Linking is an important part of SEO. The better your links, the higher you can rank. While most shop owners and website owners concentrate on the links inbound to the website, Google and other search engines are also concerned about the outbound links.

Key Takeaways
1
Log into your Shopify store to begin adding external links to your site’s navigation.
2
In the Shopify admin, select ‘Online Store’, then ‘Navigation’ to access and edit your store’s menus.
3
Add a new menu item or edit an existing one to include the external link, ensuring the URL is accurate.

Why are Outbound Links Important?

An outbound link is a link from your website to another website.

Google is concerned about the user’s experience and they know that content is king. However, Google also would like the internet to be more connected and that sites reference other content to make points. Therefore, they like you to link out from content. For some of this content, this could be other pages on your website (internal links). However, Google and other search engines would also like to see you linking to external pages.

Therefore, you should be linking out at least once on each page.

However, you might also want to link to another site, like an external blog or an international site within a menu. This article deals with this.

External links can provide valuable information to your customers about various aspects of e-commerce.

For example, you might link to Shopify’s official guide on how their shipping system works, which can be helpful for customers who want to understand the logistics behind your store’s operations. This is especially useful if you utilize Shopify’s advanced shipping features or integrations.

Why Link in a Menu?

Sometimes, it is better to make a link to another website, external blog or a different version within a menu because there are no other suitable places for it. You also might want the link to appear on every page.

There are many different links that you can add to your website’s menu. For instance, you can add links to social media accounts, external blogs, other versions of your store, other stores you control, etc. These links don’t always count towards your external link count, but they can make navigation between different sites easier for customers.

You can also use external links to efficiently arrange products across multiple storefronts. For example, you might link to a separate clearance site, a specialized product category on another platform, or even a partner store with complementary products.

Step 1 - Login to Shopify

First thing you need to do is to login to your Shopify store.

Step 2 - Go to “Online Store” and then “Navigation”

From your Shopify admin page, you can then select the ‘Online Store’ and then choose the ‘Navigation’ option. This will take you to the menu lists that are on your store.

Step 3 - Find Your Menu

Find the menu that you would like to add the link to. Your store might have several menus, so be sure that you’re choosing the right menu for you.

Step 4 - Add Menu Item

Now you can now choose to add a menu item or change an existing item to edit. From there you can type in the link name, this could be something like Blog, UK store, EU Store or Facebook into the ‘Name’ section.

Step 5 - Paste Link

Now you can copy and paste the link that you would like the menu item to connect to. Be sure that this is accurate. An inaccurate copy and paste action will result in a 404 error. Once you’ve completed this you can click on the ‘Save’ option to complete the process.