BigCommerce SEO Review: BigCommerce is good for SEO?

From an SEO standpoint, BigCommerce is a fantastic platform. It includes all of the features you’ll need to rank well, as well as the ability to do any additional SEO work you want. BigCommerce is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses, and depending on the plan you choose, it can accommodate any company size.

In this article, we will provide you a full Review of BigCommerce SEO to prove that it is good for SEO.

What is BigCommerce SEO?

The practice of optimizing your website so that search engines like Google and Bing can interpret it is known as SEO. In other words, the easier it is for Google to figure out what your online store is about, the better your chances of ranking — that is, showing up on the first or second page of search results. BigCommerce can help you with that. According to BigCommerce, the average brand that uses its platform sees a 28 percent year-over-year increase! This is where BigCommerce SEO comes in.

BigCommerce offers a slew of built-in SEO capabilities, which we’ll go over in detail later in this guide. After only a few minutes of reading, you’ll have a good understanding of SEO, BigCommerce’s SEO tools, and how to apply them to your own online store.

BigCommerce SEO Essential Features

Essential SEO consists of a succession of minor adjustments that can have a significant impact. For starters, a large portion of SEO is focused on keywords. Keywords are the search phrases that people use to find information.

Page titles and Meta descriptions

The text you see when you input something into a search engine is referred to as page titles and meta descriptions. The page (or meta) title is the clickable link, while the meta description is the content below it.

The title of your page will be displayed to users by search engines. You must ensure that each of your pages has a unique page title that is connected to the content on that page.

Here’s your chance to sell your site to them! Meta descriptions can make the difference between someone visiting your site and scrolling to the next link. The meta description should also include keywords relevant to the content of the page.

Alt tags

Alt tags, which stand for “alternative,” are essentially picture descriptions. An alt tag is a piece of non-visible text that you add to your photos to let search engines know what they’re about.

Alt tags are useful not just for attaching keywords to photos but also for the visually handicapped, since special software can recognize the tag and read the image description to individuals who are unable to see them.

Mobile optimization

This is the process of ensuring that your website is compatible with both mobile and tablet devices, as the name implies. It can be tough for visitors to browse and purchase your products if your online store is not mobile optimized.

As of 2018, mobile searches outnumber desktop searches on Google. As a result, Google now penalizes sites that aren’t mobile-friendly. Given the prevalence of smartphones as an extra limb these days, ensuring that your site functions on all screen sizes are literally critical.

Product filtering

Organizing your products into categories is a good idea. These filters can then be displayed on your website, allowing users to quickly find what they’re looking for.

It’s easier for potential buyers seeking something specific if you segment your products so they can be filtered. Product filtering not only saves your consumers’ time and sanity when searching for products, but it also makes your site easier for search engines to scan.

All this implies that search engines may determine where specific products are located to direct users to the appropriate page. Consider how much easier it is to navigate an article with headers and subheadings than with just block text.

BigCommerce SEO Advanced Features

Advanced SEO is what sets the best websites apart from the others. Anyone who is serious about selling online will take care of SEO basics, but only the savviest will tackle more complicated issues on their own.

Micro data

Microdata, often known as “rich snippets,” provides an extra layer of information to the way your website appears in search results. A rating, price, brand, or stock level can all be displayed.

Microdata has been found in studies to enhance not only the odds of someone clicking on your website, but also the likelihood of conversion (i.e. making a sale).

The more information you can supply to people within search engines, the better. Visitors will develop a sense of trust in you as your online store gets more authoritative.

301 Redirects

A 301 redirect automatically redirects visitors from one URL to another. If you change the URL of a web page, users will be forwarded to it immediately if they type in the previous URL.

For starters, you’re not allowing any unnecessary traffic to pass through your network! If you don’t have 301 redirects in place, ordinary visitors will see a 404 error notice if they put your URLs directly into their browsers.

Content delivery network

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) aids in the speeding up of your online store. It strives to load photographs, videos, and other media sources as rapidly as possible in order to prevent visitors from abandoning your site due to frustration.

Consumers anticipate a web page to load in two seconds or less, according to 47% of respondents. Most online stores will be full of product photos and videos, so it’s crucial you don’t offer a terrible first impression with slow site speed. Google considers page loading speed to be an essential ranking factor — in this case, slow and steady does not win the race!

HTTPS Security

HTTPS is a hybrid of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) (Secure Sockets Layer). It protects your website by encrypting communication, which helps to prevent hacking and increases the security of users when browsing and inputting payment information.

For online customers, cybersecurity is always a concern. The risk of getting hacked or having your card cloned for fraud is something everyone wishes to avoid. Your site will protect customers’ personal information if it supports HTTPS, as seen by the padlock icon and the ‘https://’ in your URL.

How BigCommerce SEO Works

BigCommerce Analytics

BigCommerce SEO comes with its own set of analytics. This provides a clear breakdown of all the important metrics to consider when monitoring performance levels.

You can see your visitor count and how people are coming to your site, in addition to keeping an eye on sales figures (search, direct, social media etc).

All of these figures go a long way toward assisting you in keeping track of SEO performance. When you first add metadata to a product page, you should be able to see how it affects all of your other metrics.

Google Analytics

Integrate BigCommerce with Google Analytics for a more in-depth look at your website’s performance.

Google Analytics allows you to drill down into individual page metrics. You can track the behavior of your pages over time to see if SEO changes have resulted in a ‘uplift’ (i.e more site visitors and conversions).

Simply create a Google Analytics account, then paste a tracking ID into your BigCommerce analytics (which is generated for you when you sign up). From there, you’ll have access to BigCommerce and Google Analytics, which will help you optimize the SEO of your online store.

BigCommerce SEO Pros and Cons

Pros

Customizable page titles and meta descriptions

BigCommerce makes setting up and editing all of your page titles and descriptions a breeze, allowing you to specify the exact text and blurbs that will appear on SERPs. BigCommerce has a built-in SEO section for each page type (category pages, product pages, web content pages, and blog posts) where you can enter your desired titles and descriptions.

Automatic 301 redirects

Have you ever renamed a product? BigCommerce not only automatically changes the URL to reflect the new name, but it also redirects the old URL to the new one so that your customers (and search engines) always see the new page.

Editable robots.txt

BigCommerce, unlike other eCommerce platforms, lets you edit your robots.txt file if you ever want to tell crawlers not to index certain parts of your site. The ability to edit your site’s robots.txt file comes in handy in some situations, especially when trying to maximize your crawl budget or if you have intentionally duplicate content.

Nested URLs

BigCommerce uses nested URLs to clearly show the hierarchy of your site’s categories and products. This is beneficial to SEO because it gives search engines more context about what your pages are about. Long, disorganized URLs irritate search engines, so having a nested structure sends positive signals to crawlers.

Cleaner URLs

BigCommerce, on the other hand, allows you to have cleaner URLs. BigCommerce’s URL structure is more succinct than that of other platforms, which include words like “collection” in the URL. Again, this is beneficial to SEO because Google dislikes long URLs with unnecessary terms.

Build-in microdata

In order for details such as ratings, pricing, and stock levels to appear in search results, BigCommerce includes microdata or rich snippets in your product pages. These rich snippets improve your listings and have been shown to increase click-through rates and conversions in studies.

Site-wide HTTPS

The platform supports site-wide HTTPS, which encrypts all pages on your website. Switching to HTTPS can give your site a minor ranking boost in addition to building trust.

Cons

Pagination

Pagination (when a single piece of content is split across multiple pages) is a common eCommerce practice, especially among merchants with large product catalogs. Pagination can improve the user experience, but if done incorrectly, it can cause SEO problems.

Filters

If customers can filter products on your site (by size, color, price, etc. ), you may experience SEO issues if Google indexes those filtered URLs. Because the content on filtered pages isn’t exactly unique, Google may mistake them for pages with duplicate or thin content, when they’re actually just filtered versions of the same page.

On-site search results

When Google indexes these search pages, issues arise. Search results pages, like pagination and filters, may raise red flags if they appear to contain duplicate or thin content. These pages can also eat up your crawl budget, thus preventing Google to index your higher quality pages.

404S instead of 410S

Because BigCommerce doesn’t allow you to create 410 pages, you’ll have to make do with a 404 status code if you have pages on your site that aren’t returning. This isn’t necessarily a major issue, but if you care about SEO nuances, then it is something you’ll want to be aware of.

BigCommerce SEO Price

BigCommerce has four different pricing plans: Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise.(cap pic)

Every plan includes nearly all of BigCommerce’s SEO features. Customers reviews from Google, custom SSL, and product filtering are the only features that require the Pro plan ($249.95/month) or higher.

BigCommerce also provides a 14-day free trial. This is ideal for those who want to try before they buy and get a true sense of BigCommerce before committing fully.

Conclusion

You should now have a good understanding of SEO, including what it is, why it’s important, and how to improve your online store’s SEO. We’ve also talked about BigCommerce SEO and how it can help you reach your ranking objectives.

We hope that you can confirm that BigCommerce SEO is good for SEO through this BigCommerce SEO Review.