Magento is a popular e-commerce platform that offers a range of built-in SEO features. They help improve the visibility and ranking of your online store in search engines. In this article, we will discuss the default SEO Magento 2 features. We’ll also see how they can be utilized to optimize your website for search engines. Whether you are new to Magento or an experienced user, this information will be valuable in helping you effectively use these features to drive traffic and increase sales. 

SEO Magento 2 -Meta Data

Metadata is information that is included in the HTML of a webpage and is not visible to users. It is used to provide information to search engines about the content of the webpage. There are several types of metadata, including the title tag, meta description, and meta keywords. Metadata is important for SEO because it helps search engines understand the content of your webpage. It also determines how relevant it is to a particular search query. 

The meta title is the title of the webpage that is displayed in search engine results and in the browser tab. It is important for SEO because it helps search engines understand the content of the page. It can also be used by search engines to determine the relevance of the page to a particular search query.

Meta keywords are a list of words or phrases that are relevant to the content of the webpage. They are not used by most search engines in determining the ranking of a webpage. However, they can still be useful in helping search engines understand the content of the page.

The meta description is a brief summary of the content of the webpage. It is displayed in search engine results below the meta title. It can be used by search engines to determine the relevance of the page to a particular search query. Including a descriptive and relevant meta description can help improve the chances that your webpage will be clicked on in search results.

Overall, metadata is important for SEO because it helps search engines understand the content of your webpage and determine its relevance to specific search queries. By including relevant and descriptive metadata, you can improve the chances that your webpage will rank well in search results and attract more traffic to your website.

 Magento 2 has the following settings for Metadata

Global-level metadata settings for products

Using these settings you can create a template and set up Meta titles, Meta Keywords, and Meta descriptions for ALL the products in your store. This setting can be found in Stores –> Configuration –> Catalog –> Catalog –> Product Fields Auto-Generation. 

You can use 3 placeholders {{name}}, {{description}}, {{SKU}} to create templates that will update metadata for all the products in the store.

The limitation of this feature is that it applies to all the products on a global level. This means if you want to create separate templates for different categories you cannot do it. Also, there are only 3 placeholders available. This limits the diversity of templates you can create.

But the benefit of this feature is you won’t have to write meta titles meta keywords and meta descriptions individually for all the products. This is a great feature that will save a lot of time especially if you have a large number of products in your catalog.

Metadata settings for Individual product pages

If you want to add a meta title, meta keywords, and meta description for individual products you can do by going to the:

Catalog> Product > Edit > Search Engine Optimization:

Metadata settings for Individual category pages

To add a meta title, meta keywords, and meta description for individual category pages go to:

Catalog –> Categories –> Search Engine Optimization.

Metadata settings for content pages 

Similarly to add a meta title, meta keywords, and meta description for individual content pages go to the:

Content –> Pages –> content page –> Search Engine Optimization

Prefixes

To add prefixes like your company name or brand name across all pages of your site go to

Stores > Configuration > General > Design > HTML Head

SEO Magento 2 -Friendly URL Settings

Having SEO-friendly URLs can have several benefits for your website. Some of the main benefits include

  • Improved user experience: SEO-friendly URLs are easy to read and understand. This makes it easier for users to navigate your website and find the content they are looking for.
  • Increased crawlability: Search engines use URLs to crawl and index webpages. Having a clear, descriptive URL structure can make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand the content on your website.
  • Better keyword targeting: By including keywords in your URLs, you can signal to search engines what the page is about, which can help improve its ranking for those keywords.

Magento 2 has the following settings for creating SEO-friendly URLs

SEO URL Options For individual product pages

To create SEO-friendly URLs for individual products go to

Catalog –> Products –> Product –> Search Engine Optimization –> URL Key. 

SEO URL options for individual category pages

Similarly to create SEO-friendly URLs for individual category pages go to

Catalog –> Categories –> Category –> Search Engine Optimization –> URL Key.

Suffix for product and category URLs

To add/edit suffixes to your product and category URLs go to:

Stores –> Configuration –> Catalog –> Catalog –> Search Engine Optimization

Redirects 

Redirects are used to send users from an old URL to a new URL when the content has been moved or changed. This is important because it helps to preserve the link equity of the old URL, which can help to maintain the ranking of the page in search engine results. 

Some other uses of redirects are

  • They help to preserve the link equity of old URLs, which can help to maintain the ranking of the page in search engine results.
  • They help to improve the user experience by ensuring that users are always sent to the correct URL, regardless of whether the content has been moved or the user has typed in the wrong URL.

Magento 2 has the following settings for creating redirects:

Automatic redirects settings

Magento 2 automatically generates a product URL according to the SKU you have specified. If you change the URL key from product settings you need to create a permanent redirect for URLs if the URL Key is Changed. 

To do this automatically, enable the auto redirect when the URL is replaced option. Go to:

Stores → Configuration → Catalog → Search Engine Optimization→ Create Permanent Redirect for URLs if the URL Key is Changed. 

Rewrites 

URL rewrites are a way to transform the URL of a webpage into a different URL. Rewrites are often used to make URLs more user-friendly or to make them conform to a specific structure.

There are several reasons why rewrites can be useful:

  • Improved user experience: Rewritten URLs can be easier to read and understand. This makes it easier for users to navigate your website and find the content they are looking for.
  • Better keyword targeting: By including keywords in the rewritten URL, you can signal to search engines what the page is about. This will help improve its ranking for those keywords.
  • Increased crawlability: Search engines use URLs to crawl and index webpages. Having a clear, descriptive URL structure can make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand the content on your website.

To create a new rewrite in Magento 2 go to

Marketing → SEO & Search → URL Rewrites→ Add New URL Rewrite

Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are HTML tags that are used to indicate the original or preferred version of a webpage. They are used to prevent duplicate content issues, which can occur when the same content is accessible through multiple URLs.

Here’s an example of a canonical tag:

Copy code<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/article-1″ />

In this example, the canonical tag is indicating that the preferred version of the content is located at “https://www.example.com/article-1”.

Canonical tags are useful for SEO because they help search engines understand which version of a webpage to index. This also helps decide which version to show in search results. This can be particularly important if you have multiple pages with similar or identical content. 

By using canonical tags, you can tell search engines which page you want them to prioritize and ensure that only the most relevant and valuable pages are shown in the search results.

To set canonical tags for category and product pages in Magento go to

Stores –> Configuration –> Catalog –> Search Engine Optimization

Robots.txt 

The robots.txt file is a simple text file that is placed on your web server to indicate to web robots which pages or files on your site they are allowed to crawl. The robots.txt file is used to prevent search engines from crawling and indexing certain pages or files on your website.

Using a robots.txt file can be useful for a variety of reasons. For example, you might want to prevent search engines from crawling pages that are under development. You might also want to prevent search engines from crawling pages that are duplicates of other pages on your site. 

In terms of SEO, the robots.txt file is important because it can help prevent search engines from crawling and indexing pages that you don’t want to be included in the search results. However it is important to configure the file properly as a misconfigured file can cause a great deal of damage to your SEO efforts. Common SEO mistakes when it comes to robots.txt include blocking the entire site, blocking important pages such as the homepage, and allowing pages to be indexed when they should be blocked. It is therefore important to ensure that robots.txt is correctly configured to ensure that all pages are indexed correctly and that no SEO mistakes are made. Magento has following settings for robots.txt 

To set up or edit the robots.txt files for your magento store go to

 Stores→ Configuration→ General→ Design→ Search Engine Robots

XML Sitemap 

An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs for a site. This information helps search engines understand the site’s structure. It also helps search crawlers crawl the site more intelligently. An XML sitemap can also help ensure that all the pages on a site are discovered, even if the site’s internal linking structure is not easily discoverable by a crawler.

In terms of SEO, an XML sitemap can be helpful because it allows search engines to discover the pages on a website. This can be especially useful if a site has a lot of deep or hidden pages that might not otherwise be easily discoverable by a crawler. By including these pages in an XML sitemap, webmasters can help search engines understand the full scope of their website and improve the chances that all of the site’s pages will be indexed.

Overall, an XML sitemap is a useful tool for improving the SEO of a website, as it can help search engines more easily discover and understand the content on a site. 

Sitemap settings can be found at Stores→ Configuration→ Catalog→ XML Sitemap

Using the settings here you can set up the frequency of updating the sitemap and priority of different types pages in sitemap.

Rich Snippet 

Rich snippets are structured data that can be added to a website’s HTML code to provide additional context about the content on a page. When a search engine sees rich snippets on a page, it can use this information to better understand the content of the page. It is also used to display more detailed and useful information in search results. This can include things like the star ratings of a product, the author of an article, or the ingredients in a recipe.

Rich snippets can help improve the visibility and usability of a website in the search results. This is because they can provide more detailed and relevant information to users. This can make it more likely that users will click on a particular result. This can help improve the website’s traffic and search engine rankings.

Overall, rich snippets are a useful tool for improving the SEO of a website, as they can help search engines understand the content of a page and display more useful information to users in the search results.

Magento 2 has an inbuilt structured data feature and you don’t need to tweak any settings to optimize it.

Conclusion

Magento 2 provides an array of default SEO features that can help to enhance the visibility of websites. However, the features may not be enough for some websites, particularly those which have complex catalogs or high levels of traffic. This is where HumCommerce can help. Our team of SEO experts can help clients to make the most of Magento 2’s SEO features, as well as offering additional services to increase the visibility and traffic to your website.