Shopify is one of the leading platforms for building and managing e-commerce stores, trusted by over 1.75 million merchants across 175 countries. While it provides powerful features to simplify store management, neglecting key details during setup can result in challenges.
To ensure your online store flourishes, we’ve compiled a detailed Shopify store checklist, highlighting the critical steps to set you up for long-term success.
Why Shopify is the Top Choice for Businesses?
Shopify is a cloud-based e-commerce solution that empowers businesses worldwide to build and run online stores through a subscription model. It’s a go-to platform for entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, helping them establish and expand their digital presence. With Shopify, businesses can quickly create an online storefront and easily start selling products. It’s favored by both major brands and small businesses alike for its simplicity and scalability.
Must-Have Guide for Starting Your Shopify Store
Configure Your Shopify Store Domain
During the initial setup of your Shopify store, you’ll receive a free myshopify.com domain, like “https://new-fashion-brand.myshopify.com.” However, this domain may not project a professional image, affecting your brand identity. As we’ll discuss later, a unique domain is more memorable and fosters trust.
You can purchase a domain from various online providers, including Google Domains. If you’re on a tight schedule, a Shopify development agency can streamline the setup process.
When updating your domain, you might see an error saying it’s disconnected. This is normal, as the changes can propagate up to 24 hours.
Build Key Pages for Your Store
Every Shopify store should feature essential pages that customers anticipate. These pages help build trust and credibility for your brand while improving the overall user experience. They generally offer essential information about your brand, products, policies, and customer contact options.
Here are the crucial pages your Shopify store should include:
- Homepage
- Contact Page
- About Page
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Shipping & Returns Policy
- Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
- Collection Pages
- Product Pages
- Checkout Page
Configure Payment Methods and Manage Taxes on Shopify
Shopify provides a range of payment gateway options to suit your business requirements. These include Shopify Payments, PayPal, Worldpay, and many more, each designed to accommodate various customer preferences. Selecting the appropriate payment gateway before launching your store is crucial, as it will facilitate secure online transactions for both your business and your customers, safeguarding debit and credit card payments.
Set Up Your Shopify Shipping Rates
It’s essential to set competitive and transparent shipping rates for customers before they finalize their purchases and provide accurate delivery estimates. Your shipping rates should reflect the products you sell and the areas you serve. You can choose from different shipping options, such as calculated, flat-rate, and weight-based shipping.
Improve Your Shopify Site’s Loading Speed
When establishing your Shopify store, it’s essential to focus on loading speed. The speed at which your store operates greatly influences user experience and can determine the overall success of your online business. A score above 50 is considered good, according to Google Lighthouse. Additionally, you can measure your store’s loading time with the Page Speed Insights tool.
Tailor Your Shopify Store for Mobile Accessibility
Even in 2024, some businesses still neglect the mobile version of their websites. Our advice? Make sure you’re not one of them!
Why does this matter? As highlighted in our blog on how site speed affects the customer journey, 79% of customers dissatisfied with a site’s loading speed are unlikely to return. This can lead to significant potential revenue loss.
One of the benefits of using Shopify is the ability to modify settings to enhance your site’s mobile experience. It’s recommended that several site speed tests be conducted with tools like Google Page Speed and check for broken links. Eastside Co’s Easy Redirects app can help you identify and fix these issues.
While site speed is essential, it’s just one aspect to consider. Other factors, such as image placement, call-to-action (CTA) button positioning, minimizing pop-ups, and ensuring compatibility across different browsers, can also impact your Shopify site’s mobile performance. This is an excellent time to gather feedback from a UI/UX designer regarding your mobile web design.
Boost Your Store’s Success with Effective SEO Techniques
One crucial aspect to focus on when establishing your Shopify store is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Shopify SEO is an effective marketing strategy that enhances your e-commerce store’s visibility in Google’s organic search results by optimizing meta titles, product descriptions, image alt texts, and more. This approach helps you outpace competitors, attract new potential customers, and drive traffic to your site.
A wealth of information is available on optimizing your SEO efforts, and we recommend getting acquainted with the basics. Shopify offers various tools to improve your store’s SEO, and learning to use these tools effectively is key to building a successful Shopify store.
Here are some critical SEO tasks to concentrate on while setting up your new Shopify store:
Create a Sitemap
Generating a sitemap during the setup of your Shopify store is essential for both user experience and SEO. A sitemap is a roadmap for your store’s structure, detailing how different pages are organized and connected. These aids search engines like Google in crawling and indexing your site more effectively, ensuring that all important pages are discovered and ranked.
Image Optimization
To enhance the SEO of your Shopify store, make sure to optimize all images by following these guidelines:
- Use descriptive image file names that incorporate relevant target keywords.
- Optimize image alt texts with concise descriptions that include targeted keywords.
- Utilize tools like Pixlr or Canva to reduce image file sizes without sacrificing quality. JPEG and PNG formats are ideal for online use.
Keyword Research and Optimization
Conduct thorough keyword research to identify what your target audience is searching for. Focus on long-tail and short-tail keywords relevant to your products and have high search volumes. Additionally, consider keywords that reflect transactional and informal search intent. Integrate these keywords into your Shopify store’s content to ensure search engines can accurately rank your pages.
Google Business Profile
Complete your Google Business profile with all necessary information, including services offered, business address, and contact details. Adding high-quality images to showcase your products can also foster trust among potential customers. An updated Google Business profile significantly enhances the credibility of your Shopify store.
Content Marketing
Create high-quality, optimized content for all crucial pages of your Shopify website. This should include comprehensive product descriptions, features and benefits, usage instructions, and shipping and return policies. Quality content not only boosts your Google rankings but also increases conversion rates.
Building backlinks for your Shopify store and actively promoting them will enhance your site’s visibility. By consistently focusing on your SEO strategy from the beginning, you enable search engines like Google to make your site more accessible.
Create High-Quality Product Photography and Media
Developing and finalizing various media types can involve significant collaboration, planning, and review. Organizing a library of high-quality media assets before launching your Shopify store will enhance its overall aesthetic and save valuable time in the long run.
Here’s a list of visual assets you should consider including:
- Product photography
- Branded images
- A selection of stock photos
- Logos in EPS, JPG, and PNG formats
- A style guide
- Branded graphic elements
- Icons
- Video files
While this is a substantial amount of content, having diverse assets will be advantageous during the Shopify setup.
Furthermore, it is a good idea to create versions of your branded images that do not include your logo. This allows for greater flexibility in using them across your Shopify store and other marketing efforts. Simple design tools like Canva or apps like Video Background can be beneficial for creating engaging content.
Enhance Customer Engagement
Establishing your Shopify store must be designed with a positive user experience in mind. This means creating a user-friendly layout with intuitive menus and effective search features. Your store should also be mobile-responsive, load quickly, and be optimized for Google’s Core Web Vitals.
Tips for Boosting Your Shopify Site Speed
To achieve a favorable speed score, consider the following strategies:
- Optimize Image Sizes: Reduce image file sizes to improve loading times.
- Limit App Usage: Keep the number of installed apps to a minimum, as each can contribute to slower performance.
- Select a Speed-Optimized Theme: Choose a Shopify theme that prioritizes fast loading times.
- Enable Caching: This feature helps reduce loading times for returning visitors.
- Reduce Page Elements: Simplify your pages by minimizing the number of elements to enhance speed.
Why Loading Speed Matters
- User Experience: A faster site leads to higher overall satisfaction.
- Increased Conversion Rates: Pages that load quickly can result in more sales.
- Better Search Rankings: Improved speed can enhance your site’s visibility and attract more organic traffic.
- Mobile Accessibility: A fast site is easier to navigate on mobile devices.
- Customer Loyalty: Happy customers are more inclined to return.
- Positive Brand Image: A quick-loading site conveys professionalism.
- Improved Ad Effectiveness: Faster pages can enhance the performance of your advertisements.
Discover Chatbot Solutions or Implement Direct Messaging
As technology advances, businesses have unique opportunities to innovate and engage their target audiences. Research indicates that 1.4 billion people use chatbots for straightforward inquiries or feedback collection.
By preparing a library of pre-written responses for your chatbot, you can deliver immediate answers to customers, which helps save time and reduce operational expenses. Additionally, you can integrate Shopify with Facebook Messenger if you’d rather connect with customers via social media. While effective communication is crucial, elevating the customer experience on your Shopify store is essential for long-term success.
Conclusion
These ten key considerations will assist you in creating your Shopify store. Contact us if you’re prepared to embark on your Shopify adventure. Our Shopify Development Services are here to quickly design and develop your store, along with tailored marketing and business strategies to help your brand thrive.
