Using Shopify Markets As Part Of Your International SEO Strategy

Shopify Markets became available in 2021 and has since undergone significant improvements in terms of international SEO. However, it still has some limitations on the default setup that merchants should consider.

What is Shopify Markets?

Shopify Markets is a cross-border management tool that helps you identify, set up, launch, optimise, and manage your international markets easily from a single store.

What Shopify Markets does for you in terms of International SEO

Shopify Markets allows merchants to easily:

1. Automatically create a dedicated country subdirectory/subfolder structure for each of the targeted countries, such as /en-us/ for the United States subdirectory.

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2. Add hreflang tag attributes across your sites automatically, indicating to Google which version of the URL to follow for each of the targeted countries

3. Localised Currency Display: Offers local currencies for customers, improving accessibility without requiring a manual currency selector.Provide local currency across each of the international sites.
   

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Key Shopify Markets Considerations:

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1. Duplicate Title and Meta Description tags issues across the international subdirectories.

Issue: When you set up a new market, your title tags and meta descriptions are duplicated from your main primary store. Search engines may see this duplication as low-quality content, and it’s not an ideal experience for users searching on Google locally. For instance, a user in the US might see a store page optimised for Australia, which can be confusing and reduce engagement.

Challenge: When managing international SEO with Shopify Markets, one of the key challenges merchants face is the inability to easily set unique titles and meta descriptions across all target markets.

Shopify Markets doesn’t provide a straightforward method for assigning unique SEO titles and meta descriptions to individual market pages. Instead, you’ll need to rely on the Shopify Translate & Adapt app to add them manually, which can be a very time-consuming process.

Solution: Luckily, with the help of Shopify dev experts, you can add a rule to your Liquid theme to dynamically include references to local country stores in your title and meta description tags. This avoids duplication, improves the user experience, and helps your store perform better in local search results.

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2. Localised Content limitations

Challenge: In any international SEO strategy, it is vital to consider local language translation, country language differences, such as American/British English, and even product seasonality in the case of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, so each dedicated store should offer a localised experience.

Solution: Shopify Markets provides an automatically localised subdirectory structure and hreflang tagging setup, but you can't directly edit the different content elements of the website. To overcome this issue, there is a free Shopify App, Shopify Translate & Adapt, that allows you to edit the different elements of the website so merchants can make changes on each of the international stores.

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3. Content Duplication Risks

Challenge: Shopify’s automated subdirectory and hreflang setup can lead to content duplication across markets if pages are not properly tailored to each region. Duplicate content can dilute SEO efforts and confuse search engines.

Solution: Merchants should localise page content for each market, including:

• • Region-specific product descriptions.

  • Unique blogs or articles tailored to local interests.

 

4. Limited Regional Keyword Targeting

Challenge: Shopify Markets does not natively allow country-specific keyword optimisation for metadata or content. Keywords optimised for one region may not perform well in another due to language or search behaviour differences.

Solution: Conduct separate keyword research for each region and implement custom templates to reflect localised search terms.

 

5. SEO for Non-Translated Sections

Challenge: Certain Shopify sections, like legal pages (e.g., Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy) and dynamic content (e.g., automated notifications), are not fully translatable, which can negatively impact user experience and SEO.

Solution: Use third-party translation apps to ensure that all sections are appropriately localised and optimised.

 

6. Cross-Market Analytics and Tracking

Challenge: Tracking and analysing SEO performance across multiple markets requires advanced setups. Shopify does not provide granular analytics for individual markets out-of-the-box.

Solution: Integrate tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Search Console to monitor and optimise performance for each market separately.

 

Top Shopify Markets Recommendations:

 

1. Identify Target Countries with a Clear Strategy

When entering a new market, it's essential to have a well-researched strategy to identify your main target countries. Analyse factors such as:

• Brand awareness in different countries
• Traffic and conversion rates per country
• Market size and search volume for your product category/categories
• Legal issues and compliance requirements
• Ease of doing business, including logistics and payment infrastructure
• Data protection and privacy regulations

By considering these factors, you can gain a better understanding of the potential market opportunities and prioritise your efforts accordingly.

2. Make Domain Decisions 

Analyse the pros and cons of using subdomains, subdirectories, or country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for your international markets. Shopify Markets allows you to go for any of these options.

3. Translation Approach

Ideally, merchants should use qualified human translators for accurate and culturally relevant translations. For those with tight budgets or limitations, translation apps can be used as a support tool, but it is essential to review the local content to ensure quality and relevance.

4. Optimise Metadata for Each Market

Create custom rules to dynamically adjust SEO titles and meta descriptions for individual markets.

5. Implement Regional Content

 Develop localised blog posts, product descriptions, and landing pages tailored to the preferences of each region.

6. Conduct Regional Keyword Research

Target region-specific search terms to enhance local visibility.

7. Monitor Performance

Use analytics tools to track and optimise SEO performance for each market separately, ensuring tailored strategies for regional success.

 

Conclusion

Shopify Markets is a great tool with an easy setup, but it has some limitations on the default setup. Merchants should consider hiring a Shopify expert agency to guide them with their international SEO strategy and dev implementations.

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