How To Select Best eCommerce Platform for Your SEO Strategy

Can you change to a new eCommerce platform if you knew it would throw away your complete comfort operation? Of course not.

So, why do you prefer a platform that negatively influences your website's SEO (search engine optimization) functionality?

Too often, businesses are happy to migrate to a hosted platform without any clue how it will influence the search engine optimization strategy they've already been using for decades and wind up picking one that directly contradicts their goals.

In this blog, we'll explain what you should think about from a Search Engine Optimization perspective when choosing the best eCommerce platform, including:

• Why the "best" site platform for SEO is a fantasy?
• Which two categories of eCommerce platforms fall below?
• Which eight key Search Engine Optimization aspects to remember when considering a platform change?
• How you can create the best choice for your Company?

Common eCommerce Platform Options

There is no “best” eCommerce platform for SEO. Every platform provides different SEO advantages and pitfalls - and exactly what those are will differ for every eCommerce website. How you intend to use a stage will play a massive role in your decision-making procedure.

And, while this blog will focus on the way your system can work together with your search engine optimization strategy, SEO shouldn't be the sole element in your selection.

Besides, you need to consider your overall company objectives and objectives (like shipping and processing, inventory management, etc.). Otherwise, you could end up with a platform that appears to improve SEO, however, leaves you with a whole plethora of new issues fulfilling your orders that are increased.

Platform pricing is likely to make a difference, too. Consider your budget when contemplating platforms to migrate to and their capabilities. 

In the meantime, we will go over a few of the most commonly used platforms of eCommerce businesses. They fall into one of 2 categories: Hosted vs. Self-hosted.

Hosted Platforms

Hosted platforms are essential "turnkey" explanations meant to abandon a straightforward infrastructure for your eCommerce website.

They are easy to use, supply website stability, and therefore are speedy to execute. They also give a plethora of non-SEO benefits for eCommerce sites, such as ease of stock management, integration of shipping and fulfillment processes, and more.

But from an SEO standpoint, they sometimes provide limited control over individual factors (like Robots.txt).

A Few Cases of Hosted eCommerce Platforms Include:

• BigCommerce
• Shopify
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Self-Hosted Platforms

Simply speaking, you'll have more control over your site, especially SEO control such as access to log files, easier batch uploading, and thorough control over components like canonical tags.

All that said, controlling your development will make it even more difficult to get your store up and running and submit more chances for error. If you select a social platform for your site, you should know what you are doing in regards to SEO.

A Few Examples of Self-Hosted Platforms Comprise:

• WordPress, with a WooCommerce plugin
• Magento
• SpreeCommerce

The SEO Features To Examine When Deciding an eCommerce Platform

Understand the potential SEO functionality of eCommerce platforms before making the last choice.

There is an assortment of varied knobs you can turn on within your site to improve SEO functionality, such as setting the canonical URL of a particular product page. 

This listing is based on our experience turning these knobs and increasing SEO functionality from multiple approaches for many customers' online shops through the years.

1. Website Speed

When Google announced that Page Speed would variable in search results, the speed of your website became a major search engine optimization factor.

Hosted platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are inclined to give you middle-of-the-road website speed not bad, but not great, either.

If you've got a bigger shop and speed is a chief Search Engine Optimization advantage, you might want to consider that self-hosted SEO gives you much more control through these variables:

• Leveraging browser caching to combine visuals without reducing load time
• Scaling images for separate mobile and desktop experiences
• Optimizing your image sizes to decrease load time

The trade-off in controlling your site speed: You are also liable for handling more bandwidth.

2. Batch Uploading

If you ever find yourself with a large swath of redirect, metadata, or product page problems, batch uploading might be the only way to fix each page in one fell swoop. And, if you can not batch upload SEO alternatives like those without interfering with your website's functionality, you are in for a few headaches.

For batch uploading hosted platforms, you're at the mercy of your plugins. Failing that, a hosted platform will expect you to upload every individual document using a web interface. 

Before you decide that a plugin is an easy thing, do not forget you need to weigh the price and the threat of accidental consequences.

For example, A plugin that guaranteed to manage everything from batch uploads to redirect analytics. However, it ran redirect analytics by conducting traffic through its URL generating redirect hops through a different domain that is less than ideal for SEO.

3. Canonical Tags

Canonical tags support you to tell Google which page on your website is the first source of information or the "master copy" of your page. 

If you can not restrain your canonical tags, then you might wind up getting a high number of pages that Google sees as "canonicalized to themselves" even if/when they are not true canonicals.

You run an eCommerce website selling furniture.

Furniture -> Tables -> Round Tables

4. Robots.txt

Many in SEO are acquainted with what control more than Robots.txt means, and we have earlier addressed whether to index internal site search URLs.

The most significant function is frequently telling search engines not to crawl, which helps conserve precious crawl budgets and prevent consequences due to duplicate content.

Self-hosted platforms tend to give you more control here, allowing direct editing of your own Robots.txt. 

5. Sitemap Generation

Your site is a literal map of your site that search engines may use for reference.

There are generally two kinds: HTML and XML versions.

• An HTML sitemap is for the consumer, using a list of links to guide them around your site.
• An XML sitemap is fundamentally the same thing but organized specifically for search engines.

You don't want your eCommerce system to automatically generate a sitemap that simply contains every possible URL on the website. 

6. Log File Access

This data could be essential to SEO. Access to your log files lets you discover 404 mistakes, find where Google's robots are spending time on your site, and retrieve the information that you want to edit your sitemaps, your Robots.txt, along with your other directives.

There's a stark distinction between hosted and self-hosted eCommerce platforms for SEO as it pertains to log documents. You'll generally have complete access when you host yourself. With hosted programs, you will normally have zero or limited access to log files.

7. Content Marketing and Blogging

Good news if you don't do a lot of blogging: You can use platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce for restricted blogging demands, and you likely won't encounter any problems.

If you have a huge amount of content to migrate or strategy on creating blogging an important part of your ongoing strategy, you are likely going to need to use WordPress.

8. Stage Environment

A staging environment enables you to make changes in a "secure" environment, running QA tests to make sure that any changes you created work as expected - without breaking anything else on your website.

You won't introduce new issues on the live site where both your website visitors and Google might see them, and you can fix any that do appear before they've gone.

How to Select the Best eCommerce Platform for Your Website

Step 1: Think About Your Overall Business Needs

Although SEO should play a role in your eCommerce platform choice, you shouldn't make a final decision based on this aspect alone. SEO isn't the only portion of your business plan, so don't let it blind you to making a platform change that's the wrong choice for your requirements.

Think about what eCommerce features you want from a site platform in terms of inventory management, order fulfillment, shipping and processing, and more. 

Step 2: Decide How Much Control You Need (and Can Handle)

We have discussed controlling your canonicals, your pagination, along with your Robots.txt may have a dramatic impact on your SEO. 

In other words: "With great power comes great responsibility"

Hosted platforms are easy and do a lot of what you require while limiting your capacity to shoot yourself in the foot. 

Step 3: Assess Your Existing Infrastructure

If you've got a development group that could provide you workarounds that support faulty plugins, or if you need regular access to your log files, self-hosting might make sense for you.

Using a self-hosted eCommerce platform could be biting off more than you can chew. You are probably better off using the safety and peace of mind of a hosted platform.

Step 4: Consider Your SEO Strategy

Finally, you have to appear at your overall eCommerce SEO services strategy. Consider where you anticipate receiving organic search traffic, and also how a specific eCommerce platform may impact that.

If you don't have definite plans for ambitious content marketing strategies, you may get away with using the site functionality of Shopify or a different hosted platform. You can always migrate to another platform after if your SEO priorities outgrow that platform's ability.

Still Not Sure Which One to Choose?

If you're doubtful which eCommerce platform is best for your SEO needs, take the opportunity to evaluate your SEO plan and goals.

If you understand your priorities at this time, you'll save yourself continuous headaches later on and the conclusion will probably be easier when the time comes.