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The top 10 Shopify themes for SEO
Shopify themes are great for getting your e-commerce store up and running without the fuss of coding and dev work. With hundreds of theme options available in the marketplace, it can be difficult to choose which one is right for your brand. When shopping around, you likely consider brand fit, aesthetics, and scalability. But what if we told you that some themes are more SEO-friendly than others?
It makes narrowing down the right Shopify theme (and ranking on Google!) that much easier.
Why should Shopify stores prioritize SEO-friendly themes?
Simple site organization and a brand-friendly aesthetic aren’t the only things a Shopify theme is good for. Some themes are more SEO friendly out-of-the-box, meaning your site has a better chance of ranking higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Common elements of an SEO-friendly theme include:
Structured data: Many Shopify themes have structured data baked in. Applying a Shopify theme with options to update fields in structured data could help your store rank better.
Website speed: Some Shopify themes might be quicker to load. A high site speed is critical for SEO, as Google rewards websites that provide the best user experience.
Content layout: The layout of your Shopify store might impact how Google crawls your site. Themes that allow users to design an efficient content layout may rank better than ones that do not.
Navigation: Themes with friendly navigation help visitors to find their way around your site easily. Again, improving your navigation elevates the user experience, and thereby boosts your rankings.
The 10 best SEO-friendly Shopify themes
1. Mavon
Mavon is an excellent choice for boosting your SEO, as it supports recommended products and breadcrumbing. Breadcrumbing involves structuring your pages cleanly so users can navigate product pages and still find their way back to the home page without hassle. Google rewards a simple site structure, and shoppers will thank you for a straightforward experience.
Mavon also has a great load time, with a desktop speed score of 99. It’s well-formatted for both desktop and mobile, and adding product reviews and high-resolution images is simple.
Features:
Mobile LCP load time: 3s
Easy breadcrumb navigation
Smooth zoom functionality
2. Be Yours
Another theme with great page load speed is Be Yours by RoarTheme. This Shopify theme is highly responsive and well laid out. It also supports major EU languages, and merchants can choose from more than 30 sections and page types.
This theme is also highly customizable. With collection templates and easy point-of-sale designs to choose from, you can go with something basic or get as creative as you’d like.
Features:
High page speed
Customizable but also offers templates
Available in many EU languages
3. Flex
Flex supports custom CSS editing, breadcrumbing, infinite scrolling, and many product discovery features. On top of that, it performs at high page speeds. This theme also comes with its own cookie banner, and users have the option to add a FAQ on their landing pages, which is a common way of leveraging high-intent keywords and improving their rankings.
Features:
Built-in FAQ
High page speds
Cookie banner
4. Broadcast
Broadcast by Invisible Themes was built to improve SEO and boost sales. It runs at high page speeds and comes with more than 20 sections of pre-built content for merchants to use, including “about,” “contact,” and “story.” Navigation is easy with Broadcast, and it supports heavy transactions with ease.
Features:
Supports heavy transactions
High page speeds
20+ pre-built sections
5. Envy
Envy also has great page speeds, with the desktop load time coming in at less than 1 second! The great thing about this theme is that it also supports easy SEO-optimized blog writing.
Envy also supports breadcrumbs and sticky headers, so navigation is always clear. As a bonus, if you’re looking to increase domain authority, this Shopify theme also offers trust badges.
Features:
Trust badge support
Breadcrumbing and sticky headers
Supports SEO-optimized blog writing
6. Impulse
Archetype’s Impulse theme for Shopify offers optimized templates and editorial content. This theme also comes with many landing page options, many of which include long-form text sections so merchants can crank up the word count and use more high-intent keywords.
This theme also supports clean branding with ultra-sleek design options, so visitors can navigate more easily and convert faster.
Features:
Long-form text options
Sleep, minimal designs
Landing page and editorial content options
7. Booster
Another of the fastest themes is Booster, with a 0.9s desktop load time and a 2s mobile load time. This Shopify theme also has rich snippet support, allowing merchants to access all the native Shopify SEO features.
It's not only one of the fastest and most functional themes but also quite versatile. Booster comes with more than 75 preset designs for niches of all kinds. It also supports PageFly for landing page creation and the TinyIMG SEO optimizer app.
Features:
75+ presets
Ultrafast page speeds
Rich snippet support
8. Startup
The aptly named Startup theme is great for getting your online store up and running quickly. It has an excellent page speed score and allows users to add in-store pickup and quick buy options.
There are breadcrumb and sticky header options for optimal navigation, and Startup also supports long-form blogs and FAQs to make full use of high-intent keywords.
Features:
Great page speed score
Breadcrumbs and sticky headers
FAQ and long blog support
9. Expanse
Another theme from Archetype Themes we love is Expanse. This theme has a great page speed score and supports a vast product showcase. It handles large transactions and has wide language support.
Expanse also has great promotion design templates and can change currency types for shoppers in different countries.
Features:
Multi-language support
High page speeds
Promotion design options
10. Vantage
Lastly, we have We Are Underground’s Vantage theme. This theme supports catalogs from small to large and seamlessly enables heavy transactions. There are language support options for non-English shoppers, and the page speeds are impressive.
Vantage also supports image optimization by default and has many templates and designs for any brand’s visual storytelling.
Features:
High page speeds
Optimized images
Heavy transaction support
How to level up your SEO game beyond the Shopify theme
At the end of the day, an SEO-friendly Shopify theme can only take you so far. When you partner with experts to fine-tune your SEO strategy, your likelihood of success with visitors, visibility, and conversion is supercharged.
Remember, SEO isn’t a one-and-done strategy. It’s about establishing best practices and monitoring as you go. Especially as popular search engines continue to evolve and change their algorithms.