It is possible to use a single domain to host multiple Shopify shops (Shopify accounts). This is good SEO advice. I am referring to the fact that Shopify stores can be set up on one domain to maximize Google traffic.
Shopify’s imperfect approach to establishing multiple stores on one sub-domain is what makes Shopify so unique.
Ideal is for each site to be set up on a “Subdirectory”.
Sub-directory means:
mystorename.com/en/
mystorename.com/es/
mystorename.com/fr/
etc. etc.
Google KNOWS all of these websites and treats them all the same. This means that the “Authority, Trust & Relevancy” signals are automatically shared between your stores.
On the other hand, a subdomain is as follows:
en.mystorename.com
es.mystorename.com
fr.mystorename.com
etc. etc.
You can see the difference.
Google considers these websites to be COMPLETELY distinct.
They can!
Consider free blogging sites like WordPress and blogspot.
You can even think of the domain name Shopify will give you if they don’t have a domain of your own.
mystorename.myshopify.com
The “Domain Name” portion of the domain is “myshopify.com”.
This means you SHARE your MAIN domain with thousands other stores, many of which have poor quality information and poor trust signals.
Google must treat each site as a separate website.
All that being said,
You can show Google that the Sub-domains you use for Shopify stores are closely related if you do your SEO well and tie them together in other ways.
This method allows trust, authority, and relevance signals to travel between subdomains. We’ll get into more detail about how this works later.
How do you set up multiple Shopify stores under the same domain?
Setup each store on a SUBDOMAIN
These examples were given above but they could also be:
usa.mystorename.com
france.mystorename.com
spain.mystorename.com
etc. etc.
When configuring Shopify, configure it to use a Sub-DOMAIN to follow this approach.
You only have to pay once for your domain name.
You can have as many subdomains as you like on your main domain. These are set up by your domain registrar (GoDaddy, for example).
You can add another subdomain as you grow.
Sub-Directories work better than sub-Domains for eCommerce SEO
Sub-Directories work better than sub-Domains for eCommerce SEO.
This would be a radical statement to make, but Shopify’s system makes it almost impossible. Customization and configuration are key components of Shopify’s server-level customization. Even if you’re part of Shopify Plus, this is something you can only dream about.
Shopify Plus representatives have spoken to us about this. They said that it could be done “in theory”, but didn’t give any examples. On another call, they said that it was impossible. It’s most likely the latter. It is a SAAS offering, and server configuration at a customer-by-customer level is not feasible.
WooCommerce, on the other side, isn’t an SAAS – it is a Software.
Software is easy to install and configure – even more appealing is the fact that multiple WooCommerce stores may be set up on one domain with SUB-DIRECTORIES.
WooCommerce is the best SEO tool for Shopify.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that WooCommerce is also a winner in this area over Shopify.
eCommerce entrepreneurs who incorporate SEO traffic into their business models and business plans from the beginning of their business growth will find that Shopify’s shortcomings in optimizing for Search Traffic are so severe that WooCommerce should be considered at every stage of their growth journey.
Shopify defeats WooCommerce in the Shopify battle . Shopify isn’t even up for a fight.
Shopify is still not doing better when it comes to SEO.
Shopify doesn’t care about SEO.
In fact, they’ve said it pretty much in person when we spoke. To be clear, I meant that the phrase was “Our customers (storeowners) aren’t really interested in SEO so we don’t focus on it closely.”
Shopify considers their customers people who aren’t interested in search traffic.
Shopify is much more focused on customers (store owner) than those who are purely focused on paid traffic channels, such as Facebook Ads.
Shopify doesn’t even see this as an opportunity to improve SEO for store owners.
WooCommerce is winning a battle that Shopify hasn’t even started to win – that’s the truth.
Shopify’s shortsightedness is my opinion. While paid acquisition costs are increasing, search traffic is growing and being more cost-effective than ever.
As economic pressures mount and online shopping trends increase, store owners will need to be more concerned about SEO and Organic traffic. Store owners with an SEO strategy will have the chance to capitalize on the growing search traffic.
eCommerce has experienced such rapid growth that the problem isn’t demand generation. Demand CAPTURE is the problem. And being more efficient than your competitors at it. Paid advertising will always be more costly than demand capture. Customers are ready to buy when you point them to the right offer. Conversion rates are higher and traffic costs are lower, which means profitability is at its highest.
It is a good idea to focus on SEO now.
Shopify and WooCommerce are both options. You can create a strategy to generate organic search traffic (Google, of course!) ).
It is possible to make SEO more difficult or easier depending on your business.
Shopify and WooCommerce are rarely chosen based on SEO.
There’s also a lot of misinformation that WooCommerce is more complex than Shopify. This may force many shop owners to choose Shopify instead of WooCommerce.
We have a roadmap for international eCommerce that provides a solid approach to scaling while taking into consideration risk and cost management – while keeping things “codeless”, i.e. Without the need to have a single line of code or developer!
Shopify allows you to connect sub-domains together.
This topic will be covered in more detail over the coming weeks. For now, I’ll just mention that Shopify Apps are multilingual and can be added to each store you’ve set up on a subdomain.
It doesn’t mean it can only deal with different languages…
This is what I mean when I say that if you had two stores, one targeting the USA and one targeting the UK, you would set the language tags (called “hreflang tag”) to en.us for the US and then en.gb for UK.
Both Shopify stores will be written in English. However, the “hreflang tag” signals to Google that THIS PAGE IS the SAME AS THIS OTHER PAGE – it isn’t duplicate content. It’s content that should appear to searchers based in the UK vs the USA.
Google then makes a strong connection between the two websites, and finds that they are actually connected websites.
This guide explains how to use hreflang directly with Google. This guide is simple and written for developers. This is not a comprehensive guideline. However, I am sharing it so that you can understand the basics of multi-national eCommerce.
