Boosting SEO for your Shopify store isn’t just about understanding and implementing SEO best practices. Although this is an important component of your strategy, for the best possible results, it’s also important to use the right tools.
You can have great content on your product pages and/or store blog (if present) but that’s simply useless if there is no traffic coming. With the right Shopify SEO, you can achieve really high-quality organic traffic coming to your store regularly. And what’s best the organic traffic is for “free” (you obviously need to invest a lot into producing the quality content).
Recently, Google has also introduced mobile-first indexing for the whole web starting from September 2020. In general, mobile-first indexing is prioritizing the mobile version of the Shopify store before the desktop one and using its content and data in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). You should make sure the content is 1-1 same on mobile and desktop, including the texts, images, videos, and meta tags.
Fortunately, there are a number of useful Shopify apps you can leverage to ensure your SEO strategy yields results. The following 14 are particularly worth keeping in mind.
1. ConvertMate
ConvertMate uses AI to optimize/create product descriptions, meta tags (title and description), image alt texts, and URL slugs based on the popular keywords. If you are managing tens of different products/collections in your store, this tool is a must-have for on-page SEO.
The app is using ChatGPT-3 and ChatGPT-4 in the Max plan, and the outputs are truly impressive. The keyword analysis is done in real-time, so you are always targeting the actual keywords. On top of that, you can also A/B test different versions and see which one brings the most traffic to your store.
ConvertMate is relatively pricy – the Standard plan starts at $59 per month and is limited by 1.000 products and doesn't support meta tags. The Advanced plan is $139 per month and is limited by 5.000 products, but supports meta tags. The ultimate Max plan for $279 per month plan unlocks 15.000 products and uses ChatGPT-4.
Despite the higher subscription price, using the app can bring you tremendous value by increasing an organic traffic to your store. There are several other "AI SEO" apps on the App Store, but ConvertMate is definitely the most profound one and therefore our #1 recommendation in the SEO category.
2. SearchPie
Like SEO Suite, SearchPie is yet another app that offers many features. These include structured data features, auto-updates for alt text, and suggested SEO keyword updates, AMP. The app also provides insights and reports to help you better understand whether your SEO strategy is working as well as it should. Overall, it’s a very powerful app that will help your store get more traffic from Google.
What makes the app SearchPie unique is the fact that it’s designed for everyone from beginners to advanced users. Thus, if you’re not comfortable with SEO, this tool will help you become more confident in your ability to strategize and manage your SEO effectively.
The app has a free plan which gives you access to a comprehensive SEO audit, but also some features like bulk editing meta tags. The premium plan starts at $39 per month and unlocks AI features for generating content, and image compression.
3. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is notoriously known to the WordPress community where their SEO solution has over 13 million active installs. The team decided to develop a solution for Shopify and launched their app in September 2021. Since then they have launched many new features and implement lot of improvements.
Yoast SEO helps you in following areas:
- Programatically set SEO titles and descriptions for all page types (i.e. homepage, products, collections, etc.) using variables
- Automatically generate schema outputs to get rich results on Google
- Provides suggestions and "score" your SEO for each product and collection
All these areas are crucial to succeed in e-commerce SEO, yet Shopify doesn't provide any solid built-in solution. Plus there are many more features and tools the app provides like bulk editor or readability analysis.
The app subscription costs $19 per month which considering the feature set and provided value is a pretty good deal. If you are not sure, you can take advantage of the free 14-day trial.
4. Nada – Sort Out-of-Stock Products
If you are having products in your Shopify store that are sometimes sold out, it's definitely not a good idea to unpublish them. By removing them (even temporarily) you may be loosing a solid source of your organic traffic. When the product on Shopify is unpublished (i.e. switched to draft), it only generates 404 not found error with no redirect. And Google doesn't like it!
The best way to boost your SEO is keep all your products active and visible, and push down the out-of-stock ones to the bottom of the collection. If they can't be purchased it doesn't make sense to display them anywhere else. Nada app is a great solution to do that. It automatically sorts your collections every-time the product inventory status is changed.
Once you enable auto-sorting, the particular collection is monitored for changes. If some product will become out-of-stock, it will be automatically moved to the bottom of the collection. If it comes back in stock again, it will be put back to its original position.
Nada starts at $8.88 and comes with a 7-day free trial. The pricing is defined per your Shopify store plan and can go as high as $29.99 if you are using Shopify Plus.
5. AVADA SEO Suite
SEO Suite app helps you to build parts of on-page SEO effortlessly. It is designed to optimize website images and structure to be most matching to the Google search algorithms.
Avada SEO helps you to optimize your store images (alt tags, image size, and quality) so it loads faster. It also automatically adds Google structure data (so-called rich snippets) and allows you to easily control your meta tags like title and description for each product. The weekly reports and integration with Google Search Console are additional benefits of this great app.
Probably the greatest feature of AVADA SEO Suite is the SEO Analysis. The SEO Suite app gives out all SEO problems, improvements, and good results per product. So you can easily follow the suggested improvements and make appropriate adjustments in time.
Unfortunately AVADA SEO Suite is no longer free application. Despite the historical promises that the app will be kept for free for ever, there is now a free and premium version. As part of the free version you can optimize up to 50 product per month and get access to some of the basic app features (alt text optimization, SEO checklist, 404 pages scan, sitemap). The premium version costs 29$ per month and unlocks unlimited image optimization, meta tags, SEO analysis, and many other features.
6. SEO Manager
The strongest Shopify SEO apps often provide users with multiple tools and features. That’s what makes SEO Manager so useful. It offers a range of features designed to help users rank higher in search results. Additionally, it provides real-time feedback, helping users better understand which of their Shopify SEO tactics are working, and which aren’t.
SEO Manager actually boasts over 20 features. Some of the more noteworthy include a Google results simulator (helping users better understand where their page will rank in search results), advanced meta settings, and a Google mobile-friendly test.
That last feature is very important these days. According to research, as of the fourth quarter of 2019, mobile accounted for approximately 52.6% of all website traffic. That percentage continues to rise as mobile devices become more ubiquitous. Thus, your Shopify store needs to perform well on mobile devices to reach as many potential customers as possible.
It’s worth noting that SEO Manager is also a very popular app among those who’ve already used it. Its pricing is also quite reasonable. Users can start with a 7-day free trial to decide if they want to continue using it. After the trial is over, the app SEO Manager costs $20/month.
7. Plerdy
Plerdy combines various analytics and SEO tools. Regarding search optimization, the app allows you to check the overall site health against the major SEO parameters, analyze your content, and track SEO changes over time. It can also help you with technical SEO issues such as identifying duplicate content and noindexing pages which you don’t need in the search results.
Apart from that, Plerdy allows you to monitor conversion data and track various e-commerce metrics that impact your sales. With the app, you can also create customer groups to understand which ones to focus on and analyze your site's UX and conversion optimization through heatmaps and session replays.
Plerdy can give you comprehensive insights into your store's structure and content, helping you improve your search presence and make the site more user-friendly and thus converting. The app offers a free version with limited functionality, while paid plans start at $29 per month.
8. Booster SEO Image Optimizer
Taking advantage of Google Image Search is very important. Why? Because images compel shoppers to buy products. Thus, you need to ensure your images are optimized. That, fortunately, doesn’t need to be particularly difficult.
SEO Image Optimizer by Booster automatically optimizes the alt tag on your website’s images, simplifying the process of driving more traffic. The app is also super easy to use since no coding skills are required to install and implement its features.
It’s free to install and has two different pricing models. The free plan provides limited features and the paid plan costs $24.99/month.
9. Plug in SEO
Remember, ensuring your website ranks on the SERPs isn’t as simple as following best practices and hoping your strategy works. You also need to monitor your strategy and store to confirm there are no SEO issues. That’s a good reason to consider using Plug in SEO, since it regularly runs automatic tests.
This app will check page titles, blog post structure, headings, meta descriptions, speed and more. You will then be provided with a detailed report of your website’s SEO results directly to you. This lets you know if there are any SEO issues and if you can make certain improvements.
You can opt to stick with the free plan if you find it’s sufficient. Users who need additional features such as full structured data support can upgrade to the Plus plan that costs $20.00/month.
10. AMP by Ampify Me
Due to the browsing habits of today’s Internet users, it’s more important than ever to design Shopify pages that are optimized for mobile. While SEO Manager will help you determine if your pages are already performing well on mobile, you should also use a tool that helps you improve their mobile performance if it’s currently lacking.
Consider AMP by Ampify Me. It allows you to convert your Shopify store into an AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Page. This is a mobile page that not only looks impressive on a small mobile screen, but also loads more quickly than most mobile pages. That’s crucial when you consider that the bounce rate increases to 38% when a web page takes more than five seconds to load.
AMP by Ampify Me is also a hit with users. Pricing options are flexible. You can use a free version with limited features if that’s all you need. If you need more functionality, you can upgrade to the Hobbyist ($9.99/month), Small Company ($29.99/month), or Enterprise ($499.99/month) plans.
11. JSON-LD for SEO
Attracting more visitors when your pages show up in Google search results is much easier with rich snippets. Instead of simply displaying the name and description of your page, these types of snippets can display reviews, product pricing, and more. This helps users better determine if your link is worth clicking on.
However, to ensure a rich snippet shows up, you need to provide Google with large amounts of structured data. A single error in the data can prevent your rich snippets from appearing in search results. Luckily, this app generates the necessary code, so it will be error-free.
JSON-LD for SEO may seem a little pricey at first. The cost is a $299 one time payment. However, when you consider how much a typical SEO app costs over time with recurring payments, it may actually not be very expensive in the long run.
12. Smart SEO
Running a Shopify e-commerce store can be a lot of work. You need to save time however possible. One way to do so is to automate key processes.
The Smart SEO app helps in this capacity. Although it offers several features, its primary function is to automatically generate meta tags and alt tags (so you don’t have to manually generate and enter them yourself) and automatically fix broken links. It also offers multi-language support for meta tags, which is useful for any merchants running multiple stores in different languages.
This saves you a lot of time on processes you would otherwise have to directly handle yourself.
Shopify lacks the ability for merchants to manage their store’s sitemap, and with the Smart SEO sitemap feature, you can edit the sitemap within the app.
This is also another app with an impressive rating. You can start with a 7-day free trial, spending $4.99/month after the trial expires if you decide to continue using the app.
13. Bulk Image Edit
Bulk Image Edit is also worth highlighting as image optimization is an important factor when it comes to your site ranking in Google. As the name implies, it’s ideal for Shopify merchants who use a substantial amount of images.
Bulk Image Edit can update the alt text and file name of your images and compress them for faster load times in bulk. Being able to do this in bulk is crucial if your store has a lot of images and you need to save time on this key process.
In fact, Bulk Image Edit can compress images up to 51% without losing any image quality and can also make images have the width and height ratio.
A free starter plan is available. If you wish, you can upgrade to Basic ($9.99/month), Professional ($19.99/month), or Advanced ($49.99/month) plans as well.
14. Alt Text
Some of the features the apps on this list offer will overlap with one another. For instance, this isn’t the only app on this list that allows you to automatically set alt text tags for your images. However, it’s an alternative you might consider.
Alt texts are important for many reasons. From helping the visually impaired navigate your page to “telling” search engine algorithms the contextual relevance an image has to a web page, they play a major role in your store’s SEO.
Now you can easily set them at an affordable price. The Alt Text app will only cost you $1.99/month. It also has a strong rating of 4.8 stars with close to 150 reviews.
Make Shopify SEO Easier
SEO is crucial, especially if you are looking for more organic traffic and not just counting on Facebook ads which may be risky.
Succeeding as a Shopify merchant requires more than simply selling good products. You also need to ensure your store is optimized for SEO. Luckily, with these apps, that’s much easier than you might think.
If you have figured out your store’s SEO it may be a good time to focusing on growing the business. Check out our list of the best upsell apps for Shopify.
