The Dark Truth Behind SEO Automation Tools

Here at Adolab, we often get the request for “bulk uploader” tools. Our answer to this is always the same, we care too much about your future to build this type of feature into our app. The dark truth behind SEO automation tools is that they simply don’t work. These magical apps promise the world to their customers but fail to deliver real results.

Get Clicked SEO is different than the rest of the other apps out there on the Shopify app store. We actually care about your success and we help you improve your website every step of the way, with real tactics that work. We want to help you understand that SEO is a long term journey that takes a lot of hard work, time and patience.

The Problem with Bulk Image editors

I strongly advise using bulk image editor apps, let me explain why.

Nothing beats writing your own ALT text manually as you can stick in keywords that will help you get discovered by Google and you can describe your photo better than a robot can.  For these reasons we advise against these shortcuts.

We’ve seen SEO apps out there that promise to edit all of your Image Alt text for you in one click.

The shortcut these apps use to edit your ALT Text is incorrect for SEO. Typically, they use a template where they stick their brand name at the end which is really bizarre.

Other times, I’ve seen apps use another template where they pull in the vendors name which we don’t recommend as well. A vendors name doesn’t say much about a photo’s physical appearance. The main point of an ALT text description is to describe exactly what is the photo in order to help visually impaired users.

Second of all, adding a vendor’s name automatically to every photos causes a serious amount of duplication in text which can be incorrectly signaled to Google as “spam.” This can trigger Google into thinking you are “keyword spamming” when that wasn’t your intention at all.

Since so much happens behind the scenes in the code base with these automation apps, it’s hard to know what they are doing. And if you aren’t aware that an SEO automation tool is creating duplicate content on your site (which is bad for SEO) you won’t be able to address this issue. The consequence of this is that Google can lower your ranking.

In order to fix this, we recommend installing Get Clicked SEO and taking a look at all of your ALT Text descriptions using our app. If you see any duplication in text, you’ll want to change it to something unique that describes the image.

The Problem with Keyword Bulk Uploaders

Here at Adolab, we can proudly say that we do not currently offer a keyword bulk uploader on our Get Clicked SEO app. Let me explain why a keyword bulk uploader can actually hurt your ranking.

Since picking a keyword take a lot of research and time, we don’t recommend rushing this process. It’s in your best interest to take your time researching a keyword to make sure it has a decent amount of search volume and a low to medium amount of competition. To find out how to choose the “right” keyword, check out our article here.

The way our app is designed is to help merchants who have permanent products that don’t change too frequently. The reason for this is because once you’ve selected a keyword for your product page and have optimized it fully, it takes a lot of time for Google to notice these changes, and an even longer time for Google to start ranking these pages.

Once you set your keyword on our app, you’ll want to optimize your product page by making sure that you add a unique page title, meta description and product description.

How is Get Clicked SEO Different?

We differ in that we offer a wide range of powerful SEO tools that help you improve your website.

We create personalized structured data for your entire site, track 404 errors (broken or missing pages) and allow you to fully optimize your products. We are also in the process of creating some new and exciting features for 2019.

Should I Have More Than One SEO App Installed?

We recommend choosing one complete SEO app that you like the best (such as Get Clicked SEO). Of course we are biased and believe our app is the best one on the Shopify app store.

Our app was also a “Shopify staff pick” which means Shopify stands behind our product as being a 100% safe solution. Get Clicked was also featured as a “New & Noteworthy” app making it recommended by Shopify twice in one year! (Okay, now I’m blushing).

If you use more than one SEO app there can be a conflict. Other apps can sometimes create duplicate content, enter broken code into your website and this can confuse search engines and be costly to fix (after the fact).

Of course I can only attest to our apps code being correct.  I don’t know the exact internal workings of other SEO apps and so I can’t attest to the damage (if any) they can cause your site.

What Types of SEO Automation Tools are OKAY to Use?

This is a great question.

Not every type of SEO automation tool is necessarily bad. There is one exception to the rule, and that’s structured data.

Structured data is basically code that helps Google understand how to display information about your product in search results including pricing, currency, reviews, and in stock availability. Our app, Get Clicked SEO creates personalized structured data instantly for your website and maintains it for you.

So if the code requirements change with Schema.org or Google rich snippets, we’re on it! We make sure to keep a close eye on Google and Schema requirements which means you don’t have to worry about anything. We’ll make sure that your structured data is 100% healthy and always correct (free of errors).

But I Have Thousands of Products, Isn’t This Impossible?

If you have thousands of products on your store, you might find SEO impossible. After-all, where are you going to find the time to optimize each and every product one by one?

But just remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

And even if you are time crunched, rest assured because SEO doesn’t happen over night. You can take your time making improvements over weeks, months, years. Take it slow, take a breath, and make one improvement at a time (until before you know it), you have a completely new and improved version 2.0!

I actually recommend that you might need SEO more than other websites out there with only a couple products listed. If your inventory consists of thousands of products, this sounds like you have a real business with a bright future. If you’re in it for the long run, starting your SEO journey today is the very best thing you can do for your future.

If you have 30,000 products (or a very high amount of inventory), I recommend starting with your most popular items first. My advice would be to check out your Google Search Console and Google Analytics data to locate which product pages get the most traffic. You can start with these first, and then move on to other products that have potential (such as big ticket items) that can generate more revenue for your company.

We Believe in You!

We stand behind the integrity of offering a manual, DIY approach to doing SEO.

We believe you are 110% capable of doing your SEO and doing it well! We promise you are smart enough, determined enough, and patient enough to accomplish all of the improvements needed on your website.

Yup, this involves a lot of hustle and waiting around for Google to notice your edited webpages. There should be a constant flurry of improvements and optimizations happening on your site (all the time).

Summary

Skip SEO automation tools, and go for the real thing. Your website and store deserve it.

Achieving excellent SEO is an on-going process and this where our app comes in handy in monitoring your links, maintaining your structured data, and helping you optimize new products and collections.

Whatever you choose to do, just remember to keep working hard on your website and to never give up. SEO may seem intimidating at first, but if you stick with it (read our blogs and watch our beginner tutorials) I promise you’ll get the hang of it.

Whatever SEO app you choose to go with, we wish you much success! If you’re interested in growing your Shopify store, feel free to browse our SEO apps here.