Magento (now Adobe Commerce) is one of the most popular eCommerce stores. It offers numerous benefits over other platforms. For instance, you can manage multiple brands/stores using a single interface. Secondly, it is highly customizable, thereby allowing users to set up a store that aligns with their brand. Thirdly, it makes it easier to optimize your store. Undoubtedly, after setting up your online store, the next step is to optimize it.
It is the only way to bring organic traffic and improve the user experience. More organic traffic means higher revenue. According to several reports, 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 optimization – on page, off page, and technical. This article lists the top 5 tips to improve your store’s ranking in Google Search.
Optimizing Your Magento Store for Google
1. Keep Your Store Up-To-Date
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 In older versions, some of the SEO-related features become incompatible or simply out of date with the latest trends. 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.
In case you are a non-tech individual, we recommend not to play around 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. With considerable experience under their belt, 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 has repeatedly said that a website’s performance is one of the key ranking factors in its search algorithm. Therefore, if your website’s loading time is longer than three seconds, you need to work on it. There are several ways you can improve a website’s loading time. 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 If you increase this time, users will be viewing outdated information for longer periods of time.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.
There is no concrete advice regarding what the best TTL should be for a store. You will need to play around with it until you find the best fit for your requirements. To enable caching, go to Stores à Configuration à Advanced à System à Full Page Cache à ‘Caching Application: Built-in Application or Varnish Caching’ and then à ‘TTL for public content’.
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 a breeze. 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.
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. Therefore, it needs to be indexed. If nothing works, then it indicates serious problems in your website which need to be checked by a professional.
5. Optimize 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 text or 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.
Conclusion
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.