Search engine rankings play a crucial role in traffic generation for just about any website, so you can’t talk about Shopify or any other ecommerce site builder without discussing SEO. While Shopify’s SEO features are far from amazing, they’re quite good for the most part and compare favorably to Squarespace and other hosted website creation solutions.
How so? Well, Shopify makes managing on-page SEO surprisingly easy. Adding or changing title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and alt text is both simple and straightforward. Adding 301 redirects with Shopify is just as easy. In fact, the platform automatically prompts you to add redirects and even creates them for you whenever page URLs are changed.
That being said, Shopify’s SEO functionality could be improved in a few areas. For example, while being able to customize URLs is nice, Shopify adds prefixes to products and pages. Ideally, the platform wouldn’t add these as Google prefers pages with simpler URL structures.
Changing the names of image files could also be easier. For instance, in order to change the name of a file for SEO purposes, you must re-upload the file after renaming it locally.
Overall, however, Shopify offers robust SEO features that leave little to complain about.
Shopify’s App Store Add-Ons
Shopify’s core features are quite impressive and nothing to scoff at, but it also has a dedicated app store filled with free and paid apps to maximize the functionality of your online store.
Not content with simply creating an app or two, Shopify offers more apps than any other platform. Most of the apps are designed to add a specific function, but some serve no purpose other than allowing the platform to communicate with other tools, like Zendesk.
Nonetheless, the sheer number and variety of apps in the Shopify app store is one of the platform’s biggest selling points. However, they can also be a potential drawback.
Despite providing you with a gigantic range of add-on options to improve site functionality and integration with other tools, many of the Shopify apps must be purchased. Other platforms provide the same level of functionality right out of the box, so you spend less on apps.
Some of Shopify’s most popular types of apps include:
• Advanced reporting and accounting apps
• Data capture apps
• Abandoned cart saver apps
Needless to say, if you need a little more functionality than Shopify’s off-the-shelf features can provide, the platform’s app store is worth a look.
Before moving on, however, we need to address the monkey in the room, or lack there of. MailChimp is one of today’s most popular email marketing platforms, but Shopify lacks an app to officially integrate it into its ecommerce platform. In fact, due to some issues regarding privacy and data protection, the much-anticipated integration of the two platforms has been put to a halt.
While you can still use both Shopify and MailChimp, the only way to do so is to perform some time-consuming manual workarounds.
Shopify and Dropshipping
Dropshipping is huge these days, especially with smaller startup stores. With dropshipping, there’s no need to purchase, store, and ship products – a dropshipper does it all for you. In essence, you’re the middle man. You simply send the customer’s order to the dropship supplier, and they’re responsible for delivering the product(s) right to their door.
Keeping pace with the popularity of this business model, Shopify offers a wide variety of dropshipping apps, making the entire process easy as 1-2-3. In fact, when it comes to dropshipping, it’s arguably the best ecommerce platform
How so? Well, Shopify makes managing on-page SEO surprisingly easy. Adding or changing title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and alt text is both simple and straightforward. Adding 301 redirects with Shopify is just as easy. In fact, the platform automatically prompts you to add redirects and even creates them for you whenever page URLs are changed.
That being said, Shopify’s SEO functionality could be improved in a few areas. For example, while being able to customize URLs is nice, Shopify adds prefixes to products and pages. Ideally, the platform wouldn’t add these as Google prefers pages with simpler URL structures.
Changing the names of image files could also be easier. For instance, in order to change the name of a file for SEO purposes, you must re-upload the file after renaming it locally.
Overall, however, Shopify offers robust SEO features that leave little to complain about.
Shopify’s App Store Add-Ons
Shopify’s core features are quite impressive and nothing to scoff at, but it also has a dedicated app store filled with free and paid apps to maximize the functionality of your online store.
Not content with simply creating an app or two, Shopify offers more apps than any other platform. Most of the apps are designed to add a specific function, but some serve no purpose other than allowing the platform to communicate with other tools, like Zendesk.
Nonetheless, the sheer number and variety of apps in the Shopify app store is one of the platform’s biggest selling points. However, they can also be a potential drawback.
Despite providing you with a gigantic range of add-on options to improve site functionality and integration with other tools, many of the Shopify apps must be purchased. Other platforms provide the same level of functionality right out of the box, so you spend less on apps.
Some of Shopify’s most popular types of apps include:
• Advanced reporting and accounting apps
• Data capture apps
• Abandoned cart saver apps
Needless to say, if you need a little more functionality than Shopify’s off-the-shelf features can provide, the platform’s app store is worth a look.
Before moving on, however, we need to address the monkey in the room, or lack there of. MailChimp is one of today’s most popular email marketing platforms, but Shopify lacks an app to officially integrate it into its ecommerce platform. In fact, due to some issues regarding privacy and data protection, the much-anticipated integration of the two platforms has been put to a halt.
While you can still use both Shopify and MailChimp, the only way to do so is to perform some time-consuming manual workarounds.
Shopify and Dropshipping
Dropshipping is huge these days, especially with smaller startup stores. With dropshipping, there’s no need to purchase, store, and ship products – a dropshipper does it all for you. In essence, you’re the middle man. You simply send the customer’s order to the dropship supplier, and they’re responsible for delivering the product(s) right to their door.
Keeping pace with the popularity of this business model, Shopify offers a wide variety of dropshipping apps, making the entire process easy as 1-2-3. In fact, when it comes to dropshipping, it’s arguably the best ecommerce platform
