Best Magento SEO Tips To Help You Conquer The Traffic in 2021

After the impact COVID-19 has left on economies worldwide, we are all looking forward to a new start in 2021. If you are an online merchant who uses Magento, you will know that the success of your e-commerce shop is down to its SEO performance. The better your SEO strategy, the wider your customer base has the potential to be, raising profit margins. However, managing an e-commerce site with multiple products is easier said than done.

Magento was designed in a way that supports merchants – if you know how to do it right, you will definitely see results. Let us share with you the best Magento SEO tips to help you conquer the traffic in 2021.

Always make sure Magento is updated to the latest version

This may seem like something that should go without saying, but it matters more than you think. The newest version not only enhances security and fixes bugs – if you want to get the most out of Magento SEO features, it makes sense that the latest updates may not be available on outdated versions. Magento will always recommend users to upgrade to the latest version as soon as it’s available, so make sure you do it!

Optimize URLs by removing all codes and word jumbles

Although URLs are only a minor factor when it comes to an effective SEO strategy, they nevertheless serve a purpose in your customer’s’ user experience. How many times have you copied a website’s URL, only to see it made out of codes or a jumble of letters? While you may not have thought much of it, it certainly does nothing to increase brand awareness and can even cause irritation! Having a clear-cut, straight to the point URL free of codes and word jumbles will definitely work to your advantage.

Optimize the use of keywords

Both your meta titles and descriptions should incorporate SEO keywords. As much as possible, try to insert your keywords in the beginning of your meta title so that search engines can pick up on them easily. Meta titles can only be so long, hence leaving out superfluous words like “the” can go a long way. Do not forget about your meta description – your keywords should show up there as well!

Name your product images clearly and meaningfully

One common mistake that online merchants make is neglecting to name their product images clearly and meaningfully. If you do not name your images, the default name will be along the lines of “IMG0003” and is what your customers will see when they hover over your image. Think it’s not a big deal? Think again – your image’s name is actually part of its URL and if it it’s just a string of meaningless letters and numbers, it will do nothing to help your SEO strategy. Furthermore, if for some reason your image is not displaying properly, its name is what your customers will see. You definitely do not want them to see “IMG0003”, so name your image for what it is. Something simple and straight to the point like “clear plastic bottle” will suffice – keep in mind that search engines cannot read images and hence the name you save your image under is what contributes to your SEO results.

Ensure your site loads speedily

Did you know that more than 50% of online shoppers will not wait 3 seconds or more for a page to load? You could be losing yourself valuable customers if your site takes forever to load. Furthermore, loading speed can influence the ranking of your site. Why lose out because of this seemingly unimportant factor? There are several ways you can set up your site to load faster on Magento:

• Enable caching features
• Enable flat catalog categories
• Merge separate CSS and JS files into one
• Reduce the number of downloadable external files on your server

Have an effective sitemap

Having an effective sitemap is crucial for conquering traffic. The links in your sitemap direct to all the inner pages of your site, which will then be crawled to search engines. Think of a sitemap as a content page, helping to crawl your inner pages onto search engines clearly and efficiently.

Make sure the Robots.Txt file is off

To prevent against “fake” sites, Magento automatically adds a robots.txt file to sites. You definitely do not want this as the presence of the robots.txt file prevents your site from showing up on search engines! To change the default setting, go to the Content function, followed by Design then Configuration. Choose store view and scroll down to Search Engine Robot to change the configuration.

Create a network of internal links between your inner pages

So you have all the different pages for your website ready, all of them linking to different products. But where is the link between these pages? By creating a network of internal links, you are helping search engine crawlers understand that there is a relationship between the various pages on your site. To do this, you will need to make use of the default Related product feature. Simply click on Catalog, then Products to link your related products to each other.

Incorporate customer reviews

Did you know that websites that incorporate customer reviews rank higher on Google? As a consumer, you should be aware that reviews are a highly influencing factor when it comes to making a purchase, and that’s why you should include them. Besides that, some words in reviews can serve as SEO keywords as well!

Make sure your site has a mobile-friendly version

Let’s face it, mobile phones are taking over. Computers will always be in use, but an increasing number of searches are being performed on mobile phones today. Install Magento 2 Google AMP Extension to help you create a mobile-friendly version of your site that will enable you to stay on top of the competition.

Let SmartSites Help You Formulate A Winning Magento SEO Strategy

If you are looking to formulate a winning Magento SEO strategy to conquer the traffic in 2021, SmartSites is up to the job. Ranked in the top 1% of digital marketing agencies, we have an excellent track record of helping businesses grow successfully. Our SEO specialists work on a completely transparent basis, providing you with reports and actionable insights based on detailed analysis of your data. If you are ready to conquer the traffic in 2021, please do not hesitate to contact us today!