Duplicate content is one of the most common issues that Shopify store owners encounter. It can harm your SEO efforts by confusing search engines and causing your pages to compete against each other for the same keywords. Duplicate titles, in particular, can be harmful to your rankings and online reputation.
In this guide, UpLink SEO company in Islington will provide you with a step-by-step process for removing duplicate titles from your Shopify store, improving your website's overall performance, and outranking your competitors.
Identifying Duplicate Titles
Before we dive into the removal process, let's take a moment to understand what duplicate titles are and how to identify them. A title tag is an HTML element that provides a concise description of a web page's content. Duplicate titles occur when two or more pages on your website have the same title tag.
To identify duplicate titles on your Shopify store, follow these steps:
Go to your Shopify admin panel and select "Online store" from the left sidebar.
Click on "Pages" or "Products" (depending on where you suspect the duplicates are) to view a list of all your pages or products.
Click on the title of each page or product to view its details.
Look at the top of the page where the title tag is located. If you see the same title tag on multiple pages or products, then you have duplicate titles.
Why Removing Duplicate Titles is Important
Duplicate titles can cause multiple issues for your Shopify store. First, it can confuse search engines, making it difficult for them to understand which page to rank for a specific search query. Second, it can harm your website's user experience by creating confusion for visitors who are trying to find the information they need. Lastly, duplicate titles can negatively impact your click-through rate, as visitors may choose to click on a different search result with a more relevant and unique title.
How to Remove Duplicate Titles
Now that we understand the importance of removing duplicate titles, let's move on to the step-by-step process for doing so.
Step 1: Create Unique Title Tags
The first step in removing duplicate titles is to create unique title tags for each page or product on your Shopify store. A unique title tag should accurately describe the content on the page or product and include relevant keywords. This will help search engines, understand what your page is about and improve your rankings.
Step 2: Update Existing Title Tags
Once you have created unique title tags for all your pages and products, the next step is to update any existing duplicate title tags. To do this, follow these steps:
Go to your Shopify admin panel and select "Online store" from the left sidebar.
Click on "Pages" or "Products" (depending on where the duplicates are) to view a list of all your pages or products.
Click on the title of the page or product with the duplicate title tag to view its details.
Update the title tag with a unique and relevant title that correctly describes the content on the page or product.
Click "Save" to update the title tag.
Step 3: Use Shopify's SEO Features
Shopify offers several neat built-in SEO features that can help you avoid duplicate content problems. These features include:
Automatic canonical URLs:
Shopify automatically generates canonical URLs for your pages and products, which can help prevent duplicate content issues on your shop.
Meta descriptions:
Adding unique meta descriptions to your pages and products can help improve your click-through rates and reduce duplicate content issues.
Image alt tags:
Using alt tags on your images can boost your website's accessibility and help search engines understand the content on your pages.
Step 4: Monitor Your Website for Duplicate Titles
Once you have completed the first three steps, it's important to regularly monitor and assess your website for duplicate titles. This is because new pages or products could be added to your Shopify store and inadvertently create duplicate title tags.
To monitor your website for duplicate titles, follow these steps:
Use a free SEO tool like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to crawl your website.
Look for any pages or products with identical title tags.
Once you have identified any duplicate titles, follow the same process outlined in Step 2 to update the title tags.
By regularly monitoring your website for duplicate titles, you can ensure that your SEO efforts remain effective, unique and that your website is not negatively impacted by duplicate content issues.
Remove Those Duplicate Shopify Titles!
Removing duplicate titles from your Shopify store is an important step in improving your website's overall performance and outranking your competitors in search results. By following the step-by-step process outlined in this guide, you can create unique title tags, update existing duplicates, use Shopify's built-in SEO features and monitor your website for any new duplicate titles that may arise. By taking these steps, you can ensure that your Shopify store is optimised for search engines and provides a great user experience for your visitors.
For the best SEO services, contact hello@uplinkseo.com or 07771220713.