Which ecommerce platform is best for SEO?

Overwhelmed by the number of platforms available for hosting your ecommerce business? In this guide, we’ll introduce you to three of the most popular ecommerce platforms; Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce for WordPress. We’ll run through the advantages and disadvantages of each and let you decide for yourself which is the best SEO ecommerce platform for your business. 

Use the links below to navigate ahead if you’re looking for something in particular:

Discover our industry-leading ecommerce SEO services

What is an ecommerce platform?

An ecommerce platform is a software solution that allows a business to create and manage online stores. In the modern age, with the vast majority of consumers turning to online shopping, having an effective ecommerce platform is vital for a successful business. Ideal for a startup or global business, an ecommerce platform is affordable and always open for business, giving your business a much higher amount of potential customers.

Your chosen ecommerce platform also has a significant impact on your ecommerce SEO performance as it will dictate much of the functionality of the site once it’s built, and how much control you have over its content. 

Before you start thinking about which ecommerce platform is best we recommend that you document your products and categorise them accordingly so that you have an idea of the size of your website. You’ll also want to think about some of the elements of functionality that you’re going to require, such as cross-categorisation if your products could sit under multiple categories. 

Once you have a rough idea of what you need from your website, you can start thinking about the platform that will suit you best.

The two types of ecommerce platforms

There are two main types of ecommerce platforms to consider: managed (hosted) ecommerce platforms and content management systems (CMS). Read on to discover more.

Hosted ecommerce platforms

A hosted ecommerce platform, like Shopify and BigCommerce, is an ecommerce solution hosted on a third-party server you don’t own and can’t access. It is entirely managed by the provider rather than the store owner.

Benefits of a hosted ecommerce platform

• Access to a higher quality server for less, because the cost is spread across all users.
• Decreased need for development expertise to build the site.
• Access to high-quality technical support (usually) when choosing a well-known ecommerce platform. This option is usually preferred by ecommerce businesses which lack internal development resources and seek a more simplified approach to shop building and management.
• User-friendly interfaces make it simple to manage business actions. 

Disadvantages of a hosted ecommerce platform

• Limited customisation with pre-designed templates means companies may not have the specific branding or functionality they desire.
• Higher long term costs due to recurring subscriptions and transaction costs.
• Locking into one vendor can make it hard to switch in the case of price increases or condition changes, essentially trapping businesses.
• The business has less control over their site’s performance, security, and data management as the host has control over the underlying infrastructure. 

Self-hosted content management systems (CMS)

Self-hosted ecommerce platforms, such as Adobe Commerce and WooCommerce, are open source, decentralised applications. They are not automatically tied to a particular web host, meaning the website owner is free to choose and manage the relationship with their own hosting provider. 

Benefits of a self-hosted content management system

• The ability to tailor the functionality and design of the features and tools mean it’s ensured to fit the business’s needs effectively.
• Scalability of the CMS ensures, as the business grows, the CMS can grow and adapt too.
• Lower long term costs, as although the initial setup may be costly, there is no third party to pay subscription fees to.
• Flexibility due to no vendor lock-in allows the company to switch hosts or CMS whenever they require with little complication.

Disadvantages of a self-hosted content management system

• The technical complexity of setting up and managing your own CMS can be time-consuming and challenging without expertise.
• Security could be compromised if the security you set up is not adequate, as you must supply it yourself, and open-source CMS platforms are publicly available, making them vulnerable.
• Resources may be limited as, although the CMS can scale with the company, home servers have limited CPU, storage, bandwidth, etc. compared to third parties.
• Performance issues may occur if your CMS is not properly configured or if your servers cannot handle the strain. 

Which type of ecommerce platform is best for my business? 

As with any business decision, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. For tech-savvy companies with suitable resources to host their own CMS, it would be wise to save the money and handle it yourself, provided you have the time. For companies looking for a simple, user-friendly solution to managing online stores, letting a third party take most of the responsibility can be a burden off the shoulders.  

Explore opportunities with a leading ecommerce SEO agency

6 factors you should consider when choosing an ecommerce platform

Whether you are moving from one ecommerce platform to another or creating a new site from scratch, you will need to consider several factors. 

How much will the ecommerce platform cost?

The most important consideration is how expensive the platform will be. Some ecommerce platforms operate on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model whereby you pay each month to use their service. Others offer a free basic version, but charge expensive one-off fees to upgrade. There is also the additional cost attached to certain themes and add-ons. All of these will need to be investigated before making a decision.

What payment options/gateways does it have?

It is important that the platform you choose reflects the buying habits of your customers. Some ecommerce platforms do not accept digital wallet solutions like Apple Pay. If your business sells internationally, you should ensure that the ecommerce platform accepts the most common payment options in that market. 

Will the ecommerce platform have technical support?

You should check the working hours for technical support on the platform. Some offer 24/7 support, while others only operate Monday-Friday. Ensuring that you have the support you need could save you a lot of headaches.

How secure is the ecommerce platform?

Online security has never been more important. Businesses must ensure that their sensitive data is protected, as well as the sensitive data of their customers. A good ecommerce website will have SSL certificates, secure hosting solutions and multi-step authentication. 

What features does it have?

Your ecommerce store will need additional features to get the most out of it. Automated email marketing, abandoned cart emails, product review modules; all of these will help increase conversion rates. Ensure that the ecommerce platform is compatible with these features.

Which ecommerce platform is best for SEO?

Lastly, you need to ensure your ecommerce platform is effective at being seen on search engines. After all, there’s no use having an online store if nobody sees it. That’s why we’ve listed the 4 best ecommerce platforms for SEO. Keep reading for expert opinions on which platforms will get you off to the best start when it comes to increasing your organic search engine rankings.

The 4 best ecommerce platforms for SEO

Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular hosted ecommerce platforms on the market. Famed for its easy-to-use interface and quick setup process, Shopify is a great platform for setting up a new ecommerce site.

Benefits of Shopify

• SSL certificates are included.
• Bread-and-butter SEO tasks are easy to implement (metadata, alt tags, 301 redirects are suggested to you when you change a URL).
• Shopify offers its own proprietary Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)editor called Liquid, which offers a respectable degree of customisation when it comes to the look and feel of your site.

Disadvantages of Shopify

• Standard blog functionality is lacking. There is no Yoast SEO integration and there is generally a lack of customisability out of the box.
• Shopify does not offer drag-and-drop functionality as standard, which makes updating content more time-consuming. 

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is another popular hosted ecommerce platform. Designed with practicality in mind, BigCommerce is seen as a very user-friendly platform within the SEO community. 

BigCommerce claims to provide more promotional functionality than any other ecommerce hosted platform, integrating social media marketing, email marketing, multi-channel marketing and promotions and vouchers into their mix.

Over 140,000 websites worldwide use BigCommerce. It also has the BigCommerce University which is a platform for website owners to learn more about the capabilities of the platform.

Benefits of BigCommerce

• It offers a drag-and-drop website builder.
• It offers an image optimiser as standard, which means the size, quality and file format of each image is adapted to match the device. 

Disadvantages of BigCommerce

• BigCommerce is typically a more expensive option than Shopify.
• It also has a relatively smaller app marketplace compared to Adobe Commerce and Shopify, which means that some features may be lacking.

Adobe Commerce

Formerly Magento Commerce, the platform merged with Adobe Commerce in 2018. This is one of the best known and most widely used ecommerce CMS, used by over 250,000 websites. Adobe Commerce is specifically designed for large and growing ecommerce businesses and supports a host of advanced functionality which make it as easy as possible to manage big online stores.

Benefits of Adobe Commerce

• Adobe Commerce is open-source and fully customisable with the help of a developer, meaning it can be fully adaptable to your SEO strategy.
• There is a large community of users who can answer queries and provide custom-plugins.
• The basic version is free and some standard themes are available.

Disadvantages of Adobe Commerce

• Adobe Commerce requires more development, making it more expensive to set up and maintain
• Adobe Commerce is self-hosted, meaning you will need to arrange and pay for hosting and domain registration. 
• Its blog section is not the best, so Adobe Commerce websites often choose to host their blog on WordPress as either a subfolder or subdomain in a different theme.

WooCommerce for WordPress

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, with over 533 million websites built on WordPress worldwide. This amounts to just under 43.5% of the internet.

WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform built on WordPress. It is customisable and open-source and provides a large number of ecommerce themes. It can be added as a simple plugin to a WordPress site and set up in a matter of minutes.

Benefits of WooCommerce

• Being open-source and self-hosted, WooCommerce is fully customisable to the bespoke needs of your business. 
• Yoast SEO is available, which makes bread-and-butter SEO tasks such as metadata optimisation easy to implement. 
• The Gutenberg page builder is available through WordPress, which makes content optimisation very user-friendly.

Disadvantages of WooCommerce

• WooCommerce sites do not provide server hosting or SSL certificates as standard (although these aren’t hard to get hold of).
• As a bolt-on for WordPress, WooCommerce is considered a content publisher-first CMS rather than fully ecommerce.
• Reliant on a developer to fix issues and update the platform to the latest version.
• Image optimisation not included as standard – will need to look at other plugins or a CDN

Frequently asked questions about ecommerce platforms in SEO

Is SEO important in ecommerce?

Yes, SEO gives ecommerce stores a strong marketing foundation. Organic search is a highly sustainable way of getting customers onto your site without having to pay for each click. Ecommerce brands can see a considerable long-term return on investment by focusing on SEO: you build up rankings that organically attract users to the site who then go on to make purchases. This situation can be maintained over many years with the right approach, and customer acquisition costs can be significantly lower than you’d experience with paid online advertising. 

Where should I get started with SEO for ecommerce?

Good SEO for ecommerce is ultimately about giving your site visitors what they want and offering satisfactory experiences. Looking to rank top for a high-value keyword like ‘modern sofas’? Then you need to do research to understand what people expect to see from a category page after searching for this on Google – and give it to them. The same applies for any other page that you might optimise on an ecommerce site, from products to inspiration blogs and buying guides.

This all starts with a thorough ecommerce SEO audit, which will cover everything from the technical SEO foundations to the mapping of keywords to pages that satisfy intent.

How important are customisable URLs in ecommerce?

URLs are a key area you’ll want to look at as part of your site architecture for SEO, so the ability to customise them is helpful. Using specific keywords in your URLs aids clarity for users and search engines, so is recommended where possible. You should also consider going for a hierarchical, nested URL structure for categories and subcategories to indicate the relationships between them (so, for example, a /skinny-jeans/ category would be nested under the /jeans/ subfolder, and so on).

Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Adobe Commerce will then create breadcrumbs based on your URL structures by default. These provide a trail that users can follow to take them back up a level in your site’s structure – making it easier to navigate from a subcategory (e.g. skinny jeans) to its parent category (e.g. jeans). Search engine crawlers can also make use of breadcrumbs to help them get around your site and find content, supporting better indexation of your pages.

Choosing the best ecommerce platform for SEO

Choosing the best ecommerce platform for SEO is an important decision. To get it right, you must evaluate your business and marketing goals to ensure that the platform meets your current and future priorities. By reviewing the considerations outlined above, you will be well placed to choose the platform that takes your business to new heights. Looking for some support with your ecommerce strategy? Impression is a leading ecommerce SEO agency offering decades of combined experience in helping brands to maximise their organic revenue. Get in touch, and one of our marketing experts will be happy to discuss your needs.