Shopify is a widely-used e-commerce platform that claims to be the world’s leading provider of online store systems. Many businesses believe that using Shopify gives them a technological advantage over other store platforms. However, a closer examination of some well-known Shopify-powered brand stores reveals a surprising finding – they often have poor Google ratings.
This raises questions about Shopify’s ability to truly deliver successful online stores. While Shopify markets itself as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution that can set up an online store in just a few clicks, there appear to be some significant SEO (Search Engine Optimization) flaws in its approach.
When evaluating Shopify as an e-commerce platform, there are two key questions business owners should consider. Firstly, what makes a successful online store? The success of an online store depends on factors beyond just the underlying technology. Important elements include effective marketing strategies, optimized product listings, a seamless user experience, and a strong focus on search engine visibility and discoverability.
Secondly, what is the marketing strategy behind the store? Simply having a Shopify-powered store is not enough. Businesses need to develop and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy to drive traffic, engage customers, and convert sales. This may involve tactics such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, email campaigns, and targeted advertising.
Google organic ranking explained
Organic ranking on Google refers to the visibility of a website in Google’s normal search results, without the inclusion of paid advertisements. This visibility is crucial for many small businesses, as it allows them to sell their products or services without having to invest in expensive Google ad campaigns.
For this reason, the topic of search engine optimization (SEO) is a constant concern for almost all store operators, regardless of whether they are a big brand store or a small retailer in the pedestrian zone. The goal is to offer users a relevant search result, which can be achieved through various SEO strategies.
Many companies invest a significant amount of money in SEO work, both within and outside of the Shopify platform. This visibility is not only influenced by the content of a site, but also by the technical quality and readability of the page for Google’s bots. Additionally, the location of the web server and its overall quality are also decisive criteria that can impact a website’s organic ranking on Google.
Comparison of the store belstaff.com, the larger Shopify store jeffreestarcosmetics.com, and bettermarketing.pub
The SEO tool XOVI was utilized, which today is often found in court filings due to its simple representations. Of course, you can also use any other tool. The OVI value — Online Value Index — is a global value that brings together all the values that Google offers.
Even here the visibility is different. belstaff.com simply has a bad ranking and our simple agency website stands out in terms of online visibility in an online store with a million sales. We can add additional brands with Shopify: Vogue Collection OVI 2.29 or Freeletics 6.72.
It doesn’t matter which store we search for or check Shopify’s reference information. All Shopify stores are not ranked properly in terms of brand importance and certainly also in terms of assumed sales. But let’s stick with belstaff.com and jeffreestarcosmetics.com and bettermarketing.pub.
This figure shows the development of the keywords in the top 100 compared to jeffreestarcosmetics.com and belstaff.com. Good for us at bettermarketing.pub. But terrifying for Belstaff. What the hell is going on?
Of course, for big brand stores, organic visibility plays a smaller role in sales, but we can assume that an SEO team with a lot of budget takes care of this store.
Presumably, 100,000 euros are invested in the store’s operations every year. How sad it is when every mediocre online store can rank better than your brand’s store with long-tail keywords and you constantly have to buy the top positions with paid ads.
If we look again at the ranking trends in the graph above, they are almost identical, and yet the prospects for fietz-medien.de are better and the trend continues upward there.
Final: Why is Shopify so poorly received by Google?
Google values the readability of the site.
Technical readability and content comprehension are absolutely important for Google to be able to recognize a relevant search result.
I don’t want to go into too much detail, but Shopify violates exactly this rule on 2 key points that the Shopify store operator cannot influence and will therefore never — really never — achieve a good organic ranking on Google.
- Server location
- Code quality
Even Shopify Plus packages, which are very expensive to buy on Shopify, won’t help him. But we also don’t know if Belstaff is also a Shopify Plus customer. It’s highly suspicious. You simply can’t influence these two points with Shopify.
The server location is always Canada. There, Shopify hosts thousands of online stores on busy nodes and with the cheapest quality. That alone is a disaster.
While 10 years ago it was true that you needed an IPv4 for every domain and store to create a successful store, today there are hundreds of thousands of stores on one IPv4 at Shopify. Every cheap German Shopware online store does better. What will Google think of this? There’s no evidence, just a hunch. Nothing.
Shopify integrates numerous libraries into the source code, which cannot be removed or influenced by the store developers. This creates a secure store system, but at the same time it creates a high level of dependency on the manufacturer and, if the latter is a technical dreamer, the store simply won’t rank.
And there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ll go into detail elsewhere about which code locations are involved and what exactly Shopify does there.
However, these two points, which cannot be influenced by store operators, are likely to be the cause of poor Shopify store ratings. And there’s nothing you can do about it!
The alternative to Shopify, Shopware 6, or WooCommerce
If you compare the costs that arise with a Shopify store with a much more individual Shopware 6 or WooCommerce project in the premium middle class, you will quickly realize that the one-off entry costs to achieve the same level of appropriate graphic customization are the same for both stores are almost identical.
If you look at the monthly fixed costs, you’ll see that small Shopify stores in particular cost much more than the costs of a small Shopware 6 store or WooCommerce store.
In addition to Shopify’s monthly fees, the reason is the payment and rental fees for the modules, as well as the fees for operating an external domain with SSL and email, which Shopify has not included.
