Shopify SEO: The Top 6 Alternatives to Yoast SEO

Getting your Shopify store to rank high in search engines is key to your success in e-commerce. The higher you rank, the more exposed you are to potential buyers and the more click-throughs you get. This results in more sales opportunities and benefits your bottom line.

So, the question is: How do you get your store to rank higher in search engines? The answer is simple: SEO (search engine optimization). But getting SEO right is a complex task. It is not just about optimizing your content around the right keywords, keyphrases, or even topics. You also have to think about structured data, XML sitemaps, robots.txt files, LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords, meta tags, ALT tags, page speed, canonical URLs, and much more.

Luckily, there are many powerful tools that can help you with all this. Take Yoast SEO for example - one of the most powerful, feature-rich and user-friendly SEO plugins out there. But Yoast SEO has one major flaw - it doesn't integrate with Shopify.

So, you may ask: Is there an alternative to Yoast SEO for Shopify? The answer is "Yes!". Today we will talk about the top 6 SEO apps for Shopify that are good alternatives to Yoast SEO and can help you get your store to the #1 spot on the SERPs (search engine results pages). But before we dig deeper into what these Shopify apps offer, let's take a closer look at what Yoast offers.

What Yoast offers

The most prominent features listed above are:

• Add schema.org code (i.e., structured data) to your pages - Note that Google prefers and recommends using structured data in JSON-LD format. This is something you should consider when choosing an SEO app for your Shopify store.
• Easily generate and update your website's sitemap - XML sitemaps are protocols used to inform search engines about which URLs are available for crawling.
• Easily set canonical URLs - This will help you avoid duplicate content issues.
• Full control over breadcrumbs (or breadcrumb trails).
• Redirect manager - avoid 404 errors.

А good alternative to Yoast SEO for Shopify would offer all or most of these features. Now that we're clear on what we're looking for in an SEO app for Shopify, let's move on to the next part of the article - the top 6 Shopify SEO apps, what they can offer, and why they are good alternatives to Yoast SEO.

The top 6 SEO apps for Shopify

• Smart SEO - ★★★★★
• JSON-LD for SEO - ★★★★★
• SEO Manager - ★★★★+
• Plug in SEO - ★★★★+
• SEO Pro + JSON LD & Site Speed - ★★★★+
• SEO - All in One & Auto SEO - ★★★★+

Smart SEO

Full disclosure - we developed Smart SEO. It's been featured in Northcutt, Whole Design Studios, Stellar SEO, OptinMonster, and more. It has been described as one of the best SEO apps for Shopify. What's more - it sports a 5 star rating out of 880+ reviews. So, if you are looking for a reliable, long-term SEO solution for your store, do consider our Smart SEO. We also have dedicated SEO and PPC teams in-house so do not hesitate to reach out if you are looking to optimize and grow your business further.

Why Smart SEO is the perfect alternative to Yoast SEO

• Smart SEO automatically generates and provides insanely detailed JSON-LD structured data to Google and other search engines. The app generates structured data for your homepage, product pages, collection pages, blog page, and article pages.
• You can manage your website's sitemap (e.g., choose which pages/URLs to include or exclude) within Smart SEO.
• Smart SEO instantly generates unique meta tags and ALT tags for every entity of your store. In addition, it automatically syncs your ALT tags when you add new products and images.
• ALT tags and meta tags tokens available. These tokens allow you to insert data in your SEO metadata templates for different pages in your store: product pages, collection pages, blog pages, and article pages. When the ALT tags, or the meta tags, are generated for a page, these tokens are replaced with the data (e.g., title, description, etc.) from the product, collection, blog or article. Read more about the Smart SEO tokens

How much does Smart SEO cost?

Smart SEO has a free plan and three paid plans. Pricing starts from $9.99/month (7-day free trial available).

JSON‑LD for SEO

JSON-LD for SEO is owned by Little Stream Software - a one-person company, founded by Eric Davis, a certified Shopify Expert.

Why JSON-LD for SEO is a good alternative to Yoast SEO

• JSON-LD for SEO automatically adds structured data (microdata or massive code blocks of JSON-LD data) in your website’s HTML. Thus, it helps you get rich snippets in Google, Bing, and Pinterest.
• JSON-LD for SEO integrates with 17 review apps including YotPo, Google Merchant Center and Stamped.io. Thus, Google and other search engines can display product reviews in your rich snippets.
• The app also allows you to show product details in search results. Thus, it helps you facilitate buying decisions.

How much does JSON-LD for SEO cost?

The app costs $299 (one-time charge). You do get updates as long as you use the app.

SEO Manager

SEO Manager is developed by Venntov - a company that has helped over 70,000 Shopify merchants grow their businesses.

Why SEO Manager is a good alternative to Yoast SEO

• SEO Manager automatically scans your store for SEO issues and gives you suggestions on how to fix them. The app scans titles, product descriptions, image ALT text, etc.
• Sitemap management (+ Google sitemap submission)
• JSON-LD Structured Data Support (+ local business structured data)
• 404 error management and real-time 404 repairs
• Google Result Simulator
• Google Knowledge Graph support
• Available integrations: Google Search Console, Google Trends, Google PageSpeed, Bing, Kit.

How much does SEO Manager cost?

The app costs $20/month and has a 7-day free trial.

Plug in SEO

Plug in SEO is developed by SureSwift Capital. Its overall rating is ★★★★+

Why Plug in SEO is a good alternative to Yoast SEO

Plug in SEO has a free version and two commercial versions - Plug in SEO Plus and Plug in SEO Pro. Here is what is included in each version:

Free version

• Plug in SEO automatically checks your store for SEO errors - it scans page titles, headings, page structure, meta descriptions, the value of your content (including its relevance, accuracy, and freshness), and more.
• The app gives you detailed reports of all SEO errors and gives you suggestions on how to fix them (code snippets and directions are included in the instructions).
• Support via email

If you upgrade to Plug in SEO Plus ($20/month), you will also get

• Automatic SEO fixes
• Broken link fixes
• Full structured data support
• Instruction videos
• Premium support, and more

If you upgrade to Plug in SEO Pro ($29.99/month), you will get everything in the Plug in SEO Plus plan +

• Homepage SEO audit
• Homepage speed report

SEO Pro + JSON LD & Site Speed

SEO Pro + JSON LD & Site Speed is developed by Expert Village Media Technologies - a Shopify store design and digital marketing agency that has developed 9 Shopify apps.

Why SEO Expert Pro is a good alternative to Yoast SEO

• SEO Expert Pro scans your entire store (all pages and products) for SEO issues and allows you to fix them directly in the app. You can receive error reports via email.
• Update the ALT tags of all images at once using the bulk image optimizer (each image gets a unique ALT tag).
• Store and organize your rich data with JSON-LD. The app automatically sends structured data to Google.
• Test whether your store is displayed as mobile-friendly in search results. To do this, you will need to use the Mobile Compatibility Tester that checks meta tags, stylesheets, and embedded styles.
• Get PageSpeed recommendations from Google, and more.

How much does SEO Pro + JSON LD & Site Speed cost?

The app has a free plan and three paid plans. Pricing starts from $5.99/month (7-day free trial available).

SEO - All in One & Auto SEO

SEO - All in One & Auto SEO is developed by Softpulse Infotech. The company has developed 15 Shopify apps and offers a myriad of Shopify services: store setup, custom theme development and customizations, custom app development, and third-party API integrations, to name a few.

Why SEO - All in One & Auto SEO is a good alternative to Yoast SEO

• SEO - All in One & Auto SEO scans your store for SEO issues and gives you detailed SEO reports (Alexa rank, number of social shares, keywords you rank for and how they perform, etc.)
• The app detects broken links and allows you to easily manage 404 redirects
• You can use smart image ALT tags
• You can add dynamically generated structured data in your HTML using advanced JSON-LD
• Google PageSpeed checker
• Google Search Result simulator

How much does SEO - All in One & Auto SEO cost?

The app has a free plan and three paid plans. Pricing starts from $9.99/month.

Wrap-up

Each of the apps discussed above is a good alternative to Yoast SEO for Shopify. At the very least, all apps automatically generate JSON-LD structured data and help you optimize your Shopify store in a way that search engines love.

Keep in mind that neither of the apps we discussed nor any other SEO app for that matter, will do all the work for you. See, SEO apps aim to help you with the more technical aspects of SEO like structured data generation and setting up canonical URLs, for example. But you are the one who has to think about content value, content relevance and freshness, engaging titles and descriptions, keywords, and much more. So, ultimately, you have to combine your knowledge and experience with an SEO app that meets your business needs. We hope this short guide will help you find the right one!

Your turn!

Have you already decided which Shopify SEO app you will use? Or are you hesitating between several options? If this is the case, we advise you to start the free trials and see which app is the best fit for you! We advise you to use only one app at a time, otherwise, you might end up with a lot of duplicate structured data which can hurt your Google rankings.

Let us know which app you chose in the comments section below! And do not hesitate to contact us if:

• You have further questions
• You would like us to have a look at your Shopify SEO and give you a detailed report on what you can do about it (read more about our custom services)
• You've chosen Smart SEO and need technical assistance