Improve your search ranking with SEO

If you're a graphic tee designer, you probably dream of someone typing "graphic tees" into Google and seeing your web page pop up as the first result. Achieving this visibility is ideal, but it takes time and SEO skills or Search Engine Optimization. This process enhances the visibility of your e-commerce store to popular search engines like Google, making it more search-friendly.

By refining your marketing strategy, even a small business can climb higher in search results, leading to more potential customers discovering your store.

🧹 Think of SEO as a digital housekeeper who tidies up your online presence, making it more noticeable and welcoming to visitors. Remember, securing a high ranking or the top spot on Google demands both time and consistent effort. While we handle the bulk of the technical work, your involvement is crucial for sustained success.

How Big Cartel supports your SEO efforts

Big Cartel provides several tools to help your site get discovered in search results:

📌 SEO metadata generation: Each Big Cartel theme automatically generates metadata for search engines, including your store description, keywords from product names, descriptions, and custom page text.

🔖 Valid HTML markup: Proper coding helps search engines read and index your site more effectively, akin to using correct grammar.

🧭 Simple, clear navigation: Organized menus and logical pathways make it easier for both users and search engines to navigate your site.

⚓️ Proper headers and anchors: We provide structured headers (like H1, H2, H3) and descriptive anchor texts for links instead of generic phrases like "click here."

🏷️ Appropriately labeled alt tags on images: Describe images accurately with 'alt tags' to help search engines understand the visuals, especially if they cannot be displayed.

🗺️ Robots.txt and sitemaps: Use a robots.txt file to control your site's indexing and a sitemap to help search engines find all the pages that should be visible.

👍 Find your sitemap by adding /sitemap.xml to your custom domain or Big Cartel URL Ex: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

📲💻 Mobile optimization: Our built-in templates are optimized for all devices.

🔐 SSL certificate: To keep this data safe, we use HTTPS and an SSL certificate. These tools not only secure your website but also make your business look more trustworthy. They can even help your store appear higher in search engine results.

Now that you have a list of everything Big Cartel is doing for you to organically drive traffic to your store as soon as you begin building, here are some things you can do to improve your visibility in search engines.

Pro-tip: You might not be on the first page of Google's search results yet, but if you want to see if your website is indexed, just follow these steps: Go to google.com and type "site:yourdomain.com" into the search bar, replacing "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name. This search query will reveal whether any pages from your website are currently indexed by Google.

What you can do to enhance your SEO

While Big Cartel handles much of the technical SEO, here’s what you can do to boost your site's visibility further:

• Connect a custom domain: Enhance brand recognition and trust by using a domain that reflects your brand name.

👌 If you need a domain or need help connecting it to your store, check out this article for help getting started.

• Provide a good store description on the Account page. This shouldn't be a laundry list of keywords - think of it as a brief bio of your shop with relevant terms included in it.

• Keyword-rich product names and descriptions: Use common search terms in your product listings (both titles and descriptions). SEO keywords research tools like

  Ahrefs or the Google Keyword Tool can help identify these keywords. This improves how search engines interpret your offerings and can encourage clicks.

• Descriptive image file names: Use descriptive words instead of complex codes in your URLs, like /big cartel-coffee-t-shirt instead of /product.id=12345.

• Create engaging content: Develop high-quality content such as blog posts, tutorials, and product reviews. Content that addresses common questions or challenges can attract organic traffic and establish your authority.

👌 If you have a blog and want to link it seamlessly to your store, follow these steps to add a redirect in your navigation. This will help integrate your blog with your store effectively. If you're looking for a simple tool to add product reviews, we recommend connecting with Fera. Product reviews are great for boosting SEO!

• Earn backlinks: Get other reputable websites to link to your ecommerce store. Internal linking acts like a vote of confidence, boosting your visibility.

• Utilize Google Search Console: Add your full domain (e.g., https://www.yoursite.com/) to Google Search Console to improve the effectiveness of your site's crawling and indexing. Follow the steps provided to connect your store.

Connect your store to Google Search Console to improve search ranking

Google Search Console is an essential SEO tool for anyone looking to improve their website's visibility on Google search results. Connecting your e-commerce store will help gain valuable insights into how your site performs in search, identify issues affecting your rankings, and optimize your site to attract more organic traffic. Here's how you get connected:

Heads up! Connecting to Google Seach Console requires a premium plan. If you're currently on the free Gold plan and would like to upgrade, you can do so here.

1. Head over to the Google Search Console tool and click Start Now.

2. In the URL Prefix section, enter your full domain name in the URL prefix field and click Continue

3. To verify ownership select the HTML tag option, copy the provided snippet, and head over to your Design> Code area in the Big Cartel admin.

4. In the Integration Code section, paste the provided snippet in the <Head> section, and click Done and Publish in your Big Cartel admin.

5. Now, head back over to the Google Search Console and select Verify, and you should be all set.

6. In Google Search Console, select Sitemap from your side panel. In the Add a sitemap field, enter sitemap.xml and click Submit.

Now that you're connected to Google Search Console, you can find key performance metrics for your store under the "Performance" tab. This will show how your store is doing in Google searches. The tool will also provide updates and tips for improving your Google ranking.

We also provide instructions on how to link Google Analytics with your store. This real-time tool lets you monitor your website’s performance by tracking which keywords bring visitors, how people move through your site, and how often they make purchases. This information can help you make smarter decisions to improve your SEO.

By integrating these practices, you can significantly enhance your site's SEO performance, making it easier for potential customers to find your online store. Use the links below for more resources and SEO tips.