10 SEO Metrics When Choosing an E-Commerce Platform

Ten technical evaluation criteria including URL hierarchy, faceted navigation, speed, and indexing for e-commerce stores.

Speakers: Tevfik Mert Azizoğlu

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Tevfik Mert AzizoğluinSEO on Board

29 Mar 2017

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⏱ 17 min read• 2,943 words

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Hey Zeo TV followers, I’m Mert. Today, we’re covering 10 SEO metrics for choosing an e-commerce platform. There are many SEO metrics to track. We’ll focus on the 10 most critical ones for your infrastructure. E-commerce is a hyper-competitive industry. High AdWords budgets and creative social media ads drive this competition. These are all major factors. Organic traffic is also heavily impacted. Ranking well isn't as hard as you think. With the right CMS and SEO, you can boost your product pages. This will naturally improve your sales and CTR.

Let’s look at these 10 improvements together. Seven are technical SEO, and three are content-focused. First is clean code structure. Choosing a CMS with clean code is vital. We aren't just talking about off-the-shelf CMS systems. You might choose custom software. That’s a choice based on your budget. Whether it’s custom or a CMS, clean code is non-negotiable. There’s something called spaghetti code. This is when code is messy and unoptimized. Only the original developer can understand it. Other developers won't be able to make sense of it.

What do we mean by optimization? Messy code is a major issue. Poorly structured tags hurt performance. Bloated backend code slows down your site. Google uses site speed as a ranking factor. You need lean code for better results. Avoid spaghetti code at all costs. Keep your code structure clean. The goal is to do more with less. Faster load times mean less data to process. This directly boosts your site speed. Google has specific standards. Your code must meet them. This helps Google bots crawl your site effectively. Our second technical point is SEO-friendly URL structures. Let's start with HTTPS.

You need an SSL certificate for HTTPS. Every e-commerce site must use HTTPS. What is SSL? It is a security certificate. It upgrades your site from HTTP to HTTPS. It tells users your site is safe. Google confirmed this in recent updates. HTTPS sites rank higher in search results. E-commerce sites have many categories and products. You must map these to your URL structure correctly. Take a necklace category, for example. Your URL should clearly reflect the category name. Always keep your URL structure logical and clean.

Avoid uppercase letters in your URLs. Always use lowercase for your URL structure. It’s a best practice. Next comes the category ID. This helps your backend team track Product IDs or Category IDs easily. A structure without IDs is ideal. It’s definitely preferred. Still, IDs aren't a dealbreaker. Some CMS systems use a hash symbol in URLs. We strongly advise against using a hash. We highlighted it in red to warn you. Google stated they don't read anything after a hash in a URL. Why do some CMS systems use it? They often use it for filtering. For example, on a necklace page, selecting gold, silver. Or price filters often adds a hash. Some platforms handle it this way.

But as you scale, you might want these filter pages indexed. I’ll cover this in more detail later. If you want them indexed, Google won't see them. It ignores everything after the hash. You’re basically wasting your time. You won't get any results. Avoid the hash. You don't need to use filter parameters. Customize them with descriptive terms like color or price instead. SEO-friendly URLs are readable for both users and bots. Here is why. Using terms like color or price helps your keywords. If a user searches for those terms, your URL matches their intent. You automatically capture that traffic.

Use lowercase category names. Avoid using hashes for filter parameters. Use other characters instead. You can also use a slug-based URL structure for product pages. Here is what I mean by slugs. Say you have a gold necklace in the necklace category. The URL should be site.com/necklace/gold-necklace.html or just gold-necklace. This is the ideal structure. Skipping the category name in the URL is also helpful. Shorter URLs are better. Shorter and clearer URLs are always ideal. So, site.com/gold-necklace is actually the perfect product URL. Our third point is pagination integration. It looks complex but it is actually simple. The goal is to guide bots through your category pages. You show them page one, page two, and page three. This helps bots reach all your products.

Google suggests a few specific improvements for this. Let's look at the code side. Pagination tags usually go inside the head tag. Place them before the body tag closes. They must be inside the head. For example, here is the URL for page two of a category. Your pagination tags should look exactly like these two lines. The first tag is "prev," which stands for previous. Use the prev tag. It must point to page one for the second page. Tell Google bots that page one is the previous page. Never use parameterized URLs for page one.

Keep the first page clean. Use the category name only. If it's a necklace, just use the necklace URL. Don't use "necklace?page=1". The next tag must follow immediately. The next pagination tag tells Google the third page follows the second. I used the second page as an example. But if you add pagination to page one, Google has a specific rule. Google says never use the prev tag on page one. There is no page before page one. It considers the prev tag redundant there. Just include the next tag pointing to page two.

Follow that logic for page one. For page two, link to both page one and page three. If page three is your last page, you cannot use the next tag there. It works like page one but reversed. On page one, we skipped prev. If page three is the last page, we skip the next tag and use prev. We’re out of pages after the last one. Here’s a key metric to watch. If you hit page four when it doesn't exist, you have a problem. Your URL yapısı must 301 redirect to the first page.

This tells Google that page three is the end. If they try to crawl page four, they get sent back to page one. That’s the core logic behind pagination tags. I’ve covered the main points. Now, let’s talk about the canonical yapısı. How do we use canonical tags? These tags tell Google exactly where to index a page. Pages use these tags to signal their index destination. If you want a page indexed, it must point to itself. For pagination, the first page URL must have a self-referencing canonical.

Use a next tag to point to page two. Page two must also have a self-referencing canonical. Use prev for page one and next for page three. If page three is the last one. It needs a self-referencing canonical and a prev tag for page two. There should be no next tag there. In short, every page must have a self-referencing canonical. Never skip this. Otherwise, you’ll run into indexing issues. Now, for point four, site speed, I’ve broken it down into two quick items.

Optimize images and compress JavaScript and CSS. Site speed involves many factors. There are many elements to watch. If you're choosing a CMS for e-commerce, ask two key questions. Can you optimize the images I upload? Will these images slow down my site? Do you have that capability? Can you compress my backend and frontend source code like JavaScript and CSS? Can you place them in the body instead of the head? Let's get specific. You might have many products and categories. Your homepage might have a massive slider.

These drain resources. They slow down your site. They waste your crawl bütçesini. As I said, site speed is a top priority. Google makes this very clear. They constantly remind us. Site speed is a ranking factor in search results. Sliders and product images can hurt user experience. Too many images on category pages will slow you down. Compression is essential. You must maintain image quality while compressing. Talk to your CMS provider about this. Ask them before you sign up. Better compression means better UX and speed. You will end up with a more crawlable site.

This automatically boosts our products and categories in search rankings. Regarding JavaScript and CSS compression, some CMS providers force these into the head tags. They might use inline or external JavaScript and CSS files. We recommend moving these into the body. Google recommends this too. However, developers often avoid this to prevent breaking their spaghetti code structure. Ask your CMS provider about optimizing and compressing JavaScript and CSS. Request that they bundle these files. Our fifth point is the sitemap and robots.txt. This is just as critical as site speed. The sitemap and robots.txt control how your site is indexed and crawled. The sitemap primarily drives indexing.

The robots.txt file manages crawling. Google bots check robots.txt first to see what to crawl. Some CMS platforms don't allow you to edit this file. That is a major issue. You must be able to customize your robots.txt file. E-commerce sites shouldn't index cart or checkout pages. You need to block these from being crawled. Use robots.txt to disallow pages. This saves crawl bütçesini. Google bots will crawl your important pages instead. Always prioritize a dynamic sitemap. Your CMS provider must support this. A dynamic sitemap is key. It should auto-remove products when they are deleted. This also applies when items go out of stock.

You might keep out-of-stock pages for traffic. That requires different solutions. But if a page is deleted and returns a 404, remove that URL. It shouldn't stay in your sitemap. Sitemaps should only contain URLs with a 200 status code. This is a critical detail. When you add a new product, it must auto-populate in the sitemap. That is why dynamic sitemaps matter. They help with indexing and efficient use of crawl bütçesini. Point five is vital. Now, let's move to point six: structured data markup.

Structured data isn't strictly mandatory. However, it offers huge benefits for e-commerce sites. Ask your CMS provider if they can implement this for you. Structured data markup powers featured snippets in search results. Let’s look at e-commerce. What structured data should you use? Use ItemList, Product, Review, and Rating schemas. These are the essentials. You implement these in the code. They transform basic SERP listings. You move beyond simple titles and descriptions. You get rich, user-friendly results. These drive higher click-through rates. These appear as featured snippets. Take Product, ItemList, or Order schemas. Say you have a category page. You pick the right schema and apply it.

Implementation depends on your CMS. That’s why this matters. You add a bit of code. You tell Google about your products. Now they show up directly in search results. Search "Samsung phones" and your products appear. It grabs the user's attention. It’s a better user experience. It drives clicks. Say someone searches for "Samsung Galaxy S7." Your page ranks. Small structured data tweaks make your results pop. Take breadcrumbs, for example. They are essential for any e-commerce site. What are breadcrumbs? If I'm on a Samsung Galaxy S7 page, how did I get there? I went through Electronics, then Phones, then Samsung. We use breadcrumbs to show this hierarchy on our site.

We need to show this same hierarchy in Google SERP results. Breadcrumb markup lets us display the site name, Electronics, Phones, and Samsung. Users can skip the S7 page and jump straight to a category. We also have review and rating markup. This shows user comments and ratings for a product. If one user gives 5 stars and another gives 3, the average is 4. If they give 5 and 4, the average is 4.5. We tell Google our average score and total review count. Google then displays these stars and the review count directly in the search results.

This attracts more clicks than just a title and description. It’s a key improvement. Point seven covers redirects and the canonical tag. These are vital technical SEO tasks. Sometimes we need 301 or 302 redirects. Say you run an e-commerce site. A product goes out of stock. You might need to redirect that page to a category page. What if it’s coming back soon? Leaving a blank page is bad for user experience. If it’s just temporary, use a 302 redirect. 302s are temporary. If the product is gone for good, don't leave it blank. Use a 301 to send users to a similar product. 301 is our permanent redirect.

A 301 passes all traffic and SEO value to the new page. You won't lose any traffic this way. These redirect setups are vital for e-commerce. Ask your CMS provider if they support these structures before you commit. Redirects also help manage your 404 structure. If a product is removed or a category name changes. The old indexed URL will trigger a 404 error. That URL is gone. You need a custom 404 page. Your CMS must support this. It keeps users on your site. You can guide them elsewhere.

Say a user hits an old URL. A custom 404 page helps. Send them back to the homepage. Add a search bar there. Let them explore your site. Guide bots this way too. Your CMS must handle this. It’s a key improvement. On-page elements include heading tags. They also include meta tags like title and description. Basic tags won't rank you. You need to stand out. Beat the other nine results. Make your title and description punchy. Entice the user to click. This is vital for descriptions. Use keywords in your title. Target specific search queries. Use compelling copy in your description. Make it irresistible.

Users might not see your page otherwise. They choose from ten results. Boost your CTR. Mention discounts or campaigns. Use clear percentages in your title. These factors heavily influence user perception. They drive clicks and boost performance. So, can we customize on-page elements? Can I set unique Title and description tags for different pages? Take a gold necklace page. I might not want the title to just be "gold necklace." I might want "30% off gold necklaces" or "last few gold necklaces." Your CMS must allow this level of customization.

You should handle this right from the panel. Your CMS needs dedicated fields for SEO on-page elements. You also need to set unique descriptions for every category. Don't stick to the same description template. You want category-specific Title and description tags. You need to be able to edit these directly in your backend or panel. Next, let's talk about heading tags. These define your page hierarchy. Your H1 should always be your product name. Use H1 only once. It should highlight your most important keyword.

If you're an e-commerce site, use the product name as your H1. This tells Google and your visitors what the page is really about. It signals the most important text on the page. H2 tags follow the H1. They follow a hierarchy from H1 to H6. Use H2 for subheadings, not product names. Unlike H1, you can use multiple H2 tags per page. Every page needs an H1. Use it exactly once. You can use multiple H2 tags for subheadings. Don't overdo it. You must be able to decide where to place H1 and H2 tags.

Your CMS must allow this flexibility. You can apply H2 to product features, colors, or prices. It is your call. If you want to rank for a brand, use the brand name in your H1. The choice is yours. You need this level of customization. Let’s talk about category and product filters. Say your brand sells both glasses and bags. You have one page for the brand. It lists both glasses and bags. You want to specialize. How do you separate them? You use filters.

Use glasses and bag filters. If "brand plus glasses" is a high-traffic search term, you need to index that filter. We usually prefer to keep filters out of the index. Filters create too much noise. They can look like spam. We need to manage our crawl bütçesini efficiently. That’s why we keep them blocked. We often ask the CMS provider to add a noindex tag. Most CMS platforms already keep filters out of the index. But we need the flexibility to index specific filters ourselves.

Ask this when choosing a CMS. Can I index just this specific filter? For example, brand plus glasses? I need to say, I get a lot of traffic here. They must provide that flexibility. Point ten is review integration. It’s not strictly mandatory. But it’s a huge win for e-commerce sites. User engagement is everything on the web. Our main goal is sales. User reviews are a massive conversion factor. They don't just influence shoppers. They also impact Google bots. Google doesn't rank based solely on reviews. But keywords in reviews help our product pages. Plus, we can use structured data. We integrate review and rating schema. This helps us stand out in search.

For example, search for Samsung Galaxy S7. We can display our user reviews directly in the search results. We can choose exactly which reviews to show. This will significantly boost traffic to that page. Review integration also gamifies the experience. It keeps users engaged and coming back. This naturally improves our search rankings as well. That covers the general structure. We focused on CMS systems. But custom software gives you more freedom. Most CMS providers won't offer all 10 features. The final decision is yours. We recommend demanding all 10 points. Building your own infrastructure is also an option. That’s all for now. See you in the next video.

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Tevfik Mert Azizoğlu

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