Magento (now Adobe Commerce) is one of the most popular eCommerce stores. It offers numerous benefits over other platforms, including:
- You can manage multiple brands/stores using a single interface.
- It is highly customizable, thereby allowing users to set up a store that aligns with their brand and unique requirements.
- Thirdly, it makes it easier to search engine optimize your store for increased online visibility.
Undoubtedly, after setting up your online store, the next step is to optimise it as it helps bring organic traffic which usually translates into higher revenue. According to available statistics, the 1st organic position in a Google search result generates more than 10x clicks than a website on the 10th position.
Magento offers a wide range of features that address all aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO) – on page , off page , and technical. This is why many merchants prefer to set up their stores in Magento. Of course, setting up a store in Magento is not a guarantee that your store will rank higher in organic rankings.
Instead, what store owners must realise is that they must have a robust SEO strategy. Usually, store owners either have a dedicated in-house team for this purpose or they engage a digital marketing agency. In case you wish to optimise it yourself, this article lists the top 5 Magento SEO tips to improve your store’s ranking in Google Search.
Top Magento SEO Tips for Higher Rankings in Google
1. Keep Your Store Up To Date
Most store owners fail to understand the importance of timely upgrading to the latest version of Magento 2. Instead, they keep running their store on older versions unless they really have no other option. Interestingly, a few of our clients are still running their stores on Magento 1. It may not seem that much of a big deal, but running your store on an older version is one of the top reasons behind poor rankings.
In older versions, some of the SEO-related features become incompatible or simply out of date with the latest trends. On top of it, older versions lack the latest security features needed to keep your store secure. Therefore, the first thing you must do is upgrade your Magento store. If you have the technical know-how, you can update it yourself from the System Upgrade option.
Read More: 3 Easy Ways to Upgrade Magento 2 to the Latest Version
In case you are a non-tech individual, we recommend against playing with the backend. You may unknowingly change settings that can upend your entire store. Hence, we ask that you approach an experienced Magento professional or a Magento 2 development company. They can easily update your Magento store and allow you to benefit from the latest Magento 2 SEO features.
2. Improve Website Loading Time
Google and every other search engine have repeatedly stressed that a website’s speed is one of the most critical ranking factors in their search algorithms. In other words, a slow loading website will automatically find itself on the lower end of the rankings, regardless of how good the reviews are or well the website is designed. If your website’s loading time is longer than three seconds, you need to work on it.
According to a more recent statistic, 47 per cent of users don’t wait around if the website takes longer than 2 seconds to load. With internet speeds improving worldwide, these 2 seconds will become 1 second in the coming years. It shows how important website loading times are for users. There are several ways you can improve a website’s loading time.
Read More: Magento 2 Speed Optimisation
First, we recommend that you enable caching. You can do this using the Magento 2 Full Page Cache feature. This feature stores a webpage’s entire HTML content. The next time the user visits the webpage, everything is pre-loaded. The default time to live (TTL for public content) is roughly 24 hours. If you increase this time, users will be viewing outdated information for longer periods of time.
If the time is reduced, users will have to connect with the server to load the latest content. It puts considerable strain on the server. We cannot provide you with the best TTL value as there’s no such thing. You’ll have to keep experimenting with this value from time to time until you find what works best for your store and audience. Usually, most store owners keep the default value which is 86400 (24 hours).
3. SEO-Friendly URLs
Usually, when a website owner changes the URL, it creates a 404 error unless the old URL is redirected to the new page. This can be an extremely time-consuming process, especially when multiple URLs have to be changed. Using Magento’s Rewrite URL feature , changing URLs is quite easy. Edit the URLs to make them more SEO-friendly and Magento will automatically redirect the users to the new webpage.
There are several things to remember when optimizing URLs. Firstly, don’t use space or commas to separate words as they are not easily readable by the crawler or the visitor. Instead, use hyphens for this purpose. Secondly, never use special characters. Thirdly, try using the primary keyword in the URL naturally. Fourth, when there are duplicate pages, set a canonical URL.
Read More: How to Add a Canonical URL in Magento 2?
To make it easier to manage canonical URLs in Magento 2, we recommend using our Magento 2 Canonical URL Extension. It offers various features, including the ability to configure rel="next" & rel="prev" attributes. This allows search engines like Google to understand the relevancy between product and category pages. Additionally, users can add canonical tag from the product page. Book a live demo to know more.
4. Allow Website Indexing
Just because your website is live does not mean that Google and other search engines can access your website. Instead, you need to enable it to allow the crawler to index your website. How to know if Google can index your website? Well, there are several ways. The easiest way to do so is go to Google and search site:yourwebsite.com. The search will show how many pages on your website are indexable.
This is shown below.
Based on the results, one can conclude that the website is indexable i.e. Google can access it without any issues. The second way to check whether a website is indexed or not is through the Google Search Console. Access the tool, then go to Index à Coverage. If the number of valid pages is quite low or 0, it means Google has problems indexing your website.
To get your website indexed, submit a sitemap to Google. The other option is to open the URL Inspection Tool and then request indexing. Another method is to get high quality backlinks to your website. These backlinks will send a message to the crawler that the website is valuable. If nothing works, then it indicates serious problems in your website and requires professional help.
5. Optimise Product Images
Lastly, since it is an online store, it is bound to have lots of product images and videos. These need to be optimized as they impact your ranking. Instead of having the default names, the image or video must have a meaningful name. The tip is to name it in a way that defines what the picture or video is about. Secondly, ensure that you properly add the alt description.
When the image does not load properly, Google will display this text in its place. Therefore, we recommend adding relevant keywords in the description. This will enhance your online visibility. However, it is imperative that you add the keyword naturally. Otherwise, Google may consider it as spam and de-index your website or webpage altogether.
Final Thoughts on Top Magento 2 Tips for SEO Purposes
By following the above tips, we can guarantee that your store’s online visibility will see a noticeable boost. Remember, SEO is not a one-off process. Instead, it is an on-going process. Therefore, don’t rest on your laurels and continue to implement the latest SEO best practices. While FME Extensions does not offer SEO services, it does have a range of Magento 2 SEO Extensions. Using these extensions can help you gain a competitive edge over competitors.