Whether you’re looking to build an eCommerce website from scratch or want to scale an existing brand, the chances are that you’re using Magento. Not only is it one of the world’s most SEO-friendly platforms, but it offers a whole host of amazing tools and features that help you deliver the best possible service to your end customers. Below, we’ve put together Magento 2 SEO strategies to drive visitors to your website and convert them into customers.
Say goodbye to WWW
Ten years ago, the chances are that you recommended your favorite websites to friends and colleagues with the WWW prefix. Fast forward to 2022, and for speed and convenience, most of us now ignore the WWW and stick to the ‘naked domain’ when we enter websites on our web browsers. One of the most straightforward SEO changes you can make to your website is to choose either the WWW or non-WWW version, as search engines like Google see the two as separate websites and will rank them independently. That means issues with duplicate content and so much more. We recommend adding a 301 redirect from the WWW version to the non-WWW site and updating Google Search Console to reflect the change.
Magento eCommerce website
Think about keywords
One of the most important elements of an SEO campaign is keyword research optimization and choosing the right keywords to add to your pages. It’s time to take a step back and think about your average customer. What are they going to be searching for in order to find products and eCommerce stores like yours? If you sell office supplies in Arizona, for example, you might choose keywords like office supplies Arizona and Arizona stationery. Spend some time researching keywords and use a tool to identify search volume and search intent. Once you’ve settled on a few, get to work on adding them to your title tags and product descriptions – and try to place keywords close to the beginning of the copy. If you have a blog, consider adding keywords and links to different pages there to boost internal linking.
Add a sitemap
Another simple SEO hack is to add a sitemap and upload it to search engines like Google. It’s good to know that Magento will automatically create an XML sitemap. Still, if you have an extensive eCommerce site with many different pages and options, it might be worth creating your own tiered sitemap that breaks categories down and makes it easier for search engines to crawl. Break down your site into smaller chunks and upload it to Google Search Console.
Run the latest version
Whether you have a web designer or you’re making changes and optimizations on your own, it’s vitally important to keep your Magento store up to date with the latest version. Not only will it ensure you’re running the latest and most secure version of the software, but it can fix any issues that were found in the previous version, which might improve your website’s speed and performance. We recommend turning on automatic Magento store updates or asking your web development team to maintain your website and install software updates.
Make sure your site is easily found
There’s little point in spending time optimizing your website if search engines aren’t indexing it at all. Spend some time making it easy for Google and Bing to index your website and you will reap the rewards in the long run. Sure, you’re not going to get to rank one for a highly competitive keyword overnight, but if you’re strategic and consistent, you’ll get there in time. You can see whether your website is being indexed by searching for it on Google and adding the site: modifier. If it’s not, head to Google Search Console and ensure you’ve indexed your site. If there are still issues, speak to your SEO agency about getting them resolved quickly.
Think about your product images
The chances are that, when you launched your eCommerce website, you wanted to get your products up and live as soon as possible. When doing so, you might not have considered the importance of image optimization and reviewing each one to boost your ranks. Add some alt attributes to your image, describing what each one is. Not only does it ensure the visually impaired can learn about your products, but it’s an opportunity to add more keywords to your pages and show search engines that you should rank for those terms. Give each of your images a keyword-rich name, and be succinct with your alt descriptions. You’ll soon start to see your product images appear on Google Images for search terms relevant to your stock.
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