As e-commerce booms across the globe, we could all use some tips and tricks to ensure a better user experience, a stronger ranking in SERPS, and a deeper understanding into the role SEO plays in the overall e-commerce landscape. NetElixir’s SEO Team is here to help you improve your e-commerce platform and retail marketing strategy with a new video series on SEO hacks.

How to Fix Duplicate Content in Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms out there. While Shopify is easy to use and allows for a lot of customized content to make your e-commerce store stand out, it is not entirely without some small issues that can negatively impact your SEO and SERP rankings. But don’t worry; NetElixir’s SEO experts are always here to help!

If you use Shopify as your e-commerce platform, you may run into the issue of duplicate content with multiple URLs appearing for the same product page. Learn a quick trick for fixing canonical tags in the backend of Shopify’s admin to always point users, crawlers, and rank authority to the correct product URL by watching this simple instructional video. Shopify’s default fix is to add a canonical tag directly from the product collection slug variation to the actual product page.

Some development glitches give you multiple URLs for the same product page, and every single product is categorized as a duplicate page. That is an issue, since the crawlers are distributed across these pages equally in an effort to index them. Or Google will use only one URL to rank, and how will you make sure that you link only to the URL that Google uses?

Shopify adds a canonical tag from the collected slug variation of the product to the actual product page. But is this effective? Is adding canonical to the actual product page the best solution?

The answer is no. Since canonical tags are only hints and not directives, Google often ignores the canonical tag. So, is there a better solution?

Yes. NetElixir is going to teach you a simple hack that solves this problem.

Please seek the help of a developer to implement this. Or, like any other coding change, test in a staging environment before you make it live.

You can fix this common issue by simply modifying a single line of code, and all you have to do is adjust your Shopify theme files. 

Steps to fix duplicate content in Shopify:

1. First, go to the ‘Themes’ listed under the ‘Online Store.’
2. Then, you should pick ‘Actions’ and proceed to ‘Edit Code.’ After this, locate the ‘Snippets’ folder and pick ‘product-grid-item.liquid’ from the list.
3. Next, you need to adjust the code.
   1. Change this: <a href=”{{ product.url | within: current_collection }}” class=”product-grid-item”>
   2. To this: <a href=”{{ product.url }}” class=”product-grid-item”>

This way, all the product pages will link to the right URL path (the one that can be ranked by search engines). 

And that’s it! Now all your internal links and image links will point directly to the actual product page.

SEO Hacks from the Archives

• Mobile-Only Index & Active Authorship
• App Store Optimization Tips
• Solving for X: Maximize Your Google My Business Impact With Photos
• The Changing Landscape of SEO

Stay tuned for more SEO Hacks to optimize the reach of your e-commerce business. Like and subscribe to NetElixir’s YouTube channel to catch more helpful SEO Hacks for your e-commerce site in the future.

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DoubleClick by Google found that 53% of users abandon mobile websites (including online stores!) that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Ever since Google stated that page speed is a ranking factor as part of its page experience update, e-commerce businesses have been striving to improve their site’s performance.

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, with over 2.6 million online stores in the US alone. However, a Shopify site, like any other, must be optimized for fast page load. In addition to SEO, Shopify page speed optimization is crucial for an enriched shopping experience. 

Your page speed can be affected by a number of factors, such as Shopify themes, apps, or content. Every element you add to a website will have an effect on the page speed performance. 

One of your top priorities should be to improve the speed of your Shopify store. The majority of it boils down to optimizing graphics, correcting redirection, and properly utilizing Shopify apps. A fast site boosts rankings, improves search engine crawlability, increases time on site, improves conversion rates, and lowers bounce rates. 

In the below video we have compiled a number of proven tricks and SEO hacks to help you accelerate your Shopify page speed. Improving your page speed can help boost your online sales, rankings, and conversion rates, as well as provide a better user experience.

Shopify Page Speed Optimization Tips

1. Optimize third-party apps and plugins
2. Use Google Tag Manager for tracking
3. Reduce the number of redirects and broken links

Further Reading

• Google’s Page Experience Algorithm Explained
• Google’s “Link Spam Update:” What You Should Know
• Update To Your Core Web Vitals

The post How To Optimize Your Shopify Page Speed appeared first on NetElixir.

CMS platforms allow you to create and manage your website quickly and efficiently with minimum technical knowledge and resources. You can customize your website’s design and functionality according to the requirements of your e-commerce store. Each platform has its own SEO advantages to help your store rank in the search engine results page (SERPs) when people are searching for products related to your business.

For a full overview of Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce, download our e-Book on How to Choose the Right CMS Platform. Keep reading for a quick overview to help you narrow down your search.

What is the Best CMS Platform for E-Commerce?

Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce are among the top three user favorite platforms, though there are plenty to choose from. MIVA offers a flexible and adaptable e-commerce platform. Shopify currently hosts over 1 million websites and holds a market share of 2.8%, while Magento holds a market share of 1.8%.

Each platform offers different SEO and e-commerce advantages, detailed briefly below.

Choosing Shopify As Your CMS Platform

Smaller and first-time enterprises typically favor Shopify. Shopify offers a hosted solution with limited customization available for themes and templates. It is an user-friendly CMS platform with a drag-and-drop interface and simple inventory management feature. Additionally, Shopify has a basic set of SEO options to start getting your website attention on SERPs.

Shopify Advantages and Disadvantages

Shopify has a host of advantages to make developing your e-commerce website easier, especially for startups and beginners. There are a few disadvantages in terms of additional features, themes, and plugins costing a decent amount of money and there being limited customization options.

While offering basic SEO features, there are still a few common SEO issues found in Shopify, such as:

• Forced URL structure
• Duplicate content in collections and product pages
• Inability to edit Robots.txt files
• Setting up 301 redirects

NetElixir’s SEO team created SEO Hacks to help you solve some of these SEO issues. Watch how to fix duplicate content in Shopify now.

To update your Robots.txt files on Shopify, create a text file named robotsnew.txt and upload it to the nearest root directory. Redirect the example.com/robots.txt to example.com/robotsnew.txt with a 301 redirect. Add no index tags for blocking search engines from crawling old robots.txt files.

Prioritize your redirects and make use of redirects import when setting up a new store to lessen the issue of setting up 301 redirects.

Overall, Shopify suits a wide range of customers, from e-commerce startup to enterprise-grade clients and is one of the most beginner-friendly options.

Choosing Magento

Medium and large enterprises usually prefer Magento, as it is a self-hosted, open-source platform with numerous customization possibilities. Because of the various advanced features and customization options, Magento has a more complicated interface than Shopify and is better suited for experienced e-commerce developers. Magento allows you to customize and update store design and SEO strategy for maximum output.

Magento Advantages and Disadvantages

Magento boasts of a wide range of solutions, from a cloud-based environment geared for a startup to dedicated hosting for an enterprise-grade site. Magento has a highly active community to offer guidance and support to your site. Your website is easy to customize through Magento’s multiple features and numerous extensions, including multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-storefront options. However, the extensive customization may be too complex for beginners. Migration from M1 to M2 is complicated and users need strong technical knowledge to operate the platform.

In terms of SEO, users of Magento often face issues with:

• Query string URLs from faceted navigation.
• Duplicate meta tags from product variations.
• Indexing search pages.
• Slow load speed on small or shared servers.

To address parameter URLs that are indexed from faceted navigation, block these filtered pages in robots.txt and add a no-index tag. Use canonical tags to point toward the actual product page and turn on the setting to use only top-level product URLs to fix duplicate meta tags.

Overall, Magento is advisable for those who have an existing website and/or those who are building a multi-channel web e-commerce store with complex functionalities to integrate with enterprise-grade applications. 

Choosing BigCommerce

Small and mid-sized e-commerce businesses typically prefer BigCommerce. It is a beginner-friendly CMS platform with hosted solutions, but no customization available. With BigCommerce, you have dedicated customer support and basic SEO features.

BigCommerce Advantages and Disadvantages

BigCommerce has a no frills store creation process with low pricing and no long term commitment, so it does not require much technical knowledge. BigCommerce fully hosts your site and offers limited themes and extensions to cater to your e-commerce needs. You can easily manage SEO activities and social links. However, through BigCommerce you have a limited email subscription list and certain design elements are not highly flexible. There are only a few free templates available and premium templates can get expensive.

Some common SEO issues for BigCommerce are:

• Complex implementation of canonical tags.
• Lack of testing environment.
• Default blog setup is on a sub-domain.
• Transaction limits are set on annual online sales.

Similar to Shopify and Magento, to address tagging issues, block filtered pages in robots.txt and add a no-index tag. To fix your blog default settings, use a third party blog platform like WordPress to install a blog on sub-directory.

Overall, BigCommerce is suitable for small and mid-sized businesses.

Choose Your CMS Platform

Choosing the right platform for your business is an essential e-commerce decision. For a deeper dive into the pros and cons of Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce, download our CMS Platform e-Book.

At NetElixir, we specialize in implementing high-quality web development solutions for your e-commerce store and website hosted on Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, MIVA, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and other platforms. With our vast experience of managing digital marketing solutions for more than 500 e-commerce clients, we understand the nuances of different e-commerce platforms. A strong e-commerce foundation is critical to supporting your other digital marketing efforts. Our e-commerce and web development experts can provide comparisons between solutions to help you make an informed decision. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to experts at NetElixir.

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• A Marketer’s Guide to AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning
• Google’s Match Type Update Explained
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