You hear a lot of Shopify experts talking about SEO and marketing being what you need to focus on, but you don’t hear as much about engagement. What’s odd about that is engagement is the Big Kahuna in how Google ranks your Shopify site. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of making your site more understandable to the Google algorithm. It is, after all, just a machine. Google doesn’t actually view or engage with your Shopify site, it just indexes the site and collects data about the visitors who do visit. Sounds simple, and it is. Google doesn’t know if you have great photography, it doesn’t know if you spend hours creating deep and meaningful copy, it doesn’t know if you have the most amazing products ever. Google analyzes your site to see if it can identify what you sell; lawnmowers, perfume, sox—whatever, and then it tracks how visitors interact with your site. If you have beautiful photography, great copy, and amazing products, visitors are likely to stay longer and view more products. That’s what Google uses to determine if you are a good site to send its customers, the searchers, to when they type in a query that matches up with what Google thinks you have. Even if you advertise with Google, you are not the customer who Google serves. Google serves the searcher, because without searchers, Google doesn’t have a business.

Okay, so how does this help small Shopify stores (or large ones) who are trying to stand out in a crowded market in a way that Google can track and quantify? Increasing engagement really moves the needle. You have probably already spent time and money creating great photography, meaningful copy, and amazing products. If you haven’t tackled those, stop reading and get started. But most of you can engage and delight your customers so that they stay longer and come back more often with what you have already, just make it more fun to shop. Yes, shameless self promotion coming, Stylaquin is the easy way to make your site more fun than the rest. Stores that use Stylaquin have seen shoppers spend more time on site, view more products, and get more return visits. This all adds up to an increase in organic traffic, a better conversion rate, and more sales. Why? Because Google is just a machine that takes it’s direction from how users interact with your Shopify site. Make your site more fun to engage with and BINGO! Visitors stay longer, view more products and come back more often. Sounds simple, and it is. Check out the video and see for yourself.