[New] Introducing Duplicator’s Sleek Redesign: New Look, Same Great Features
We simplified backups and migrations with Duplicator's fresh new look. Dive into our redesigned interface, backup presets, helpful tooltips, and…
[New] Introducing Duplicator’s Sleek Redesign: New Look, Same Great Features
Joella Dunn
Joella Dunn
John Turner
John Turner
Did you know that nearly half of all online shoppers start their product search on Google?
That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) is so critical for e-commerce success.
If you’re running an online store, you can’t afford to ignore SEO.
Without a strong SEO strategy, your target audience won’t even find your store.
The good news?
WooCommerce provides a solid foundation for SEO. And with the right steps, you can improve your store’s visibility, attract more organic traffic, and boost your sales.
But how do you do that? Let’s find out in this WooCommerce SEO guide!
Yes, WooCommerce has good SEO. It’s built on WordPress, a content management system (CMS) known for its SEO-friendliness.
WooCommerce inherits this advantage, offering features like clean code and customizable permalinks that search engines love.
Here are some other features that make WooCommerce SEO-friendly:
However, while WooCommerce provides a solid foundation, you need to actively optimize your store to rank higher and drive organic traffic.
You don’t want your products to be lost at the bottom of search results. So, let’s explore actionable WooCommerce SEO tips. This way, you’ll see better conversions!
Before you dive into the nitty gritty of SEO, remember that tons of plugins can help you. Since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, you can use a WordPress SEO plugin to make your products stand out in searches.
Let’s take a look at the best options for WooCommerce!
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best plugin for WooCommerce SEO. It offers a comprehensive set of features to help you optimize your store for search engines.
For starters, it has a full SEO checklist. If you’re a new store owner, you can go point by point and understand how to fully optimize your website for searches.
AIOSEO allows you to add focus keywords, so you can target what specific phrases your customers are searching for. Right in the block editor, you’ll find suggestions on how to improve the on-page SEO for that keyword.
Plus, there are plenty of WooCommerce features. You can add meta titles, meta descriptions, and schema markup to each of your products. You’ll have everything you need to push your products to the #1 search result.
Alternative: Popular competitors of AIOSEO include Yoast SEO and Rank Math SEO. These also have WooCommerce SEO features.
If you want to go a little deeper into SEO research, Semrush can help. This tool goes beyond basic SEO, providing in-depth keyword research, competitor SEO analysis, and a comprehensive site audit feature.
Data-driven decisions are key for SEO success. MonsterInsights provides insights into your website traffic, user behavior, and conversion tracking, allowing you to tailor your strategy based on real data.
Broken links hurt user experience and SEO. Visitors click on a product link expecting to see features and more details. If they come across an error page, they might leave your website immediately.
(Best case scenario, they take extra steps and effort to find the right product page)
Broken Link Checker is a plugin that automatically identifies and helps you fix broken links on your website. Both prospective buyers and search engines will be able to easily find your store!
When you choose a theme for your WooCommerce store, don’t just think about how it looks.
Your WordPress theme can have a significant impact on SEO. Selecting a theme that is also optimized for performance can make a noticeable difference in your rankings.
SeedProd was originally built as a landing page builder. Now, it’s a full-site theme builder with WooCommerce-friendly features.
Known for its fast loading times, SEO-optimized code, and user-friendly customization options, SeedProd is a fantastic choice for WooCommerce store owners. It’ll help you create a visually stunning and high-converting website.
Here are some of SeedProd’s WooCommerce and SEO-friendly features:
Thrive Themes focuses on conversion-oriented design, ensuring that your WooCommerce store looks great and encourages visitors to take action. Their themes are built with SEO in mind, making them a strong contender.
With the Thrive Theme Builder, you’ll set up your WooCommerce store very quickly. It comes with WooCommerce templates for shop pages, checkout pages, product pages, and other important pages.
These templates are extremely easy to edit to meet your needs. You can visually edit your store’s product images, descriptions, and reviews with a drag-and-drop interface. Plus, Thrive Themes comes with 12 WooCommerce widgets.
Astra is a lightweight and highly customizable WordPress theme that has impressive speed and performance. Its pre-built SEO-friendly templates can help you quickly get your WooCommerce store online and ready for searches.
Divi, from Elegant Themes, is another popular WooCommerce theme. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, making it easy to create visually appealing and SEO-optimized layouts for your WooCommerce store.
WooCommerce Storefront is an official WooCommerce theme that you can find on Woo Marketplace. As you might’ve guessed, it’s designed to work seamlessly with the ecommerce platform. Its tight integration ensures optimal performance and compatibility, laying a solid foundation for your SEO efforts.
One of the first things potential customers will see in search results is your product titles. Informative and captivating titles can significantly impact your click-through rates and ultimately, your sales.
Include the most important keywords that your customers are likely to use when searching for your products. This helps search engines understand the context and relevance of your products.
Aim for product titles that are 50-60 characters. Your titles won’t get cut off on search engine results pages (SERPs). Plus, they’ll be easy to read.
Try to incorporate compelling descriptors or unique features that set your products apart. This can help your listings stand out and capture the attention of potential buyers.
Boring product title: Black T-Shirt
SEO-optimized product title: Organic Cotton Black T-Shirt for Women: On-the-Go Comfort
While it’s important to include relevant keywords, don’t overdo it. Keyword stuffing can come across as spammy and may even harm your search engine rankings.
Your product descriptions are just as important as the titles.
Focus on what sets your products apart from the competition. Emphasize the features, materials, or benefits that make your offerings unique and appealing to your target audience.
Give your customers a comprehensive understanding of your products. Include details about size, color options, materials, care instructions, and any other relevant information they might need to make an informed purchase.
Strategically include the main keywords you’re targeting, as well as related long-tail keywords that your customers might use to search for your products. However, be sure to use them in a natural, non-repetitive way.
Break your product descriptions into short, scannable paragraphs. Use bullet points, headers, and formatting to make the content easy to skim and digest.
Consider incorporating elements like FAQs, user reviews, or social proof to increase the engagement and trustworthiness of your product descriptions.
By applying these best practices, you can craft compelling product descriptions that improve your search engine visibility. They’ll also inspire customers to add your items to their carts.
Your page titles appear in search engine results and are one of the first things users see when they come across your website. Optimizing them can have a significant impact on click-through rates and search engine rankings.
When writing SEO-friendly page titles, include the primary keywords you’re trying to rank for in your page titles. This helps search engines understand the content and relevance of your pages.
Aim for page titles that are 50-60 characters or less. This ensures the full title is displayed in search results without getting cut off.
While keywords are important, don’t sacrifice readability. Create titles that are engaging, informative, and accurately reflect the content on the page.
Product slugs are the part of the URL that identifies a specific product on your WooCommerce store.
WooCommerce will automatically use the title, but I’d recommend changing it. You should be concise, yet accurately describe the product. Avoid using lengthy, generic, or irrelevant slugs.
Include the primary keywords you’re targeting for each product in the slug. When using multiple words in a product slug, separate them with hyphens (ex. “organic-cotton-shirt” rather than “organiccottonshirt”).
You should stick to lowercase letters and hyphens. Avoid using special characters, numbers, or other non-alphanumeric elements in your product slugs.
Breadcrumbs are a navigation feature that display your current location within a website’s hierarchy.
Breadcrumbs help search engines better understand the organization and structure of your website. They make it easier for crawlers to find and index your pages.
Plus, breadcrumbs let users understand their location within your website. They’ll easily explore your store without getting lost.
When used correctly, breadcrumbs can be displayed as rich snippets in search engine results. This makes your WooCommerce listings more visually appealing and informative to potential customers.
To add breadcrumbs to your WooCommerce store, you can use AIOSEO. Go to the general SEO settings and find the Breadcrumbs tab.
Then, enable breadcrumbs.
You’ll have a few different ways to add this feature to your website. My favorite is the Gutenberg block. You can go to any post or page, add the block, and your store has breadcrumbs!
If you’re familiar with WordPress, you know that every website has categories and tags to organize content. You can use these with WooCommerce, too. They help you improve the overall navigation and discoverability of your online store.
To start, let’s define the difference between categories and tags.
Categories are a broad grouping. For online stores, this might be men’s, women’s, shoes, or accessories.
Alternatively, tags are specific keywords that describe a product. You might tag a product as summer wear or casual.
If you’re still confused, see this in-depth comparison between product categories and tags!
Product images are an essential part of any successful WooCommerce store. But did you know they can also improve SEO?
Search engines like Google use alt text to understand the content and context of images. Optimized alt text can help your product images appear in relevant image searches, driving additional traffic to your store.
Alt text also helps with accessibility. It provides an description of the image for users who are visually impaired or have images disabled in their browsers.
Visitors will have context and information about your products, even when the images don’t load properly.
When writing alt text for your WooCommerce product images, focus on being concise, descriptive, and keyword-focused. Avoid generic or irrelevant alt text.
When visitors come to your website, they want to easily find what they’re looking for. If your store is confusing and takes too long to figure out, they’ll leave.
To boost your SEO, make sure your navigation is clear and simple.
Organize your main product categories and subcategories in a logical, easy-to-follow system. Avoid overcrowding the menu with too many options, as this can confuse users and search engines.
As I mentioned earlier, breadcrumbs give users a clear understanding of their location within your store’s hierarchy, improving both navigation and SEO. Consider using them!
You could also link between related products, categories, and other relevant pages on your WooCommerce store.
Optimize your WooCommerce navigation for mobile devices, as more and more users are accessing online stores from their smartphones and tablets. A mobile-friendly navigation can enhance the user experience and improve your site’s SEO.
While individual product pages are essential for your WooCommerce store’s SEO, don’t overlook product categories. Each of these has its own page with similar products. You’ll want to optimize these product categories for SEO.
To do this, find Products » Categories. Start editing a category.
Just like your product pages, make sure to include relevant keywords in your category page titles and meta descriptions. This helps search engines understand the content and relevance of the category.
Here at Duplicator, we love duplicating sites. But specific content? Not so much.
This is because two similar pieces of content might cannibalize the same keywords. As a result, both pages can drop in rankings.
You can search through your store for duplicate content or use tools like Semrush.
For virtually identical content, select the more optimized page. Add any missing information and delete the old content. Redirect the old page to the new one. (I like to use AIOSEO’s redirect tool).
If you’re selling the same products across multiple channels or platforms, make sure to write unique product descriptions for your WooCommerce store. Avoid simply copying and pasting descriptions from other sources.
For SEO, you need a deep understanding of your customers and their behavior. Using web analytics tools, you get valuable insights that can inform and refine your SEO strategies.
With MonsterInsights, you can add Google Analytics to your WordPress dashboard. It helps you track metrics like website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates. You’ll identify opportunities for improvement.
MonsterInsights gives you a detailed e-commerce report. Here, analyze your top products and conversion sources. You’ll learn where your customers are coming from and what products they like the most. Use this data to inform your content and optimization strategies.
Slow-loading pages can lead to increased bounce rates, decreased conversions, and ultimately, lower search engine rankings. At the end of the day, you want new visitors to access your store quickly.
Use tools like EWWW Image Optimizer or TinyPNG to compress your images. Consider serving them through a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for faster loading times.
Caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket store static website resources (such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML) and serve them quickly to visitors. This reduces the load on your server.
You can also use a plugin like Autoptimize to minify your CSS and JavaScript files. It’ll reduce file size and improve your page load speeds.
If your web hosting provider is too slow, you should upgrade. To move to the new host, back up your site with Duplicator and drag and drop it into the new one.
Continuously monitor your WooCommerce store’s loading speeds using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or the IsItWP Site Speed Test.
Identify areas for improvement and implement optimization strategies on an ongoing basis.
As a store owner, you need to protect your customers’ data and your business’s reputation. Plus, search engines emphasize website security, and they may penalize or de-index insecure sites.
To improve your security, regularly update WordPress, WooCommerce, and any other plugins or themes. Outdated software may have security vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit and search engines can penalize.
I’d also recommend enabling two-factor authentication. This adds an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access. Plugins like WP 2FA can help you with this.
Make sure that all user accounts, including your own, have strong, unique passwords. Avoid using common or easily guessable passwords that could be compromised.
Regularly scan your WooCommerce store for any signs of malware or other security breaches, and address them promptly. Tools like Sucuri or Wordfence can help with this process.
Last but not least, back up your store! This ensures you can quickly restore your data after a security incident.
Duplicator can automatically back up your store, so you never have to worry about it. Simply create a new schedule and select what data you want backed up. You can choose from hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly auto backups.
I don’t know about you, but I use my phone for most of my online shopping. And many of your customers do too!
To optimize for SEO, you need to make sure your website looks great and performs well on mobile devices. More and more consumers access online stores from their smartphones and tablets, so a mobile-friendly user experience is very important.
Remember when you chose a WooCommerce theme? This will help you get your store mobile-optimized.
I said that SeedProd is the best WooCommerce theme, and it has a built-in mobile editor. You can easily switch to the mobile view and correct any features that look off.
Google PageSpeed Insights can check how well your site loads on mobile devices. Enter your site’s URL and open the Mobile tab. Then, identify and fix any performance issues.
Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a powerful tool in ecommerce SEO. Adding schema markup to your product pages gives search engines extra information about your website, leading to more engaging search results.
AIOSEO helps you use schema markup successfully. In the Search Appearance settings, you can choose the Product schema type.
The plugin will generate schema on individual pages. AIOSEO will use some by default, but you can also pick from a variety of schema types.
One of the most important steps you can take to enhance your store’s security is to get a valid SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. Your site will start using a more secure connection (HTTPS).
An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between the user’s browser and your WooCommerce store. It ensures that sensitive information, like payment details, is transmitted securely.
This builds trust with your customers and can lead to higher conversion rates!
Many payment gateways and third-party services require an HTTPS connection. Failing to have a valid SSL certificate may prevent you from integrating with certain payment processors or other essential services.
If you haven’t already, get an SSL certificate and start using HTTPS today.
With the above strategies, you can easily improve your WooCommerce SEO by yourself. However, there may be times when you consider hiring a professional SEO expert or agency.
If your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to dedicate to SEO, hiring an external consultant or agency can provide the necessary resources to drive results.
Your store’s search engine rankings and organic traffic may have plateaued or declined. In this case, an SEO expert can conduct a thorough audit and provide a roadmap for improving your online visibility.
Working with an SEO professional can also give you a competitive edge. You’ll identify and capitalize on opportunities that your competitors may have missed or overlooked.
WPBeginner has specialized in WordPress for over 10 years. If you’re looking for an expert, start looking at their SEO services!
Shopify offers a more streamlined, out-of-the-box SEO experience, while WooCommerce has more customization options and deeper integration with WordPress’s SEO features. WooCommerce ultimately has more room for growth, because you can use SEO plugins.
The best SEO plugin for WooCommerce is All in One SEO. It has a full site SEO audit, which is helpful for new store owners who don’t know where to start. Plus, AIOSEO provides advanced SEO features like schema markup, product image SEO, rich snippets, and more!
Yoast SEO is another popular plugin that makes WordPress SEO setup easy. It supports technical SEO, local SEO, structured data, and WooCommerce SEO. To see if it’s a better option, read this Yoast WooCommerce SEO review.
To optimize your WordPress WooCommerce website for search engines, I’d recommend using an SEO plugin like AIOSEO, choosing an SEO-friendly theme, writing compelling product titles and descriptions, optimizing images and permalinks, and simplifying your navigation. Regularly monitor your site’s performance and make adjustments based on this data.
To set up SEO for your WordPress site, start by installing a dedicated SEO plugin like All in One SEO. Configure the plugin’s settings, including your site’s title, description, and other metadata. Then, optimize your content by using relevant keywords, structuring your pages effectively, and ensuring fast loading speeds. Submit your XML sitemap to search engines for better indexing and visibility.
Out of the box, WooCommerce is set up for SEO. However, it’s up to you as the store owner to significantly improve your visibility in search results, attract more traffic, and ultimately, grow your online business.
While you’re here, I think you’ll like these extra WordPress guides:
Duplicator Pro makes it easy to migrate, back up, and restore your WooCommerce store. Try it today to make sure your site remains secure and optimized for search engines!
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