If you ask experienced unbiased developers what the best eCommerce platform is, they will probably tell you WordPress. Its open-source nature gives developers total free reign to build incredible and functional themes. Moreover, the huge selection of plug-ins makes it possible to do pretty much anything they want with the eCommerce platform.
It has widely become known as one of the best platforms out there to host your online shop on.
However, Shopify has been growing steadily due to its easy-to-use nature, giving users the power to build a great-looking and totally functional eCommerce store from scratch in minutes.
Adding your products is simple and fun.
However, people often forget that to get to the top of any search result page you need SEO. If people can’t find your online store via Google, they will never be able to buy anything from you.
Shopify does offer great SEO features. In a relatively recent unveiling, the platform rolled out a new plugin that lets you put your products online for all to see even from social media platforms and Google search result pages.
Merchants can now display their products right from Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and users can buy directly from the app or search results without the need of accessing the page. This gives Shopify merchants a lot more exposition while reducing unnecessary friction for converting. However, the SEO features of Shopify are somewhat limited, when compared to open source platforms like WordPress.
For one, their software as service approach means that you need to host and keep your online store inside the Shopify environment, and there is nothing you can do if their code gets in the way of your plans or vision. Moreover, the platform lacks precious content management features that are vital for producing impactful content that ranks.
This content superpower is what gave WordPress a virtual monopoly on SEO tools. One example is the usage of Yoast. Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin in the world with more than 350 million downloads. However, the company was closed to closed-source platforms like Shopify up until last month.
It seems like Yoast is now more than willing to drop their principled stance in favor of open source platforms exclusively, and decided to offer a version of their extremely successful SEO plugin to Shopify users.
This will certainly narrow the gap between the platforms, apparently tearing down the last big advantage WordPress had over the Canadian Big Tech Giant. However, specialists warn that WordPress still has the upper hand in terms of content positioning and customization options.
Nonetheless, these new developments have given Shopify SEO agencies a renewed vigor, and we can´t wait to see what Shopify-based merchants will be able to do with such a powerful tool at their disposal.
For those unfamiliar with the tool, Yoast is very straightforward. Like many other popular eCommerce plugins, it’s easy to install and set up: just go to your website dashboard and search for the new Yoast option. To enable it, you just need to click on it and then you are ready.
Under the hood, Yoast offers some key options that will help you boost your store’s SEO performance. Most of them are self-explanatory, but others might need some clarification.
Learning the ins and outs of SEO might take a while if you are not acquainted with Yoast and its recent changes. If you want to take immediate advantage of this powerful tool and give your online store a boost today, partner up with Genius eCommerce, your expert Shopify SEO agency.
