I’m relatively new to SEO and use of the Google Marketing Suite (or whatever it’s called now.)
Is there a particular set of resources you might suggest to someone learning the Google products for the first time?
Can you speak to any advantages between using Shopify’s built-in conversion tracking vs. Google Tag manager with manually added tags?
This is a tough question.
For a new store owner, trying to master SEO yourself is usually not the best use of time—it’s too slow and complex. You’ll get better results focusing on immediate revenue drivers like local sales or social media (if you’re comfortable on the platform).
If you are determined to learn SEO, look for an inexpensive, comprehensive course on a site like Udemy. Otherwise, plan to outsource SEO once your business is consistently generating revenue and you already have well oiled ads running.
Regarding the conversion tracking question, you don’t need to choose between the two. We use both:
Shopify Analytics: This is your primary tool. It’s intuitive and requires no setup, giving you great real-time data on store performance.
Google Tag Manager (GTM): Set up your Google properties (like GTM and Analytics) simply now so they can collect historic data. This data will be extremely valuable to any ads agency or expert you hire in the future.
In short: Focus on Shopify’s numbers for daily decisions, and set up Google to capture data for later.
For our full response see the stream recording on YouTube. We start answering your question around 00:49:36.