Shopify SEO Experts: Maximize Your Online Store’s Visibility May 17, 2024at 16:54 pm By: contentcreator Optimizing your Shopify store for search engines is a crucial step in ensuring that your products are visible to potential customers. Shopify SEO experts specialize in tweaking your online store to rank higher on search engines, which can lead to increased traffic and sales. Understanding the various components of SEO—such as keyword research, on-page optimization, site architecture, and link building—is paramount. These experts possess the necessary skills and strategies to optimize store elements that align with search engine algorithms, ensuring your Shopify site is recognized and favorably ranked. Improving your Shopify store’s SEO isn’t just about inserting keywords or fixing technical issues. It encompasses a strategic approach focusing on enhancing user experience, which includes ensuring fast loading times, mobile responsiveness, and creating high-quality, relevant content. Furthermore, Shopify SEO experts can assist in developing robust content marketing and link-building strategies to establish your store’s authority and improve its digital footprint. The ongoing process of measuring and tweaking your store’s performance based on analytical data is essential for maintaining and improving search engine rankings over time. Key Takeaways Hiring Shopify SEO experts can significantly improve your store’s search engine visibility and ranking. A multifaceted approach to optimization is critical, factoring in user experience, site performance, and quality content. Regular analysis and strategy adjustments are essential for sustained SEO success and higher organic traffic. Understanding Shopify SEO When setting up your Shopify store, SEO should be at the forefront of your strategy. It’s not just about attracting visitors but converting them into customers. The Basics of Search Engine Optimization SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it ranks higher in search engine results, increasing the likelihood of driving organic traffic to your site. At its core, SEO involves tweaking various aspects of your website, including its content and structure, to make it more appealing to search engines like Google. Keywords: Researching the right keywords is a crucial first step, understanding what your potential customers are searching for. On-Page Optimization: This includes clear title tags, meta descriptions, and headers that contain your targeted keywords. Quality Content: Content should be original, valuable, and engaging, giving visitors a reason to stay and search engines a reason to recommend your site. Site Performance: Your Shopify store must load quickly, as speed is a factor that search engines consider. Implementing SEO effectively can lead to higher rankings in search results, driving more traffic to your Shopify store. Importance of SEO for Ecommerce For a Shopify store, SEO serves as a backbone for attracting potential customers. Unlike paid advertising, a solid SEO strategy provides long-term benefits, improving your website’s visibility at a relatively low cost. User Experience: Optimizing your site also means creating an enjoyable user experience, which search engines regard highly. Mobile Optimization: With more users shopping on mobile devices, ensuring your site is mobile-friendly is non-negotiable. Through understanding and adapting to the search engine algorithm, your store can capture more relevant traffic, increase conversions, and ensure sustainable growth in a competitive e-commerce landscape. Shopify SEO Strategies Effective Shopify SEO strategies involve precise keyword research, meticulous optimization of product pages, and a strong foundation in technical SEO to enhance your search engine rankings. Below, you’ll find focused methods to help you leverage SEO effectively within your Shopify store. Keyword Research for Shopify To drive traffic to your Shopify store, you must start with comprehensive keyword research. Identify the terms your potential customers are using to find products like yours. Tools such as Google Trends or Ahrefs provide insights into popular search queries. Be sure to focus on long-tail keywords which typically have less competition and can attract a more targeted audience. Use tools like Yoast SEO for Shopify to refine your keyword strategy. Incorporate keywords naturally into titles, descriptions, and content. Optimizing Product Pages and Descriptions Your product pages are where the conversion happens, so optimize them for both users and search engines. Ensure that each product page has a unique, keyword-rich title and description. This not only aids in SEO but also improves click-through rates from search results. High-quality images and engaging descriptions can boost user experience and SEO. Update meta descriptions to include primary keywords without compromising readability. Technical SEO and Site Structure Technical SEO is critical for your Shopify store’s internal linking and site structure, influencing how search engines crawl and index your pages. A logical structure with a clear hierarchy makes it easier for search engine bots to find and rank your pages. Streamline your site architecture for easy navigation and indexing. Regularly audit your site to fix broken links and ensure fast page load times; both factors are vital for Shopify SEO efficiency. Enhancing User Experience In the realm of Shopify SEO, your competitive edge hinges on providing an optimal user experience that caters to both design sensibilities and technical performance. Focusing on these aspects can significantly influence your site’s visibility and conversion rates. The Role of Web Design in SEO When crafting your website, remember that web design is a cornerstone of user experience and SEO. Aesthetic appeal and navigation ease facilitate a positive engagement with your site, which can lower bounce rates—a metric search engines could interpret as a sign of quality. Employ a clean, intuitive layout that aligns with your branding to make sure visitors can find what they are looking for with minimal effort. Use clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs) Incorporate white space strategically for a less cluttered look Optimize images and visual elements without sacrificing load time Improving Page Speed and Mobile Optimization Your website must load swiftly to meet users’ expectations and to score well with search engines. Page speed directly impacts conversion rates as visitors are more likely to stay on and interact with fast-loading sites. A vital aspect of page optimization is ensuring your site is responsive and offers a seamless experience across all devices, particularly on mobile. Compress images and use efficient coding practices to enhance speed Implement responsive design for mobile optimization Test your website’s performance on various devices and browsers By carefully tuning web design elements and technical details to improve user experience, you directly contribute to your Shopify store’s success in both SEO performance and customer satisfaction. Content Marketing and Link Building In this competitive digital landscape, content marketing and link building are essential to establish your Shopify store’s online presence. Through engaging content, you can enhance brand awareness and, by building a strong portfolio of backlinks, improve your store’s organic search results. Creating Engaging and Relevant Content To effectively attract and retain customers, you need to provide valuable content that resonates with your audience. Your blogs should serve as a resource, offering solutions and insights that directly address customer interests and needs. Shopify SEO Services suggest that a comprehensive approach to content creation helps in driving higher rankings and sales. Creating a variety of content, from blog posts to infographics, caters to different preferences and can lead to increased engagement. Understand Your Audience: Know their pain points and interests. Quality Over Quantity: Craft well-researched and original pieces. Frequency and Consistency: Maintain a regular posting schedule. Strategies for Effective Link Building Link building is a strategic process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. A link from an external site is essentially a vote of confidence that signals trust and authority to search engines. Produce high-quality content that others want to reference, thus ensuring natural link acquisition. SEO Experts at Shopify stress the importance of using ethical link building tactics, like guest posting and outreach campaigns, to boost your site’s relevance and authority. Identify Link Opportunities: Analyze competitor backlinks for potential targets. Quality and Relevance: Aim for links from authoritative websites in your niche. Anchor Text: Use relevant, keyword-rich anchor text for inbound links without over-optimizing. By focusing on creating content that provides value and employing smart link building strategies, you can bolster your store’s visibility and credibility in the digital marketplace. Measuring and Enhancing Performance In optimizing your Shopify store, your aim is to enhance performance by making data-driven decisions. You’ll track your progress with analytics and improve your revenue and traffic through targeted conversion rate optimization strategies. Using Analytics to Track Progress To effectively increase your Shopify store’s performance, you must utilize Google Analytics to track visitor interactions. This powerful tool aids in monitoring metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and the path a visitor takes through your site. It’s essential to regularly review analytics reports to understand where your traffic is coming from and what actions visitors take on your site. By analyzing this data, you can identify trends, adjust your SEO tactics accordingly, and measure your return on investment (ROI). Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process of enhancing your website to boost the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, be it making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or another quantifiable goal. Key elements of CRO include: A/B Testing: Experiment with different versions of your pages to see which resonates more with your audience. User Experience (UX): Simplify navigation and streamline the purchasing process to remove any roadblocks for potential buyers. Refining these aspects of your Shopify store will directly influence your revenue as you convert more visitors into customers. Remember that even small improvements in your conversion rate can have significant impacts on your overall business success. Frequently Asked Questions In this section, you’ll find some FAQs regarding Shopify SEO experts, helping you to make an informed decision about optimizing your store’s search engine performance. What are the key factors to consider when choosing a Shopify SEO expert? When selecting a Shopify SEO expert, consider their experience, past results, understanding of e-commerce, and knowledge of current SEO trends. It’s also important to align their expertise with your specific business needs and goals. Since Shopify’s inception, After Dark Grafx has been optimizing and ranking websites on this platform successfully. How can a Shopify SEO expert improve my store’s search engine visibility? A Shopify SEO expert can enhance your online store’s visibility by optimizing your site structure, improving on-page elements like meta tags and content, building quality backlinks, and ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and fast-loading. There is a lot of work involved in the SEO process, so it is usually best to leave it up to the professionals at After Dark Grafx. What kind of results can I expect after hiring a Shopify SEO specialist? After hiring a Shopify SEO specialist, you can expect to see an improvement in your site’s search rankings, an increase in organic traffic, and potentially higher conversion rates as your site becomes more user-friendly and relevant to search queries. This takes time to achieve so think of it as a marathon and not a sprint. In most cases, you can expect to rank for some of your keywords within a few months, depending on industry, however, it does take a while for the program to work. You should also understand that there is no guarantee you will make any type of sale from the increase in traffic. How do I evaluate the effectiveness of a Shopify SEO expert’s work on my site? Evaluate a Shopify SEO expert’s effectiveness by tracking changes in your website’s organic traffic, search engine rankings, and conversion rates over time. Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into these metrics. It is best to start with a baseline of where your traffic has been, month after month for the previous 12 months. This way you can gauge how the new SEO service is affecting your traffic. What is the typical price range for professional SEO services for a Shopify store? Professional SEO services for a Shopify store can vary widely in cost, typically ranging from $500 to $5,000 per month based on the complexity of services provided and the experience level of the expert. You will find inexpensive SEO services online for less than $250/month but you get what you pay for. There are also the so-called, “Pay for Performace SEO Shops”, which is excellent in theory but these companies typically utilize “Black Hat” techniques that will drive traffic to your website but ultimately have and adverse effect on your rankings and worse, possible removal and exclusion for the search engines themselves. How does hiring an SEO expert differ from using Shopify’s built-in SEO tools? Hiring an SEO expert provides personalized and advanced optimization strategies beyond what Shopify’s built-in SEO tools offer. An expert can implement customized tactics and provide ongoing optimization and analysis that automated tools cannot. You definitely need a “hands-on” approach to get the website ranked. Shopify Trial Interested in signing up for a Shopify Trial? Click Here Still Have Questions? Call Us Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 CONTACT US
Migrate Miva to Shopify May 01, 2023at 18:57 pm By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx Moving From Miva to Shopify? There are many things to consider when migrating your website from Miva to Shopify. Before you begin this process, it is best to contact After Dark Grafx via Chat (bottom right of this website), via our Contact Form – click here or via Phone Toll Free (888) 578-8300 or if in San Diego (619) 702-7377. This will save you in both time and money and the 30 minute consultation is FREE! STEP 1: TAKE AN INVENTORY OF YOUR MIVA STORE BEFORE MIGRATION: You will want to take an inventory of what functionality is currently in place within your existing Miva Merchant store and see if this same type of functionality is available within Shopify. In some cases, you can change or alter the functionality to best suit your needs but in some cases, you will either need to add a paid or free app from the Shopify App Store or contact a developer (like After Dark Grafx wink! wink!). To perform the upgrade or add advanced custom coding that Shopify or the theme that you choose does not offer. STEP 2: PAYMENT METHODS What payment methods do you currently accept and what is connected to your existing website? Authorize.net? Stripe? Paypal? Pay On Account? Etc. Then see if these systems are they available in Shopify. STEP 3: SHIPPING METHODS What shipping methods you are currently using and are they available in Shopify. Example: You may be using Worldship with Freight for your large and heavy products. You may need a paid app within Shopify to perform the same tasks and functionality. Shopify, out of the box, offers USPS shipping. If you would like to add UPS, FEDEX, DHL or other shipping carriers it is best to contact Shopify support to have them add the ability to your current plan. See more below. STEP 4: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT SHOPIFY BEFORE MOVING (PROS, CONS, LIMITATIONS & BENEFITS) Shopify allows you to utilize their own built-in merchant account, therefore bypassing your existing merchant account. If you wish to use your merchant account with Shopify, there is an added fee percentage per order so it’s best to just use their built-in merchant account and keep it separate from your retail or physical locations to keep costs down. Shopify currently has an attribute limit. This means if you wanted to have a T-shirt company and you had size, color and material it will be fine but if you were to offer additional items like inseam or brand type in addition to these three options, then you would need an app or some customization in order to allow this functionality. If you have a lot of products that have attributes/variations drop downs that are connected to those products, you will definitely want to reach out and see if there is an app available to help with migrating all of your options, otherwise you will have to do this manually. Shopify Benefits Shopify allows you to get started with an online store quickly. You can sign up for a free trial, build your store, add your payments and add shipping and launch your website in a matter of days. (ie: Smaller websites of course). You don’t need your own merchant account and shipping is built in if you are using USPS. There are free and paid apps that allow you to click and install easily to add major custom functions that would cost a lot to be added if it were a custom solution. STEP 5: VIEW EXISTING SHOPIFY THEMES Shopify comes with a few free themes, however, these free themes may not be what you are looking for along the lines of design for your new website. See https://themes.shopify.com. The other option is to use a paid theme or reach out to a designer like After Dark Grafx™, to create a custom design for your website. STEP 6: VIEW EXISTING APPS Miva merchant has a lot of functionality built into it plus modules that are added to it to extend its’ functionality. Shopify, in the same regard, has an App Store that allows app providers to offer functionality that may emulate or provide the same functionality for a fee. OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED: CONTACT A SHOPIFY DEVELOPER (We are Shopify Experts) After Dark Grafx™ is a Shopify Expert. Since Shopify’s inception, we have been developing and creating themes, apps, custom code as well as designing for Shopify. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation. OPTIONAL: USING A THIRD PARTY MIGRATION SERVICE PROS & CONS There are many third-party services that can help with migration from Miva Merchant to Shopify. These companies such as Cart2Cart, and others will copy existing data from your Miva website and import it into your Shopify website. However, these migration services rarely migrate all data, you have to double check everything that was migrated and test it yourself, then contact the company over and over again until the data is moved correctly. STEP 7: EXPORTING AND IMPORTING DATA You will want to make a full backup of your database of your existing website and files before doing anything along the lines of migration from Miva Merchant to Shopify make sure that you export your customers, products, categories, orders, shipments and data needed. You should log into the backend of Miva and copy the settings for your shipping and payments and try to keep in mind any customer functionality or code that was built in for your website. Please note that all data will not be migrated from the old system so you will want to make a checklist of exactly what you need from the old website i.e. orders, payment data, etc. and, in some cases, you may not be able to transfer the payment transaction data because it is with another system. Migrating Customers: Customers will need to create new passwords for their account on Shopify. Their old passwords and transaction data will not be migrated. Migrating Orders: You can migrate orders but not payment transaction data STEP 8: INTEGRATING DESIGN CHANGES In some cases, you may want the same exact design and building it into Shopify will take a little effort. It will not be an exact replica, but will emulate it closely. Otherwise, it is best to get a new website design that converts on Shopify. STEP 9: CODE FUNCTIONALITY CHANGES You should go through your existing website as a customer and go through the checkout process. Write down what is happening along the way. What’s happening on the product page, the category page, the checkout page and finally the invoice page. Are you getting a follow up email with an offer. Do you have an email system with follow ups or abandon carts? You may have up sells or other functionality that you forgot about. STEP 10: SETTING UP THIRD PARTY SHIPPING AND THE COSTS INVOLVED In some cases, adding UPS, or FedEx or additional shipping carrier is easy as contacting Shopify and having him add a small fee to your monthly plan. Otherwise they may make you upgrade to the next plan, which is usually more expensive than the small fee to add this ability to your existing plan. Simply contact Shopify support to have this fee, added and tell them that you are interested in adding additional shipping options. STEP 11: SETTING UP PAYMENT GATEWAYS AND THE COSTS Shopify comes with its own built-in payment system, meaning that they accept credit cards on your behalf and will release the funds into your account. Once they process the credit cards and take their fee. You can, however, utilize your own merchant account, but this will incur an additional percentage cost on top of the fee that is charged through Shopify so if you were paying 2.49% before you’ll end up paying 3.49% or more for your transactions so it is best to use Shopify’s built in merchant account system. STEP 12: USING REDIRECTS SO YOU DO NOT LOSE “*SEO JUICE” Before pointing your domain name over to Shopify, it is best to find out exactly what URLs are listed on the search engines, and if you are interested in keeping your “SEO juice” for your existing listing pages, this means that your old pages will point to your new pages so you will want to create your redirects to the new pages within Shopify. This should be done before finally pointing your domain name to Shopify and launching your website. STEP 13: POINTING YOUR DOMAIN NAME Once everything is migrated and the website is for working on a test or temporary URL and you are happy with the way the new website is working, you should perform one last export of customers and any other data that has changed since the last time you did an export. Once this has been imported into Shopify and you’re happy with everything, you should then point your domain to Shopify. We recommend that you keep your existing hosting in place for a few weeks to make sure that the new website is working for you. Otherwise you can easily switch back to the old server and website in the event that there are issues with the new store. STEP 14: LAUNCHING YOUR NEW STORE Everything is ready. Your new website is working perfectly. All of the functionality is in place. Your customers have been imported, your products have been imported you have tested out the payment processing and shipping and all of the emails in regards to the order process and you are ready to launch your website. Simply point two records to Shopify. One is an A record and the other a CNAME record. See how to connect your website to Shopify manually. STEP 15: UPDATING THE SITE MAP WITH GOOGLE, BING, OTHER Your website is now live on Shopify but now we need to tell the search engines that your new site map has been updated with your new address and website, your sitemap address has changed and you are going to want to create a Google search console account as well as a bin web master account and another of webmaster accounts in order to remit your site maps so that your new pages get indexed faster and you do not lose any of your wonderful search engine rankings. Sitemaps would include: (change YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME-HERE with your website domain name) https://YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME-HERE/sitemap.xml https://YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME-HERE/sitemap_products_1.xml https://YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME-HERE/sitemap_pages_1.xml https://YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME-HERE/sitemap_collections_1.xml and if you have a blog https://YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME-HERE/sitemap_blogs_1.xml This is just a basic list of what needs to be done before, during and after a migration from Miva Merchant Shopping Cart to the Shopify Platform. Contact us today click here for a FREE, 30 MINUTE, NO OBLIGATION consultation. Toll Free (888) 578-8300 Local: (619) 702-7377 Shopify’s post about Migrating to Shopify Click Here After Dark Tip: Make a Backup of your entire site and database before starting or making any changes or migrations. In your Miva Control Panel (not admin.mvc) you can export the database and all files from within Miva’s ecosystem. Their my.miva.com control panel allows you to login to the server and export the database and files OR just contact Miva Tech Support and they will do this for you. *SEO JUICE = Your current SEO standings or what links you currently have within the search engines. You should also take into consideration the age of your Miva website. Was it developed recently or years ago. Sometimes, performing a migration will not grab all of the data correctly. Utilizing an online utility to migrate your data, in most cases, does not grab all of the data you need because there is no “face-to-face” or human interaction analyzing what your site actually needs. Over the years, as you utilize Miva for your eCommerce website, you have probably added modules and custom code to make the website perform in a certain fashion needed for your company. Some of these modules or functionality will need to be re-added to your Shopify store in the form of paid or free apps plus custom coding. So, what do you do? Call After Dark Grafx for a FREE, No Obligation Migration Consultation and Cost Analysis. This way, you can understand what exactly you need and how your website will be affected by the move. It is best to spin up a test store, put it onto a paid plan and integrate and add the apps you need before moving the entire website. Note: All existing customers will have to RECREATE their passwords. You can send them out an invite one-by-one (Shopify Plus allows for mass invites) otherwise, you can use your email system like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact or other to send emails to your existing customers notifying them that you are moving to a new system and they will have to recreate their password on your website. Have a Rewards System in place? We should talk. What about Email? We should talk. Have other special coding or integrations that you may have forgotten about? We should talk. It is always best to keep your Miva Merchant account live as you transition away for the first few weeks to make sure everything is running efficiently. There are a multitude of other things to consider when migrating pertaining to orders, customers, categories and so forth so you should do yourself a favor and contact After Dark Grafx for a FREE Miva to Shopify Migration Consultation!
Shopify’s 2023 Plan Pricing January 25, 2023at 18:38 pm By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx How Much Does Shopify Cost To Use? Today I received the following email from Shopify “Hi James, We started Shopify in 2006 to democratize commerce; to help create a world where every entrepreneur had access to the most valuable tools in commerce at a price that was the best value in the industry. Today, when we look at Shopify as a platform, it’s obvious that we chose the right mission. Shopify now supports millions of merchants with the power and speed they need to compete in today’s ever-changing commerce environment. We obsess over their success, and how to increase it by building more into our platform. The economic climate in 2023 has changed significantly. Rising costs and inflation require us to invest more than ever to deliver a best-in-class product and experience to our merchants and their customers. Although Shopify’s product has improved significantly, our plan pricing has remained largely unchanged for the last 12 years. Today, we’re making some adjustments to reflect some of those underlying costs. This is not a decision we take lightly. It’s a decision that will allow us to continue innovating and empowering our merchants and our partners with the scale they demand. What’s Changing? We’re changing the subscription price of our Basic, Shopify, and Advanced plans. These prices will automatically apply to all new merchants starting today. Existing merchants won’t see a change for three months. View the detailed pricing by plan Your existing Shopify clients will receive an email today about the pricing change. Merchants on monthly billing can switch to yearly terms to continue to receive the best price. After April 23, 2023, your existing clients will experience the new pricing on monthly plans. Thank you, Best, The Shopify Partner Team” MONTHLY SHOPIFY PRICING 2023 Like any business, Shopify has had to increase pricing and this well thought out and responsive notice is unobtrusive and states the simple facts and does not want to make me move to another platform because of a few dollar increase which is still far less than some competitors. I have dealt with hosts and eCommerce companies (you know who you are) who released pricing updates giving the partners and merchants 30 days to respond as per their TOS (terms of service) and then increasing their rates 1000% – CRAZY! Well, Shopify is not that bad and you can see Shopify’s new 2023 pricing here with all the rates. Or Simply Start a FREE TRIAL HERE and test out the waters before making a commitment. Do you want the Best Website Design in San Diego? Looking for the Best SEO Company in San Diego? How About the Best SHOPIFY Expert in San Diego? (We didn’t state that we were the best…Expertise.com did! See the awards in our footer 🙂 ) Contact us here! Call Toll Free (888) 578-8300
3 Simple Ways to Back Up Your Shopify Store January 05, 2023at 22:45 pm By: Assistant After Dark Grafx How To Backup Shopify Backing up your Shopify store is a critical component of keeping your important private data safe. You can think of backing up your Shopify store as a sort of eCommerce insurance policy. After all, there’s no worse feeling than accidentally deleting something and realizing that it’s gone forever. You may be wondering, “Wait — won’t Shopify automatically back up my online store?” Unfortunately, the quick answer is no. Like many SaaS solutions on the internet, you’re responsible for protecting your own data. This allows Shopify to focus on providing the eCommerce platform and not fielding support requests for backing up data. Fortunately, there are many simple ways how to back up Shopify that won’t require much time and effort. Following these easy tips can help you prevent a major disaster and website downtime that can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in potential sales. Below, you’ll learn about three convenient ways how to backup Shopify. Why Won’t Shopify Backup My Data? Shopify does perform regular backups of their platform to protect them in the aftermath of a disaster. The scope of these backups also extends to the millions of accounts on their platform. Shopify performs these backups several times a week. The purpose of these activities is to restore all Shopify data in case a disaster destroys any of their main data centers or servers and unfortunately, these backups are not available to you. These disasters include: Floods Tornados & Hurricanes Cyber Attacks While these catastrophes are rare, SaaS platforms like Shopify are inclined to protect themselves. If you’re doing business on Shopify, then you should understand that Shopify can’t restore individual store data after deletion. See their terms of service located on the bottom of their website. Shopify can’t possibly pick and choose which data to restore, which means you’re on your own when it comes to backing up your Shopify store data. This means that you can risk losing important sensitive data, such as: You or another collaborator accidentally deleting a product, page, or blog post. Someone with unauthorized access to your account deletes a product, page, or blog post. A third-party app you set up makes unwanted changes to your online store. You imported a CSV file into your Shopify store and it became corrupted, causing a wide-scale data issue. When these issues occur, not only is your business data compromised but your customer’s information (credit card information, passwords, etc) can be altered and compromised as well. Manually Backup Your Shopify Store – Option #1: Shopify has suggested that merchants can make use of CSV files to manually backup their online store. Before you begin, it’s important to note that you can’t export all of your online store’s files, only some specific ones. Step #1: Export Your Data into CSV Files Here is the following data you can export from your online store: Customers Orders Theme Discount codes Gift cards Products HOW TO BACKUP CUSTOMERS MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on CUSTOMERS on the left side of the screen – Click on EXPORT top of the screen – Select ALL CUSTOMERS – Export to CSV file (it will either download or send you the csv via email. HOW TO BACKUP ORDERS MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on ORDERS on the left side of the screen – Click on EXPORT top of the screen – Select ALL ORDER – Export to CSV file (it will either download or send you the csv via email. HOW TO BACKUP YOUR THEME MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on ONLINE STORE on the left side of the screen – Click on the ACTIONS drop down on the right – Select DUPLICATE THEME (this will save a duplicate copy of your site and settings within Shopify) – OR select DOWNLOAD THEME FILE and it will you the theme file to download (this is just the code and not the data) HOW TO BACKUP ORDERS MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on ORDERS on the left side of the screen – Click on EXPORT top of the screen – Select ALL ORDER – Export to CSV file (it will either download or send you the csv via email. HOW TO BACKUP DISCOUNTS MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on DISCOUNTS on the left side of the screen – Click on EXPORT top of the screen – Select ALL DISCOUNTS – Export to CSV file (it will either download or send you the csv via email. HOW TO BACKUP GIFT CARDS MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on PRODUCTS on the left side of the screen – Click on GIFT CARDS on left – Click on EXPORT top of the screen – Select ALL GIFT CARDS – Export to CSV file (it will either download or send you the csv via email. HOW TO BACKUP PRODUCTS MANUALLY IN SHOPIFY: – Click on PRODUCTS on the left side of the screen – Click on EXPORT top of the screen – Select ALL PRODUCTS – Export to CSV file (it will either download or send you the csv via email. *NOTE: Shopify DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO EXPORT COLLECTIONS. Once you have access to the CSV file, you should be aware of the common issues that arise when dealing with manual backups: Sorting your CSV files in an external spreadsheet program (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, etc) can cause your information to dissociate and become jumbled. Importing a CSV affected by disassociated data can overwrite your current data, and this cannot be recovered. You cannot undo any data imported as a CSV file. Step #2: Copy and Paste Item Properties Granted, Shopify will export certain store data they deem to be relevant. The bad news is that this data doesn’t include captured images, custom product categories, or unique index and archived items. This important must be copied and pasted into a document or spreadsheet. If you don’t complete this step and import a CSV file, you would need to recreate all of your item properties. That is — unless you want to restore a product catalog. Step #3: Copy and Paste Remaining Store Data There will be some data that Shopify can’t export. As such, you’ll need to manually copy and paste the rest of your data into a document or spreadsheet. For example, you would need to copy and paste the content, images, and even the content of blog posts. Step #4: Organize Your Data Once you have all of your data backed up, organize it in a neat way that will be easy to access when you need them. Step #5: Secure Your Backup Disgruntled staff, malware, and hackers can all reduce the security of your store backup. Here are some precautions you can take to protect your store data: Use Encryption — With this method, your data will be protected by keys, given only given to authorized individuals. These keys must always be kept in a safe place. Implement the 3-2-1 Rule — This rule entails keeping three copies of your backup data, across two different mediums, and one off-site. Perform Regular Tests — This will help you to detect any vulnerabilities of your store backup data. Step #6: Rinse and Repeat Steps 1-5 Since this is a manual process, you should repeat steps 1-5 whenever you need an up-to-date backup of your store data. For more extensive backups, create a backup schedule overall several days. Step #7: Prepare for Small Mistakes For this step, let’s say that you’re dealing with product CSV files. If you want to restore all of your product data and import your files to the Shopify dashboard. On the other hand, if you want to restore a subset of products or a single one if you make a mistake, you’ll need to sort through all of your CSV files to import specific data. This is an extremely time-consuming task, which is why it’s best to use a backup app for Shopify like REWIND. Step #8: Paste the Remaining Store Data Product images and blog posts will need to be manually inserted to restore your online store. If any information isn’t present in your CSV files or documents, you’ll need to recreate any lost data before continuing. Create a Backup Solution for Shopify -Option #2: If you have the necessary tools and resources, you can build your own backup solution for your online store. Here are four steps to get started. Step #1: Use Public APIs Fortunately, Shopify offers a wide variety of public APIs, with its own purposes. If you’re familiar with what APIs are and how to use them, you should create a defined plan on how to utilize all of the APIs you need to navigate the backup process. Otherwise, you should review this guide from Shopify to learn more about APIs and how they’re beneficial. Step #2: Secure Your Backup Follow the same steps mentioned in Step 5 of the previous section. This is a very important step. If the developer cannot ensure that this tool cannot protect your data, you should abandon the project altogether. The security of your business and customer data is highly essential, and you can be held directly accountable if it’s compromised. Step #3: Run Regular Maintenance Keeping up with Shopify’s changing APIs can be challenging. Shopify regularly announces changes to their APIs, which means that you can spend a lot of time developing your tool, only for it to be broken later. Step #4: Sort Through Your Data After a Disaster This is the step that many merchants ignore. When you’re attempting to restore any lost data, make sure to sort through your backup data. The purpose of this exercise is to figure out what needs to be restored before moving forward. Use the Rewind Backup App for Shopify (RECOMMENDED) – Option #3: Performing your own manual backup or creating your own solution isn’t the worst idea, but if you don’t know how to do any of this or don’t want to, there is a better solution. The Rewind App for Shopify will automatically perform daily backups of your online store. It will also protect your store by capturing all changes that you make, allowing you to revert and restore data when a small mistake or disaster takes place. Performing backups for Shopify and Shopify Plus, Rewind processes all data in the format Shopify looks for. Here are some very important facts you should consider when learning how to how to install Rewind backup app Shopify: There are automatic, daily backups that take place at 11:00 am. Your store will be backed up in real-time, even as you work on it. You can perform a manual backup whenever you want. You can use Rewind to restore a single item, a group of items, and even your entire online store. Using Rewind is the most convenient way to back up your online store with fewer mistakes and less time. There are several plans for Rewind Backup App For Shopify and they will be presented to you based on your eligibility of your store. The app will check your store and recommend the plan for you. The basic plan updates and backs up data by itself when it wants but the higher plans allow you to manually kick off a back up of the data and recommended. Conclusion At After Dark Grafx, we specialize in providing in-depth app recommendations to help merchants get the most from their online stores. We are a Shopify Expert, Shopify Developer and Shopify Partner. We are thrilled to announce that we have partnered with Rewind.com to offer backup solutions by simply installing the app within your store. We believe that this app will help provide our clients with peace of mind by safeguarding their data so they can focus on business growth. Learn more by visiting Rewind then select PRODUCTS in the top navigation and select Shopify. If you have any questions or need help integrating Rewind, please feel to hire us, a qualified Shopify expert for a free installation into your store. You don’t need to be an After Dark Grafx client, but that doesn’t hurt either 😊. *Note: The link for Rewind for Shopify above is an affiliate link and we receive a small commission when you sign up for rewind. >> Original post content from Rewind.com by Megan Smith, August 2019
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