Google Surfaces – Leveraging Free Google Traffic

google shopping traffic

The following is a copy of en email blast that went out to our list on 3/12/2020

Hey, 

Google is one of the most powerful ways to market and promote your products…….

….but, we all know they are one of the most frustrating businesses on the planet…….

There are times though, when Google gives us awesome free stuff, but as Google does, it normally doesn’t promote the cool free stuff all that well.

Enter Google Surfaces

If you haven’t heard of Google surfaces yet, it’s part of Google Merchant Centre, and it’s essentially an extension of Google shopping paid ads, that allows you to show your products in the the Google Shopping section of Google…….FREE.

The caveat here is that your products will be shown after the paid ads, just like the image below.

free traffic google surfaces

Even if you are not using Google shopping paid ads, it’s worth setting up Google surfaces as it’s free, and it’s does bring in buyer traffic.

It Has SEO Benefits

It’s also has an SEO benefit, as quality traffic is a core ranking signal for Google. 

What better traffic than a user who clicks on a product in Google shopping. See the clicks coming in from an account we setup only a week ago below.

clicks from google surfaces

The easiest and fastest way to get setup is using the Shopify Google channel in your Shopify dashboard, and follow the instructions. 

Note that Google has been rolling this our gradually around the world, so if it’s not in your region yet, be patient.

Cheers,

Jono

https://ecomxseo.com

 

ShopifyX SEO V2 – The Most Comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet:

(Get $150 with code: v2launch)

(Payment plan also available)

ShopifyX SEO V2 Course

ShopifyX SEO V2 - The most comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet.


Over 100 modules of deep, actionable content to drive free Google traffic to your store.

Moving The Needle With SEO Tools

tools for seo

The following is an email blast that went out to our subscribers on 1-12-2020

Hey,

Whew….. If you ran a Cyber weekend sale, I hope it went well for you. 

I’m still recovering from working with our clients and own stores. It’s always a big task to get organised and keep things ticking along nicely with a big sale like this.

Competing With The Big Boys

I had a question the other day about should we even bother trying to compete with the massive ecom sites or branded sites that are aged, have huge authority, and 1000s of links. 

My answer is a classic SEO answer…..It depends! 

Sometimes when you do some keyword research, you start to get excited about what the potential is…..then you check the first page of Google and find that it’s filled with the big boys, or high DR sites. 

So you move on.

BUT….you can compete. Look at this example below. This is one of our brand new sites. It’s not Shopify, but it will be part of a Shopify store in the future. 

Our strategy here is different than most…..We are ranking content first, driving traffic, and then we will bring in a Shopify store later on……when we already have traffic.

 

seo tools that work

 

What do you notice about our listing?

We are in position 6 for a keyword that has about 200 searches per month, when you take into account all keyword variations.

It has a DR of 2. Every other site on page 1 for this keyword is between 90 and 27.

This is not a massive keyword, but this page is ranking for other terms and also long tails.

One month after publishing this post, it brings in about 15 unique visitors per day and growing. As we publish more posts just like this, our traffic just keeps growing.

This is proof that you can rank and compete with the right strategy, even if your site is brand new.

How?

We let the data guide us. We use tools that help us move the needle. Surfer SEO & Ahrefs.com for example. 

The point is, these tools are not gimmicks, they are serious data analytics tools that help you move the needle.

We use them everyday to get results.

Cheers,

Jono

https://ecomxseo.com

ShopifyX SEO V2 – The Most Comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet: 

        (Get $150 with code: v2launch)
        (Payment plan also available)

FREE TRIAL

ShopifyX SEO V2 - The most comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet.


Over 100 modules of deep, actionable content to drive free Google traffic to your store.

Shopify Sales Pages – Create Evergreen Pages For Performance

creating evergreen Shopify sales pages

The following is an email blast that went out to our list on 26-11-2020

Hey,

With Black Friday starting tomorrow (so many offers are already live), I thought it a good time to give you a very simple, effective, and actionable tip to have your Shopify store ready for next year. 

This is not rocket science, but getting this set up now can pay off many years into the future. 

Black Friday Organic Traffic

What most stores do is create a sale page just before the sale, let it run, send some paid traffic, social whatever…….

They do ok, and then unpublish that page. They don’t want a non active sale page active throughout the year…..right.

Create Evergreen Sales Pages

What we do and you should too, is create evergreen sales pages.

For example:

  • yourstore . com / pages / black-friday-sale
  • yourstore . com / pages / boxing-day-sale
  • yourstore . com / pages / easter-sale


The idea is to keep these URLs live all the time, and just swap out the content, and SEO meta information for each sale. 

You can add a new H1 (page title) and SEO title for each sale

for example: Black Friday Sale 2020 – Get X% OFF Store Wide

Then create quality content optimised correctly.

Over time, this page matures, will gain some nice backlinks, and relevance for you particular market. 

Each time you create a new sale, it will perform better and better.

When the sale is over, you can just link to the pages (so they are not orphan pages) in a html sitemap or hub sale page. Each sale page can then just have note added after the sale, that it has expired.

Alternatively you could create new URLs and redirect the old URL each time, but in our experience this is not as powerful.

So…….it’s simple, actionable……and really no excuse for a little time getting the page setup!

Cheers,

Jono

ShopifyX SEO V2 – The Most Comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet: 

        (Get $150 with code: v2launch)
        (Payment plan also available)

FREE TRIAL

ShopifyX SEO V2 - The most comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet.


Over 100 modules of deep, actionable content to drive free Google traffic to your store.

Content Creation For Shopify Stores- Surfer SEO

surfer deal

The following is an email blast that went out to our list on 24-11-2020

Hey,

One the most time consuming and certainly expensive parts of any Shopify SEO campaign, is creating content.

Most of us can write blog posts and product descriptions for our Shopify store.

BUT…..

even if we do in depth keyword research and topical analysis, how do we actually know we’re creating the content that not only is great for our readers, but also Google and the other search engines.

The Content Conundrum

There are two areas that really need to addressed for creating blog content for your store:

1. How to create enough without blowing your budget….. or brain

2. How to create that content that is optimised correctly for both Google and your readers

These are two of the main questions we will be working on in 2021, to really not only up our content game, but help our students as well. 

Currently we working on and testing a system using a number of different tools, that can do just that. 

As soon as we have any meaningful results, you’ll be the first to know.

Enter Surfer SEO

If you haven’t heard about Surfer SEO yet, you will. It’s been a game changer in content creation for the last couple of years. 

What does it do?

The concept is simple…..but the tech behind the tool is not.

Essentially it creates a template for you to follow when writing about certain topics, that is matched against sites already ranking and performing well for those topics, including H1 tags, words count, true density, and a heap of other data.

The end result is a piece of content that is not only optimised for the search engines, but your readers as well.

Does it work? Check out an example below of a term we used with Surfer in a competitive health niche, for a blog post we wrote. 

This is the organic traffic graph for that one blog post. 

surfer seo for shopifyThe tool is easy to use, as more times than not, we end up with results like this.

If you’ve been on the fence about Surfer SEO, this is good time to consider trying it. 

You can get a 7 day free trial, but they are also having a Black Friday sale. You can check out the offer here:

Surfer SEO Black Friday Sale

FREE TRIAL

ShopifyX SEO V2 - The most comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet.


Over 100 modules of deep, actionable content to drive free Google traffic to your store.

Having Patience With SEO In Today’s Instant Gratification Eco-System

seo takes time

This is a re-publication of an email blast that went out to our members on 22-11-2020

Hey,

I hope you’re having a great weekend so far. You may of noticed I’ve started to send out content more regularly. 

It’s my goal to help as many people I can moving into 2021, improving their Shopify store traffic, and overall performance. 

SEO is all about mindset….

Yep, you’ve probably heard it all before, but the thing is, with SEO, it’s particularly true.


Your Personality Type Will Determine Your Success With SEO

A close friend who runs a successful Shopify store called me the other day, wanting us to do his SEO for him. Knowing him well, I thought it may not be the right strategy for him. 

Why? 

He is extremely ambitious and wants results fast….like super fast. He’s built his store rapidly and scaled it to 6 figures per month with paid advertising. 

I just know if we do SEO, for him, and don’t results in the first week, he wont be happy.

 

Patience & Consistency

The key is time and consistency…..a little bit each day. You also have to trust the process and ride out the fluctuations that happen. 

For example, here is a client site 3 months in to a campaign. 

 

patience with seo

You can see the pull back in traffic about 2.5 months in. We see this all the time, where there is a pull back before a move up. 

Too many site owners give up after a couple of months without results, or worse, reverse everything they’ve done in those 2 months, without giving the algorithm time to re-value the site. 

When you have a process, and you’re patient, Shopify SEO simply works. If you have a personality like my friend, be self aware and change your mindset to be patient. 

Organic Google traffic is amazing once you have it.

Cheers,

Jono

ShopifyX SEO V2 – The Most Comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet:

FREE Trial: ShopifyX SEO V2

ShopifyX SEO V2 Full Course

(Get $150 with code: v2launch)
(Payment plan also available)

FREE TRIAL

ShopifyX SEO V2 - The most comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet.


Over 100 modules of deep, actionable content to drive free Google traffic to your store.

Paid Traffic Can Help You SEO? Wait What?

helping rankings with paid traffic

The following is an email blast that was sent out to our members on 21/11/2020

Hey ,

So I was on the phone with a call with a client yesterday, talking about current results.

I remember last year it took some twisting of the arm to convince him to start running Facebook and Instagram retargeting ads, in combination with organic strategies.

One thing we always try and do, is combine our organic traffic efforts with some form of paid advertising. We talk about it in our course.

It doesn’t need to be much, even only a few dollars a day……

Paid Traffic Will Help Your Organic Efforts

It sound weird, but one of the best returns you’ll get from SEO, is using it with paid traffic….

Hang on…..isn’t that a contradiction?

Stay with me here…..

Google (and the other search engines), want to see high quality traffic to your store.

It’s great if it comes from google search, but Google also likes to see traffic that converts…..period, no matter where it comes from.

Retarget Your Organic Search Traffic

It make sense that if a visitor ends up on a collection or product page from organic search, they probably have more intent to purchase than a visitor that is acquired from a disruption strategy, like Facebook paid advertising.

It would also make sense that if you retarget this visitor with Facebook, Instagram or Google ads, they are more likely to convert, than retargeting from Facebook or Instagram advertising.

Google loves to see conversions….for Shopify stores, it’s one of the most powerful signals….

The more conversions, the more Google will value your store in your market.

You rank higher, your get more organic traffic, you retarget, make more conversions….

…and the snowball continues

Back To The Client

Did the organic traffic retargeting work?

We did nothing magical, just a simple retargeting campaign using dynamic Facebook and Instagram ads.

 

roas of retargeting campaign

 

Last month it achieved a return on ad spend of 18.17.

We also run retargeting for top end funnel Facebook ads, and that traffic converts not nearly as well.

None of this is new or revolutionary, but many store owners don’t distinguish between the traffic sources and difference in quality of the traffic.

It’s been consistent now for months. And the best part is……it helps push organic traffic higher and higher each month.

If you’re not retargeting your organic traffic, try it, if only a few dollars a day.
Cheers,

Jono

ShopifyX SEO V2 – The Most Comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet:

FREE Trial: ShopifyX SEO V2

ShopifyX SEO V2 Full Course

(Get $150 with code: v2launch)
(Payment plan also available)

FREE TRIAL

ShopifyX SEO V2 - The most comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet.


Over 100 modules of deep, actionable content to drive free Google traffic to your store.

Leveraging Shopify Tag Pages For Google Traffic

shopify tag pages

The following is an email blast that was delivered to our subscribers on 20/11/2020

Hey ,

Do you know the power of Shopify tag pages?

Tag pages have been around with site design for ever…..

but most sites don’t use them effectively, if at all

or worse, they are providing Google with a low quality signal.

Tags are important and can be used in a variety of ways to help user navigation, sort products, and aggregate collections…

The Tag Page Conundrum

If you use the native Shopify tag system out of the box, chances are you’ll end up with a heap of low quality tag pages with duplicate content, indexed in Google.

While it will not necessarily directly put your site at risk of a Google penalty, your entire site may be suppressed,
or individual pages not performing as they should…..

That’s why we normally add the “noindex” tag to tag pages.

It helps keep sites cleaner and ensure our high quality pages are indexed and ranked
and getting the love from Google they deserve.

What If You Could Leverage The Power Of Tag Pages?

Up until now there has been no way to optimise tag pages without complicated custom code…..

You know the drill, SEO titles, H1 tags, descriptions, unique content etc…….Imagine a URL like this, that you could also optimise easily….

yourstore . com/ collections / t-shirts/ red

add a unique seo title, H1 title, description, content……with full control….

💥💥 BOOM 💥💥

Now that’s a super relevant high quality ecommerce page.
This is what we are currently building into our app….and it’s coming early 2021.
All current users will of course, get early access, and we’ll be calling for beta testers very soon…….

Cheers,

Jono

ShopifyX SEO V2 – The Most Comprehensive Shopify SEO course on the planet:

FREE Trial: ShopifyX V2

ShopifyX SEO V2 Full Course

(Get $150 with code: v2launch)
(Payment plan also available)