Magento SEO. Check the guide

Magento is an exceptionally robust platform, but to use it to the fullest, it requires the correct configuration. This guide explains what needs to be done and focuses on issues such as:

• creating SEO-friendly URL structures,
• correctly configuring page titles and meta descriptions,
• using headings properly,
• managing search engine bots appropriately so they can crawl and index your store,
• speed optimisation.

Magento, created in the United States in 2008, has become a leading eCommerce platform in the world. This position was strengthened after the acquisition by Adobe in 2018.

As reported by Conductor.com, it is estimated that around 270000 stores worldwide use the Magento platform. According to information from Magento, the company enabled sellers to earn around 155 billion dollars in 2018. It is therefore safe to say that Magento is a key brand in the eCommerce industry.

Although Magento 2 is a robust platform, if you use its default settings, you will not achieve high SEO effectiveness. That is why you must direct yourself to victory by using all the best practices regarding Magento 2.

What makes your store in Magento well positioned?

To rank your Magento store well in organic search listings, you need to make sure search engines can easily and effectively find all your content and understand it. Moreover, they must have reasons to rank your content higher in comparison with other content.

We can divide this into the so-called “three pillars of SEO”:

• technology – the technical foundations of the site that help search engines find and understand your site as quickly and effectively as possible. This is how you can set yourself up for success,
• relevance – the queries for which your content is relevant. Relevance can be achieved by creating content that is useful and satisfying for your visitors. Good technology is essential to clearly signal relevance,
• authority and trust – links to your site. They determine your authority and credibility.

In this article, the first pillar of Technology is described in detail, because it is specific to this platform, while Relevance and Authority and trust work the same way for all platforms.

1. 01TechnologyThe technical foundations of the site
2. 02RelevanceAnswers to queries
3. 03Authority and TrustReasons for a higher ranking

The main SEO pillars for better visibility in search engines.

Magento SEO checklist for solid technical foundations

Solid technical foundations enable search engines to find and understand all your content in an easy and efficient way.

Think of the technical foundations of a site as the foundations of a building. Having solid foundations has a beneficial impact on the whole structure. By contrast, having weak foundations can lead to the structure collapsing. Here are the elements you need to address to make the technical foundations in Magento 2 right.

• URL structure,
• metadata,
• headings,
• crawling and indexing,
• faceted navigation,
• page speed,
• HTTPS.

Defining an SEO-friendly URL structure

A good URL structure works well for both visitors and search engines.

In short, your URLs must have the following characteristics:

• be descriptive and easy to read,
• concise,
• consistent,
• written in lowercase.

1. 01Building relevanceKeyword research
2. 02Authority and trustThe best content and links
3. 03Continuous development processRefining and expanding

Key takeaway: SEO is a continuous process requiring work on relevance, authority and trust.

Redirect and URL rewrite settings

You can manage the store’s redirect and rewrite settings by logging into the Magento backend and going to:

• stores > configuration (under settings) > general > web,
• at the top of the page, select the relevant Store View for which you want to adjust the settings. Changing settings at a higher level affects store views, so you should be careful,
• under URL Options you will find the Add Store Code to Urls field. Leave the default value as NO (No) to make sure the URLs are descriptive and easy to read,
• the Auto-redirect to Base URL field allows you to automatically redirect users and search engines when they request access to your store without the subdomain (e.g. when the requested address is https://www.example.com the user is redirected to https://example.com) or vice versa. This is an excellent feature, however by default it is set to use a temporary 302 redirect instead of a 301 redirect. Change this value to YES (Yes) (301 moved permanently) to make sure that the authority of incorrectly placed links is passed to the correct URL as far as possible,
• under Search Engine optimization you will find the Use Web Server Rewrites field (use web server rewrites), which is set to Yes by default. Leave it as it is, because this means that your store will use readable URLs.

Removing the .html extension from product and category URLs

By default Magento adds the .html extension to all URLs. It is recommended to remove it to avoid potential issues when moving to another eCommerce platform.

Remove the .html extension only if you are starting from scratch. Removing it from an active Magento store leads to URL migration, which you must avoid as much as possible.

The secret to establishing an excellent URL structure is to think ahead. If you are moving to another platform, you want to minimise the differences between the two platforms.

To remove the .html extension from URLs, you need to log in to the Magento admin panel and go to:

• stores > Configuration (under settings) > Catalog > Catalog > Search Engine Optimization,
• at the top of the page, select the relevant Store View for which you want to adjust the settings,
• on the screen that loads, you will find the Product URL Suffix and Category URL Suffix fields. Both fields have the .html value. Removing this value from both fields will result in URLs such as https://example.com/category for category pages and https://example.com/product for product pages. If you prefer a trailing slash at the end of all URLs, you can enter “/” in both fields. This will generate addresses such as https://example.com/category/ and https://example.com/product/.

Create short URLs without using categories in them

On the same screen you can choose whether to include the category path in the URL, for example https://example.com/category/product/.

By default the “Use Categories Path for Product URLs” option is set to No. It should be left like that to make sure the URL is short. This is particularly important if you have categories and subcategories. In such a situation URLs will become long very quickly. If you have products with very similar names, it is recommended to include a unique identifier such as the SKU code in the product URL. This cannot be configured in the Magento 2 admin panel, but you can use an extension to do it.

Automatic URL redirect when the key changes

In cases where URL keys change after pages are published, you need to redirect visitors and search engines to the correct URL when the old one is requested.

The “Create Permanent Redirect for URLs if URL Key Changed” option is enabled by default and is set to Yes. Keep it, because it will save a lot of time and trouble in further work.

Defining meta information

Your site’s meta title and meta description have a major impact on rankings and click-through rate (when the site is shown on the search results page). At the same time, you cannot manually define the meta title and meta description for every page, so you need to approach it intelligently. You need to use smart default options that can be overridden when necessary.

What makes a good title?

A good title is easy to read, contains relevant keywords and calls to action, is unique, and its length stays within 285-575 pixels (30 and 60 characters respectively).

What makes a good meta description?

What applies to the title also applies to the meta description, except that the preferred length is different. The meta description should fall within 430-920 pixels (70 and 155 characters respectively).

Setting the homepage metadata

To set the meta information for the homepage, log in to the Magento admin panel and go to:

• content > configuration (under the “Design” project),
• then find the default store view and click the Edit link next to it to define the meta information for the homepage of the default store view.

Go to HTML Head under Other Settings and expand the available settings options:

You can ignore the Default Page Title and Default Meta Description fields, because they are not used by default in Magento. Also ignore the Default Meta Keywords field, because such keywords have not been used by search engines for over a decade. They therefore play no role in SEO.

The other two fields, namely the Page Title Prefix and Page Title Suffix, matter:

• Page Title Prefix – this field should be left blank, because whatever you add here is added at the beginning (the most important part) of the title. Using a generic prefix goes against everything we know about title tags, so leave this field blank,
• Page Title Suffix – enter, for example, – $nazwaSklepu. This will be added to the end of every page title, which allows for better brand promotion,

Creating meta information templates for products and categories

Setting up meta information templates for products and categories, which make up the lion’s share of store pages, will save a huge amount of time.

Unfortunately, this is a feature that is missing in Magento. It was not available in Magento 1 and it is not available in Magento 2. That is why we recommend using extensions such as “Meta Tags Templates by Amasty” or “SEO Meta Templates by MageWorx”.

Here are a few examples of page title templates you can use:

• category pages – $nazwaKategorii | $nazwaSklepu – for example, “Men’s T-shirts | Joe’s T-shirts”,
• subcategory pages: $nazwaPodkategorii | $nazwaKategorii | $nazwaSklepu – for example, “Breaking Bad T-shirts | Men’s T-shirts | Joe’s T-shirts”,
• product detail pages – Buy $nazwaProduktu | $nazwaPodkategorii | $nazwaSkleppu – for example: “Buy Mr. White T-shirt | Breaking Bad T-shirts | Joe’s T-shirts”. In this case, we omit $nazwaKategorii, because this usually makes the title too long.

Here are a few examples of meta description templates you can use:

• category pages – Looking for $nazwaKategorii? Check out our huge collection of $liczbaProduktów T-shirts at $nazwaSklepu!, for example “Looking for T-shirts? Check out our huge collection of 10 000 T-shirts at Joe’s T-shirts”,
• subcategory pages – use the same template as for the category pages mentioned above,
• product detail pages – Buy $nazwaProduktu at a price of $cenaProduktu. Delivery time $czasDostawy. Only at $nazwaSklepu!, for example “Buy Mr. White T-shirt for just $19.99. Delivery time 24 hours. Only at Joe’s T-shirts!”.

Define meta information templates for other pages

For other pages, such as landing pages and About us, you can use the following templates:

• page title – $nazwaStrony – $nazwaFirmy, for example “About us – Joe’s T-shirts”,
• meta description – Check out the $nazwaStrony page!, for example “Check out the About us page!”.

Remember that the suggested templates will not be effective in every industry and may not suit your style. However, let them serve as inspiration for you.

Proper use of headings

Whether headings are used properly in your Magento store depends on two things:

• what structure headings have in your niche,
• how you use headings in your content – that is entirely up to you.

A good heading structure allows visitors to scan the page quickly and enables search engines to better understand its structure and topic.

Use the following heading best practices:

• do not include logos or illustrations in H1 tags, because the H1 heading covers the main topic of the page. Therefore, the H1 heading should include meaningful text,
• use only one H1 heading on the page,
• to ensure good readability, keep to a maximum length of 60 characters,
• do not use headings to present general elements that are found on every page, such as the search function,
• do not use H2 headings in product names on pages with a general overview of product categories,
• create a heading structure within a logical hierarchy,
• choose product category, product and page names carefully, because they will be placed in H1 headings by default,
• do not use H1 headings in the middle of content, because this will result in having multiple H1 headings.

Crawling and indexing

Below you will find information on how to configure Magento to make it easier for search engines to analyse your store and understand what they should index and what they can skip.

Implementing canonical URLs for the home page and CMS pages

By default, Magento does not add self-referencing canonical URLs to the home page and CMS pages. This means that there is a risk of duplicate content.

You can use several options to solve this problem:

• adjusting the template so that it always includes self-referencing canonical URLs for the home page and CMS pages,
• adding a custom XML block to pages, where you manually define the self-referencing canonical URL for the home page and CMS pages,
• you can also use various plugins available online.

Enabling canonical URLs for products and categories

Canonical URLs provide search engines with an important hint about which page they should index. So if you have multiple variants of one product and want to signal to search engines that they should index only the product page, not the variant pages, you can do this using a canonical URL.

By default, the use of canonical URLs is disabled in Magento. With this option turned off, a product is available via its own URL as well as a URL that includes the category, e.g. https://przyklad.com/produkt/ and https://przyklad.com/kategoria/produkt/. This leads to a situation in which these pages compete with each other for search engine attention.

To enable the use of canonical URLs, log in to the Magento admin panel and go to:

• stores (stores) > configuration (configuration, under settings) > catalog > catalog (catalog) > Search Engine Optimization (search engine optimisation),
• at the top of the page, select the relevant store view for which you want to change the settings,
• on the screen that loads, you will find fields called “Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories” and “Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products” (use canonical meta tag for categories and products). Change their values to YES. In this way, both product and category pages will have canonical URLs, which significantly help avoid duplicate content.

Use robots directives to prevent duplicate content

Robots directives tell search engines your preferences regarding crawling and indexing. Especially for larger websites (which online stores usually are), robots directives are important for the effectiveness of SEO activities.

Use noindex robots directives for internal search results pages.

By default, internal search results pages are indexed by robots in Magento 2. This is bad from an SEO point of view, because it can lead to a huge number of low-quality pages being analysed and indexed when there are links pointing to such pages.

We recommend adding noindex. Robots will follow these directives for all internal search results pages.

Apply noindex robots directives to query parameter URLs 

eCommerce platforms notoriously generate a huge number of URLs because of query parameters. In Magento 2, query parameter URLs are indexed by default and this is not good.

For example, if you are on a product-category page and filter by price in the range of 10 to 20 zł, you will be sent to a URL such as https://przyklad.com/kategoria/?price=10-20. You should not want such a URL to be indexed, because it only presents a subset of the products in that category.

Another example is sorted pages. Let’s say you want to see products in a category from the cheapest to the most expensive. You will be sent to a URL such as https://przyklad.com/kategoria/?price=10-20&product_list_order=price&product_list_dir=asc.

Such a page shows the same products, but in a different order. It provides no value from an SEO perspective, so such pages should also not be indexed. The same applies to choosing a larger or smaller number of products displayed on the page. This will also add a query parameter to the URL and lead to the creation of a link such as, for example, https://przyklad.com/kategoria/?product_list_limit=30.

Magento does not have any native settings for managing robots directives for pages such as the ones described. Therefore, you need to do this using dedicated extensions.

In addition to adding noindex robots directives, we recommend preventing search engine robots from accessing URLs with query parameters.

Using an XML sitemap

XML sitemaps are an effective way of telling search engines which pages they need to crawl and index.

Best practices for XML sitemaps are as follows:

• update the XML sitemap so that it matches its content,
• include only pages that are meant to be indexed,
• do not place more than 50 000 URLs in a single XML sitemap,
• make sure that the (uncompressed) sitemap file does not exceed 50MB,
• include a link to the XML sitemap in the robots.txt file.

Magento 2 has an XML sitemap feature. To configure the XML sitemap, log in to your Magento admin panel and go to:

• stores (stores) > configuration (configuration, under settings) > catalog (catalog) > XML sitemap (XML sitemap),
• at the top of the page, select the store view for which you want to change the settings.

Including category, product and CMS pages in the XML sitemap

By default, the options for category, product and CMS pages are configured correctly. Google does not use frequency and priority hints, so there is nothing to change here. By default, images are also included in the XML sitemap.

XML sitemap generation settings

At the top of the page, select Defauld Config for Store View (default configuration for store view) to manage the XML sitemap generation settings. The page will reload and when you scroll a little further down you will see that you can set whether, when and how often mapa strony XML needs to be regenerated in Generation Settings.

By default, the Enabled field is set to NO. Change this to YES, because the XML sitemap should be regenerated automatically.

Setting the start time to 02:00:00 will cause the XML sitemap to be regenerated at 2:00. This is just an example. Change such a value to the quietest time of day in your store, because regenerating the sitemap may temporarily slow down Magento store performance.

Keep the Frequency field value set to Daily to make sure the XML sitemap is regenerated every day. This is also just an example. If your store content changes only once a week, it makes sense to regenerate the XML sitemap once a week.

XML sitemap – limits and robots.txt

Under Sitemap File Limits, you will find the Maximum No of URLs Per File and Maximum File Size fields.

XML sitemap – maximum number of URLs per file

In most Magento stores, the default limit for the maximum number of URLs per file is correct and aligned with SEO best practices.

If indexing issues arise, it may be useful to temporarily split the XML sitemap into more files. This allows you to pinpoint indexing issues more effectively. For example, if you have 200 000 products split across four XML sitemaps and indexing problems appear, checking the report in Google Search Console will not tell you much. Splitting those 200 000 products into, for example, 20 XML sitemaps provides better insight.

Alternatively, you can create separate XML sitemaps for product categories to help pinpoint indexing issues in product categories.

XML sitemap – maximum file size

You can increase the maximum file size to 52428800, as it is equal to 50 MB.

XML sitemap – enable submission to Robots.txt

In the Search Engine Submission Settings, you will find the “Enable Submission to Robots.txt” field, whose default value is set to NO. Switch it to YES, because the robots.txt file should contain a reference to the XML sitemap.

Once everything is set up, it is time to create the XML sitemap and configure its (re)generation settings. To do this, go to Marketing > Site Map and click the orange Add Sitemap button. On the next screen, you will define the name and location of the XML sitemap:

• enter the XML sitemap name in the Filename field, for example sitemap.xml,
• then enter the XML sitemap path in the Path field – for example /pub/,
• then click the “Save & Generate” button.

Robots.txt

The robots.txt file tells bots what rules apply when it comes to accessing URLs on your site. In the case of eCommerce stores – and therefore Magento stores too – it is important to use robots.txt to send search engine bots to the right place and keep them away from invalid URLs.

It is important to pay attention to the following points:

• keeping bots away from potential traps,
• preventing duplicate content from appearing,
• preserving valuable crawl budget.

Search engines claim they recognise traps well, but they first have to fall into one to know they are dealing with a trap.

Your Magento 2 store has many URL patterns that should not be crawled by search engines.

Here are examples of pages that search engine bots should not crawl:

• internal search results pages: /catalogsearch/ and /search/ (catalog search and search). We recommend adding noindex directives for bots (meta tag or HTTP header) to such pages as a second line of defence. The first is the robots.txt file,
• login pages login/customer/account – login, customer, account,
• URLs containing SID and PHPSESSID parameters,
• filter criteria such as price, colour, material and size.

Therefore, the following parameters should be included in the robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /catalogsearch/
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /customer/account/login/
Disallow: /*?SID=
Disallow: /*?PHPSESSID=
Disallow: /*?price=
Disallow: /*&price=
Disallow: /*?color=
Disallow: /*&color=
Disallow: /*?material=
Disallow: /*&material=
Disallow: /*?size=
Disallow: /*&size=

We recommend including both methods by which the criterion is included in URLs. For example, for price these will be both parameters /*?price= and /*&price=.

Editing your robots.txt file in Magento 2

To edit your robots.txt file in Magento 2, go to:

• content > configuration (under “Design”),
• then edit the settings for Main Website, not the default store view, because the latter option does not allow you to change the robots.txt file.

On the next screen, scroll down to Search Engine Robots. You can define the contents of the robots.txt file here

Note that you should not change the Default Robots value, because this is a site-wide value.

Faceted navigation

When we talk about crawling, indexing and filtering, we also need to cover faceted navigation.

Facet navigation refers to how visitors browse your products. For example, product filters are part of facet navigation. We previously recommended adding noindex directives for robots to filtered product pages and blocking them in the robots.txt file. But what should you do if people are looking for a specific subset of products, such as black “Breaking Bad T-shirts”, for example?

In such a case, you should create a subset of your products available to search engines by creating a subcategory. Do this for all product subsets where such an action makes sense.

This way, you can cater to large groups of users by providing what they are looking for while keeping a smart approach to your product categories.

You should not use noindex robot directives together with canonicalisation of such pages, because this sends conflicting signals to search engines.

Use pagination attributes

By default, Magento does not use the “back/next” pagination attributes on paginated pages to explain the relationship between them. Google says it no longer needs this attribute to understand a paginated series of pages, but there are other browsers as well. There is nothing wrong with using this attribute and we recommend adding it, as it takes little time. This can be done with various SEO plugins.

Follow the pagination best practices below:

• apply self-referencing canonical tags to paginated pages,
• do not apply noindex directives for robots on paginated pages,
• do not block paginated pages in the robots.txt file.

HTML sitemap

Using an HTML sitemap helps visitors and search engines discover important pages. In the case of large Magento stores, for example, you can set up HTML sitemaps for the most important categories, subcategories and most popular products.

Unlike Magento 1, Magento 2 does not have a built-in HTML sitemap generation feature. Therefore, you need to create one yourself or use a dedicated plugin.

Site speed

Magento requires certain server resources to run smoothly, so having a solid hosting platform optimised for Magento is important for the store’s performance.

Of course, what matters is not only the hosting platform configuration, but also the Magento platform.

Hosting platform requirements

For best performance, your hosting platform must have the following characteristics:

• be optimised for Magento,
• ready to support Redis and Varnish,
• must run on Nginx,
• be compatible with CDN.

Activating the cache function

To activate the built-in cache function in Magento, you need to do the following:

• go to System > Cache Management,
• tick all checkboxes, select Enable from the dropdown, and then Submit.

Activating full page cache in Magento 2

To activate full page cache, you need to do the following:

• go to Stores (sklepy) > Configuration (konfiguracja pod ustawieniami „Settings”) > Advanced (zaawansowane) > System,
• under “Full Page Cache” (pamięć podręczna całej strony) you will find the cache application field. By default, it is set to Built-in Cache (wbudowana pamięć podręczna). Change this to Varnish Cache (zalecane),
• then an additional settings screen called Varnish Configuration will appear. You should then enter the settings provided by your hosting provider.

Configuring JavaScript settings in Magento 2

Configure your store’s JavaScript settings by going to Stores (sklepy) > Configuration (konfiguracja, pod ustawieniami) > Advanced (zaawansowane) > Developer.

Then expand the JavaScript settings and change the values of Merge JavaScript Files, Enable JavaScript Bundling, Minify JavaScript Files (merge JavaScript files, enable JavaScript bundling, minify JavaScript files) to YES.

This helps speed up page loading for simple Magento setups, but is not very helpful in more complex solutions.

As soon as you introduce custom and third-party JavaScript plugins, simple JavaScript file merging will not work very well, or at all. That is why Magento is working on a module called Baler, which will make it possible to configure advanced JavaScript bundling.

For example, you can create separate bundles for JavaScript required on all pages, category pages, product pages, landing pages, etc. This way, you only load what is actually needed instead of what may, but does not have to, be required.

Configuring CSS settings in Magento 2

The configuration settings for your CSS files are located under the JavaScript settings on the same screen.

Expand the CSS settings and change the values of Merge CSS Files and Minify CSS Files (merge and minify CSS files) and set USE CSS critical path (use CSS critical path) to YES (if your theme supports it).

Configuring image settings in Magento 2

Configure your image settings by going to Stores (sklepy) > Configuration (konfiguracja) > Advanced (zaawansowane) > System.

Then expand the Images Upload Configuration at the bottom and change the values of Maximum Width and Maximum Height (maximum width and height) according to your preferences.

For example, the image dimensions in your template have a maximum width of 600 pixels and a height of 300 pixels. In such a case, you can set these sizes as the maximum width and height. If you support retina screens, you can double the sizes, resulting in a maximum width of 1200 pixels and a maximum height of 600 pixels.

By doing this, you will avoid serving visitors unnecessarily large images.

Configuring image processing

Configure image processing by going to Stores (sklepy) > Configuration (konfiguracja) . Advanced (zaawansowane) > Developer.

Then expand Image Processing Settings and change the Image Adapter value to ImageMagick. It is regarded as the best adapter, delivering the best image quality.

Make sure you have cleared the cache with the image directory so that this change becomes active.

Applying other best practices

Here are other best practices you can apply to speed up your Magento store:

• using a Content Delivery Network (Content Delivery Network – CDN),
• limiting loaded JavaScript libraries,
• optimising images with image compression tools, using the Webp image format, and implementing lazy loading for images below the fold.

Note on managing indexes

Refreshing indexes can be costly on the Magento platform, so do not refresh them after saving every change.

HTTPS

Providing visitors with a secure connection is one of the basic requirements for success and it is fully supported by Magento. Especially for eCommerce stores, using HTTPS is important, because this is about making money and maintaining visitors’ trust.

Activating HTTPS in Magento 2

Configure your image settings by going to Stores (sklepy) > Configuration (konfiguracja) > General (ogólne) > Web (sieć).

Then expand Base URLs (Secure) (podstawowe adresy URL – zabezpieczone) and change the Secure Base URL and Secure Base Link URL values so that they begin with https.

Also change the values of Use Secure URLs on Storefront, Use Secure URLs in Admin, Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) and Upgrade Insecure Requests (użyj zabezpieczonego URL w sklepie, sekcji admina, aktywuj bezpieczne przekazywanie http i aktualizuj niezabezpieczone żądania) to YES.

What should you do after building solid technical foundations?

With solid technical foundations, you increase your chances of success.

The next stage is using these technical foundations to make sure search engines find content relevant to the queries for which you want to optimise your store. Along the way, you will encounter strong competition, so make sure your content is the best. You must make sure people think the same, so acquire backlinks pointing to your content.

So you need to work on the next two pillars of SEO: Relevance, Authority and Trust by:

• keyword research and developing a keyword strategy,
• developing a link acquisition strategy.

Of course, these are not fixed foundations, so you must continually reassess, expand and refine them. SEO is an ongoing process that requires work and attention from you.