Unlock Explosive Growth: BigCommerce SEO Hacks Every Store Owner Needs

Among the many types of ecommerce platforms available today, BigCommerce is a standout thanks to its many features and capabilities. One particular area where this program shines is search engine optimization (SEO). While most online store owners can apply basic SEO practices to help increase their site’s visibility, BigCommerce has advanced tools that you can apply to truly bolster your web presence.

Let's dive into SEO for BigCommerce and provide insights on how to use the platform’s features to their full extent. Keep reading to learn more.

BigCommerce Search Engine Optimization: A Platform Made for Visibility

Before everything else, we want to explore how BigCommerce is designed for SEO. At the most basic level, BigCommerce allows you to post content rich with SEO keywords. The site’s structure also makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website. These capabilities are easy enough to understand, but there are more specific features that most store owners don’t know how to leverage. Here are the best features that you can incorporate into your SEO strategy.

Customizable URLs

BigCommerce, by default, auto-populates SEO-friendly URLs for your pages. These include product pages, category pages, and even FAQs. However, some of these URLs may be too long or wordy. Some don’t have the right words to ensure visibility. Thankfully, you can customize your URLs through BigCommerce’s URL Structure Settings. Being able to use personalized URLs gives you more control over what keywords to include, among other advantages. 

Tips To Optimize This Feature:

• Use the Right Keywords: Incorporate the relevant keywords to help improve your search engine results page (SERP) rankings. 

• Short URLs Are Ideal: Avoid unnecessary words. A good URL should be simple, short, and descriptive. 

• Don’t Use Special Characters: Stick to letters, numbers, and hyphens to avoid issues with search engines.

Meta Titles and Descriptions

These HTML tags provide short descriptions of your pages. Most website pages don’t bother having either because they don’t know how to incorporate these tags. However, BigCommerce has features that allow you to add meta titles and descriptions manually. These texts will show up on SERPs and give visitors an indication of what your page is about. Having an informative yet succinct meta title and description can improve your click-through rates and increase engagement. 

Tips To Optimize This Feature:

• Use Relevant Keywords: Like in URLs, meta texts need the right keyword phrases. Given the shorter character count, you don’t have to use long-tail keywords. Primary keywords are often good enough. 

• Make Your Descriptions Compelling: Your meta descriptions should grab attention and entice customers to click the link. Aside from keywords, try to incorporate call-to-action phrases and other actionable text.

• Stay Within the Character Count Limits: BigCommerce recommends using meta titles under 60 characters. For meta descriptions, we encourage you to limit your copy to 140 to 160 characters. These limits are how you can ensure that the entirety of the copy is readable on SERPs and not cut off in awkward places.

Rich Snippets

Search engines like Google normally show meta titles, descriptions, and a few other critical details on SERPs. With platforms like BigCommerce, you can incorporate more data and information, which are called “rich snippets.” These snippets can be anything from product prices to star ratings. Having rich snippets adds value to search engine users and makes them more inclined to engage with your website. 

BigCommerce has integrations that allow you to add rich snippets, like the SEO Rich Snippets app. These programs create Google-compliant, JSON-LD structured data on your BigCommerce pages with information taken from your store and products. 

Tips To Optimize This Feature:

• Use Schema.org Markup: If you don’t want to use BigCommerce integrations, you can implement structured data markup and add the code to the page source code.

• Focus on Ratings: Some industries benefit more from using a specific type of rich snippet. In ecommerce, product ratings are one of the best at improving your click-through rates.

Mobile Optimization

More than half of online shopping happens on mobile devices, particularly smartphones. To capitalize on this trend, you must have BigCommerce pages optimized for mobile use. Thankfully, BigCommerce had the foresight to include themes purposefully made for mobile users — modules, graphics, and other elements that are responsive and easy to use on small screens. Having such features not only helps with mobile SEO but also improves mobile user experience overall. 

Tips To Optimize This Feature:

• Optimize Load Times: Don’t use images with large file sizes. Compress them and use browser caching to shorten website load times. 

• Make Navigation Easier: Intuitive and simple navigation is the key, especially since mobile users use taps instead of the traditional method of clicking with a mouse. 

• Test Your Site: If you want to check how your store performs on mobile devices, try Google Lighthouse and other similar testing programs.

301 Redirects and URL Rewrites

It’s not uncommon for store owners to rename products or move them to a new page. However, such a change could affect SEO and user experience when not executed properly. Thankfully, BigCommerce has integrated capabilities that allow it to automatically populate a URL if the product name changes. The 301 redirect functionality also redirects visitors from an old URL to a new one, giving potential customers a seamless experience.

Tips To Optimize This Feature:

• Activating 301 Redirect: BigCommerce helps you manage your 301 redirects at the Server Settings page, allowing you to manage multiple storefronts. There are dynamic and manual options, depending on your preferences. 

• Bulk Redirects: You will need to create a CSV file for bulk redirects with details about the old URLs and the new ones. 

Wrapping Up: Maximizing the Capabilities of BigCommerce SEO

BigCommerce offers solutions for more than just your basic SEO needs. It has a robust suite of features that can help drive traffic to your store, increasing your engagements and conversions. By using the tools we outlined above, you can further improve your store’s SEO and reach the first page of SERPs.

For more information about these features and other SEO tips, contact us at Kreidman today!