SEO is a major aspect of running a successful ecommerce store so you need a platform that can give you the tools and features to implement your strategies effectively.
Without SEO, your store may struggle to gain visibility on search engines and have limited traffic. This, in turn, could impact your ROI and make the initial investment not worthwhile.
To avoid this, I have selected five excellent e-commerce platforms that all have fantastic SEO features for you to use. This includes platforms suitable for anything from solo entrepreneurs to enterprise-level businesses
1. Shopify
Shopify is an incredibly popular ecommerce platform and has some brilliant e-commerce SEO services. This is undoubtedly the easiest platform to use and I recommend it for first-time shop builders who may not have great experience with web development.
The basic plan is reasonable and you can easily integrate Google Analytics to take your SEO strategies to the next level. Shopify also benefits from a wide range of plugins to improve SEO such as customer ratings, social share buttons, and SEO tools like YOAST SEO.
You can easily create a blog for your store too which can include optimized content, and Shopify can work with multiple sales channels like Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shopping.
Pros
- It is one of the easiest ecommerce platforms to use.
- You can easily integrate Google Analytics.
- Great support to integrate SEO blogs into your store.
- Large plugin library to improve store functionality.
Cons
- The Shopify URL hierarchy is rigid and you can’t edit URLs for search engines.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a cost-effective option and suitable for any size of business. The first thing to note is that it is a WordPress plugin so ideally you need familiarity with this platform too.
This plugin is extensive and gives you great control and flexibility to implement your SEO. To start, the site design and pages are SEO-friendly and it’s easy to use other plugins like YOAST SEO to optimize your on-page content.
You can quickly make changes to things like META tags and URLs, and WooCommerce has a decent blogging tool too, so you can implement SEO content marketing strategies. There is a free version of WooCommerce available with limitations and the premium subscription is reasonable too.
Pros
- The stores have excellent customization options.
- You can add varied functionality with the huge plugin library.
- It has various SEO-ready features like 301 redirects and URL customization.
Cons
- It has a steeper learning curve if you aren’t familiar with WordPress.
- It can be time-consuming to find and install plugins.
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce excels at customer experience and it has some brilliant features so users can easily find what they need and navigate your products quickly.
This is a standalone platform that doesn’t require anything like WordPress, and it has several plans ranging from the Standard package for smaller businesses to the Pro package for enterprise-level companies.
I like the SEO tool that is built-in to BigCommerce and this means you don’t need a host of separate tools to improve basic SEO. However, if you want more, BigCommerce does have a large library of third-party plugins too.
You can easily optimize your web pages and product pages too, and the interface is relatively user-friendly.
Pros
- It offers excellent flexibility in terms of store features.
- You can benefit from various SEO-friendly features.
- It allows you to give a superb customer shopping experience.
Cons
- It is known to have slower page loading times.
- The cost can soon increase for additional features.