5 Simple Steps To Get Magento SEO Right

When it comes to Magento website development, it is important that you realize that the success of your foray into eCommerce does not end at development. As a business owner, you are required to follow through with consistent and effective and eCommerce SEO. Let’s find out how to get Magento SEO right:

Avoid Duplication by Utilizing Canonical Tags

Content duplication is a no-no when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. That’s why you have to use canonical URLs by enabling the canonical tag for both your category and product pages. Simply follow this path: General > Web > Search Engine Optimization to locate the settings. Once there, find the options for Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products and Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories.

Optimize Your Images, Product Pages, and Category Pages

One of the benefits Magento provides is that it allows you to optimize and set SEO details for each category page you have created. Some of the SEO settings that can be modified include URL value, page title, and meta description. For eCommerce sites, a majority of users tend to reach the website when searching for a particular product in a search engine. That’s why you need to write relevant and concise product descriptions, and make sure that the meta data of all your products pages are filled out correctly to improve the performance of your pages.

Next, do not overlook the importance of optimizing your images. With that in mind, you will want to give appropriate titles, names, and alt tags to your images. This will help direct those who are searching in an image search engine to your website. It also becomes handy when a potential visitor is browsing one of your pages through a device or program where images do not or cannot load.

Enable URL Rewrites

One of the first things you can do for Magento SEO is to allow URL rewrites. This is necessary to ensure that your site’s URLs are not stuffed with unnecessary words and will be more search engine-friendly. With that, you can find the settings by going to General > Web > Search Engine Optimization. Here, you will want to select No at the Add store code to URL option.

Optimize Your Chosen Magento Template

The next step involves cleaning up your pages and making them easier to crawl for search engine bots. If you are a new Magento user, chances are that your templates might be cluttered unnecessarily with Javascript and CSS. You should consider moving them to separate files because cleaner and lighter templates are favored by search engine spiders. Next, you need to tag headings as per the relevance to its respective page, i.e., H1 tags on product pages should be used on product names, H1 tags on your homepage should be reserved for the logo, and more.

Another important goal to strive for is to enable caching and good configuration with the server and host. This helps your Magento website to load faster so that you do not end up driving your customers away. At System > Cache Management, you will be able to enable caching for your site.

Tweak Your Header Settings

Go to General > Design > HTML Head and replace the default title given for Magento websites to something that includes your brand name and other relevant keywords. Next, you should remember to keep the default meta description and meta keywords fields empty. If not, the same meta tags and keywords will duplicate across multiple pages.