Google has revamped Search Ads 360, its enterprise campaign management platform, the company announced Tuesday. The update includes support for some newer Google Ads features (like Performance Max and Discovery campaigns), greater support for other search engines, a refreshed UI as well as workflow improvements.
The refresh Search Ads 360 interface. Image: Google.
The new experience will start rolling out over the next few months. Google will share migration timelines as the year goes on.
Support for most new features. The new Search Ads 360 was redesigned and rebuilt using the same technology that powers Google Ads. Having this common technology as the foundation enables support for most new Google Ads features, such as Performance Max and Discovery campaigns.
More support for other search engines. One of Search Ads 360’s main selling points is the ability to manage your ads across different channels, including other search engines. Search Ads 360’s updated infrastructure allows Google to add support for more features from other search engines.
For example, the updated platform now supports over 10 additional Microsoft Advertising features, including responsive search ads, call extensions, local inventory ads and additional Microsoft audience types like customer match. Support for Yahoo! Japan’s Dynamic Ads for Search and sitelink extension scheduling are also now available.
Google will continue to add more features and channel support in the coming quarters.
New advanced features for enterprises. In addition to support for existing features, Google is also rolling out completely new features for Search Ads 360.
“For instance, the new Search Ads 360 takes enterprise workflows to the next level by giving you new ways to centralize and scale your day-to-day tasks and key activities — like campaign management, automated rules and labels — and you’ll now be able to make these changes across multiple advertisers at the same time,” Google said in the announcement.
The company is also making upgrades to existing features: The “Performance Center,” which will become available later this year, is touted as an improved budget management planner with support for enterprise planning capabilities, like improved forecasting across search engines.
And, the existing inventory management and ad builder tools will be unified into one feature, which will be called “Templates.” Templates is also expected to become available later this year.
Refreshed UI. Google also updated Search Ads 360’s interface, borrowing elements from the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising UIs. This may make navigation more efficient since advertisers may already be familiar with it.
Why we care. The updates Google has made to Search Ads 360 should help you get more work done in one place, which may also help you save time. Since more data and controls are centralized, this may present a more holistic view of your paid search campaigns across channels, which can facilitate better decision-making.
Microsoft has moved the Bing News PubHub out of its own microsite and into the overall Bing Webmaster Tools console, the company announced this morning. This makes it easier for for publishers who have already verified their sites with Bing Webmaster Tools to access the Bing News PubHub features.
Bing News PubHub. Bing News PubHub first launched in June 2016 as a portal for news publishers to submit their sites, at pubhub.bing.com. While pubhub.bing.com is still live, it is now telling publishers “We have integrated with Bing Webmaster, please go to Bing Webmaster Tool.”
What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of my site, the Search Engine Roundtable, waiting to for approval in Bing News. Note, you can access Bing News PubHub on the left side navigation in Bing Webmaster Tools:
How Bing evaluates news sites. Bing News uses the following criteria to help evaluate the news websites:
Newsworthiness – Reporting on timely events and topics that are interesting to the people using our services. Content that does not focus on reporting, such as how-to articles, job postings, advice columns, product promotions, is not considered newsworthy. Similarly, content that consists strictly of information without including original reporting or analysis, such as stock data and weather forecasts, is not considered newsworthy.
Originality – This includes unique facts or points of view. Faced with numerous sources frequently reporting similar or identical content, originality or uniqueness becomes a critical way to determine the value to a user of an individual story.
Authority –News sites with authority maintain the highest level of trust and respect from our users. Submissions must identify sources, authors, and attribution of all content.
Readability –Content containing correct grammar and spelling and that keeps site design easy for people to navigate. Advertising should never interfere with the site experience.
Why we care. If you are a publisher and want to see the status of your approval in Bing News, you can now login to Bing Webmaster Tools, click on the Bing News PubHub and check your status there. If you have not yet submitted your site for approval, you can within that tool as well. If you were previously rejected, you can resubmit the site for an additional review.
“Any SEO tool will spit out 10s or 100s of ‘recommendations,’ most of those are going to be irrelevant to your site’s visibility in search. Finding the items that make sense to work on takes experience.”
There’s a difference between data and wisdom. That’s why relying only on the recommendations of your SEO software is an inefficient way to do SEO.
SEO tools make life easier for those of us doing SEO. But so many generate busy work that will not move the needle.
The problem is that if you don’t understand the context behind the tool’s recommendations — if you cannot see the bigger picture on how things connect and you aren’t able to read between the lines when it comes to the data — you won’t be able to execute a successful SEO strategy.
That isn’t the tool user’s fault. Most SEO software companies market to the masses in such a way that users think they can just follow the tool’s recommendations, and they are doing SEO.
Even if the SEO software is simple to use, most require training to use it properly. If someone doesn’t do any training, the tool may be fairly useless. If they get the training but don’t have the SEO knowledge to question the data, that’s useless too.
This is one of the reasons that for years, we’ve had our clients take our SEO training at the outset of their project. It helps them understand the big picture.
Compounding the problem is that many of the tools out there are based on SEO “best practices.”
These best practices often come from data in large-scale SEO research studies, which look at a massive amount of search results across all niches and all types of keywords. In other words, generic data not customized to the business or website (think recommendations based on data like “optimal article length”).
This generic data then becomes an SEO “truth” that trickles into every corner of the SEO industry, including practices and SEO software.
Then, of course, you have to navigate the SEO software’s “branded” metrics, which the company making the tools invented. These metrics, if not understood, can confuse people and even steer them in the wrong direction.
(See my article on “site authority” for more on why this metric is a false target).
So what ends up happening is that many businesses subscribe to SEO software and blindly follow its recommendations.
Take the recommendations with a grain of salt and discern which activities are worth the time.
Real SEO tools support the project rather than become the project. Use tools that provide you with the right answers without getting lost in unimportant detail, and focus on applying wisdom to implement successful SEO strategies.
Google is testing “Buying Guides,” a new mobile search results feature that presents users with various drop-down menu options to learn more about the product they’re searching for, the company has confirmed to Search Engine Land.
Google’s Buying Guide for the query “baseball bats.”
Tip of the hat to Brian Freiesleben for bringing this to our attention.
Why we care. Editorial content — not e-commerce links — show up in the various drop-down options of the Buying Guide, which could be another place in the SERPs where your content marketing can appear.
“Brands” was one of the drop-down options in the Buying Guide I saw, so it’s safe to assume that the same Brand section will appear in many Buying Guides. Brands will want to ensure that they appear in the Buying Guides for as many of their products as possible — being omitted when your competitors are being shown to users puts you at a disadvantage.
How it works. A price range is shown at the top of the Buying Guide, right below the title of the search result feature. The drop-down menus within the Buying Guide cover several characteristics that might help shoppers narrow down their options. Tapping on a drop-down menu shows the user editorial content; Google did not say how it ranks content that appears in these sections.
The “Types” and “Brands” menus showed carousels that users could interact with to toggle the information shown (for example, users could select from “Composite,” “Aluminum,” “Hybrid” and “Wood” in the Types menu to find out more about bats of the selected material).
The rest of the drop-down menus were geared toward addressing a single question. For example, the “Size” drop-down provides a search listing and preview that answers the question “What is the average size for a bat?”
For the query I was able to trigger this test for (“baseball bats”), the Buying Guide appeared as the fifth organic, non-rich result listing, below 3 ads, a “Popular Baseball Bats” Shopping carousel and the People also ask box.
Google’s statement. “This is an experiment that helps shoppers discover relevant characteristics of a product by surfacing attributes like price, brand and type,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. “We’re always testing new ways to improve the shopping experience for our users but don’t have anything specific to announce right now.”
There are some kinks to work out. In terms of understanding a user’s query and matching it with relevant content, Google has made a lot of progress over the last few years, touting advancements such as BERT and MUM. However, it still gets things wrong from time to time.
Google’s Buying Guide for “baseball bats” confuses the sports equipment with the animal.
I used the query “baseball bats” to trigger the Buying Guide feature and, while most of the baseball bat drop-down categories and results were relevant, the results for “Body” and “Age” pertained to bats, the flying mammal (as shown above).
Whether the irrelevant results are due to Google’s systems mistaking baseball bats for animal bats or because the Buying Guides are still in testing, it’s clear that this feature is not quite ready for a wider rollout.
Last week there were numerous reports that Google stopped crawling and Googlebot “flatlined” its crawling activity on many, if not, all Shopify websites. Google’s John Mueller responded to the reports this morning that yes, that is what it appeared to happen in Google Search Console but these sites “are in a good state” and “crawling will speed up again.” He said the issue was related to a “temporary drop in how we calculate how much we can crawl,” implying there was no issue with the Shopify sites.
What was the issue. Here are reports showing how Google Search Console’s crawl states report showed Googlebot activity flatline last week:
Hey @JohnMu is there any current issues with google bot? I have noticed on 4 Shopify stores that we manage all crawl requests have flatlined. We have 2 wordpress based websites that we manage and they have crawl data as normal. Any insight anyone? @rustybrick@Kevin_Indigpic.twitter.com/SBGuqQjuir
In fact, if you click through to that thread, you will see more reports of this. Both Google’s John Mueller and Shopify’s Kevin Indig said they will investigate.
What was the issue. The issue seemed to be on Google’s end and not an issue with Shopify. John Mueller of Google said this morning “we looked into the sites that were mentioned and for all of them it was a temporary drop in how we calculate how much we can crawl. This happens from time to time, and catches up after a few days usually. As far as the engineers are concerned, these are in a good state, crawling will speed up again, and there’s not something that needs to be done. It’s kinda confusing from the outside though.”
The issue is resolved. We are seeing reports from Shopify publishers that the issue is indeed resolved. @JessicaMal said on Twitter this morning “one out of the three sites we saw impacted though has now recovered in the crawl.” So it seems things are starting to recover in terms of Google crawling Shopify sites.
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Why we care. If you noticed a drop in crawling on your Shopify site, you are not alone. There is no need to worry, Google seems to have resolved the issue going forward and you should see crawling come back to normal over the coming days.
It is hard to say if this had any negative impact on these sites over the past several days but you probably should add an annotation to your chart documenting a potential issue with crawling starting on January 26, 2022 and lasting through this morning, February 7, 2022.
CallRail just released its 2022 Outlook for Digital Marketing Agencies. The good news: “2021 was a good year for agencies, and 2022 is looking even brighter,” said Mary Pat Donnellon, chief revenue officer at CallRail.
“The report highlights the areas of success agencies saw last year and reveals what challenges they expect to face in 2022 and beyond. With client acquisition a key concern, agencies are utilizing — or plan to utilize in the near future — the latest marketing trends, like conversational marketing and artificial intelligence, to bring in new clients and keep their momentum going.”
The study surveyed over 500 individuals employed full-time at U.S.-based marketing agencies to also determine how client expectations are projected to change in 2022 and which marketing trends agencies are currently implementing to bolster client acquisition.
Key findings from the research include:
2021 saw extensive growth for marketing agencies
Marketing agencies made big gains in 2021. Respondents said their agencies experienced an average of 54% revenue growth in 2021, with 95% saying their agency met its 2021 revenue goals.
Much of this success was due to accelerated client growth: 83% of respondents said their agency surpassed its 2021 goals for client growth. With more clients under their belts than ever before, agencies are feeling optimistic about what 2022 has in store for them.
2022 will see even more growth – and new challenges
A whopping 99% of respondents said they expect their agency to grow in revenue in 2022, and CallRail’s data shows agencies project to experience an average of 68% revenue growth this year.
Revenue won’t be the only thing getting a boost, however: 85% of respondents said they expect their agency to grow in size in 2022, with hiring new employees emerging as a top priority to keep up with the influx of new clients.
But this growth doesn’t come without its challenges. Respondents expect hiring and client retention to be more difficult in 2022 than in 2021, but the biggest emergent challenge will be client acquisition. 82% of respondents said this will be more challenging in 2022 than in 2021.
Why is client acquisition keeping agencies up at night, and what can they do to rise to the challenge?
Agencies should adopt the latest marketing trends to meet changing expectations
CallRail’s data reveals that client expectations when choosing an agency are changing. Over the next five years, 98% of respondents believe clients will want to see agencies offer more comprehensive services; 85% said clients will want to see more diverse clientele, and 82% said clients will want to see more specialization.
To keep up with these new expectations, agencies must evolve with the times. Agencies have been quick to adopt the latest marketing trends and those who haven’t yet plan to do so in the future. Conversational marketing, artificial intelligence (AI), and zero-click searches have emerged as the latest and greatest ways for agencies to bring in new clients.
The research found that 62% of responding agencies have already implemented conversational marketing. 44% of agencies have already implemented AI, and 39% have implemented zero-click searches. Of those who haven’t yet, 20% plan to utilize conversational marketing, 21% plan to introduce AI, and 30% plan to implement zero-click searches in the next year.
Choosing not to take advantage of these trends appears to be a detriment to marketing agencies: those that did not meet their 2021 revenue goals were 27% less likely than average to have already implemented AI. Agencies that wish to succeed in 2022 and beyond must adapt and use every tool at their disposal to acquire new clients.
Client relationships are changing too
Massive growth across the board will also change how agencies handle their client relationships. Right now, reporting is the name of the game. 86% of respondents said reporting is an essential part of client services, with agencies spending an average of 56 hours per week on reporting.
CallRail’s data suggests reporting may be key to client growth, as those who didn’t meet their 2021 client growth goals were 15% less likely than average to say reporting is an essential part of their client services.
But agencies that met and surpassed their client growth goals will have to adapt in order to accommodate their new client load. 95% of respondents said they believe how their agency handles client relationships will change in the next five years as they continue to grow. Of those, 89% said less time will be spent on reporting.
“The marketplace is constantly changing, and so too are client expectations when choosing a marketing agency,” said Donnellon.
“CallRail’s research shows that taking advantage of the latest marketing trends and rethinking how they approach client relationships will set agencies up for success in 2022 and the years to come.”
To learn more about how CallRail’s platform can help marketing agencies and the clients they serve optimize their marketing spend, click here and try it free.
We have a client with angry customers. Really angry customers.
They are angry because they had unsubscribed from our client’s emails, and yet kept seeing our client in their Gmail inboxes.
“Enough!” They cried. “Stop spamming us with emails!”
Our client email and customer support teams dug in. They investigated. They researched. They scratched their heads. What was going on?
Finally, they connected with broader teams, and eventually this came to our desks.
We’re the supporting agency for this particular client’s Shopping Ads, and immediately we suspected that this was due to a campaign type Google had created a couple of years prior: Smart Shopping Campaigns.
After back and forth with Google (email from that correspondence shared below), we confirmed that this was indeed what was happening.
Perhaps you’ve seen the same thing with your own customers? If that’s the case, and you’re using Discovery, Smart Shopping, or Performance Max campaigns, then you may have the same issue.
The problem
What’s really happening here? Is Google Ads actually sending emails to customers?
Well, no (at least, I don’t believe so).
They’re Gmail ads, more than likely landing in the Promotions tab (based on the layout of your inbox), but the friction seems to come about when these ads fall into the inboxes of the non-techy people who are uninitiated into the complex cult of digital marketing nomenclature.
Here’s what I believe is happening: customers unsubscribe from a brand email account, and then wonder why they are still “seeing that brand” in their inbox. They don’t fully realize they are seeing ads instead of emails. (In their defense, those ads sure do put on a good act as an email.)
In fact, I’ll even go out on a limb to say I’m a little surprised this isn’t a violation of some of the permissions and privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA – though I will more quickly note that I’m not a lawyer and just surmising there.
To the normal non-marketer out in the world, is a business paid placement in the Sponsored Tabs really all that different from a business-sent email in the Sponsored Tabs (aside from one saying “Ad”)?
In reality, customers don’t care. They’re seeing a brand they chose to no longer engage with – and are angry about it.
Here enters the friction. Google is serving ads in a platform entirely different than the email marketing provider used to send or manage email customers – and yet the customer doesn’t care about those details.
After all, when you boil these two entities down to their simplest form, they are both business promotional efforts from a single brand.
The temporary, less-than-ideal, not-great fix
What can a business do about this to avoid showing Gmail ads to customers who have unsubscribed?
Well, in the Discovery Campaign, a person could create and exclude a Customer Match audience list of the email addresses of those who have unsubscribed (noting the limits required to do so). However, this option is currently unavailable in Smart Shopping and Performance Max, so there is no way to exclude specific unsubscribers from seeing ads in these campaign types.
Rather, the advertiser must rely on a more reactionary approach, waiting until someone has complained to them, and then instructing the CSR’s to reply with one of two options:
Help the customer find the “Stop Seeing This Ad” option on that ad. (To my knowledge, this doesn’t shut off all brand ads to that customer, only that specific ad. Let’s call this the Whack-A-Mole customer option. Spoiler: they’ll still hate your brand over this).
Get the customer to reply with their IP Address, and then exclude that IP address manually from each applicable campaign. This is not a viable long-term option because most IPs are dynamic, which means it will all change again at some point in the near future.
The better solution*
I realize there are other things that come into play in these decisions, but the better option would likely be for Google to allow some sort of synchronization between email marketing solutions and Gmail-Serving campaigns, or to allow for the same exclusion Customer Match list in Smart Shopping and Performance Max as they allow in Discovery.
The trick here is that smaller lists will likely be limited in serving per Google support documentation here.
In other words, they are potentially unusable by all of the smaller advertisers out there who don’t have enough subscribers to meet the list requirements!
Rock, meet hard place!
Regardless, that’s my understanding of this complex issue. I’ve reached out to Google with my concerns and will update the article when I hear back.
If you have ever wondered what is going on with email complaints from customers, now you know!
Google is testing global site tags with automatic collection of user-provided data, which is one of the setup methods for enhanced conversions. Advertisers must select the automatic setup option (it is not turned on by default) and accept customer data terms before they can use it.
The automatic collection option for global site tags. Image: Dario Zannoni.
This feature is currently in beta testing and may not be available to all advertisers. Tip of the hat to Dario Zannoni for bringing this to our attention.
The global site tag and enhanced conversions. The global site tag is used to track conversions in Google Ads. It works together with another piece of code, such as an event snippet or phone snippet, that tells the global site tag when to track a conversion.
Enhanced conversions, introduced in May 2021, allow tags to use consented, first-party data to provide a more detailed view of how users convert after engaging with an ad. Enhanced conversions can be set up within Google Tag Manager (manually) or with the global site tag.
Why we care. This feature makes it easier for advertisers to leverage enhanced conversions. It may be particularly helpful for SMBs that may not have the experience to implement enhanced conversions manually.
Additionally, conversion measurement solutions like enhanced conversions may become increasingly valuable tools as we continue the slow march towards the deprecation of third-party cookies.
This guide was first published on May 21, 2020. It was updated to include new information on February 4, 2022.
Optimizing your Shopify store for Google, Bing and other search engines is critical for helping potential customers discover your site. Many of the tenets of search engine optimization (SEO) are based on providing users with a positive experience. The easier it is to discover and use your Shopify store, the more likely people are to shop with you.
The fundamentals covered in our SEO guide also apply to Shopify SEO, but there are some tricks involved in getting a Shopify site fully optimized for search. There are also nuances and other factors to be mindful of when evaluating the platform’s SEO capabilities.
In this guide, we address the SEO fundamentals and technical considerations to improve your Shopify store’s search rankings to increase traffic and sales.
Shopify SEO basics
Shopify’s page editor. Shopify’s content management system (CMS) has a page editor with a simple user interface to build landing pages, collections pages, product detail pages and blog posts.
Shopify’s page editor.
The page editor allows for basic formatting options, headings, tables and the ability to edit in HTML. You can also upload photos and embed videos to the pages.
The search engine listing preview section automatically generates a page title and meta description based on the content you enter in the page details section. By default, your page title is used for the title tag and H1 and your description is used for the meta description. Site owners can overwrite these automated defaults by modifying their search engine preview section.
Page titles are an important ranking factor. They provide search engines with information about the contents of your page and they often appear as the headline for your search result.
Meta descriptions are often what appear under the title in search results. They should summarize the content of the page for prospective customers, and can help improve click-throughs to your site.
The Shopify page editor allows you to manually revise your titles and descriptions. If you’re not content with the ones automatically generated, optimize them to include the keywords you’d like to rank for and appeal to customers browsing the search results.
Analytics. Shopify sites are compatible with two very useful, free tools: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Google Search Console helps site owners monitor and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google search results, and provides data on the queries that are leading prospects and customers to your pages. Google Analytics shows you how people arrived at your site and behaved once they got there. Search Console and Analytics are critical tools for SEO.
To connect your Shopify store to Google Search Console, you’ll need to add a piece of code to your homepage (Shopify has a great video on this). There are two things to keep in mind when verifying your Search Console account for your Shopify store: Google will only index the current theme and only if the theme is live and not password protected (new merchants often password-protect their sites because they’re not yet ready for launch).
[Pro Tip]Use Shopify’s URL structure to help segment your analysis
Thanks to Shopify’s strict URL structure, it’s easy to segment certain types of content in Google Search Console, Google Analytics, etc. For example, if you want to see how your products are performing, simply filter your data by URLs that contain “/products/” and voila! The same trick works for collections (/collections/), blog posts (/blogs/), and pages (/pages/).
-Kevin Wallner, founder, First Chair Digital
Domain and security. You can buy a custom domain through Shopify; the platform even has a free tool to check domain name availability and generate alternative domain names. If you don’t want a custom domain, your site’s URL will be yoursitename.myshopify.com. Having your own custom domain is much better branding, conveys more professionalism and greatly increases your chance of ranking well in searches for your business’ name.
If you opt for a custom domain, check that your .myshopify.com domain redirects to your primary domain by logging into your Shopify account and heading to Settings > Domains (within the left-hand navigation menu). Your primary domain should say “Traffic from all your domains redirects to this primary domain.” If it does not, click on “Enable redirection.” Doing this will help to ensure that search engines only show your primary domain to searchers, instead of presenting both the primary and the .myshopify.com domain.
All Shopify plans also come with an SSL certificate, which encrypts data sent between your site and its visitors. This is important because Google gives a small ranking boost to secure sites and because many browsers will display a security warning when users attempt to visit a site without an SSL certificate. You can check this one off your worry list.
Site speed. Site speed and security are Google ranking factors, and they go hand-in-hand with user experience. Slow load times may lead customers to bounce before your page loads, which means they won’t be buying from you.
Selecting a lightweight theme for your Shopify store can help you get a head start on your speed optimizations. Loading times can vary across themes, said Chris Long, director of e-commerce at Go Fish Digital, during our Shopify SEO session of Live with Search Engine Land.
His agency found that the average theme takes approximately 3.8 seconds for First Contentful Paint (FCP), makes 171 requests and weighs in at about four megabytes. If you’ve already selected a Shopify theme, those benchmarks can help you gauge whether your store is performing below or above the mean.
Shopify features a content delivery network (CDN) that can help keep page load times down no matter where in the world your customers are browsing. Even so, it’s in your best interest to compress your images (more on that below) and implement lazy loading functionality to shave down your loading times as much as possible.
Instead of loading all your images the instant a visitor lands on your page, lazy loading enables the visitor’s browser to load images as they scroll, decreasing the upfront load time. “It’s actually exceptionally easy for developers to implement in most cases,” Long said.
Being conservative with your Shopify apps (more on that below) can also help you manage page load times. And, tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights can help you identify more opportunities to increase site speed by suggesting different image formats and other speed optimizations.
Selecting the appropriate format to compress your images is one way to keep file sizes under control: JPEGs will generally result in smaller file sizes than PNGs, which are more suitable when you need a transparent background in your image.
Every image should have an alt attribute assigned to it. Image alt text provides search engines with more context as to what the page is about, which can improve relevance and thus rankings. Additionally, the alt text is read aloud for site visitors that rely on screen readers, so adding it will help you comply with digital accessibility standards.
From your Shopify admin, alt text can be added by navigating to the desired product detail page and clicking the desired image or media item. A media preview page will open and you can click “Add alt text” to edit the field. Once you’re done, save the alt text and exit the preview page.
Store owners can use image optimization apps (more on Shopify apps in the next section) to automate some of these tasks. TinyIMG SEO Image Optimizer has hundreds of five-star reviews and can help keep your load times down by compressing your images.
Shopify does provide an image sitemap, which helps Google find your images so that they may potentially appear in image search results and provide searchers with one more way to discover your products. However, Shopify’s image sitemap only includes one image per product and does not include additional metadata. To get more of your images indexed, Kevin Wallner, founder of First Chair Digital, recommends the Image Sitemap app, which can build, submit, monitor and update XML sitemaps for all the images in your store.
Shopify apps. One big advantage of a platform like Shopify is the app ecosystem that makes it easy to add more features and tools to your site with little to no coding. There are apps to help you manage inventory, take customer support tickets, run affiliate programs and, yes, optimize your site for search.
Shopify has dozens of SEO apps, including Yoast SEO, which offers much of the same functionality as its well-known WordPress counterpart. Yoast SEO can help you control your titles and descriptions in Google Search and social media and provide feedback on readability. It can also help you implement structured data, which can come in handy as structured data is used to power product information in image search results, which may, in turn, help you guide searchers from Google’s image results directly to your product page.
In 2021, both Google and Bing launched Shopify integrations. These integrations are actually apps (the Google Channel and Microsoft Channel apps) and they both allow merchants to include their products in Google’s and Bing’s free product listings. This is a welcome addition for Shopify retailers since these integrations make it easier for them to get greater search visibility without necessarily needing to rely on an expert. And, both apps can also be used to launch shopping campaigns, in case you want to advertise your offerings.
There are also plenty of other apps that can help you do things like add product reviews to give customers more information about what you’re selling, which search engines may use to show star ratings that can improve your clickthrough rates.
Before you load up on apps, keep in mind that they add extra code to your site. Apps that load on the user’s end, such as some that enable you to customize your store’s design, may slow the site down.
Sitemaps. Sitemaps contain information about your pages and files and are used by search engines to crawl and index your site — this process enables your pages to appear in search results. Shopify automatically generates a sitemap.xml file, with links to your pages, products, images, collections and blog posts, for all sites. After verifying your Google Search Console account, submit your sitemap to Google to help it find and index your pages.
Crawl optimization. For merchants that want to control which pages get crawled, Shopify now lets site owners edit their robots.txt files. This can be used to disallow certain URLs from being crawled, add extra sitemap URLs, block crawlers and so on.
International domains. In March 2021, Shopify launched international domains, enabling merchants to sell to more than one country using a single account. Merchants can now configure subdomains and language folders for international targeting. When you do so, Shopify automatically adds hreflang tags to your store, which can help save you time.
Local SEO
Since the onset of the COVID pandemic, more local merchants have made their way to Shopify. If your business serves a locale, ensure that you have an online presence wherever customers may go to look for businesses like yours, be it Google, Bing, Facebook or other platforms.
While your Shopify website will complement your local efforts, the range of options for local search optimization warrants numerous standalone articles. As a jumping-off point, check out our how-to guide on optimizing your Google local knowledge panel.
Technical SEO for Shopify
Search engines work by “crawling” websites, meaning that they look through a site’s code and URLs to discover each page on the site. That information is then added to the search engine’s index to be ranked and served as a result when someone conducts a relevant search.
Technical SEO refers to the optimizations that facilitate the crawling and indexing aspects of search. Technical optimizations can include your site’s architecture, URL structure and JavaScript.
Shopify enables store owners to bypass many of the technical aspects of launching an e-commerce site by providing pre-made themes with Shopify’s framework as the structure. However, that structure is rigid and in some instances, does not provide a straightforward way to make certain technical optimizations.
Being aware of the technical SEO challenges inherent to Shopify can help you find workarounds for a number of issues and inform prospective store owners about the trade-offs that come with building their store on Shopify.
Below are the most common technical SEO challenges that Shopify store owners encounter. Solutions to these issues are discussed in our Technical SEO for Shopify guide.
Duplicate pages. Collections help group products together into categories, making it easier for customers to find them. They’re also an inherent property of the Shopify framework.
When you associate a product page with a collection page (as the vast majority of merchants are likely to do), Shopify will generate a second URL for that product page. For some of the free themes, this means you’ll have two URLs for the same product. The URLs you end up with will look something like this:
Duplicate pages can split your link-building power as referrers may link to either URL. Duplicate content can also make it harder for search engines to determine which URL to index and rank. While Shopify has remedied this issue for some of its free themes, canonicalizing the duplicate, some themes may still be affected, so we’re leaving this guidance in place, just in case.
Internal linking. The duplicate pages issue mentioned above can also show up in your internal links. In the image below, Shopify uses two different links to direct customers to the same product detail page.
The left image shows the link for a face mask as it appears on the store’s homepage. The right image is the link for the same face mask as it appears in the recommended products section of another product page.
While internal links don’t directly play into Google’s algorithms, they do direct link equity to your product detail pages. That link equity gets diluted when it is spread across multiple links and search engines will have a harder time understanding which one is the primary URL.
Architecture issues. Shopify automatically generates the URL for your product detail pages using the following structure: myshopifystorename.com/products/product-name. Store owners can only modify that last part of the URL, where the product’s name (which is derived from the page title) appears.
Shopify automatically generates URLs for product and collection pages. Store owners can only modify the last part of the URL (indicated in green).
URLs are a minor ranking factor, so you’ll want to use descriptive words in your URLs to inform search engines about your page, but also to give potential customers an idea of what they’re clicking through to. Removing the “/products” or “/pages” URL paths gives you more space to include those descriptive keywords; unfortunately, Shopify doesn’t have that option out-of-the-box. There are, however, solutions, such as Cloudflare and their Cloud Worker interface, that can be implemented with the help of a developer, as discussed in our Technical SEO for Shopify guide.
Product schema. Schema is a type of structured data that can help search engines understand your site’s content. Search engines also use schema to generate rich snippets, which can provide your products with greater visibility in the search results.
Bombas, a Shopify store, uses schema to indicate that a product is in stock.
Google’s Popular Products section is another search feature that uses schema to provide potential customers with product information, although it is currently only available for apparel and fashion items.
With an app like Feed for Google Shopping or ShoppingFeeder, you can sync your entire product inventory with Merchant Center. Once you’re in Merchant Center, if you enable ‘Local Surfaces Across Google’ in Programs, your products can instantly appear in Maps results when people search product keywords . . . Surfaces Across Google creates a Google-hosted storefront, so you might see a decline in visitors in your Shopify analytics if customers are browsing products on Google instead; however, these visitors can be tracked in Merchant Center.
–Lachlan Wells, Berlin-based SEO consultant
Product schema is built into most Shopify themes. The default theme, “Dawn,” supports the following schema types: “Organization,” “WebSite,” “Article” and “Product.”
However, there may be additional structured data types, such as recipe or FAQ schema, that you’d like to add but are not supported by your theme. In that case, you can edit the structured data code within your theme, dynamically inject structured data using JavaScript or install a dedicated schema app. Whichever method you choose, you can verify if your pages are marked up correctly using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
SEO, beyond products and category pages
Creating valuable, informative and engaging content can help increase your store’s organic visibility. Content can give search engines more information about your site and prospective customers more ways to discover your business. More visibility can mean more traffic and more sales.
The pages every store should have. It’s highly recommended that you create an “About us” and “Contact” page; these pages help potential customers get familiar with your business and enable them to get in touch with you to resolve concerns before and after they buy from you.
Additionally, a dedicated page for your shipping information, return policy, privacy policy, terms and conditions and frequently asked questions can also enable you to communicate important details and may even reduce the amount of time spent answering redundant questions. You can also add a mission statement or “Our Story” page to help distinguish your brand from others.
Keyword research. Keyword research helps you understand how your target audience searches — for the kinds of products you sell, the types of problems they’re looking to solve and other queries that are relevant to your business. You can then use these words to inform your content strategy and optimize your pages.
There are a number of keyword research tools that help indicate how popular queries are, seasonal trends and related terms. Google Trends analyzes search query interest, which can be filtered by time and geographic region, displays related queries and allows you to compare interest between different keywords. You can also examine the auto-suggested queries that populate in the search bar on Google, Bing and Amazon to get more keyword ideas.
Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising offer in-depth keyword tools that include monthly search volume and competition estimates and suggested bid amounts. Google Keyword Planner and Microsoft Keyword Planner are designed for advertisers, but they are both free to use and provide a wealth of information.
You’ll also want to evaluate what the search results look like for the keywords you’re researching. The “People also ask” box and the “Searches related to” section can supplement your keyword research.
Take a look at the search results and features present on the page to get an idea of what search engines are surfacing for that set of terms. Are the results filled with news articles, signaling an informational intent, or are they businesses selling products similar to yours? If it’s the latter, you have a higher chance of ranking for those keywords.
E-commerce content ideas. Providing your audience with pertinent content can help them get more value from your products or services while also signaling relevance to search engines. Here are a few content ideas that might help you get started:
How-to’s and tutorials can inform your customers about how your products or services work. Consider creating a video to demonstrate these points; you can then upload it to YouTube and embed it on your blog post or product detail page to encourage visitors to shop with you.
Behind-the-scenes content can bolster your branding and give customers a reason to shop with you over competitors. For example, if you sell vegan cookie dough, you could create a video that demonstrates how you test new recipes to teach customers about your process while getting them excited for upcoming flavors.
Case studies can separate your business from a crowded field of competitors. If you’re selling tie-dye t-shirts, for example, you could create a video detailing how your shirts’ colors hold up against competing brands, wash after wash.
Looking for more ways to optimize and market your Shopify store? Check out these resources:
User experience isn’t just an element that would be good to have. In modern lending, user experience (UX) is a matter of your business’ survival. And while many have incorporated mortgage software into their acquisition and processing, a large portion has yet to embrace the fullness of UX potential. Why?
Some may be in the dark about what user experience is. Others may be unaware of what a superb user experience actually looks like.
Still, others place false hope in that “good enough is good enough.”
But is “good enough” even enough to get by in today’s environment? We don’t have to search hard for examples where mediocre UX was the culprit of business failure. Do MySpace, Blockbuster, and YellowCab ring a bell?
These three failed businesses have something in common –they each had a competitor obsessed with innovative service and exceptional UX design. Now consider three businesses that owe their formidable success to UX design: Google, Amazon, and Walmart.
The bottom line is that companies without a compelling UX have lower customer satisfaction, less repeat business, and, ultimately, lower revenue.
And if you’re still not convinced that UX matters to your clients, consider this: if you don’t provide a customer-centric UX, your competitors will.
Ready to learn what it takes to have a first-rate user experience that keeps clients loyal? Read on.
Personalized and Borrower-centric
Because you’re immersed in the industry, you can sometimes forget how intimidating getting a loan is for the consumer. The process can be confusing and stressful, and without a helping hand, getting a loan is overwhelming and unnerving.
In the past, face-to-face interaction helped to put the borrower at ease. But with the convenience that is the digital revolution, it seems that personalization took a back seat. While no one can argue that a digital mortgage is massively advantageous in nearly every aspect, the digital factor can sometimes make the experience somewhat robotic, cold, and dull.
Definitely not the sort of experience that keeps customers loyal.
However, that’s not the case when you implement a UX strategy. Firstly, make sure that there are multiple avenues for communication. Whether email, chat, video call, or instant messaging, offer a variety of options for your borrower to get in touch with you.
Secondly, make sure that those communication avenues are centrally located.
You may be wondering if giving borrowers options will make it difficult for you to juggle multiple conversations. That won’t be the case when you use digital mortgage software with superior UX design where communications are organized by loan file, making it easy to keep track.
This small but pivotal UX feature also frees up time so that the LO can engage more with clients, strengthening the relationship and increasing their loyalty to your business.
Emphasize Your Brand and Differentiator
One of the most overlooked reasons that clients won’t convert into lifelong customers is that they simply forgot who you are and what made you different. Wait –that point could be presented more clearly.
If the client forgot about you or they simply didn’t understand what made you different, it’s likely because the user experience failed to impress that upon them. There are many online mortgage businesses, and just like any other digital business, it’s essential that you set yourself apart from others. UX is how to do it.
Everything from your navigation to consumer-friendly web copy to seamless integrated 3rd-party applications to a consistent logo and color scheme matters when it comes to UX design. Individually, it may seem that small elements like a customized loan checklist are menial, but collectively, branded elements and consistent messaging make your businesses memorable, impressive, and worthy of repeat business.
Over-Deliver
It was a mystery for some time as to why Costco and Sam’s Club gas was so much cheaper than major gas stations. But the secret is out and it’s worth mimicking. The reason these two major stores are okay with making very little profit on gas is that those customers eventually make up for it when they shop at the warehouse.
Essentially, they over-deliver on their promise of overall value, and, in turn, the business is rewarded with customers that are willing to pay for membership and spend more at the store.
Chances are that you, as a professional, are already overdelivering in how you help your borrowers. When you love what you do, it’s easy to give more. But does is that the case with your mortgage software, too? Does it over-deliver? Does your mortgage mobile app have that wow factor?
Does your mortgage POS have an element of delight?
Or does it just gather information and silo it into a portal where it waits for you to organize it into the proper format for the loan file?
Elements like self-paying credit checks, one-click connection with their financial institution, and auto-generated pre-approval letters over-deliver on your promise to make the loan process faster, more efficient, and enjoyable for the borrower.
Consider the Employee Experience Too
Despite technology touching every aspect of processing a mortgage, the business of lending is still a human-based experience. That said, you want your mortgage team to always reflect positivity when representing your business. Whether the client is reengaging with the realtor who referred you, the appraiser, or one of your loan officers, you want nothing but optimism and confidence expressed about working with your business.
While leadership style and company culture certainly play an essential role in that, so does the technology you use to manage your business. Mortgage tech that is cumbersome, inefficient, error-prone, or lackluster is a formula for distress.
High employee turnover, infrequent referrals, and zero repeat customers are sure to follow.
However, when you empower your mortgage team and referral partners with mortgage technology that’s intuitive, automated, configurable, and exceedingly efficient UX design, you’ll create an unrivaled ambitious, and enthusiastic network –-one that keeps borrowers coming back to you.
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We gave you a lot to think about already, but here’s one more thing. Now that you know what’s required of UX design in mortgage technology, is your current software capable of delivering? Is that “good enough” tool truly good enough for your business and creating lifelong borrowers?
If not, let’s talk. Contact us today to schedule a conversation with a LenderHomePage Account Executive.
