Table of Contents
Magento is a popular e-commerce platform that has been around for over 10 years. It was made by Varien, which now operates as Magento Inc. One of the main reasons why so many businesses choose to use it is its flexibility and scalability. You can set up your store in minutes without any coding experience, which makes Magento SEO an important aspect of building your online presence.
In this article, we are going to break down all you need to know about getting started with Magento SEO – including how it works and what you should do first!
Magento 2 SEO best practices
The first step in Magento SEO is setting up your store’s settings. This includes adding a title, description, and keywords. The title is what will show up as the tab on your browser, so make sure it’s catchy and relevant to your business.
The description should be around 150-160 characters long and describe what your store offers in a concise way. Finally, add in some keywords that are related to your products or services. These will help Google index your site properly and rank you higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Next, you need to create product listings that are optimized for SEO. This includes adding rich snippets, which are special tags that provide extra information about your product such as the price, a photo of the product, and what type of material it’s made from.
Adding these tags to your listings will help you stand out on SERPs as well as increasing click-through rates by making your products look more enticing. To add rich snippets (or any other information) about one specific item in Magento
Click Catalog > Manage Products Click an existing product or create a new one Fill out all of the necessary details In the Menu section, scroll down until you see Rich Snippets Copy and paste them into this location:
You can also add rich snippets for categories and products in bulk. Simply go to Catalog > Categories or Catalog > Products, depending on what you want to add the rich snippets for, and then follow the same steps as above.
Another important part of Magento SEO is setting up your website’s robots.txt file. This file tells search engine crawlers which pages they are allowed to crawl and index, so it’s important to make sure that it’s set up properly.
The default robots.txt file that comes with Magento is a good starting point, but you may need to make some changes based on your specific store’s configuration. To edit your Robots.txt:
Go to System > Configuration Click Web in the left-hand column Scroll down until you see Robots.txt and then click it In the upper right, there will be a button that says Edit Configurations Paste your custom Robot instructions into this field:
After doing all of these steps, you should have a solid foundation for Magento SEO! However, now comes the hard part – actually implementing everything. The best way to do so is by using an extension like MageWorx’s Universal SEO Suite which includes features such as page redirections and canonical URLs.
You can also go through each product individually with their CSV Import/Export tool or bulk edit pages from within the dashboard using their Bulk Editor Extension. Finally, make sure to add fresh blog content to your site on a regular basis.
This will help bring back visitors that may have not been returning due to the lack of new material and also give you more opportunities for search engine optimization (SEO).
Magento 2 Meta keywords
Now that you understand the basics of Magento SEO, it’s time to learn about meta keywords. Meta keywords are a way to tell Google which terms you would like your website to rank for. They don’t have much of an impact on your ranking as they used to, but they can still be helpful in certain cases.
To add meta keywords to your Magento store:
Go to System > Configuration Click Design in the left-hand column Scroll down until you see Meta Keywords Paste in a list of keywords that are relevant to your products or services separated by commas
Click Save Changes
Make sure not to stuff your meta keywords with irrelevant ones.
Magento redirects
When it comes to Magento redirects, there are two options: URL or page level. The best one for your store will depend on the type of content you have and how often it changes. To set up a 301 permanent redirect in Magento :
If you only want to add a single redirect (like from an old domain name to your new domain name), then you can set it up directly in the Magento URLs.
To do so, go to System > Configuration, click General and scroll down until you see Url Structure. You’ll find a list of all of your product categories here on the left-hand side and their corresponding URLs on the right.
To add a 301 redirect, click the red “X” next to the URL of your product that you want to change and then input your new URL in this field:
If you would like Magento SEO simply use the Magento cms module. You can edit Magento attributes with DHTML popup window which is available on the frontend. A very good solution for Magento SEO extension for CMS users.
The other option is to set up page level redirects through MageWorx’s Infinity Redirect Manager, but there are some downsides here – it only allows 200 permanent or 302 temporary redirects and if someone visits your old domain directly (instead of typing it into their browser), they will receive an error message.
To set up page level redirects in Magento, you first need to install the MageWorx Infinity Redirect Manager extension. After installing and configuring the extension, go to System > Configuration > MageWorx Extensions > SEO and scroll down until you see infinity_redirects. Click on it and then input your 301 permanent or 302 temporary redirects into this field:
Make sure that each of your redirects is pointing to the correct URLs!
301 vs 302 Redirects
When it comes time to set up a redirect for your Magento store, there are two main types of redirects you can use – 301 (permanent) or 302 (temporary). The difference between these two is that a 301 redirect will always point the user to the new URL, while a 302 redirect will only do so for a certain amount of time (usually 30 days).
Which one you should choose depends on your store and how often its content changes. If you have a lot of products that are regularly updated, then using 302 redirects may not be the best option because users could end up seeing 404 errors if they try to access an old URL.
In this case, it would be better to use 301 redirects so that users are always redirected to the latest version of your website.
Importance of Magento Meta Titles & Description
Now that you understand how to set up Magento 301 and Magento 302 redirects, it’s time to dive into meta titles.
Meta titles are a way for your website to tell Google what page someone should be directed towards when they click on a certain search result.
To add meta titles in Magento, go back to System > Configuration, click Design and scroll down until you see the HTML Head section of your store:
In this field at the bottom (Meta Titles), enter in one title per line separated by commas. Make sure not to stuff these with keywords! Just put them here if there is something specific about each product or category that would benefit from being included as part of their description.
It doesn’t hurt to repeat the same title on multiple pages, as long as each is different.
Magento SEO Tip: If you’re looking for a way to further improve your website’s ranking, consider using the Yoast plugin. Yoast is a WordPress plugin that helps you write better titles and descriptions for your blog posts, which can then be used by Google to determine how relevant they are to certain search terms.
Importance of Meta descriptions
Meta descriptions are a way for your website to tell Google what page someone should be directed towards when they click on a certain search result.
They’re also important because they can influence whether or not someone clicks through to your website from the SERPs.
To add meta descriptions in Magento, go back to System > Configuration, click Design and scroll down until you see the HTML Head section of your store:
In this field at the bottom (Meta Descriptions), enter in one description per line separated by commas.
Make sure not to stuff these with keywords! Just put them here if there is something specific about each product or category that would benefit from being included as part of their description.
Magento SEO Tip: If you’re looking for a way to further improve your website’s ranking, consider using the Yoast plugin.
Yoast is a WordPress plugin that helps you write better titles and descriptions for your blog posts, which can then be used by Google to determine how relevant they are to certain search terms.
Meta descriptions are an important part of Magento SEO and should be included on all product and category pages. They not only tell Google what the page is about but can also influence whether or not someone clicks through to your website from the SERPs.
Yoast Magento SEO plugin
The biggest problem with the Yoast SEO extension is that it was tested and certified for Magento Open Source only. And it doesn’t suit other editions including Commerce, Cloud or Luma. Moreover, the latest update happened in August 2018 which make this plugin out-of-date.
The lack of updates can lead to issues and bugs on your store site. If you are using Magento open source without any problems then I recommend not updating Yoast Magento SEO until there will be a stable version released by them.
Best SEO plugins for Magento
Below is a list of the best Magento SEO plugins that we found to help you improve your search engine optimization.
The SEO Suite by Aheadworks is an out-of-box solution for all Magento store owners who want their storefronts to gain more sales and leave behind the competition in no time!
It’s also an excellent tool if you’re looking forward to working with professional SEO experts on improving rankings, which will lead to better traffic levels, increased revenue per visitor acquired through advertising campaigns and boosted conversion rates.
This plugin includes: – XML Sitemap generator (you can see it here) – Robots meta tags manager (for those using robots or Magento site explorer this feature comes in handy when configuring product pages so they are properly indexed) – Canonical URLs (prevents duplicate content issues and 301 redirects necessary pages to the right ones, preventing any penalties from Google)
The Magento SEO Suite Pro extension by BSS Commerce is a premium Magento SEO plugin that is jam-packed with features in order to help you optimize your website. It was designed to make on-page optimization simple for everyone, even those who aren’t familiar with the technical side of things. Some of its main features include: – Title tags and meta descriptions editor
– XML sitemap generator
– Robots txt manager
– Custom 404 error page
– Canonical URL support
SEO Content Optimization by ReloadSEO is an all in one Magento SEO plugin that was designed to help you take your website’s search engine optimization to the next level. It includes a variety of features, such as: – Custom meta tags
– Title and meta description editor
– Canonical URL support
– Automatic sitemap generation
Magento SEO by Mageplaza is an excellent Magento SEO extension that was created in order to help store owners improve their website’s ranking on Google and other popular search engines. Some of its main features include: – XML Sitemap generator
– Robots txt manager
– Automatic sitemap submission to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools
The Advanced SEO Suite by Mirasvit is another premium Magento SEO plugin that was designed to help store owners achieve better rankings on Google and other popular search engines. Some of its main features include: – XML Sitemap generator
– Robots txt manager
– Canonical URL support
– Automatic sitemap submission to Google, Bing, and Yandex Webmaster Tools
That’s it for our list of the best Magento SEO plugins! If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at any of these plugins, be sure to check out their individual product pages. And as always, if you have any questions or need help with anything SEO related, feel free to reach out to us! We’re more than happy to help!
Magento SEO checklist
Now that you know about some of the best Magento SEO plugins available, it’s time to create your own Magento SEO checklist! Here are a few things you should include: – Install an SEO plugin
– Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions
– Add keywords to your titles and meta descriptions
– Generate an XML sitemap
– Submit your XML sitemap to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools
– Configure canonical URLs
– Check for duplicate content issues
That’s it for our Magento SEO checklist! Be sure to bookmark this page so you can come back to it later. And as always, if you have any questions or need help with anything SEO related, feel free to reach out to us! We’re more than happy to help!
Conclusion
SEO is an important part of any online business, and Magento is no exception. That’s why it’s essential to include SEO in your checklist for optimizing your website. These are just a few things you should do to get started:
– Install an SEO plugin
– Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions
– Add keywords to your titles and meta descriptions
– Generate an XML sitemap
– Submit your XML sitemap to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools
– Configure canonical URLs
– Check for duplicate content issues
Keep these tips in mind as you work on optimizing your Magento store, and be sure to revisit this page often for updates! Thanks
Related resources
Find related resources for the above blog post content below: