How to get your Shopify store on Google 

Getting a site online isn’t hard anymore these days. Tools like Shopify aim to make this process as easy as possible. But before thinking about ranking, you must ensure Google knows your site exists. So, once a site is online, how can you let Google know your site is online? Here, you’ll discover how to get your Shopify store on Google.

Google has two ways of discovering new sites and content 

The first Google can discover your content is that other people find out about your site and start linking to it. Why is that important? Well, Google continuously “crawls” the internet. This means they have bots going from link to link over the internet. So when other sites link to yours, Googlebot will follow the links to your site as well and find your new site!   

The other one is a bit more straightforward. You can tell Google about your new site. A tool called Google Search Console lets you add a new site. This way, Google will know your new site. This helps to get your Shopify online store on Google.

The importance of Google Search Console

We want to get into Google Search Console a bit more because it’s quite an essential tool. Not only can you submit your site there, but you’ll also get a lot of insights into your site’s performance. How is your site ranking for specific search queries, and how is it doing regarding speed performance and mobile usability? There are many things in there!  

So, how do you get access to Google Search Console? You can sign up for Google Search Console and paste the verification code, and you’ll get right into Yoast SEO for Shopify. The verification code (meta tag) you get in Google Search Console may look something like this:

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="ABCexample-123456789-example"/>

You need to copy the code between the quotation marks of the ‘content’ section of the meta tag. In this example, the verification code would be “ABCexample-123456789-example”. This will verify that the site is yours, and you’ll get access to the suite of tools in Google Search Console. Our beginner’s guide for Google Search Console helps you find your way.

Besides this suite of tools, another important reason you should really use Google Search Console is that it lets you add your XML sitemaps. This means Google will know when you add or edit a page because those changes will be reflected in your XML sitemap.  

How XML sitemaps can help get your store on Google

XML sitemaps are a list of your site’s pages. It can include all your site’s pages, or you can choose to exclude some pages. In an XML sitemap, the date of the last change will be reflected, and new pages will be added as well. So it’s a “living document” of your site’s pages — or a treasure map, if you will.   

An XML sitemap is essential because it shows Google (and other search engines) what pages your site has, which pages have changed since the last time Google was on your site, and which pages are new.   

Shopify automatically generates these XML sitemaps, so there’s nothing you have to do on that end, but adding it to your Google Search Console is something you should do.   

What more can I do for my Shopify SEO? 

Shopify automatically does a few things for your SEO; creating the XML sitemap is the most important. If you want to make sure your site’s SEO is in good shape, there are a few things you need to do and think about.  

Keyword research

Before you start your new site, or when you’re starting to optimize your existing site, it’s always best to start with keyword research. Keyword research is the process of finding out what keywords you want your site to rank for. It’s important to have this strategy clear before building your site. If this is the phase of your SEO process you’re in at the moment, check out our ultimate guide on keyword research. You can also learn how to do keyword research for your Shopify store specifically.

Install Yoast SEO for Shopify

Once you’re ready to start writing or optimizing content, it’s time to install Yoast SEO for Shopify. Yoast SEO will fix many technical SEO things out of the box and help you optimize your content.  

Yoast SEO for Shopify does that with what we call “analyses.” Yoast SEO will analyze your content and advise you on how to make your text better for SEO. These SEO checks are specifically designed for product pages, and we also analyze your regular blog content. Next to the SEO analysis, we have the readability analysis, ensuring your content is as easy to read as possible.

You can also improve your product descriptions and product titles within Yoast SEO. This can also be done within Shopify, but when you do this within Yoast SEO, you’ll see what your page will look like in the search results and social media.

Our Shopify SEO app will do so many more things for you, and we’ll keep improving and enhancing the product, so be sure to install it from the Yoast SEO for Shopify listing on the App Store! 

Get even more into SEO

We’ve mentioned some things you could do for your site’s SEO. If you want to understand this more deeply, we suggest you read our ultimate guide on Shopify SEO. There is a lot you can do, and we’ll be here to help guide you! Our app, blog, and academy are at your disposal, so you’ll always have us to fall back on. Remember, you can access our Shopify SEO course by subscribing to our Shopify app.

Get your Shopify store on Google

And that’s it! This post should have given you some pointers on where to start when starting with your Shopify store. Be sure to get your store to rank on Google so you are ready to welcome those new customers.