Magento eCommerce SEO: An Expert Guide for Novices and Pros

You may be wondering how to combine the analytical aspect of science with the artistic side. This post will discuss why and how SEO works in Magento, how it might help you compete, and how to identify whether it’s working.

Magento stands out as one of the best eCommerce marketing solutions. Thanks to its numerous features and unrivaled flexibility, you have the freedom to realize your idea. This post will examine some of the most popular SEO consulting services and how they might benefit your company. So you don’t miss anything, we’ll also add what we know is frequently forgotten. Let’s get this party started.

Magento eCommerce SEO: Stages and Costs

Achieving top-notch Magento eCommerce SEO for your store requires a systematic approach and several key stages, each contributing to your site’s overall performance and visibility. This article outlines the essential stages of Magento SEO: 

1. Thorough audit to identify issues
2. Fix technical errors to ensure smooth performance
3. Extending semantics to improve search engine understanding
4. Increasing site authority to boost rankings through strategic link-building and content. 

Each stage is critical for optimizing your store’s visibility and attracting more organic traffic, ultimately leading to higher conversions and sales.

1. Magento SEO Audit

Setting up or optimizing SEO begins with thoroughly analyzing your site’s current state. Understanding and addressing the underlying issues sets the foundation for a robust and effective SEO strategy. Our specialists offer two types of Magento SEO audits: quick and in-depth, each tailored to meet different needs and objectives.

• Quick Magento SEO Audit Our Quick SEO audit is free of charge and evaluates your site across more than 130 parameters, including security, loading speed, and site content. This audit provides an immediate snapshot of your site’s health, highlighting technical errors and offering actionable recommendations for improvement. This rapid assessment is ideal for swiftly identifying and addressing fundamental issues, allowing you to enhance site performance and user experience without any initial investment. You can see an example of a Quick SEO audit in this article: Magento Code Audit by Certified Magento Developers.
• In-depth Magento eCommerce SEO Audit. For a comprehensive analysis, our in-depth SEO audit spans 16-24 hours. It includes a meticulous examination of technical errors, a detailed report, and specific technical tasks for developers to resolve. This audit goes beyond surface-level issues, diving deep into your site’s architecture, content strategy, and backlink profile intricacies. The benefits of an in-depth audit are manifold: it uncovers critical issues affecting your search rankings and provides a strategic roadmap for long-term SEO success.

The cost of a Magento eCommerce SEO audit varies depending on your online store’s size and current state and the complexity of the optimization work required. While there’s no fixed price, we can offer average costs based on completed projects. A detailed Magento SEO audit enhances your site’s visibility, drives organic traffic, and increases conversions. 

2. Extending Semantics

Our materials, such as articles and webinars, frequently emphasize the importance of ‘relevance’ as a crucial factor in search engine rankings. This focus is intentional. Search engine algorithms are designed to deliver results that best satisfy user queries. For example, when someone searches for ‘red t-shirt for men,’ the search engine understands the intent and displays top results featuring categories with only men’s red t-shirts. Understanding and leveraging this concept of relevance can significantly boost your site’s SEO performance.

At this stage, a Magento SEO specialist aims to improve your eCommerce site’s search engine rankings by creating highly relevant pages. Two main tools are blogs and subcategories (or SEO product filters).

• Blogging

Blogs are straightforward: a content plan is created, and articles are published monthly to attract users with informational queries (e.g., “How to choose a t-shirt,” “What color t-shirt to wear under a jacket”). Here are the average costs for preparing and publishing a blog article (≈15K characters):

• Subcategories

First, the Magento eCommerce SEO specialist prepares a semantic core (a list of potential search queries) for subcategories. Then, collaborating with other specialists, they configure Magento to generate separate product categories for refined search queries.

Why is this important? 

Approximately 80% of all search queries are detailed, multi-level queries. For instance:

• 1st level: t-shirts for men (gender)
• 2nd level: print t-shirts for men (style, gender), men’s XL t-shirts (size, gender), men’s white t-shirts (color, gender)
• 3rd level: red v-neck t-shirt for men (color, neckline type, gender)

If your site only features general categories like “t-shirts,” it will miss out on many specific queries (e.g., “print t-shirts for men,” “men’s white t-shirts”), and even if it does appear, it will likely rank far from the top results.

Here are the average costs for this process:

By carefully extending your website’s semantics through relevant content and well-structured categories, you can increase its visibility for a wider range of search queries, increase organic traffic, and improve overall performance.

3. Increasing Site Authority

In addition to assessing the quality of content and usability of a webpage, Google also considers a site’s authority when ranking it in search results. In 1997, Google’s co-founders developed an algorithm called PageRank to determine the “value” of a webpage. PageRank assigned a score from 0 to 10 based on the number and quality of links from other web resources pointing to the site. Users could view a page’s PageRank through the Google Toolbar until 2016.

In 2016, Google discontinued the ability to see PageRank scores, though the PageRank algorithm is still in use. A Google spokesperson explained that the internet’s increasing complexity led to incorporating additional factors in evaluating a site’s authority, rendering the PageRank indicator less relevant. As a result, while the PageRank algorithm remains part of Google’s search engine, its standalone importance has diminished in favor of a more holistic assessment of website authority.

The authority of a website can grow either naturally or artificially. 

• Naturally, this occurs when you actively work on your brand using various advertising channels. Users will begin mentioning your brand on social media, blogs, and in their search queries (e.g., “eBay t-shirts women,” “t-shirts Walmart“). Search engines track these trends, which can lead to increased authority for your Magento site.
• Artificial growth happens when SEO specialists, known as link builders, publish articles mentioning your brand and linking to your site on various authoritative web resources. They also post links and mentions of your brand on forums, blogs, and directories. These activities are not free, and budgets for boosting the authority of an online store can range from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. The budget size depends on several factors, including the level of competition, the number of categories you want to promote in search, and the link-building strategies employed.

Case Study: Magento Search Engine Optimisation in Action

In our recent SEO project, WebMeridian experts significantly boosted organic traffic for a US-based men’s clothing retailer by resolving technical issues within their Magento-based online store. 

Challenges & Issues:

Initially, the store faced several challenges, including a limited category structure, indexing problems, and dynamic URLs for filters, which hampered search engine visibility and ranking, resulting in a lack of organic traffic growth over the past year.

Online store structure errors:

• Limited Category Levels: Only top-level (e.g., men’s t-shirts) and first-level  (e.g., men’s polo t-shirts) subcategories existed, leading to low rankings for specific queries.
• Indexing Problems: Some subcategories were not indexed due to canonical URLs of parent categories.
• Dynamic URLs for Filters: Dynamic URLs prevented proper indexing by search engines.

Content Issues:

• Metadata Problems: Blank or duplicate metadata affected SEO performance.
• Lack of Content: Pages had minimal content, just an H1 heading, and a product list.

Our Primary Goal:

Increase organic traffic by enhancing page relevance and resolving technical errors.

Solution

Our SEO and technical teams conducted a comprehensive Magento SEO audit, identifying critical errors and implementing solutions such as:

• Step 1: Our specialists collected the semantic core for 4 main categories and identified groups of search queries for which the site lacked relevant pages.
• Step 2: We prepared new content for new subcategories, ensuring it was optimized for search engines.
• Step 3: Using an SEO filter, we set up interlinking between pages within each category to enhance navigation and relevance.
• Step 4: For each category and subcategory, we added new sections with descriptions, FAQs, and additional content to improve the user experience and SEO performance.

Results

These technical enhancements based on the Magento SEO audit led to a twofold increase in daily organic traffic, from 3,200 to 6,100 visitors, demonstrating the vital role of addressing technical SEO mistakes in achieving high organic traffic. This approach improved search rankings without additional budgets or changes to the link-building strategy. Moreover, the bounce rate dropped from 39% to 30%, and the conversion rate improved from 2.7% to 3.1%, highlighting the broader business value of these optimizations.

4 SEO Components that Apply Not Only to Magento Sites

Success in SEO is only achieved when your website, built on Magento or any other technology, reaches the first pages of search engines; ideally, the top 10. 75% of all search traffic is generated by the first page of Google, as most users do not go beyond the first page of search results.

Four components are crucial to propelling eCommerce website pages into the top 10: Technical optimization, Content, Authority, and Design and Usability.

Technical Website Optimization

Technical website optimization involves addressing technical errors on a Magento website to enhance its performance and user experience. This includes the following:

• Page loading speed.
• Optimization of the URL structure.
• Using the correct meta tags and headings.
• Support for mobile design and adaptability.
• Optimization of images for fast loading.
• Use of the correct code and micro-markup.
• Internal indexing and webshop structure for SEO.
• Optimization of robots.txt and sitemap.xml files.
• Use of CDN (Content Delivery Network) to improve loading speed.

Content

Content refers to creating and publishing high-quality, relevant, reliable, and structured information on a website. It includes various forms of content, including articles, blog posts, product descriptions, videos, images, and more, to engage and inform the target audience while addressing their needs and interests.

Authority

“Authority” includes establishing credibility and trustworthiness for a Magento website by acquiring backlinks from reputable sites, earning brand mentions online, and increasing brand queries. Building authority informs search engines that the website is a trustworthy information source, boosting its rankings in search results.

Design and Convenience

Google aims to “think like a human” to enhance the quality of its search results. The system collects user data via popular web products of its own design. These include the Google Chrome browser, which is used by 72% of web users worldwide, and the Google Analytics analytics system, which is integrated into 85% of all websites. Artificial intelligence analyzes the collected data and identifies patterns in user behavior.

TOP 4 SEO Mistakes on a Magento Online Store

Magento SEO experts have gathered a list of the critical technical Magento SEO mistakes that can significantly impact your online store’s traffic. From overlooking customer search behavior to neglecting SEO audits and underutilizing Magento SEO extensions, these errors can hinder your website’s visibility and performance in search engine results. Let’s dive deeper into each mistake.

Mistake #1. Structural Mistakes in Magento Websites: Ignorance of Customer Search Behavior

An eСommerce website’s structure is similar to a house’s foundation. A website’s structure determines how pages rank in search results (traffic) and how user-friendly the site is (sales), much like a building’s foundation determines how long it will last and how secure its residents are.

The proper structure of any Magento website is established by evaluating the search queries generated by your target audience.’

80% of all search queries are queries with 2nd and higher-level details. To demonstrate what our expert means, let’s take a look at these examples:

• The search query “T-shirts for men” specifies gender. This is the first level of detail.
• The search query “print T-shirts for men” specifies style and gender, which is already the 2nd level of detail.
• And finally, the 3d level would be something like a “red v-neck T-shirt for men”, where we have specifications by color, types of neckline, and gender, all at once.

Therefore, when people search for something, 80% of the time, they use search queries with a 2nd or 3rd level of detail. And if you’re a Magento online shop owner and ignore this fact, you’re getting only 20% of the eCommerce website traffic and losing 80%. 

Such queries are important and very helpful for users because they convey to the search engine what they need, thereby saving their browsing time.

For Magento online store owners, such queries provide an opportunity to reach the TOP 10 positions on Google quickly. Why?

The more specific the query, the lower the competition in the search results. Technical SEO issues keep a lot of eCommerce websites from showing up on search results pages.

“Allintitle:” is a Google command that shows the number of pages you will compete in searching for a specific query.

The solution from our experts

The following steps will help you create the proper structure for your online store so that it can be visible for various detailed search queries on the Magento website:

1. Collection and analysis of search queries (we study how users search for your products). Keyword research tools: Ahrefs, Se Ranking, Ubersuggest
2. Create a structure of relevant pages while adhering to the hierarchy (category, subcategory). Site architecture tools: Miro, Draw.io
3. Technical implementation of the correct online store structure (setting up categories, subcategories, or SEO filters). 

Mistake #2. Rejecting a Magento SEO Audit: A Risky Move

“Meet by clothes, see off by mind.” This well-known proverb describes the way Google works. Google analyzes websites based on many parameters when selecting web pages and generating search results. Both the visible part of the site and technical components that are not visible to the web user during the visit are considered. While a website’s appearance may be attractive, its “soul” may be quite the opposite.

Before the pages of your Magento website are available on Google, the search engine analyzes them according to many parameters. While all Google algorithms are classified, the exact number of parameters cannot be named, but some sources suggest more than 200.

SEO technical requirements can be divided into unofficial and official categories. 

• Unofficial requirements are based on hypotheses and tests conducted by SEO specialists. 
• Official requirements are published by Google employees in the Search Center or on Twitter.

Technical SEO audits involve identifying and eliminating technical errors to optimize the site according to search engine requirements. They should be conducted before launching an online store and whenever major technical changes are made. The primary goal is identifying errors that could impact the site’s operation, indexing, and search visibility.

The important technical Magento SEO mistakes listed below can “kill” traffic to your online store and can be found and fixed during the audit.

Dublicate pages

The most common occurrence of duplicate pages on Magento websites arises when specialists misconfigure the URL hierarchy of categories and products during website development. Consequently, a single product may have multiple URL versions if listed in several categories. Here’s a visual example of this error:

https://**************/category-1/product-1

https://**************/category-2/product-1

Dynamic URLs

Dynamic URLs are frequently generated on Magento eCommerce websites, especially when product filters are involved. For instance, a dynamic URL might look like this: /collections/mens-t-shirts?filter.v.option.color=Red. However, this presents a problem because search engines don’t index such auto-generated pages as individual pages. Consequently, the site might not appear in search queries related to color, size, style, and other vital parameters.

SEO-Friendly URLs

SEO-friendly URLs look like links created for human consumption. Clear and concise URLs enhance snippet clickability by informing consumers that the page is relevant to their query. Search engines value these behavioral signals, so SEO-friendly URLs are an essential part of efficient optimization tactics.

Absence or Errors in Sitemap.xml and Robots.txt

Sitemap.xml and Robots.txt are crucial files for Magento site administrators to control search engine crawling and indexing. These files utilize special operators and commands to dictate which pages and files should be excluded from search results and prioritize page crawling.

Meta-data

Meta-data, including titles and descriptions, forms the snippet displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs). Snippets are crucial for SEO as they impact click-through rates (CTR) and influence Google’s ranking algorithms. Google analyzes user behavior from SERP interactions, making snippets vital for attracting visitors. Incomplete or inaccurate meta tags can harm page CTR, emphasizing the importance of optimizing meta-data for improved search visibility.

Security

An SEO audit can uncover various vulnerabilities in a Magento site that may expose it to hacking risks. Search engines prioritize user safety, and one key aspect is the protocol governing data transfer between a user’s browser and the web server. The HTTPS protocol encrypts data, ensuring its protection during transmission. HTTPS websites offer a secure environment for activities like registration and online payments, safeguarding personal information such as contact details, bank card numbers, logins, passwords, and email addresses. This protocol is also a recognized ranking factor, emphasizing its importance in website security and SEO.

Website Speed

Website loading speed is a crucial factor in Google ranking, often called Google PageRank. Google’s research has shown that page load times significantly impact user behavior. For instance, an increase in page load time from 1 second to 3 seconds correlates with a 32% rise in bounce rate. Similarly, when load time extends from 1 second to 5 seconds, the probability of bouncing increases by 90%.

Recent research underscores the impact of page load delays on user experience. A mere one-second delay in page load time can lead to:

• 11% fewer page views
• 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
• 7% loss of conversions

eCommerce giants like Walmart and Amazon have demonstrated the benefits of improving website speed. Walmart observed a 2% increase in conversions with every one-second enhancement in page speed, while Amazon reported a 1% surge in revenue for every 100 milliseconds of site speed improvement.

Website Navigation

During the SEO audit, our experts assess the usability of various navigation features on Magento websites. This includes:

• reviewing menus, 
• site search functionality, 
• breadcrumb settings, 
• pagination on product category pages, 
• and blog integration. 

The language navigation is also evaluated to see if the site offers multiple language versions. These elements are crucial in enhancing the user experience and can significantly impact the site’s ranking by improving user engagement metrics.

Structured Data

Structured data, also known as schema markup, is a code snippet that assists search engines in comprehending the content and context of your webpage. In eCommerce, structured data is commonly utilized for various elements, including products, reviews, ratings, website information, and breadcrumbs.

Implementing structured data can enhance search engine results, leading to more engaging snippets that encourage user interaction, known as rich results.

Mistake #3. Backlinks and Brand Mentions

In our daily lives, we naturally pay attention to the opinions and actions of others, often without conscious awareness. Similarly, search engines assess the authority of a website through multiple factors. 

Factors such as backlinks from external sites, brand mentions across the web, and brand searches significantly impact your site’s ranking and search traffic. Backlinks from other sites not only enhance referral traffic but also bolster the credibility of your website.

Moreover, brand mentions across social media platforms, online communities, and various websites increase your brand’s visibility and recognition, ultimately driving more inquiries.

Mistake #4. Ignoring Magento SEO Extensions

Our Magento eCommerce SEO experts recommend employing effective extensions for online stores to streamline the SEO process and maximize traffic, leads, and sales. Here are the top extensions we utilize in our projects:

• Magento 2 SEO Ultimate Extension: This comprehensive extension helps optimize meta tags, generate XML sitemaps, improve site structure, manage canonical URLs, and enhance rich snippets to boost search engine visibility.

• SEO Toolkit Pro: This tool optimizes websites for search engines by facilitating keyword research, competitor analysis, on-page optimization, backlink analysis, and performance tracking. Additionally, it assists in identifying and resolving technical SEO issues for enhanced site performance.

• Google Page Speed Optimizer Pro: This extension enhances website loading speed, which is critical for user experience and search engine ranking. The tool optimizes various elements like images, JavaScript, CSS files, and server response time to achieve faster page loading and improve Google’s PageSpeed Insights performance scores.

• ChatGPT AI Content Generator: Powered by AI, this extension generates high-quality, relevant content for websites, blogs, product descriptions, and more, streamlining content creation processes.

Speed Optimization in Magento: Boost Your eCommerce SEO

Slow and steady never wins the race. Heavy themes, large image files, and third-party integrations result in sluggish load times, leading to low conversion rates, high bounce rates, and high cart abandonment rates. 

It is essential to learn how to optimize your online store. So, our Magento SEO experts prepared a step-by-step guide in this paragraph on optimizing your Shopify online store speed.

Why Page Speed is Important in eCommerce SEO

In 2018, Google introduced significant changes to its search algorithms with the Speed Update, making page loading speed a crucial ranking factor. This means that the speed at which your website loads now directly affects its position in search results.

In the same year, Google also implemented the Mobile-First Indexing update, changing how web pages are ranked. Now, the ranking of web pages is based on data obtained from their mobile versions. Websites that lack a mobile-friendly version or are not adaptive automatically lose positions in search results. Some might argue, “It’s not fair!”

Source: Dynamic Yield by Mastercard

However, the reasoning becomes clear when we examine the dynamics of mobile traffic over the past decade. 2010, mobile devices accounted for less than 1% of all internet traffic. By 2018, this figure had surged to 52%, and by 2020, mobile traffic constituted 60-70% of all internet usage.

Speaking of eCommerce SEO, mobile traffic will account for 73-75% of all internet traffic by 2024. Page loading speed also significantly impacts visitor behavior, which Google uses as a ranking factor. The search engine analyzes visitor actions on the search engine results page (SERP), such as click-through rate (CTR), and on the site itself, including session duration, bounce rate, scroll depth, and the number of pages per session.

• According to research by Forrester Consulting, 40% of users leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. 
• Google has found that as page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of bouncing increases by 32%. When it goes from 1 to 5 seconds, the likelihood of bouncing increases by 90%.

A recent study about search engine optimization revealed that a one-second delay in page load time results in:

• 11% fewer page views
• 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
• 7% loss in conversions

Additionally, Walmart showed a 2% increase in conversions and website performance for every one-second improvement in page speed. Amazon reported a 1% increase in revenue for every 100 milliseconds of improvement in site speed due to proper search engine optimization.

Example of Load Speed Optimization in Magento

Optimizing your website is all about doing things correctly. You demand top development services that ensure customizations are implemented immediately, preventing backend issues later.

One of our case studies highlights the importance of Magento eCommerce SEO and high website performance. In this project, our primary goal was Magento 2 Speed Optimization for a multistore setup that sells products, including branded clothing, accessories, CDs, vinyl records, and concert tickets.

Challenge: The client faced significant challenges with the performance and speed of their Magento 2 multistore setup. The websites, each representing different rock bands, experienced slow loading times and low performance, negatively impacting the user experience and conversion rates. 

Solution: The scope of work included the following:

• Magento Version Upgrade: Our first step was to upgrade Magento to the latest version, a crucial move to ensure enhanced security and stability for the client’s multistore setup.
• Speed Optimization Techniques:
  • Reducing file sizes of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to enhance loading speeds.
  • Compressing images without compromising quality to decrease load times.
  • Implementing advanced caching mechanisms to reduce server load and improve response times.
  • Fine-tuning database queries and indexing for faster data retrieval.
  • Systematically address and resolve errors that disrupt site functionality, ensuring a seamless user experience.

Outcomes: The search engine optimization and speed optimization resulted in significantly faster loading times, reducing bounce rates, and increasing the likelihood of customer retention and conversions.

This case study highlights the critical role of Magento SEO, marketing, and performance optimization in improving the user experience and achieving higher conversion rates. By focusing on these vital areas, we can ensure your Magento eCommerce site performs at its best.

Magento SEO Checklist: Essential Steps for Optimizing Your eCommerce Store

Following a comprehensive SEO strategy is crucial to ensure your Magento store ranks highly on search engines and attracts more traffic. In this section, we have summarized the main steps of Magento SEO checking and its best tools. These steps can enhance your store’s visibility, improve user experience, and increase conversions.

Magento SEO Audit: Practical Example Based on the Checklist

Recently, our SEO Experts conducted a Magento SEO Audit for an online store specializing in musical instruments and accessories. 

A few words about the project:

• Site Localization: Ireland
• eCommerce Platform: Magento (Adobe eCommerce)
• Theme: Musical Instruments

As part of the SEO Audit, an analysis was conducted in 3 areas:

• Content of the online store’s categories
• Technical condition of the site
• Link mass (external optimization) of the online store

During the Magento SEO Audit, the following errors were identified, which negatively affect the online store’s visibility in Google search and the generation of organic search traffic.

No Subcategories

Categories like

https://**************/shop-by-category/guitars/electric.html do not contain subcategories that would match user queries with specifications. Examples of such queries include:

• black guitar electric
• red electric guitar
• pink electric guitar
• electric guitar for beginners
• childs electric guitar
• fender electric guitar
• yamaha electric guitar
• left handed electric guitars
• acoustic electric guitar
• irish electric guitar
• cheapest electric guitar
• 12 string guitar electric

……

For such queries, the website should include separate subcategories so that users can directly navigate from Google search results to pages containing only the products that interest them.

Dynamic URLs

The website currently implements subcategories under different brands, which generate dynamic URLs like https://**************/shop-by-category/guitars/electric.html?manufacturer=47, but these are not indexed in Google search as individual pages. As a result, these pages do not appear in Google search results and do not generate impressions and traffic.

An explanation of the error is here.

Example of proper implementation of subcategories:

Category https://onlinestoreexample.com/electric-guitars

Subcategories:

https://onlinestoreexample.com/electric-guitars/black

https://onlinestoreexample.com/electric-guitars/fender

https://onlinestoreexample.com/electric-guitars/left handed

….

Implementing this approach could increase website traffic by 8-10 times. This forecast is based on an analysis of the traffic of competitor https://www.**********.ie , which has organic traffic of 27-40K per month.

Recommendations:

1. Collection and analysis of search queries (study how users search for your products)
2. Create a structure of relevant pages while adhering to the hierarchy (category, subcategory)
3. Technical implementation of the correct structure of the online store

The categories contain errors that reduce the site’s visibility in Google search, or display categories for irrelevant search queries

As an example, the category https://**************/shop-by-category/guitars/electric.html appears for irrelevant queries (“guitars”, “guitars for sale ireland”).

This category should appear for search queries related to electric guitar.

Example of correct category display: https://www.**************/Guitars.html 

Category errors negatively impacting the site’s visibility in Google search

Example: https://**************/shop-by-category/guitars/electric.html 

Meta-data is not configured

1 – The Title is not configured according to SEO rules

2 – The Description is not filled out

SEO content (after/before products)

SEO content in categories helps search engines better understand the theme of the page

Example of correct implementation: https://**************/Guitars.html 

The category backlinks

External links (from various authoritative sites) to the categories positively impact the improvement of Google search rankings (one of the main ranking factors)

Backlink profile for the category https://**************/shop-by-category/guitars/electric.html 

Example of correct implementation:

https://**************/Guitars.html 

Structured data is not configured

Structured data (also known as schema markup) is a piece of code that helps search engines to better understand what your page is about. 

Mistake: Structured data is not configured

• Product
• Review
• Ratings 
• WebSite
• Breadcrumb

Why add structured data to a page https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data#why 

Recommendations:

1. Correct the category errors (meta data, SEO content, etc.) listed earlier
2. Systematically start increasing the backlink mass of categories and brand mentions on the internet (publishing outreach articles, crowd links, etc.)

Health Score

The website contains technical errors that negatively impact the promotion of pages in Google search.

XML sitemap not found in robots.txt file

The robots.txt file must contain a line with a link to the sitemap.xml file. An example of such an entry is Sitemap: https://…/sitemap.xml. This helps search engines understand where the sitemap is located.

URLs with a double slash

998 pages contain links with double slashes, such as https://…//offers. This URL is incorrect and should be corrected to https://…/offers. Most servers ignore two or more slashes in URLs after the domain name. However, search engines may see such URLs as separate ones, which can lead to duplicate content issues.

External links to 3XX

The link appearance is incorrect because the URL is generated via an insecure protocol (HTTP), so the page loads via a 301 redirect.

301 redirects are acceptable and useful in some cases, but avoiding them where direct links can be used is better.

URLs with duplicate page titles/Duplicate description/Description missing

51 site pages have duplicate titles, and 46 contain duplicate <description> tags. Additionally, 211 pages do not contain <description> data. Duplicate or missing <title> and <description> tags prevent search engines from understanding which page is relevant to a particular search query. Pages with duplicate or missing titles and descriptions are much less likely to rank well. This data also affects the clickability of a page ad in the search results.

Slow page loading speed

Website pages are not loading fast enough. As a result, it negatively affects the behavioral signals of the page: if the page takes too long to load, people tend to leave the page and go to another website. Additionally, web page loading speed is one of Google’s ranking factors. The following measures should be taken:

• Optimize JS/CSS (Minify, Compress, and reduce unused CSS/JS)
• Reduce the impact of third-party code
• Serve static assets with an efficient cache policy
• Avoid an excessive DOM size
• Set up back/forward cache (bfcache)

Performance

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) in real-world conditions measures if there is any shift in page visual elements during loading. It is measured based on data from the Chromium browser. Set an explicit width and height on image elements to reduce layout shifts and improve CLS.

Magento SEO: Demonstration of Platform Configuration

Categories and subcategories are the primary sources of organic traffic for any online store, making eCommerce SEO crucially focused on these sections of the site. For instance, take a look at the organic traffic for nordstrom.com, which stands at 26.1M. 

Data from their top pages in organic search reveal that the main source of this traffic is their categories and subcategories. This aligns with user behavior in eCommerce, where users turn to search engines to find a variety of product options and select the best one for their needs. Categories and subcategories are essential in addressing this need by offering diverse product selections.

Next, we will outline the necessary settings in Magento to achieve successful SEO results. This information is valuable for entrepreneurs creating new online stores, Magento specialists, and owners of existing eCommerce businesses.

SEO in Magento can be divided into 4 steps:

1. Setting up the right structure for your online store
2. Optimizing the content of categories/subcategories
3. Fixing technical errors
4. Increasing the authority of the online store

Magento E-commerce Structures for Increasing Website Visibility

Before proceeding with the settings for your Magento online store, it’s crucial to understand how your target audience searches for your products. This stage, known as “Semantic Core Compilation,” involves the following key steps:

• Collecting Search Queries: Gather keywords and phrases that potential customers use to find products like yours.
• Grouping Search Queries: Organize these keywords into logical groups based on similarities and relevance to better structure your site and content.

Keyword Research and Grouping

Use specialized tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SE Ranking to gather search queries. These tools work on a similar premise: you enter the URL of a competitor’s page or website or a phrase that describes your product (such as “t-shirt for men”), and the tools provide related and similar keywords.

On one dashboard, you can see keyword frequency (how many times users enter a query in a search engine), SEO competition level (Difficulty), and yearly frequency dynamics to identify seasonality.

We know that Google users must get quick answers to their queries. Query types vary. Some users may not have a specific need in mind and enter general queries like “t-shirt for men.” Others specify their needs, such as a polo shirt (“t-shirt for men polo”), a printed one (“t-shirt for men printed”), or a large size (“oversized t-shirt for men”). The search engine understands user intent and provides relevant answers. With over 13,000 different queries, it’s essential to identify and group these search queries effectively.

Keyword research tools allow you to view keyword groups by various characteristics (color, size, etc.). Additionally, tools like Keyword Grouper automatically divide keywords into groups based on SERP analysis. Keywords are clustered if they yield similar results in the top 10 Google search results. This grouping enables logical keyword distribution across website pages, which is crucial for SEO and contextual advertising.

The resulting groups should be systematized and displayed in a table. Here’s an example:

• Product Classifier Column: This shows the feature for which the group is allocated (color, size, material, collar type, etc.).
• Main Keyword Column: Displays the main search query of the group with the highest frequency.
• List of Search Queries Column: This column contains links to the specific search queries for each group.

Please note that the example also shows subgroups (e.g., size and color, size, color, neckline), which will be useful when creating and customizing the online store structure in Magento.

Based on the list of groups/subgroups, visualize their hierarchy and relationships (the structure of the online store). 

An online store’s hierarchy and relationships between each page are represented visually in a website structure diagram. The structure of your online store can be graphically displayed with programs like Octopus, FlowMap, draw.io, or Miro.

Implementing the Correct Structure in Magento

Creating subcategories through the navigation menu is one of the simplest and most effective solutions for structuring your online store. Follow these steps:

Catalog => Categories => Add Subcategory 

Subcategories are categories that contain a subset of products based on specific characteristics. In the product settings, you can assign the necessary Categories/Subcategories for display, ensuring that products appear in the relevant sections.

Linking between Categories/Subcategories is established through the site menu.

Standard Solution

It is crucial for the search engine to quickly provide users with what they are looking for. If a user searches for a specific term like “white jacket,” your site should have a dedicated subcategory containing products that match this query. This straightforward method helps create a well-structured online store with separate categories/subcategories for each group of search queries.

Advanced Solution: SEO Filters

A more advanced solution involves setting up SEO filters, which generate separate pages for filtered products based on specific parameters. These pages are interlinked within the main category, each with its own unique URL, metadata, and content, ensuring they are individually indexed by search engines.

When using SEO filters, subcategories must have unique content that is not generated through dynamic URLs as well as not have attributes that prevent them from being indexed by Google (noindex, canonical top-level pages).

The Improved Layered Navigation for Magento 2 extension simplifies the configuration of SEO filters.

For each filter, the SEO section includes the following settings:

• Generate SEO URL
• Allow Google to INDEX the Category Page with the Filter Applied
• Allow Google to FOLLOW Links on the Category Page with the Filter Applied
• Add rel=”nofollow” to filter links (Auto / No)
• Attribute URL Alias

Benefits of SEO Filters:

Customizing your online store’s structure using SEO filters enhances user experience by combining existing Categories/Subcategories with the store’s filtering functionality. This integration adds convenience and improves site navigation, benefiting user behavior and SEO performance.

Magento On-Page SEO for Categories and Subcategories

In this section, we will discuss optimizing categories and subcategories of an online store, covering aspects such as content, page speed, and more. We will also highlight the most common mistakes to avoid.

Content for Categories and Subcategories Pages

User interaction with your website begins in the search engine. Users browse search results filled with ads and organic listings, so they decide which site to visit based on the information presented.

This information, known as a snippet, comprises the title, description, and link displayed on the search results page. For SEO, snippets are essential. Your website’s click-through rate is directly correlated with their attractiveness. Furthermore, Google begins tracking user activity not only when a user lands on your website, but also when they interact with the search results page (SERP). Visitor behavior is a key factor in determining your site’s ranking.

In case you need a refresher, ranking is determining the order of web pages and their positions in search results.

The search engine forms a snippet from the meta tags “title” and “description” placed in the invisible head section of a web page. In Magento, these fields are filled out in the Category/Subcategory Page settings.

Rules for Filling in Meta Data

• Title: The title should follow this formula: the search query with the highest frequency + a unique part (such as a brand name). Ensure the main keyword is within the first 30 characters, and the entire title does not exceed 70 characters with spaces.
• Description: The description should begin with the highest frequency search query, followed by a unique selling proposition (USP) incorporating latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords.

LSI Keywords Include:

• Synonyms
• Words that clarify the user’s request
• Words directly related to the topic of the web page

Including LSI keywords in the description enhances the likelihood of users clicking through to your site. 

The snippet becomes more noticeable and eye-catching when keywords that match the user’s search query are bolded. A snippet’s click-through rate increases with its visibility. To highlight your USP, use numbers in the description. Do not forget to include a call to action at the end. If you want the user to go to your site, ask them to do so. The description should not exceed 180 characters with spaces.

NOTE: Human-readable SEO-friendly URLs increase snippet clickability and reassure users that the page is pertinent to their query.

Category and Subcategory Content

Once users click through from search results to your online store, ensure the following for proper display and user engagement:

• Relevant H1 Title: Derived from the “Category Name” field in the Category/Subcategory Page settings.

• Relevant Products: Display products that match the user’s search intent.
• SEO Content: Include additional descriptions with H2-H5 headings, links to other categories, and FAQ sections.

Magento Page Builder facilitates the addition of any SEO content to the Category/Subcategory pages. For implementing FAQ sections, the best practice is to create a separate CMS block.

By following these guidelines, you ensure that your categories and subcategories are optimized for both search engines and users, enhancing your site’s visibility and user experience.

Common Mistakes in Magento On-Page SEO for Categories and Subcategories

We have categorized the prepared list of Magento On-Page SEO errors into two types: indexing errors and ranking errors. Indexing errors negatively impact the discovery of your online store’s pages, while ranking errors affect the pages’ ranking and position in search results.