New Features of Magento 2 Improving SEO for E-Commerce
Magento 2 improves the productivity of an E-Commerce site. It adds four times growth to product-import capabilities. The drag-and-drop layout editing reduces the need for deep coding knowledge.
Default Settings of Magento 2 and Its Impact on SEO for E-Commerce Sites
The executives of Magento have perfected the limitations of Magento 1.X with Magento 2. The salient features of Magento-2 are different from its previous version. The latest inclusions offer efficiency to the SEO experts. This version delivers more flexibility and stability to the E-Commerce platforms. The developers of Magento framework have used the omissions of Magento-1. X to detect its disadvantages. They have transformed these disadvantages into advantages through in-depth assessment of troublesome or omitted features. The latest version packs some useful tools for the improvement of on-page and off-page optimization.
Meta Tags & Products
The makers of Magento framework have understood the importance of Meta elements for products. These elements include description, title and keywords. The SEO experts need these elements to achieve credible ranking and to be attractive on a search engine result page. These elements are imperative and indispensable for the owners of every E-Commerce site.
It is hard for the SEO experts to create meta-elements for thousands of items for an E-Commerce site. The incredible inbuilt features of Magento 2 are capable of efficiently handling this problem. The ‘Product Fields Auto-Generation’ feature of Magento-2 offer templates for maximum number of meta-data. An individual can access this feature after choosing the ‘Catalog’ within ‘Configuration’.
This essential tool is a time-saving modification; although, it has a few limitations. It is not possible to change the settings of these ‘auto-generated fields’ to suit the needs of specific products or categories. The ‘non-retrospective adjustment’ makes the fields applicable for new products. It is not possible to apply this field on existing items. The ‘Product Auto-Generated Fields’ is imperative for multi-product based pages despite the minor limitations.
Meta Tags & Home Page
The Magento 2 follows the footsteps of Magento 1 and has placed the default main-page title as ‘Home Page’. This feature remains same as the previous version. It is necessary to modify the ‘Page Information’ tag within ‘Home Page’ when someone switches to the latest version. It is also possible to change ‘meta-description’ and ‘meta-keywords’ on ‘meta-data’ tab.
URL Editing
It was possible to edit URLs in Magento1 and Magento 2 has modified and enhanced this useful feature. Now, you can create SEO-friendly URLs with Magento 2. A subtle change in the editing process has brought forth this change. The SEO expert needs to access ‘Basic Settings’ within ‘Product’ to access the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ before URL-editing.
SEO-Friendly URLs for Categories
It is possible to use Magento 2 to set meta-data for categories on a store-view level. The users can access the ‘HTML Head’ through ‘Design’ option within the ‘General’ category of ‘Configuration’. It is possible to overwrite the meta-data on a category level using ‘General Information’. The users can access this option through ‘Categories’ within ‘Products’.
Image Optimization
The image-optimization is critical for any website because it significantly increases the website’s speed. The increment of website’s speed influences its rank on Search Engine Results Page. The Image Module of Magento 2 has added some useful extensions. These extensions offer assistance during image optimization. The larger images are known to hinder the performances of online stores. It sometimes becomes essential to compress the image due to this reason.
The users can compress the images without any distortion using the extensions from Magento-2. The ‘Image Processing Settings’ are accessible through ‘Developer’ button within the ‘Advanced’ option. The users need to utilize these settings to change the PHP GD2 to Extension Package. The users can access ‘Cache Management’ and ‘Flush Catalog Images Cache’ after this change.
The Magento-2 users can utilize the ‘Alt Text’ option within ‘Images and Videos’ to add HTML attributes for images. It is also possible to change the sign of ‘Magento Commerce’ using the ‘Logo Image Alt’ option. The users can type any preferable names during this change.
Title Tags Modifications
The programming of Magento-2 allows its users to add important information to the ‘Title Tags’. The SEO Experts may add a business name to the Title Tag upon requests of their clients. The ‘Title Prefix’ and ‘Title Suffix’ options are located below the field specified for ‘Default Title’. The prefixed information appears at the beginning of the tag on all pages. The suffixed information appears at the end of the tags on every page of a website. This feature is available within the ‘HTML Head’ of ‘Design’ section located within the ‘Store’ category.
Maintaining Content’s Uniqueness
The developers of Magento 2 have incorporated some latest solutions and tools to its framework. It is possible to use these tools to install separate canonical tags for products and categories. The separation of field happens within the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ option. The users can select either the ‘Products field’ or the ‘Categories field’ within the ‘Catalog’ option.
The same facility was available in Magento 1.X with the exclusion of an important feature. The Magento-2 can install separate canonical tags for ‘Sorted’ and ‘Filtered’ pages. This useful feature was not available in Magento 1.X. Users cannot utilize ‘Canonical’ tags in conjunction with the ‘Index’ tags and it is essential to remember this point.
Hidden/Visible Category Path
It is possible to control the visibility of Category Path in product URLs with the use of Magento-2. This feature is available through ‘Search Engine Optimization’ option within ‘Catalog’. This feature allows users to efficiently manage ‘web indexing’. It also prevents the addition of ‘Category Path’ to the ‘Product URLs’. The omission of ‘Category Path’ eliminates the possibility of any duplication. It is also possible to enable ‘Canonical Tags’ using Magento-2 during the addition of ‘Category Path’ to ‘Product Address’. The presence of canonicals prevents duplication. Each ‘Product Page’ will obtain a ‘Canonical Pointing’ without ‘Category Indication’ due to this feature. The product-URLs also receive separate ‘Category Paths’.
Indexing Features
The Web Indexing feature of Magento 2 transforms vital data to improve the storefront’s performance. The e-commerce businesses maintain large catalogues. The continuous indexing of these catalogues negatively impacts these businesses. The Magento-2 has tried to solve this problem with partial or incremental indexing features. It is possible to use these indexing options in community and enterprise editions with equal efficiency.
The Meta Robots, Robots.TXT, XML Sitemap and HTML Sitemap have undergone changes due to Web Indexing.
Meta Robots
The ‘default meta robots’ are set to ‘Index, Follow’ position in Magento 2. This type of configuration helps Google in indexing various sites. It is impossible to customize this feature for a specific page. This is the only limitation of Meta Robots available through Magento-2.
Robots.txt
The Magento-2 enables its users to edit the robots.txt files from this framework’s Admin panel. It is possible to access ‘robots.txt’ files from ‘Search Engine Robots’ present within the ‘Design’ option. It was harder for users to access robots.txt files due to its improper implementation on e-commerce stores. The Magento 2 has improved the accessibility to robots.txt files. It is necessary to be careful about some facts during the implementation of robots.txt.
It is not optimal to use robots.txt to block the layered pages from receiving indexing on search engines. It is advisable to use ‘meta no index tag’ during the blocking of layered navigation pages. It is also necessary to block ‘site search results’ before the execution of robots.txt. The search engines can index ‘thin contents’ resulting from site-search in the absence of this block. It is essential to invalidate ‘catalog search results’ during the implementation of robots.txt.
HTML Sitemap
The additional extensions or customization is needed to avail the ‘HTML sitemap’ through Magento 2. This useful feature is unavailable through the general setup. The users may need this sitemap to provide a lucid and detailed structure to the website. The presence of ‘HTML sitemap’ increases the visibility of any website. The web-crawlers can read this sitemap. It is essential to include HTML sitemap within the website’s structure due to this reason. The ‘HTML Sitemap’ also increases the accessibility of hundreds of product pages.
XML Sitemap
The ‘XML sitemap’ has received updated features in Magento 2. It is possible to access this sitemap through ‘Catalog’ option within ‘Configuration’. The improved version of XML sitemap allows the automatic addition of all images. You can submit the URL for XML sitemap to robots.txt. Users are not allowed to choose products’ type during the addition of XML sitemap. The Microsoft Word files or PDFs need manual addition with this sitemap. It is not possible to include/exclude necessary pages. These features may seem limiting. They do not devalue the usefulness of XML sitemap in Magento-2 in any way.
The ‘XML sitemap’ increases the visibility of E-Commerce sites and helps owners easily reach their potential customers. The innovative features of XML sitemap can attract the search engine crawlers. The crawlers can easily separate the comprehensible URLs from incomprehensible URLs. The websites with coherent URLs receive adequate focus and optimization.
Additional Useful Features
URLs Suffixes
The Magento-2 enables its users to add suffixes with its website pages. The users may add suffixes through ‘Search Engine Optimization’ option present within the ‘Catalog’. It is possible for categories and products to receive separate suffixes through Magento 2. This feature may cause some complications alongside the benefits. The users placing non-identical URLs may witness ‘404 Error’. It is necessary to be careful about the use of different suffixes.
Microdata
The invention of Microdata is an innovative step of Magento 2. The Microdata is added to product pages automatically. The inclusion of Microdata let websites receive rich snippets in Google’s search engine results pages. The basic Microdata structure let users add only product snippets. It is impossible to add organization, breadcrumbs or search-box mark-ups through Microdata. These features require manual addition with the use of necessary extensions.
Google Analytics
The Magento 2 offers the inclusion of Google Analytics tracking code to the E-Commerce store. The online merchants can add Tracking ID after enabling Google Analytics through ‘Google API’ button within ‘Stores’. The users can collect the ‘Tracking Info’ through GA Account. It is also possible to permit ‘content experiments’ through addition of Google analytics. The feature allows users to include Google Analytics Experiment code to the product-page. It is necessary to create a duplicate product-page during this addition.
Google AdWords
Google Adwords is utilized to place advertisements in Google’s Search results. Magento 2 has made it easier for the online merchants to implement Google AdWords. The fields necessary for the configuration of AdWords settings are available in ‘Store View scope’. It is possible to implement disparate conversion tracking settings for every store-view URL.
Overview
The distinctive features and improve settings of Magento 2 have turned it into a better platform for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The inclusion of meta-tags for categories and products is a useful updating. The image optimization feature and inclusion of canonical tags offer unique benefits to the online merchants. The E-Commerce sites may utilize the ‘prefixes and suffixes’ to include important information to the ‘title tags’ present on every page. It is possible for the users to easily access the robots.txt for editing due to its correct implementation.
The improved settings of XML Sitemap also offer praiseworthy features to its users. The sitemap is an important factor within the SEO strategy of e-commerce sites. The search engines need sitemap’s assistance to find any website. The website’s rank depends upon the presence or absence of any sitemap. It is essential to correctly configure the XML sitemap due to this reason. The improved XML sitemap let users choose the preferred frequency for any sitemap. It is also possible to use the upgraded XML sitemap to control the number of links and size of the file. The improved features of Magento 2 allow users to submit the sitemap directly onto the robots.txt. The enhanced features of Magento 2 have improved the core-speed of e-commerce sites. Every online merchant can benefit through the upgraded or latest features.
Conclusion
The Magento 2 has turned the average running speed of an e-commerce site 20% faster than its previous version. The enhancement of speed not only encourages sales growth. It also provides better search engine optimization. Magento 2 also delivers ‘full-page caching’ and thus the E-Commerce pages load faster. The enhanced features of Magento 2 also prevent the websites with multiple catalogues from slowing down. It offers improved scalability to large stores and quicker growth to online merchants. It is possible to upgrade the Magento 2 with latest features due to its quicker updating speed.
Magento 2 offers streamlined, user-friendly and one-step checkout process to the customers. The streamlined checkout process requires fewer customer information and steps for completion. The customers can effortlessly complete the transaction due to this reason. The one-step check-out process increases the sales-rate of any E-Commerce site. The improved features of Magento-2 let the guests of any e-commerce site create account in one click. These effortless steps encourage customers to revisit websites with Magento-2 features. The online stores with Magento-2 automatically receive an intuitive checkout process.
Magento 2 offers improved functionality to online stores with the inclusion of popular extensions. It includes two recognized payment gateways such as Braintree and PayPal. These payment gateways draw more customers towards the businesses using Magento-2 framework. It has recently included the CyberSource and Worldpay payment services. The secure payment options increase the reliability of E-Commerce sites using Magento-2 framework.
It has become effortless to manage an online store with the improved admin interface of Magento-2. It is easy to learn the user-friendly, lucid and coherent features of Magento-2. The users can easily customize the admin panel as per their requirements and quickly access vital business information. The customized setup brings efficiency into the management of customer-data, orders and products. Hence, Magento 2 improves the productivity of E-Commerce site. It adds four times growth to product-import capabilities. The inclusion of drag-and-drop layout editing reduces the need for deep coding knowledge. It is possible to easily modify the appearance of any online store with this feature. Need any assistance with your Magento eCommerce store? Get in touch with our Magento experts today!
