BigCommerce SEO Guide 2024 Only for You

Whether you’re an eCommerce SEO expert or marketing head, you may be struggling to grow your retail business in this competitive world.

Do you know that BigCommerce can be a digital platform to achieve your target if you deploy the proper SEO strategies?

The platform offers you many features and benefits, helping you find the real audience and achieve overall growth.

Its built-in SEO tools, secure payment management, customizable storefronts, etc., set BigCommerce apart in the industry.

The benefits that BigCommerce offers are:

• Scalability
• Seamless Integration
• Mobile-friendliness
• Reliability and Security
• Advanced Marketing Tools
• Customizable themes and designs
• Built-in marketing tools include SEO optimization, social media integration, and email marketing.
• Security features like SSL certification, PCI compliance, and fraud protection

Here is an SEO Guide for BigCommerce websites you should know in 2024.

1-Do proper keyword research

According to Google, “Over 90% of searches that it analyzes daily end up with a click on the first set of results.”

• To find the keyword, you need to identify and know the nature of your customer.
• Make sure what they are looking for in terms of keywords.
• Focus on long tail and well-optimized keywords to capture niche markets.
• Analyze SERP to determine the content that ranks at the top.

Keyword mapping: Optimize each page’s title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and content.

Use BigCommerce Analytics: This can help you choose the best keywords for your specific product. This also allows you to know about customer behavior, popular search terms, and top-performing products.

For better results while searching keywords, use the tools below:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Moz Keyword Explorer
• KeywordTool.io
• Ahrefs

Use tools like Moz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool or Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty Checker to assess keyword difficulty. Focus on keywords with a manageable level of competition.

Analyze SERPs for your target keywords to understand the content that ranks well and create higher-quality content that can outrank competitors.

Semantic Keyword Research– This includes identifying and targeting related terms and phrases. Use it to understand better and meet user intent in search queries.

Tools like LSIGraph or Google’s related searches feature can help you discover these terms and improve the semantic relevance of your content.

2- Focus on On-page SEO

Focusing on on-page SEO” involves optimizing various elements within your website’s pages to improve their visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Let us explore the elements one by one.

Use Clean URLs

A study by Mox stated that organic traffic is increased by 50% for an e-commerce store by optimizing product URLs with relevant keywords.

Your URLs should accurately reflect the content and purpose of the webpage they point to.

For example, instead of a generic URL like “www.example.com/product123,” a clean URL would be “www.example.com/womens-shoes.”

Moreover, when you use clear and concise URLs, it is easier for search engine crawlers to understand the context of a page. This can positively impact search engine rankings.

To use clean URLs on BigCommerce:

• Use clear words for product and category URLs.
• Avoid special characters and excess numbers.
• Set up consistent URL formats in the BigCommerce admin panel.

Add Alt text and file names for images

Alt text:

Alt text is a textual description added to an image in a document or webpage to allow customers to understand the content and context of the image as well as help search engines understand what the image is about.

According to a Search Engine Land study, websites including pertinent alt text experienced a 10% increase in click-through rates from picture searches.

To add alt text in BigCommerce:

• Navigate to your BigCommerce dashboard.
• Go to the product or page where you want to add alt text for an image.
• Locate the image you want to add alt text to.
• Click on the image and select “Edit Image.
• In the image settings, look for the option to add alt text. It might be labeled as “Alt Text” or “Alternative Text.”
• Enter a descriptive and relevant description of the image content. Save your changes.

File Names: 

Search engine engines use file names to understand webpage content. Using relevant keywords in image file names can help improve the visibility of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs).

• Create meaningful file names when naming your image files.
• Incorporate descriptive keywords that can reflect the image’s content and your website’s context.

For example, if the image is of blue attire, name the file “blue-attire.jpg” instead of something generic like “image123.jpg.”.

Upload the renamed image to BigCommerce.

Follow the same instructions when adding the image to your product or page.

Save your changes.

Changing File Names in BigCommerce

Before uploading your files to the site, ensure that the file has the correct names.

Also, ensure that they contain your main keywords.

For better results, use a hyphen to divide several keywords.

In actuality, file names help search engines like Google decipher the text of images, which helps with SEO tactics.

Add meta descriptions

SEMRush states over 8 million search results and concluded that meta descriptions moderately impact rankings.

Having an intriguing and pertinent meta description can drive more people to your website and increase a page’s click-through rate (CTR).

Moreover, search engines use meta descriptions as part of their ranking algorithms, so optimize them using seed keywords and information. This can potentially improve your page’s visibility in SERPs.

To add a meta description, follow the steps below-

• Login to your panel in BigCommerce and click on the store control panel
• Select the product to manage your listing
• Select the image, go to its title part, and add the meta title there.

Optimize headings and page titles.

Incorporate relevant keywords into headings and titles to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.

Moreover, when you make page titles or product pages and category pages, BigCommerce automatically generates heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) based on the product or category name. This makes your workload easy and hassle-free.

Also, make sure to optimize headings further, ensure that product titles and category names are descriptive, and include relevant keywords.

Optimize headings

Well-optimized headings make it easier for visitors to understand the content and hierarchy of your web pages. Also, the clear headings improve readability and guide users through your website’s content more effectively.

By incorporating relevant keywords into headings, you can improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.

Follow the points below to optimize headings.

• Use the built-in text editor to customize the formatting of headings within the product description or additional product information sections.
• If you want to add additional headings or customize the formatting, usethe built-in text editor within the category description section.
• To optimize the headings on your homepage, navigate to “Storefront” > “Store Design” > “Homepage” in your BigCommerce dashboard.
• Here, you can customize the formatting of headings and add additional text using the built-in text editor.

Optimize page titles

Searchmetrics reported that 89% of SEO experts believe title tags directly influence search engine rankings.

Make sure to create clear and descriptive page titles that help users understand what a page is about before clicking on it in search results.

As a result, this can lead to higher click-through rates and better user engagement.

BigCommerce automatically generates page titles for product pages based on the product name.

So, you just basically need to add relevant keywords to the titles.

Use rich snippets

Using rich snippets on the BigCommerce platform involves adding structured data markup to your website’s pages. This can provide search engines with more detailed information about your products, reviews, events, and other content.

To implement rich snippets on your BigCommerce platform, you have two main options:

1. Manual Implementation:

• Choose desired rich snippets (like products, reviews) relevant to your store.
• Generate Schema markup code using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
• Insert code into theme files following BigCommerce’s guidelines.
• Test with Google’s Rich Results Test tool for errors before publishing.

2. App Integration:

Use BigCommerce apps like SEO Rich Snippets or Structured Data for SEO by TagRocket.

These apps automate rich snippet generation but may offer fewer customization options.

Additional Tips:

• Ensure data quality for accurate, rich snippets.
• Include relevant keywords.
• Monitor performance and make adjustments.
• Remember, both methods require commitment, but they offer significant SEO benefits. Choose the one that fits your technical skills and resources.

3. Improve your site speed

According to BigCommerce Blog, a mobile-friendly website can increase conversion rates by 48%.

Faster-loading websites provide a better overall user experience, leading to higher visitor satisfaction and engagement.

To speed up your site, implement a CDN to distribute website content across multiple servers worldwide, reducing latency and speeding up content delivery to users.

Also, optimize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code to improve rendering and execution times. Remove unused code, reduce dependencies, and prioritize critical rendering paths.

4. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console

Having a sitemap makes it more likely that Google will locate and browse every page of your website. To ensure that your BigCommerce site is accurately and rapidly indexed, you must upload an XML sitemap to Google Search Console after registering your site with them.

Follow these steps to submit your sitemap to the Google Search Console

• BigCommerce automatically generates a sitemap for your website, making it easy to submit to Google Search Console.
• To access your sitemap in BigCommerce, log in to your BigCommerce dashboard and navigate to “Storefront” > “SEO” > “Sitemap & Robots.txt.”
• You’ll find the URL of your sitemap listed under “Sitemap.”

5. Secure your site

The most crucial step in keeping your website secure is to replace non-secure “http://” with SSL and “https://,” especially when thinking about cloud service provider security.

You can choose any of the options listed below for securing your site:

• The blanketed ‘Encryption Everywhere’ internet site protection product comes standard with all BigCommerce plans.
• Opt for an enhanced certificate that is available for purchase directly from BigCommerce.
• Alternatively, install your own SSL certificate obtained from a third-party provider to secure your website.

6. Measure your BigCommerce SEO effectiveness

You might be curious about the results of your BigCommerce SEO and how to gauge your progress.

There are two well-liked ways to monitor your rankings:

• Utilize Ahrefs or Keyword.com, or
• Set up an SEO dashboard for your Analytics account.

Use Ahrefs to track search rankings

To use Ahrefs to track search ranking, try this-

• Set Up Project: Create a new project in Ahrefs to track search rankings for your BigCommerce store.
• Connect Google Analytics: Use this for additional insights and correlation analysis between search rankings and website traffic.
• Track Local Rankings: Configure Ahrefs to monitor local search rankings for specific geographic locations if your store targets local customers, aiding in local SEO performance monitoring.
• Monitor Mobile Rankings: For users’ mobile devices, recognize the significance of mobile search and ensure comprehensive performance monitoring across platforms.

Use Google Analytics to measure organic traffic and engagement metrics

• Access Google Analytics: Log in to your Google Analytics account and navigate to the reporting section.
• Select Organic Traffic: In the “Acquisition” section, click on “All Traffic” and then “Channels.” Select “Organic Search” to view data specifically related to organic traffic.
• Review Traffic Metrics: Analyze key metrics such as sessions, users, pageviews, and bounce rate to assess the volume and behavior of organic traffic.

Preview these and save the changes.

Conclusion

Optimizing your BigCommerce website for search engine optimization is pivotal for attaining success in the competitive e-commerce panorama.  The “BigCommerce SEO Guide 2024” offers vital insights for thriving in today’s e-commerce environment. Leverage advanced SEO techniques like keyword research, securing sites, voice search optimization, and structured data markup to boost visibility and drive organic traffic.