As you might know, Magento 2 websites are designed to be SEO-friendly by default. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to do nothing to have an SEO-friendly Magento e-commerce store. Through today’s post, you will be equipped with fundamental knowledge of SEO in Magento 2, from setting it up, avoiding common mistakes, and getting most of the default Magento 2 SEO function. Let’s get started!
Contents
SEO Configuration Guide In Magento 2
1. Enable SEO-friendly URLs
First, you have to access the Admin panel, navigate to STORES, and choose Configuration (under Settings).
Then, on the left menu, select Web under the General tab.
Next, expand the Search Engine Optimization field, set Use Web Server Rewrites to Yes.
2. Set up SEO for Product Page
In order to set up SEO for a product/ a product page, you have to go to the admin panel, navigate to CATALOG, select Products, and then choose a specific product that you want to configure.
After selecting the product, scroll down to the Search Engine Optimization section and complete the empty fields.
- URL Key: This is the crucial component of the static URL, telling what the product is. Once the product is created, the system will automatically generate an URL Key based on that product name. Moreover, there will be an automatic redirect in case that the admin changes the URL Key.
- Meta Title: This can be considered as one of the essential on-page ranking factors. This title will be displayed in the Search engine result pages (SERPs) as the title for that product page.
- Meta Keywords: This is the list of one to several keywords related to the product, telling the search engines about the page topic.
- Meta Description: This summarises the product page appearing in SERPs, right under the Meta Title. It’s highly recommended to write the Meta Description with 150-160 characters in length and up to 255 characters.
3. Set up SEO for Category Page
In order to set up SEO for a category/ a category page, you have to go to the admin panel, navigate to CATALOG, select Categories, and then choose a specific category that you want to configure.
After selecting the category on the left category tree, wait a few seconds for the page to reload.
Then, expand the Search Engine Optimization section, and fill in the empty fields (similar to the Product page)
4. Set up SEO for other CMS Pages
For other pages in your Magento 2 websites (e.g., Privacy Policy, Contact, About us,…), to change URL, Meta title/ keywords/ description, please navigate to CONTENT and choose Pages (under Elements).
Then, select a specific page that you want to configure.
Now, expand the Search Engine Optimization section and complete the empty fields.
5 Common Mistakes Of SEO In Magento 2
1. Recognize the layered URLs back to the category as Rel Canonical
On the one hand, Google released Rel Canonical with the aim of handling duplicate content issues.
On the other hand, by applying layered filters in Magento 2 websites, the content of that URL has been changed with different groups of products. Therefore, we can’t consider these as duplicates.
As a result, instead of using Rel Canonical to solve the issue of thin-content layered URLs, you should try placing the Meta Noindex, which will follow your layered URLs and tell Google not to index these. Besides, it still allows the link juice to flow through them (via your product listings and navigation) to other pages in your Magento 2 websites.
2. Utilize Robot.txt or Meta No Index to block layered navigation parameters
In many cases, in order to get the layered navigation parameters on the category pages out of the Google index, the Magento store owners have a tendency to apply the Robot.txt disallow. Nevertheless, this is not a practical and thorough way to deal with it. Although the Google bots can’t crawl these parameters, your pages are still indexed.
Another idea is to use the Meta No Index instead of Robot.txt, but the result is the same. In short, both of these methods should not be applied.
3. Index both HTTP and HTTPS of Magento 2 websites
There are many Magento 2 stores that made the same mistake of indexing both HTTP and HTTPS versions of their sites. Why? That would be considered as absolutely duplicate content. Here, there is no better solution than using Rel Canonical to unify the duplicated one into your preferred version.
To be more specific, if you prefer your HTTPS, the HTTP version must have a Rel Canonical pointing towards the HTTPS and vice versa.
4. Allow site search results through Robot.txt
As mentioned before, it’s a bad idea to disallow the layered parameters by Robot.txt, but it does work to disallow the site search results. However, many Magento 2 websites forget to disallow their site search results through Robot.txt and even link to the site search results from their home page. Consequently, there is a high possibility that those sites will be penalized by Google Panda.
5. Set the Homepage’s title like “Home”
It goes without a doubt that the Homepage is the most pivotal page of Magento 2 websites. Therefore, if you name it “Home”, you have missed an excellent opportunity to enhance SEO for your store. Instead, we highly suggest you add the targeted keyword(s) related to your products and services into your title.
5 Magento 2 SEO Tips To Get Higher Rankings
1. Add A Long Tail Keyword In The Product Page URL & The Product Name
First, it’s a must to include your keyword in the URL of your product page(s) so that the search engines can understand the page content, index, and rank it.
Second, it’s hard for your page to have high SERP ranks if you target common short keywords. Owing to that, most Magento stores now are moving to use long-tail keywords (including 3-5 words) to reach their audience quickly. For example, instead of using the popular “Skirt” keyword, you should name your product “Zara Floral Printed Skirt”.
2. Delete All Duplicate Products
Having duplicate items is a big but common mistake of many Magento 2 websites, mainly for configurable products with various options (e.g., size, color, materials,…)
As a consequence, there are multiple pages on the site having the same title and content, all of which can be punished by Google and other search engines.
In this case, the solution is to configure different attributes for the product to discard duplication. In this way, you even can enhance SEO owing to having a unique page(s) with dense content.
3. Develop Internal Linking By Adding Related Products
Besides URL, meta title, and meta description, the number of internal links on your site is also a critical on-page SEO factor. Fortunately, Magento 2 allows you to build a significant number of internal links just by using its “related products” feature.
Specifically, you can easily add related items for each product configuration: Admin Panel => CATALOG => Products => Related Products, Up-Sells, and Cross-Sells => Related Products => Add Related Products.
As a result, it will not only stimulate your customers to buy more items but also help the search engines to discover and index other pages on your site.
4. Remember To Insert Alt Text For All Images
The search engines will evaluate your entire page content – both text and images. And for the images, they need to analyze the Alt Text of your image to know what it is about. The search engines can’t “read” your page thoroughly without the alt text and might give it a lower rank.
To add the Alt Text for your product images, in product configuration, you must scroll down to the Images and Videos section, click on the image and fill in the Alt Text field.
5. Prepare A Unique Product Description With A Minimum Of 300 Words
Last but not least, not only your customers but the search engines prefer unique and well-written content that provides detailed information about your products. Hence, spend your time writing a quality product description with 300 words or more, and more importantly, containing your targeted keyword(s).
Final Thoughts
SEO is always essential for all Magento 2 websites. Good SEO would bring about remarkable sales.
Hope that this comprehensive SEO guide for Magento 2 will help you to consolidate the SEO of your site and improve your search engine rankings. If you have any questions or further valuable tips to share, leave your comments below.
Last but not least, besides SEO there are more issues that you need to take into consideration to improve your Magento 2 store such as How To Make Your Magento Website Faster or The Most Effective Ways To Grow Your Magento Store. Subscribe to Tigren’s blog to get useful tips and build a strong website!
