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Wix
Wix is another prominent e-commerce platform favored by renowned brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and Samsung. Wix stands out for its built-in SEO features, making it an excellent choice for businesses focused on optimizing their online presence.
Key SEO features of Wix include a built-in SEO wizard for optimizing your site, a variety of templates and designs to customize your store, and an intuitive interface for seamless customer navigation. Wix also offers a built-in blog tool to create SEO-friendly content. The Robots.txt editor and support for bulk 301 redirects and affiliate tags further enhance your control over SEO.
Wix offers four Premium plans: VIP ($25.50/month), Unlimited ($12.50/month), Combo ($8.50/month), and Connect Domain ($4.50/month).
Squarespace
Squarespace, favored by renowned brands like Vogue and GQ, stands out for its user-friendly website builder and diverse functionalities. Its basic structure is complemented by the inclusion of Yoast SEO as a plugin, facilitating effective search engine optimization. Despite being on the higher end in terms of pricing, Squarespace justifies the cost with its visually appealing designs, mobile-friendly interface, and built-in blogging capabilities. The platform also encourages community support, but for a more personalized approach, users can explore custom web development services.
Pricing options for Squarespace include the Personal plan at $14 per month, Business at $23 per month, Basic Commerce at $27 per month, and Advanced Commerce at $49 per month.
Volusion
Volusion targets those who prioritize customization and SEO for their online store. Trusted by global giants like Sony and Coca-Cola, Volusion provides a platform where users can mold their ecommerce site to align with their vision. The platform's features encompass a built-in CRM tool, inventory management system, shipping calculator, fraud detection system, and a payment gateway, ensuring a seamless ecommerce operation. Volusion also emphasizes SEO enhancement tools such as a sitemap generator, XML sitemap, keyword research tool, and a link-building tool.
Volusion offers four distinct pricing plans: Personal at $35/month, Professional at $79/month, Business at $299/month, and the Prime package, based on Gross Merchandise Volume.
Magento (Adobe Commerce)
Formerly Magento, now Adobe Commerce, stands out for its flexibility and robust capabilities. It caters primarily to developers seeking a customizable eCommerce platform. Some of its notable features include a flexible architecture for creating custom modules, an extensive selection of themes and templates for store customization, and a comprehensive API facilitating integration with third-party applications. Adobe Commerce, with its roots in Adobe's $100 billion annual gross revenue, is a robust yet intricate platform used by global giants.
While Magento may pose a steeper learning curve, it offers unparalleled customization options. Users can leverage various plugins and third-party add-ons to enhance their eCommerce sites, including SEO-focused tools with conversion rate optimization (CRO) functions. Despite being a heavyweight in the industry, its pricing reflects the comprehensive services offered, ranging from $22,000 to $125,000 per year for Magento Commerce, with additional costs for hosting, design, and more.
Weebly
Weebly positions itself as a user-friendly option, making it an excellent choice for smaller businesses. Renowned brands like Nike and General Electric have embraced Weebly for its simplicity and efficiency. Weebly provides a suite of automated SEO tools, making it easier for businesses to enhance their website's search engine rankings. The platform is equipped with features designed to streamline business operations, ensuring a smooth user experience.
Weebly's pricing structure is more budget-friendly, with a free basic service and additional paid plans, including Personal, Professional, and Performance. These plans range from $6 to $29 per month, offering scalability based on the user's business needs.
What SEO Metrics Should You Consider in Ecommerce Platforms?
Customizable Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, URLs, and Header Tags
Customizable metadata, including title tags, meta descriptions, URLs, and header tags, is crucial for effective SEO and enhanced user experience. These elements allow businesses to strategically incorporate targeted keywords, influencing search engine rankings and enticing users to click on their listings. The flexibility to tailor these components ensures that the website's appearance in search results aligns with the brand's messaging and objectives. For SEO professionals and marketers, this feature provides a powerful tool to optimize content visibility and drive organic traffic.
Mobile Customization
Mobile customization is of utmost importance in the contemporary digital landscape, where a significant portion of users access websites through mobile devices. A mobile-friendly eCommerce platform ensures that the website adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes and offers an optimal shopping experience on smartphones and tablets. Whether through responsive design or dedicated mobile stores, this feature not only caters to user preferences but is also prioritized by search engines. Google, for instance, favors mobile-optimized websites in its rankings. Therefore, a robust mobile customization feature is critical for both user satisfaction and SEO success.
A Well-Optimized URL Structure and Simple 301 Redirects
An eCommerce platform offering a well-optimized URL structure provides users and search engines with clear information about the content of each page. This positively impacts SEO by enhancing the platform's ability to rank for relevant keywords. Additionally, the inclusion of simple 301 redirects is crucial during website restructuring, ensuring a smooth transition without losing SEO equity. The capability to edit URL strings and rearrange their structure provides SEO professionals with a valuable tool for maintaining a search-friendly website structure.
Good Customer Support and a Savvy Technical Team
Customer support and a knowledgeable technical team are essential components of a successful eCommerce platform. A platform's technical team plays a crucial role in resolving issues, implementing customizations, and ensuring adherence to SEO best practices. Effective communication with the support team is vital for addressing any challenges or making adjustments to optimize the online store. A partnership with a platform that values customer support and technical expertise contributes to the seamless operation of the eCommerce site and the successful implementation of SEO strategies.
Site Speed
While site speed significantly influences user experience and search engine rankings, it may be considered a lower to moderate priority when selecting an eCommerce platform. Factors such as hosting and external optimizations also contribute to site speed. While it is essential for a website to load quickly to prevent user frustration and improve SEO, many modern eCommerce platforms offer reasonable speed by default. Consideration of site speed should be part of a holistic evaluation, with a focus on other critical SEO and user-centric features.
How to do SEO for an E-commerce Platform? To Rank Higher
On-Page SEO Strategy
1. E-commerce Keyword Research:
- Conduct thorough keyword research using tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to identify relevant, high-converting keywords.
- Utilize Amazon for high buyer intent keywords, exploring autofill suggestions and employing the Amazon Keyword Tool.
2. Competitor Research:
- Analyze competitors' sites for keyword ideas but make informed decisions based on factors like domain authority.
- Ensure proper setup of breadcrumbs for effective navigation, aiding Google in scanning and indexing your site.
3. Ahrefs for Keyword Opportunities:
- Leverage Ahrefs for comprehensive SEO insights, including keyword rankings, competitive research, and backlink analysis.
4. Ecommerce Product Pages Optimization:
- Optimize product and category pages by strategically placing target keywords in the URL, title tag (H1), body copy, image alt text, and metadata.
Content Marketing
1. Importance of Quality Content:
- Recognize the significance of content marketing for SEO, as it allows your e-commerce store to rank for a broader range of keywords and build backlinks.
- Understand that content complements product and category pages, contributing to increased organic traffic and improved domain authority.
Technical SEO Clean Up
1. Website Architecture:
- Create a simple and scalable site structure, ensuring no page takes more than three clicks from any other page.
- Use keyword research to optimize page URLs and subdirectories for relevance.
2. Page Speed:
- Prioritize site speed for improved rankings and user experience.
- Utilize Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool to assess your site’s performance and receive suggestions for faster load times.
3. Redirects and Internal Linking:
- Manage redirects carefully to maintain SEO rankings.
- Implement internal linking within product category pages to guide users and enhance engagement.
4. Mobile Responsiveness:
- Recognize the significance of mobile-friendly and responsive design, considering the majority of Google searches are performed on mobile devices.
5. Duplicate Content, Hreflang, Canonicals, and Sitemap:
- Avoid duplicate content to prevent SEO penalties.
- Implement Hreflang for targeting different language and geographical audiences.
- Use canonical URLs to specify preferred versions of URLs.
- Create and submit a sitemap to efficiently guide search engines through your site.
Link Building Strategies
1. Resource Page Link Building:
- Identify and reach out to resource pages in your industry for potential link-building opportunities.
2. Partnering with Influencers:
- Collaborate with influencers for backlinks, leveraging their domain authority without direct competition.
3. Broken Link Building:
- Use browser extensions to find broken links on relevant websites and propose solutions to site owners.
4. Stealing Competitor's Links:
- Utilize tools like Ahrefs to analyze competitor backlinks and attempt to acquire similar links for your site.
5. Guest Posting:
- Engage in guest posting to build relationships with industry experts and gain high-quality backlinks.
