No matter what kind of website you have, it is always beneficial to appear high on search engine rankings. Since most people use search engines, it can considerably widen your reach and increase your site visitors when your website is on the first few pages of these search engines.
If you are looking into selling online and going the ecommerce route, SEO is one of the main factors you would need to consider. With great SEO, you will be able to sell more items and gain more customers. Conversely, with lousy SEO, you will not get the selling performance that you want.
Since SEO is vital, it should be one of the things that you consider when you choose an ecommerce website builder. You can find the best ecommerce platform for SEO here.
Essential SEO Features Needed in a Ecommerce Platform
You might have heard of SEO, but you might also have no idea about what it is. While it is easy to know that SEO is the way to let your website rank high on search engines, you might not know which particular features contribute to excellent SEO.
Listed below are some of the tools and functionalities that can help your site with search engine optimization.
Navigation Links
Navigation links are the links that allow easy navigation for your site. With customizable navigation, it can increase your site’s responsiveness. This, in turn, helps with SEO.
Page Titles
Page titles are the titles that you can see when you look for a site in search engines. With the correct page title, you can rank higher.
Meta Description
Meta descriptions are the short groups of texts that come with page titles when using a search engine. Since meta descriptions provide a summary for your site, they should be adequately worded so that they can pique the attention of potential customers and site visitors.
Share Buttons
Sharing links and options can help increase your site’s SEO. Aside from being a tool that allows people to share sites on social media and the like, it also is a factor that can help with SEO rankings.
Top 7 Ecommerce Platforms for SEO
While there are many ecommerce platforms on the internet, not all of them come with the proper SEO tools. In this list, you can find seven of the best website builders that can help your business get on the first few pages of search engine rankings.
Shopify
Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms. From shoes to supplements, any product can be sold through Shopify. It comes with built-in tools to help business owners market and manage their business. Selling is done efficiently, and it is easy to use SEO tools.
Shopify also comes with built-in SEO features like its sitemaps.xml and robots.txt tools. It automatically creates tags, link-sharing options, custom URLs, headings, and meta descriptions to quickly find your business through search engines.
Pros
- It has built-in SEO tools.
- It is easy to configure SEO elements with Shopify.
- It has SEO apps that work similarly to plug-ins, and they can help with your site’s SEO.
Cons
- Its SEO apps are relatively pricier compared to its competitors.
Magento
Magento can be considered as the best ecommerce platform for SEO. It is a flexible site that anyone can easily set up and install. Magento can allow any business owner to manage their site’s SEO elements even by themselves.
Compared to most ecommerce platforms, Magento is also very flexible. Anyone can easily customize and modify source codes for the websites. This ensures that your website will be unique compared to competitor businesses.
With Magento, it is easy to get a great position with search engines. Customizable URLs, meta descriptions, title tags, headers, canonical tags, and internal linking are some of the critical SEO elements that you can get with it.
Pros
- It is easy to modify the site’s source codes, even for beginners.
- It has a high loading time.
- It allows site and page testing before they are launched.
Cons
- There is a relative lack of developers compared to other ecommerce platforms.
WooCommerce
For business owners who want to turn their WordPress site into an ecommerce platform, WooCommerce is the plug-in you can use. It provides additional features so that you can start your shop. With this plug-in, you can begin adding functionalities such as payment methods, shopping carts, and product listings to your site.
With WooCommerce, you can also enjoy the Yoast SEO plug-in since they are both used with WordPress. This additional plug-in lets you get different SEO features, including titles, meta descriptions, keywords, and XML sitemaps.
Pros
- It can work with most WordPress plug-ins.
- With Yoast SEO and the proper setup, it can get robust search engine optimization.
- It is easy to use, especially for individuals who are familiar with WordPress.
Cons
- It heavily relies on WordPress as its central platform.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a platform created especially for ecommerce. It allows easy set up of online stores, especially for first-time sellers or those who have just migrated from offline stores. With BigCommerce, you would not need to find another platform to host your site because it has internal hosting.
From clothing to food, this is a platform that can build an excellent website for your shop. BigCommerce can also help your store rise in the ranks of search engines. It has several built-in SEO elements such as optimized URLs, microdata, content delivery network, metadata, and product descriptions.
Aside from that, they also offer packages so that you can get SEO coaching.
Pros
- It runs on its server.
- It is easy to do digital marketing with BigCommerce sites.
- It has a blogging functionality that helps with content marketing.
Cons
- It is hard to customize the web design templates.
Squarespace
Unlike other ecommerce website builders targeted for large-scale stores, Squarespace is the best ecommerce platform for SEO when you are a small business owner or running your shop. With Squarespace, it is easy to do a variety of digital marketing campaigns, such as social media advertising and email marketing.
With the built-in tools found in Squarespace, business owners can create organic traffic and do SEO. With its security certificates and site maps, this platform has a fantastic SEO foundation even before you tinker with it. With headings, image alt texts, redirects, and meta tags, there are key SEO elements that you can use with this site.
Pros
- It is easy to integrate it with third-party services
- It has dedicated SEO tabs on website pages to provide a quick and easy SEO setup
- It has a lot of available stock photos to help with your website’s contents
Cons
- It has a slower load time compared to other platforms
Wix
When it comes to website building, Wix is one of the leading platforms that people use. Even though it hosts many blog and portfolio sites, Wix is also a viable choice for anyone who wants to start their ecommerce business. With its large userbase that reaches millions, it also allows a broader reach for your shop.
Wix comes with many functionalities, including tools to help with building shops and SEO. Wix allows on-page SEO so that you can use the tools for every product page that you have. With keywords, canonical URLs, page titles, headers, meta titles, social media sharing options, and meta descriptions, there are different SEO elements that you can take advantage of.
Pros
- It has one of the most affordable pricing
- It provides many templates that can be used for online stores
- It comes with a built-in email marketing tool
Cons
- It lags in website responsiveness compared to other choices
- Importance of Hosting on the Right Platform
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is one of the most accessible and most beginner-friendly platforms on the internet. While it is more famous as a blog platform, it can also help you build your first ecommerce store. This platform has its website builder feature to help you set up your site with a few clicks.
GoDaddy offers website creation for a variety of services – more than most other competitor platforms. If you have a product that you think is unique and would not work well with other ecommerce sites, then it is possible to launch it here instead.
GoDaddy also has built-in SEO tools such as header tags, meta titles and descriptions, customizable URLs, and keywords. Aside from that, you also have a built-in mechanism that can help you analyze and track your website’s SEO performance.
Pros
- It is easy to use even without technical SEO knowledge
- It allows tracking and analyzing of your site’s SEO performance
- It provides keyword suggestions for better SEO
Cons
- It is hard to customize some website features.
What Ecommerce Platform Should You Use?
You should use the e-commerce platform that is best suited for your specific needs. When you own your business and want to start selling online, you must choose the right platform. There are many factors that you need to consider.
Depending on whether you will pay for someone to customize and set up your site, you might want to start with a beginner-friendly platform.
Aside from your budget and the platform’s userbase, one of the things that you need to consider is the SEO functionalities of the platform. Whether you prefer integrated apps or built-in tools, you should choose a site where you can personally modify its SEO fields.
With the right platform and a great result on search engines, you will be able to grow your business the way you want it to.
