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Let’s say you’ve got a Shopify store with some collections already. Maybe you have five, 25, or 95 collections already.
No matter how many collections you have, you’re faced with a collection SEO problem: how many of your existing collections should you take the time to optimize?
- All of them?
- None of them?
- Just some of them?
I recommend focusing on just a select subset of all of your collections. You don’t need to optimize all of them, just some of them. (Or at least, to start.)
So, which collections should you focus on? And how should you tell which? to focus on?
Should you optimize all collections at once? Or just a few at a time?
I recommend working on just a small number of collections at a time.
- Pick just 3 or 5 at a time to start.
- Add those collections to your collection keyword map.
- Focus on optimizing those collections (i.e., researching keywords, optimizing SEO titles, and writing collection descriptions).
- Then, once done, move on to another set of 3-5+ collections.
This slow, steady, incremental approach will help you progress over time. Plus, this approach will help you refine your tactics and technique as you work on different batches of collections instead of trying to do everything all at once.
Picking ‘SEO priority’ collections
There are a few different ways to prioritize and pick which collections to focus on. The individual collections you start with don’t matter that much. Because you’ll be following an incremental approach to optimization, you’ll work your way through your collections over a few weeks or months.
Here are a few ways to slice through your list of ‘all collections.’ I’m presenting these in no particular order. These paths are fine to go from ‘all collections’ to ‘some collections.’
- Collections that are already getting traffic in Google. Look in Google Analytics. Segment and filter down to collections on your site receiving traffic from Google over the past ~3-6 months. Pick the top ~3-5 collections off your list. Focus on optimizing those collections first.
- Collections you have a feeling about. If you have a few favorite collections or have a hunch/feeling about them, start working on them.
- Collections that are already getting clicks in Google Search Console. Use Google Search Console’s performance report.
- Collections that are ranking on the cusp in Google Search Console. You want to segment and filter in Google Search Console to look at collections ranking ~8th – 17th for relevant keywords. Then, focus on optimizing those collections for those keywords.
- Collections linked to from the top level of your navigation. If you’re linking to a collection in the top level of your navigation, then it’s worth optimizing that collection for SEO. Google will see the collection in your navigation and be more likely to visit it. And since it’s linked in your nav, your visitors will be more likely to visit the collection.
- Collections in your homepage content. If you’re linking to a collection in your homepage content, it’s worth optimizing that collection. Homepage content links to collections help Google see those collections as potentially being more relevant.
Track your collections + keywords in the keyword map
As you identify collections to optimize, I recommend adding them to your Collection Keyword Map. That way, it’s easy to keep track of the keywords you’re optimizing for and the pages targeting those keywords. Access that free resource in the next chapter.
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Splitting collection descriptions
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Collection Keyword Map