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On June 18, Tobi Lutke – Shopify CEO, announced on Twitter that Shopify stores are now able to edit their robots.txt file which gives store owners more control over how search engines crawl their site.

All Shopify stores include a default robots.txt file that is optimal for 

 and Shopify notes that this works for most stores, but you can now edit the file as described in the steps below to:

allow or disallow certain URLs from being crawled

add crawl-delay rules for certain crawlers

 file is located at the root directory of your Shopify store's primary domain name (this is also the case for the majority of websites). For example 

Following the steps described below to edit this file, you will find the following default code used by Shopify to generate the robots.txt file. This incorporates Shopify's default rules and by leaving this code in place, you will ensure that if Shopify updates their own rules - they will automatically apply to your robots.txt file.

# we use Shopify as our ecommerce platform
{%- comment -%}
# Caution! Please read https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/seo/editing-robots-txt before proceeding to make changes to this file.
{% endcomment %}
{% for group in robots.default_groups %}
 {{- group.user_agent -}}

 {% for rule in group.rules %}
 {{- rule -}}
 {% endfor %}

 {%- if group.sitemap != blank -%}
 {{ group.sitemap }}
 {%- endif -%}
{% endfor %}

It is impor­tant to note that while Shopi­fy pro­vides the abil­i­ty to edit this file, Shopi­fy Sup­port can’t help you with edits to this file. Incor­rect use of this file could result in loss of traf­fic or your store no longer being indexed by search engines.
If you are unsure, Shopi­fy Part­ners like us can help you to edit this code.

The fol­low­ing steps cre­ate a robots.txt.liquid file (rather than a robots.txt file that sites might tra­di­tion­al­ly use).

Make the changes that you want to make to the default tem­plate. For more infor­ma­tion on liq­uid vari­ables and com­mon use cas­es, refer to Shopi­fy’s Devel­op­er page 

Save changes to the robots.txt.liquid file in your pub­lished theme.

It is also impor­tant to note that if your Shopi­fy store theme is cur­rent­ly being 

 and deployed using Shopi­fy’s The­meK­it, com­mand line changes or GitHub, then you should create/​make the changes to your robots.txt.liquid file through these processes.

Shopify has released a new feature to enable stores to edit their robots.txt file, enabling greater control for a Shopify store's SEO.

Shopify Stores Can Now Edit Their Robots.txt File

Have you ever wondered why do most people prefer buying soft drinks from brands like Coca-Cola or Pepsi, or choose fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s or KFC over others? It’s because these brands are popular and familiar. That’s how brand awareness works!

Building brand awareness is not only crucial for start-ups but also for established companies. Brands with an established strong brand awareness may be described as “popular” or “on trend” with a universal audience or a specific demographic. Either way, brand awareness is considered the #1 goal for marketers across businesses of all verticals and sizes, big or small, no matter what. If people don’t know who you are, how can they buy your services or products? They can’t.

What are the benefits of brand awareness?

8 tried and tested ways to build brand awareness

Brand awareness is a metric of how well people recognise a brand or business by its name, logo, or other defining feature. It is crucial because it is the first stage of the user's journey to becoming a customer. So, making people aware of your brand, products, or services makes you more likely to generate revenue. And learning how to grow your brand can position your business for success, but you might not know where to start. That’s where this guide comes in.

Brand awareness can have tangible effects on your business performance. Creating an informed and consistent brand awareness campaign can provide the following benefits.

Trust is the currency of the 21st century. Consumers rely on recommendations and online reviews. They research the opinions about a brand, product, or service and base their decisions on the research. And so, brand awareness campaigns help you build consumers’ trust. In other words, brand awareness bonds customers to your brand. Customer loyalty has a direct impact on your sales and revenue.

Brand equity measures a brand’s value. Brand equity is directly related to brand awareness. Brand equity is not only determined by the number of tangible assets the company has. You also have to take into account brand reputation. Positive associations can raise your brand equity. That’s why it is crucial to build positive brand awareness.

Brand awareness helps you reach your target audiences

Reaching the right people at the right time is the key to success. Brand awareness is an integral factor not only in brand building but also in increasing your consumers base.

Here are our tried and tested marketing strategies you can use to build brand awareness for your brand:

Use video storytelling to engage your audiences

According to Search Engine Watch, the top listing on Google’s organic search receives 33% of the traffic, the second position gets 18%, and it only degrades from there. If you want to build brand awareness via SEO, you need to know what your audience is looking for and what their touchpoints are? Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs will help you find the right keywords.

SEO is not only about implementing keyword research on your website or blog. There are technical aspects of your website, such as loading speed which needs to be optimised. The faster the page loads, the better. It all has an impact on your position in Google or any other search engine.

Referral programs are a great way to spread the word about your brand, product, or service around. A well-executed referral program can bring substantial value to your company and boost your brand recognition.

Referral programs will boost your marketing efforts and give you the endorsements you need to build a strong brand. Referral programs can help you reach new customers that would otherwise be unaware of your product.

Another considerable brand-building tactic is to get involved with local businesses for partnerships. Building a global reach can be your dream, but you might get more conversion if you focus on the local market, at least in the beginning. A coffee house can team up with a local bakery, a fashion brand with shoemakers, a women’s clothing retailer with a hair salon and a wedding venue with a florist.

Remarketing is a pro strategy for boosting that good ol’ brand awareness. Why? Remarketing involves showing ads to users who visited your site but left before converting. It is like watching a tv commercial and then seeing the same one (or a similar one) the next day. You’re more likely to remember the brand. The main aim of a remarketing campaign for brand awareness is ‘not’ to broadcast your message to new audiences but to strengthen your message among your existing potential client base. It takes several touchpoints to convert a client, and a remarketing ad is a perfect one.

Influencer marketing is a type of content marketing that implies collaboration between an influencer and a B2C or B2B business. Quite often, such collaboration involves co-creation of the content, which is a powerful solution because influencers can tailor your content to the preferences of their audience.

 have at some point been swayed in their decision-making by digital influencers? Partnering with social media influencers can help you reach consumers you’d otherwise miss. Influencers can help you legitimise your message with their authority via content distribution. So, choosing the right influencers for your business is the key to success.

Video storytelling is a marketing strategy that uses the power of video to tell a story about a company, product, service, or person. By 2022, 82% of consumer internet traffic will come from videos. As digital marketing evolves, we continue to see trends favouring video! Here are some staggering 

Infographics are a bright and colourful way to display crucial marketing data and statistics. These content powerhouses often get shared far and wide, making them an excellent choice for brand building and thought leadership. According to the 

 conducted by Venngage, about 40% of marketers said they found infographics to be the most engaging form of content and used it frequently in their marketing. Educate your audience about your business, products or services with compelling infographics, explaining high-level concepts visually!

Well optimised social media channels can do wonders.

Claiming that almost everyone is now on social media is not an exaggeration. There is no such thing today as brand awareness without social media. There are currently 

3.6 billion people worldwide on social media

The popularity of social media is a blessing because you can get your message to new audiences relatively easy and at a wicked price. Social channels make it easy to share content, which means one person can show your content to their friends and family. You are reaching a new audience almost effortlessly.

But on the other hand, it means that the competition is fierce. Your message needs to stand out from the crowd to get traction from your potential customers and existing audience.

Conclusion - Grow your brand, grow your business!

In a nutshell, Brand awareness isn’t necessarily a strategy built to sell products. Instead, it focuses on promoting the company as a whole so that consumers instantly think of your brand when looking for products that you provide or suggesting services to friends and family. And, understanding how to grow your brand can make your business succeed faster and more efficiently.

At Hanabi, we’re passionate about building brands the right way. No shortcuts, gimmicks, or black-hat strategies. Instead, we help our partners build their brands organically.

Ready to roll your brand awareness to the next level?

8 Practical Ways to Build Brand Awareness in 2021

The ever-changing digital ecosystem can be confusing. It’s fair to say that the world of digital marketing is jam-packed with marketing jargon, lingo or any other term you prefer to use. With acronyms and buzzwords flying around all over the place, it can sometimes be difficult to decipher the meaning behind them.

That’s why the Hanabi marketing team has compiled this handy guide of commonly used digital marketing terms which you would like to know to stay ahead of the curve in 2021.

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that passes full link equity (ranking power) to the redirected page. 301 refers to the 

 for this type of redirect. In most instances, the 301 redirect is the best method for implementing redirects on a website.

This HTTP status code signifies that the web page a user is trying to reach has been temporarily moved.

404 is an HTTP response code that shows that the page that a user has requested has not been found. It is usually accompanied by a message like “page not found” or “The page you are trying to access does not exist”.

Also known as Split testing is the process of comparing two versions of a web page, email, or other marketing asset and measuring the difference in performance to achieve better results.

An analytics feature that lets you see the percentage of people who began a defined conversion process but did not complete it.

A platform that facilitates ad placement bidding. Effectively an online, automated auction house.

Additional information about your business can be added to ad copy, such as an address, phone number or links to specific pages on your website.

The process of scheduling ads to automatically show at specific times of the day.

An ad server is used to store, manage and display ads to users on a website.

Refers to the process of earning a commission by promoting someone else’s products or services.

The mathematical formula or a set of rules behind systems and programmes to provide users with the most relevant response to their queries.

The clickable text is displayed in a hyperlink that’s usually blue and underlined. The anchor text should give a clear indication of the page or file it’s linking to.

A set of tools and protocols used for building, developing and interlinking software and programmes.

Attribution assigns credit to the marketing source that turned a lead into a customer. Marketing attribution lets you identify crucial touchpoints in the customer journey.

An audience – or target audience – is a specified group of consumers who become the recipients of marketing efforts.

A website’s authority correlates with its popularity. A site’s authority is based on factors like traffic, backlinks and social shares.

The method of controlling or operating processes via automatic means. Many marketing departments automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and even ad campaigns -- not just for the sake of efficiency, but so they can provide a more personalized experience for their customers.

These are acronyms used to describe who a company sells to. B2B stands for “Business to Business” and refers to companies that sell to other businesses. Meanwhile, B2C or “Business to Consumer” refers to companies that sell directly to consumers.

This is when other websites link back to your website.

Bid modifiers let you make adjustments to bids without altering your campaign’s targeting or ad groups.

SEO strategies consist of unethical and unprofessional techniques such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and using private link networks.

The percentage of visitors who land on a website but then leave without looking at other pages.

Refers to a keyword match type for PPC advertising that offers the broadest reach and widest range of targeting.

A call-to-action is a text link, button, or image that encourages a website user to visit a landing page and become a lead. Some examples include “Subscribe Today” on website popups or “Download Now” on app websites.

It is a suggestion to search engines that the content on that specific URL is not the master version of the copy.

A content management system (CMS) allows web editors to manage content displayed on a site. WordPress is an example of a content management system.

Content marketing is an ongoing activity, using created content to engage customers. The content is usually valuable and made to influence people's behaviours.

The ratio of users who complete a specific action (such as filling out a form) compared to the total number of users. The conversion rate is calculated as a percentage.

A file used by websites that stores data on a user’s computer based on their activity on the site.

The average amount it costs to acquire a conversion through paid activity.

How much do you have to pay for every click on your advert or link.

Cost per mille (sometimes known as cost per thousand) refers to the amount of money it costs for your post or ad to be seen 1,000 times.

CRM focuses on managing positive interaction and communication with clients to achieve optimal client satisfaction and retention.

The systematic process of using test and learn techniques to identify which aspects help to improve website performance by encouraging more users to take a specific, desired action.

Advertising (paid placements) on any digital platform. This can include social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest & Facebook as well as on search engines like Google or Bing and individual websites.

Advertising is shown on a web page that a consumer is using. Most often in the form of images, banners, video, or rich formats (animations or slideshows)

A unified technology platform used for collecting, organising and activating large sets of data from different sources.

The part of a network address that identifies it as belonging to a particular company or organisation. No two websites can have the same domain name.

A system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchanges and data exchange accounts through one interface.

A substantial amount of identical content that features on more than one website or multiple places on the same website.

The amount of time between when a user clicks on a result on the search engine results page and when the user returns to the search engine results page.

Any media exposure that does not come directly from your business. This includes things like shared posts, reviews of your business, or mentions from another site.

Stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, & Trustworthiness and is used in SEO to describe the quality of a website or content. The term comes from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.

Metrics are used to measure the performance of the website, campaign or any landing page. These often include bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit, and social shares.

The 2021 Digital Marketing Glossary

Website speed issues and Core Web Vital metrics are high on the priority list for many SEOs and web developers, since Google announced the Core algorithm update set to launch in May 2021. But the latest developments show that this update will focus on much more than just Core Web Vitals. It will focus on the overall user experience and website functionality.

"Google has always prioritised its users' experience. With Core Web Vitals, it aims to take its efforts in enhancing page experience, a step ahead, for its users."

Google

So, where does the Core Web Vitals fit into this? It’s a ranking factor, but 

In this post, you will deep dive and learn about:

What is Google’s Page Experience Update?

How to Improve Website Performance and User Experience?

Tools needed for improving Page Experience

As mentioned above, this announced update is most commonly referred to as Core Web Vitals. However, since Google started to release more information about the additional ranking factors that will play a strong role in addition to Core Web Vitals, the proper name is the Google Page Experience Update.

5 Ranking Factors of the Page Experience Update

Website functionality and user experience are speculated to play a significant role in this update. 

Google categorises this as page experience

, and the following factors WILL influence your website performance and visibility:

Let’s deep dive into all of these five factors and see how they will impact your website once the Page Experience Update Launches.

How to Improve Website Performance and User Experience

Core Web Vitals or CWV are a set of specific factors considered by Google to analyse and rate the overall page experience for a user. From a broader perspective, Core Web Vitals are a small section of many metrics and factors used in sizing up the webpage’s overall UI/UX. Core web vitals comprise of three considerable page speed and interaction metrics, namely:

: LCP for short, measures the loading speeds and performance of a web page. The goal is to have the LCP load within 2.5 seconds or less, as stated by Google.

: FID, for short, measures load responsiveness – the amount of time it takes for the page to respond to the user’s interaction. One hundred milliseconds or less is a good FID score to aim for on your website.

: CLS, for short, measures visual stability and how often users experience unexpected layout shifts on a page. To provide a good user experience, the CLS score should be less than 0.1.

What Should You Do to Improve Core Web Vitals?

Scale images to the correct placement sizing

Apply a content delivery network to the hosting platform

Remove any unnecessary render-blocking resources

With Google shifting to mobile-first indexing and 

mobile devices generating nearly 50% of global website traffic

, a site with poor mobile experience doesn’t stand a chance. Here is what you can do to make your website more mobile-friendly:

Check specific URLs to see if they pass the mobile-friendly test or learn about areas for improvement using tools like 

Ensure your website is responsive and can load well on all big or small mobile devices (tablets included).

Separate buttons, text, and other clickable elements to not sit too close together.

Avoid intrusive ads and interstitials on mobile, this goes hand-in-hand with mobile optimisation. While they may generate sales, they can have the opposite effect on your website’s performance if displayed on mobile devices. With less space than a desktop, these ads and interstitials can become annoying to mobile users and hinder their experience. It can also make it difficult to find the information they want when unexpected pop-ups take over their screen.

Google wants to create a safe browsing experience for users and also help webmasters flag and resolve 

 threatening their websites from malware, deceptive pages, harmful downloads and uncommon downloads. To check for potential issues and alerts, you can use the Security issues report under Security & Manual Actions in Google Search Console. Work closely with your web agency on resolving any issues that hinder the safety of your site & the visitors.

 most websites already made the transition from HTTP to HTTPS, to add an extra security layer to the website and provide a safe browsing experience to the users. This has since become a common SEO practice.

It’s crucial to understand the impact that site migrations can have on website performance. If not done correctly, a website’s traffic and sales can drop significantly. While it’s common to see a drop in traffic in the first few months of any site migration, it can continue to drop if crucial elements were not accounted for upon the launch. Things like major SEO errors present on the site like broken links, broken backlinks, incorrect redirects, and more.


If you haven’t made that switch yet, now is the time! Feel free to contact team Hanabi!


 – A simple tool for determining a web page's mobile friendliness. Identifies mobile usability issues and provides resources on how they can be fixed.

 – Provides reports on the speed of a website for both mobile and desktop devices, as well as a score for each device and opportunities to optimise.

 – analyses a website’s page load speed and provides grades on its performance and custom recommendations.

Google Search Console (Core Web Vitals Report)

 – Google Search Console tools and reports enable you to check indexing status, measure your site’s search traffic and performance, fix issues, and optimise the search visibility of your website.

 in Chrome DevTools – Open-source, automated tool for measuring the quality of web pages. It audits the performance, accessibility and search engine optimisation of web pages.

 – Powered by real user measurement of key user experience metrics, aggregated from users who have opted-in to syncing their browsing history, and have usage statistic reporting enabled.

 – WebPageTest allows you to run a free website speed test from around the globe using real browsers and connection speeds. Includes optimisation recommendations.

As you are evaluating your web pages against these new Page Experience signals, it’s an opportune time to review other vital elements of your website’s SEO, such as on-page optimisation, content depth, internal linking, and more. The best way to do this is through an SEO and content audit.

If you don’t have the time or skills to perform an audit and analyse the data on your own, the Hanabi team is here to help! Feel free to 

"A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content." 

Google

On 19 April 2021, Google announced that the Page Experience Update will be postponed until June. There will be a gradual rollout starting mid-June and is expected to fully rollout by the end of August.

The Google Page Experience Update Explained - Rollout mid-June 2021

Hanabi is a strategic digital agency, helping clients not just build websites, but create brands.

Work with us

Grow Your Business Online With HANABI

Get your free consultation

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