Hello Sellify Club Members! I hope you’re having a great week. In this week’s tip of the week we’re discussing SEO trends in 2024. This was the second most requested topic from our December poll. Throughout Q1 our Tip of the Week Email Series will focus on SEO and AI skills.

Growing Need for Shopify Search Engine Optimization in 2024

When I started to research SEO in 2024 for you, the first question I had was, “how important is SEO today versus years past”. I was a big surprised to learn that its probably more important than ever, especially for e-commerce brands.

In today’s article we’ll explore the rising importance of SEO for e-commerce in 2024. Learn about Shopify SEO, AI impacts, and best practices for SEO-driven success.

The e-commerce landscape is changing quickly along with the volatile economic scenario since the global pandemic. Interest rates are as high as they’ve been in a long time as central banks try to curb inflation. It means borrowing money for paid ad campaigns has become more expensive for businesses.

At the same time, privacy law changes like the deprecation of third-party cookies and stricter iOS privacy rules have made the user data that powers targeted ads less accessible. As a result, paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google is becoming less effective and more expensive. 

As an e-commerce brand, you can no longer solely depend on paid traffic to drive sales. You need to double down on organic search traffic through an SEO strategy tailored to your Shopify online store.

With more users searching for products online, claiming the top spots in Google search results is critical for reaching those customers before your competitors. SEO lets you tap into this demand and increase visibility without paying for ads.

E-commerce search engine optimization should be an important part of the foundation of your digital marketing plans in 2024. The brands that acknowledge this early on will have an advantage.

Understanding Shopify search engine optimization

So, how does SEO work for a Shopify store?

• Shopify leverages metadata from your products and pages to index your website content. You should optimize titles, URLs, alt text, etc., to improve your store's search visibility.

• Backlinks from external high-authority websites signal to Google that your store is trustworthy. It can significantly boost your Shopify SEO rankings.

• Enabling schema markup properly structures the data on your online store for search engines to understand. It can help you rank for rich results like product rating stars.

• Site speed has an impact on SEO rankings. Faster page load times indicate a good user experience. This newsletter’s sponsor, Plug In Useful has created a very helpful app to improve your site’s page speed. You can install Plug In Speed here and use it for free for a two week trial.

• Using relevant keywords in titles, content, etc., influences search rankings when users look for those terms. You need to identify and target keywords people search for.

Getting SEO right means higher visibility in search, increased store traffic, lower cost of customer acquisition, and, ultimately, increased sales and revenue.

So, while Shopify makes launching an e-commerce store easy, you, as the business owner, still need SEO skills and strategies to grow your organic traffic. Understanding Shopify-specific best practices is vital to unlocking the platform's SEO potential.

Effects of AI on SEO

Now, you might be wondering: What about the sudden rise of AI and its impact on your e-commerce SEO? 

Artificial intelligence is driving rapid change across industries, including e-commerce. The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 brought AI into the mainstream. It has dramatic implications for the future of SEO and digital marketing as a whole.

On one hand, because SEO strategies are highly connected to content creation, AI can help boost your e-commerce SEO efforts. ChatGPT and similar tools can help you generate blog post ideas, product descriptions, FAQs, and other content that will help you achieve favorable SEO outcomes. Using the prompting skills we discussed in last week’s Tip of the week: Make AI Work Harder for you, you can quickly create great content that tends to be well optimized for keywords and readability. AI can drastically reduce the time and effort needed to produce pages that rank highly.

However, it's critical to balance AI-generated content with a human touch. Search engine updates in 2023 were focused on getting better at detecting lower-quality AI-written text. So, you need to customize and supplement any AI outputs with a focus on creating helpful and meaningful content to your website’s visitors.

Additionally, content that provides genuine value, shares your brand's perspective, and forges connections still requires human imagination and creativity. The most effective 2024 SEO content strategy should combine AI efficiency with human ingenuity.

Overusing AI can also commoditize your content. If too many businesses publish similar machine-generated blogs and product descriptions, it becomes harder for any one brand to stand out in search. 

So, doubling down on thought leadership content that expresses your unique value and brand voice is critical. The e-commerce brands that thrive in 2024 will have an AI-enhanced yet still distinctly human SEO approach.

How to improve e-commerce SEO for your Shopify store in 2024

Now that you know why Shopify SEO should be a priority in your 2024 marketing strategy, here are powerful yet achievable best practices for 2024:

• Implement AI content tools with a custom touch: As mentioned earlier, AI content generation tools can rapidly produce SEO-optimized blogs, product descriptions, and more. However, customize any AI outputs to fit your brand before publishing.

• Choose a Shopify SEO app for technical optimization: Tools like Plug In SEO and Plug in Speed can help optimize technical elements that impact search ranking. These include SEO auditing, fixing broken links, optimizing website images and code, and boosting page speed for your Shopify store. Take advantage of these apps to streamline your SEO processes.

• Research and target keyword opportunities: Use Google Keyword Planner and tools like Semrush to identify high-value, high-traffic keywords related to your products. Optimize your content for these terms through thoughtful copywriting to ensure your store ranks for searches with actual buyer intent.

• Produce fresh SEO content regularly: Search engines reward sites that frequently publish new, useful content pages. Commit to creating multiple new blogs per day/week/month informed by your keyword research. And regularly refresh your product detail pages to give search crawler bots new signals to index and help you rank for more keyword variations over time.

• Get found locally with a Google Business Profile (GBP): A GBP listing makes you discoverable to nearby searchers. So, create and optimize your free Google Business Profile to bring in local search traffic. Add accurate business info, engaging photos, and customer reviews, and enable messaging to boost conversions.

The future of e-commerce is SEO-driven

The stakes are high for e-commerce SEO amidst economic and industry changes in 2023-24. Growing your Shopify business will require drilling down to optimize all aspects of your online store for organic search rankings.

Whether you get hands-on with improving your e-commerce SEO or hire an expert, make search engine optimization a top priority this coming year. The brands that catch user attention and clicks in Google or Bing by leveraging SEO have the best chance of cost-effective sales and revenue growth moving forward.

In short, the future of e-commerce is SEO-driven. As interest rates rise and advertising becomes more expensive, organic search will be the most reliable cost-effective channel for merchant growth. By taking the time to understand evolutions in SEO and investing in solid strategy execution, your e-commerce business can thrive in 2024 and beyond. Keep learning, stay nimble amidst industry changes, and double down on driving qualified traffic through search engine optimization. The brands that embrace SEO have the brightest futures in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, Sellify Success Club will continue providing in-depth education about e-commerce SEO best practices. For regular tips and in-depth guides on e-commerce SEO, marketing, branding & growth, subscribe to our email newsletter.