After setting up your Magento 2 store, the first thing you will need to do is devise a Magento 2 SEO strategy. After all, your store’s success is directly tied to its rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs). In other words, the higher the organic traffic, the better it is for your store and its growth.
The below picture shows the views of marketing professionals across the globe regarding SEO.
Source: Statista
According to the above statistic, 82 per cent of the respondents believe that SEO has a positive impact on marketing goals and performance. In other words, we can safely conclude that SEO goes hand in hand with your store’s success. No SEO means no success in today’s highly digital world.
The problem is that SEO itself is a vast field, making it challenging for store owners to determine which area to focus the most. The below image shows top SEO strategies adopted by marketers worldwide. It gives you an idea into how vast and challenging the SEO field can be.
Source: Statista
As you can see for yourself, there are various areas that constitute SEO. What works for one store may not work for the other. Now, tell me, should a store opt for a top Magento 2 SEO extension, focus on backlinks, write keyword-rich blogs, or optimise their images only? This is where I make things easier for you.
This article specifically focuses on Magento 2 SEO. It will discuss the top 6 and most impactful Magento 2 SEO practices. By implementing these practices, you’ll see a noticeable improvement in organic traffic and sales. Therefore, without further ado, let’s start our discussion.
Best Practices for Magento 2 SEO
- Clean and SEO Friendly URLs
Although I am not going to name the website or share the specific URL, I am going to give you an idea about what a poor URL looks like.
By reading the URL, can you guess what I was searching for? Yes, it has something to do with my desktop computer, but what exactly? Just as you are having a hard time understanding what the URL is about, the same applies to web crawlers. If they are unable to understand the URL’s intent, they purposely drop the link down the rankings.
Now, consider this URL:
Just by looking at this URL, you can see the user’s intent. They are looking for a desktop computer’s RAM and the size should be 8 GB. Unfortunately, store owners fail to realize the difference a clean and SEO-friendly URL can make. Remember to include a primary or at least secondary keyword in the URL for improved ranking in SERPs.
- Use Rich Snippets
Another thing to focus on is the use of rich snippets. Look at the below example for better understanding.
The above image represents search results for ‘Magento 2 SEO extension’.
For the same search query, Google displayed the below result as well.
Clearly, the second image provides more information to the user. It shows the product’s price, reviews, and whether it is in stock. Such results generate more clicks than others. To improve the probability that Google displays your URL as a rich snippet, use schema markup to provide additional data to the web crawler.
- URL Redirects
In eCommerce stores, there are a lot of 404 errors. One reason is that store owners often delete products that they no longer plan to sell, thereby resulting in 404 errors. The best strategy to avoid a 404 error and improve Magento 2 SEO performance is to set up URL redirects. It means that users will automatically be taken to a new URL instead of seeing the frustrating 404 error. Another benefit of URL redirects is that they ensure that any link equity from the now-defunct URL is transferred to the other URL.
- Set Up a Blog
Magento does not have a built-in blog feature. Consequently, many store owners think that if Magento, a leading eCommerce platform, does not offer a blogging feature, there’s no need for it. However, that’s not the case. Magento does not offer many features, but it doesn’t mean they are not required. You can set up a blog in Magento 2 using an extension.
But why do you need a blog? There are several reasons. First, blogs allow you to communicate with your audience. Secondly, by using keywords in the blog content, you can start driving traffic to your website. You can insert product links within a blog to compel users to check the product(s). This is a great way to boost conversions, as long as the content is high quality.
We don’t recommend using AI tools to write the content. Google and other search engines have recently penalised websites with AI content. Therefore, hire a specialist content writer that has expertise in your niche. This can be a great way to build trust and establish yourself as a thought leader. Ultimately, this will benefit your sales performance, organic traffic, and open new opportunities for growth.
- Use Canonical URLs
Google and other search engines do not rank duplicate content. They will deindex your website or webpage altogether. Even if they don’t, the crawler has no idea which page to rank. This will impact your store’s SEO performance. The problem is that in eCommerce, it is quite common to have duplicate content. For instance, the product features may be the same or you may have a certain section that appears on all pages.
Similarly, there may be two versions of a webpage: HTTP and HTTPS. To avoid a penalty and boost Magento 2 SEO performance, Google recommends using canonical URLs. The canonical URL tells the crawler which page to index. In other words, it tells the crawler about the site owner’s preference. By indexing the relevant page only, you can boost the link equity, thereby further improving ranking in SERPs.
How do I enable Canonical URLs in Magento 2 SEO?
Follow the below instructions to set up canonical URLs in Magento 2:
- Step 1 🡪 Go to Stores
- Step 2 🡪 Go to Configuration
- Step 3 🡪 Under the Catalog Dropdown Menu, click on Catalog.
- Step 4 🡪 Click on Search Engine Optimisation
- Step 5 🡪 Select the relevant Store View
- Step 6 🡪 Set Value to ‘Yes’ for Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories and Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products.
- Step 7 🡪 Click on Save Config
- Step 8 🡪 Clear Cache
- Indexing Guidelines
Firstly, if you have HTTP and HTTPS URLs, index HTTPS only. It is more secure and search engines like Google value security as part of their search algorithm. Secondly, do not index internal search pages. An internal search page is one which is displayed after a user searches for something using the website’s internal search functionality. These internal searches serve no purpose at all. Therefore, block them using robot.txt file or add a no-index tag to them.
Conclusion
This concludes our article on the top 6 Magento 2 SEO guidelines. While some of these guidelines may seem very basic, their impact will be instant and quite significant. Therefore, we recommend you implement these strategies and monitor the website’s performance afterwards. If there are no noticeable improvements, engage a SEO company to conduct a detailed audit of your website. They will devise tailored strategies that can improve your store’s visibility and transform it into a powerhouse.
