Top 10 Tips for Optimizing Your Magento 2 Store for Search Engines

Anyone can open up an online store based on Magento 2! But that alone isn’t enough to boost an online business in the e-commerce marketplace.

You’ll still need to optimize your online storefront for various search engines, like Google for example, if you want to maximize your reach for potential customers. But what are some of the best ways to do it?

Well, to help you out, I have shortlisted the most effective and widely proven methods that would optimize your Magento 2 store for search engines.

Let’s begin.

What is Magento 2?

In short, Magento 2 is an open-source e-commerce platform. It was released in 2015 as a massive update to the already popular Magento 1 platform.

The platform hosts online stores as well as improves their speed and performance. It also has SEO services for providing full support and flexibility to any merchant for their online store.

Think of it as an alternative to other e-commerce hosting platforms like WordPress or Shopify.

But what sets Magento 2 apart from other platforms is that it is one of the most search engine-friendly e-commerce platforms out there.

Not to mention, it is more business-friendly than other platforms since its features and extensions are geared towards fulfilling business needs.

10 Best Ways to Optimize Your Magento 2 Store for Search Engines

Although a Magento-based store is pretty SEO-friendly from the get-go, there are still many variables that can affect your ranking in the search results.

For instance, you’ll have to manually perform a few on-page SEO based on what kind of business you have and which audience you’re trying to reach.

And that’s not all!

You’ll need to follow the most effective methods to further optimize your online store for the search engines, which I have discussed below in great detail.

1. Set an SEO-Friendly URL

Whether it is due to having the same product in different categories or different variants of the same product, duplicate content is the most prominent issue in any e-commerce site. It not only makes your website look like an amateur job but also affects your search engine ranking.

The solution?

Well, it’s quite simple actually, you just have to set up custom URLs that are also SEO-friendly.

To do so:

• Head over to your Magento admin panel and go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > Catalog.
• Navigate to the Search Engine Optimization section.
• Clear out the Product URL Suffix and Category URL Suffix fields.
• Input the product name in the URL Key field. While doing so, make sure to use a hyphen between the words of the product’s name, use only lowercase, and avoid using any special characters like $, %, &(these are not SEO friendly).
• Click on Save Config.

You can also further clear up the URL by removing the index.php from the site address. For that, select Stores > Configuration > General > Web > Search Engine Optimization.

Then, set the Use Web Server Rewrites option to Yes.

Doing so will also improve the CTR(click-through rate) of your site as users will feel more confident to click on your content after seeing the descriptive URL. It will also help the search engine crawler to index your page for a better SEO ranking and authority.

2. Setup Proper Meta Tags

Search engines aren’t human brains, the only way they can interpret the page content is through the meta description and title.

That way, a search engine like Google can present your page to a visitor who is searching for that specific content, hence increasing your CTR and visibility. Here’s how to set the meta tags:

• Log in to the Magento admin panel and select Catalog > Products.
• Choose the product you want to set the meta tags for and navigate to the Search Engine Optimization section.
• Input the necessary data in the Meta Title, Meta Keywords, and Meta Description box.
• Hit Save.

Don’t forget to include the brand name and CTA(call to action) to increase product visibility and encourage click-through.

3. Use HTTPS

These days, online security is everything. The more secure your website, the better. And for business-oriented online stores, having SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) encryption is the best option.

It encrypts both inbound and outbound data from the server and the user, securing all sensitive information like credit card numbers or user addresses. Popular browsers like Chrome will show a big red warning when someone clicks on your content if your website is not SSL-certified.

As a result, search engines, such as Google, prefer HTTPS protocol and the users feel more secured as well.

To enable HTTPS for your Magento store:

• Create an SSL certificate for your Magento server.
• Head over to the Magento dashboard and select Stores > Configuration > Web > Base URLs (Secure).
• Set Use Secure URLs in Storefront and Use Secure URLs in Admin to Yes.
• Change the Secure Base URL to use https:// instead of http://.

That’s it. Now save the changes and load up your site to check if it loads with the HTTPS protocol or not.

4. Analysis and Implement Buyer-Intent Keywords

When a user looks for a specific product or a service, the search engine uses certain keywords from the query to show the search results.

If you identify and implement the keywords that your potential customers are using, the search engine will be able to match your product’s page with the user’s query and rank your page accordingly.

Hence, you’ll have more traffic and more chance of selling.

Many SEO tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs can help you analyze the current queries and give you the top keywords for your content. Try to use both long-tail and buyer-intent keywords like “discount”, “sale”, etc.

5. Make Changes to the Robots.txt File

Proper search engine indexing depends on how well the crawler bot manages to go through your page. And the Robots.txt file of your Magento 2 site tells the crawler bot which page to inspect and which ones to avoid.

If you want to delist less optimized content, you can customize the said file so that the search engine bots can interpret the site’s structure correctly. Here’s how:

• Load up your Magento 2 dashboard.
• Navigate to Stores > General > Design.
• Make any necessary changes in the Edit custom instruction of robots.txt File box.

6. Improve Your Site Speed

Happy user, happy search engine. And nothing makes a user happier than a site that loads quickly. As a result, search engines also prefer websites that are better optimized to load faster.

You can use various methods to improve the loading time of your Magento 2 store. The quickest way to do so is by compressing the image files to reduce their size. It would reduce the required bandwidth drastically.

Another way to speed up your website is to merge the JavaScript and CSS files. Here’s how:

• From the Magento 2 dashboard, select Stores > Configuration > Advanced > Developer.
• For JavaScript Settings, set:
  • Merge JavaScript Files: Yes
  • Enable JavaScript Bundling: Yes
  • Minify JavaScript Files: Yes
• For CSS Settings, set:
  • Merge CSS Files: Yes
  • Minify CSS Files: Yes

Done! It is one of the best ways to do organic SEO and increase engagement rates.

7. Optimize for Mobile Devices

Since over 90% of the customer base is using their phone to browse and shop online, it is now really important for an online webstore to be properly optimized for smartphone devices.

From navigation to responsiveness, everything needs to feel as if the user is scrolling through a native app. And for that, you must choose a similarly responsive and adaptive theme, which Magento services have plenty to offer.

Furthermore, the content and elements displayed on the screen should also be optimized for cellphone displays as well.

8. Utilize Browser Caching

Another effective way to boost your website’s authority for search engines is to use browser caching. That way, you can store some necessary files on the user’s browser so that your site loads up even faster when the user comes back.

For that:

• Sign into your Magento 2 admin panel.
• Go to System > Cache Management.
• Click on Flush Cache Storage and set it to Enable.
• Hit Submit.
• Do the same for Flush Magento Cache.

9. Perform On-Page SEO

Without a proper on-page SEO, you’ll have very little chance of ranking as it directly impacts how the search engine correlates your content with the user’s query.

Little things like adding primary keywords in the product description, using alt-text for the added images, or having proper product details go a long way toward making your page more SEO-friendly.

For example, Google doesn’t know what the images are in your product pages.

So, to help the search engine read the image for relevant search queries, add product-relevant(short description that includes main search keyword) alt-text to the image before uploading.

10. Streamline the Navigation throughout the Website

The user experience of your online store depends on how easily and effortlessly a user can navigate through your site. It not only encourages them to easily purchase their desired items/services, but it also makes it easier for the crawler bot to scroll through your website.

That is an underlying aspect that many online store owners ignore.

Thankfully, Magento has built-in features to streamline the navigation. Here’s what you need to do to use that:

• From the Magento dashboard, choose Stores > Configuration.
• Then click on General > Web > Default Pages.
• Now change the Show Breadcrumbs for CMS Pages to Yes.
• Hit Save Config.

You can also design the menu in a simplistic manner with a focus on categories and main products.

Bottom Line

There’s hardly any point in using Magento if you’re not gonna use its full potential to boost your online storefront. And you need to use these features if you want to increase your website’s organic traffic and boost the online visibility of your business.

It’s not a choice, it’s a necessity.

And for that, I hope this article has provided you with the best tips and methods to turn your Magento 2 store into an SEO-friendly hub.

If you find above process challenging or want to ensure optimal results, consider seeking expert SEO services. You can get professional assistance from FullMage’s SEO services.