Identifies suggested improvements for your site – and alerts you of them
- Track social shares, page loading speeds, visibility, etc.
Who needs it?
This is for Shopify store owners who want to:
- Find a quick way to get an overview of site performance
- Get recommendations for improvements to their site
- Grow their understanding of Google Analytics data to improve visibility, performance, rankings, and traffic.
Which Shopify SEO apps and tools are for you?
The Shopify SEO apps and other tools described above will not all be needed by every store owner.
But few store owners will be able to go through this list and say with confidence that none of the tools would be useful. In most cases, multiple tools can work together to save you time, money, and headaches.
Maybe you’re using some of them already. If so, great? Which other ones could benefit your SEO so that get more traffic.
After all, if you’ve focused your efforts on providing a great user experience, you want to ensure that as many people as possible are experiencing it!
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