Technical SEO for ecommerce: a complete guide

Technical SEO for ecommerce: a foundation for success

Search engine optimization (SEO) for ecommerce isn’t always the most thrilling of topics, but it’s an incredibly important one. Especially where technical SEO is concerned.

Picture this: You have a beautiful site that looks like it checks all the right boxes. It’s got a responsive design and seems on par in the mobile-friendliness category. You even have a newsletter sign-up form on the homepage. (Nice!)

Meanwhile, looming in the background, you’ve got thousands of categories, products, and URLs for each one. Throughout your large library of content there’s an equally vast graveyard of broken links and empty metadata fields. Not to mention, your URL structure is a mess that’s rivaled only by your site structure.

No matter how great your site looks on the surface, poor technical SEO is like a rot in the foundation. It makes it impossible to grow, as any weight will bring the entire place crashing down. And not in the 404 kind of way.

The good news: There are a number of ways you can start addressing common technical SEO hiccups now.

The better news? You can keep reading and learn what technical SEO covers, why it matters, and how to start fixing it ASAP.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO, or off-page SEO, is any backend optimization that takes place on a site’s infrastructure, increasing the chances search engines, bots, and AI can crawl it efficiently.

Unlike on-page SEO, which pertains to things like content and keywords, technical SEO is largely out of sight, concerning code and data and links and other elements that determine if your site is crawlable. (More on that later.)

Technical SEO includes a number of site elements, such as:

• XML sitemaps

• Robots.txt files

• Schema markup

• URL structure

• Site structure

It’s worth pointing out that technical SEO, while largely out of sight, isn’t always out of sight either. All of its elements can result in great or horrible user experience, and others are visible to the user right away.

For example, URL structure can impact how a URL actually appears in the search bar. Site structure is even more obvious, as it pertains to how your navigation is laid out and where customers can find various pages.

Why technical SEO matters for ecommerce

Every website needs to have some element of technical SEO, but it’s especially important for ecommerce on account of all the pages ecommerce sites usually have.

“Why would an ecommerce site have so many pages?” you might ask. 

Products, my dear Watson.

Simply put: The larger your catalog, the greater the surface area for bots to crawl.

On top of all these products, things like faceted search or search filters (both critical to a great ecommerce experience) can result in duplicate URLs that impact your search engine results page (SERP) performance, site speed, organic traffic, and beyond.

For every action there is a reaction, and the same is true for technical SEO. Slow speeds, totally borked links, and so on, will have a ripple effect across your site and your business.

(Fun fact: A slow loading page can result in 53% of people leaving your site, driving your bounce rate way up.)

How search engines crawl, render, and index your store

Customers are your top priority as an ecommerce business, of course. But, there’s another audience you can’t ignore.

Search engines are a giant audience. In fact, 43.8% of all web traffic comes from search. The customer is always right, and it’s their searches that are the top source of web traffic.

So, what are you to do about this? Learn how search engines go about finding your site and indexing everything. Only then, can you destroy your foes. (Or just, you know, optimize your site.)

Crawling.

Crawling is the first step of the search process, during which web crawlers “crawl” the internet for content.

During the crawling process, web crawlers will go through the discovery phase, exploring any and all discoverable links.

Discovery itself depends on a few things:

• Robots.txt: This doc outlines which pages a crawler is allowed to explore.

• XML sitemap: This doc provides the structure of your site to the crawler, listing out discoverable links.

• Internal links: The structure of internal links helps influence if a crawler finds a page.

• Site performance: A fast response and no interruptions helps a crawler navigate your site more efficiently.

If all goes well, a crawler should have no problem discovering what you want it to discover.

Rendering.

When a crawler sets its sights on a site during the discovery phase, it first determines if that site needs to enter the rendering queue. Sites with extensive javascript or those built on resource-intensive code will wind up in the queue before they’re rendered and crawled.

This queue prevents a crawler from trying to run every script on every page all at once, which would be a massive resource sink. To avoid requiring NASA-level computing power, the crawler instead runs through its queue, processing these resource-heavy pages one at a time.

Indexing.

Once the crawler is actually combing through the site, it begins the indexing process.

During indexing, the crawler will go through a page’s metadata, on-page text, any media files, and the HTML as a whole. This allows it to ultimately categorize your page and analyze it.

If there are duplicate pages the crawler will determine which one is ideal, choosing that as the canonical link.

This step is critical, as it’s at this point that your page or URL is judged and hopefully filed away correctly. For pages you don’t want indexed, you can use a noindex tag. 

Crawl budget for large catalogs.

As briefly touched on earlier, web crawlers have a limited budget. If this budget runs out, the crawler leaves for the day or crawling period without checking the rest of your pages.

This crawl budget can be a real hurdle where large catalogs are concerned, as you can easily have thousands upon thousands of URLs as a result of poorly handled faceted search (and even without that, if your catalog is truly massive).

To make sure your large catalog isn’t bankrupting crawlers, there are a few things you can do:

• Rein in faceted searches using canonical tags for all filtered URLs.

• Implement URL parameters within Google Search Console to make sure various facets, like price or size or model, aren’t clogging up crawlers.

• Ensure sitemaps point toward the most valuable SKUs first, deprioritizing lower performing products.

• Check crawling performance in Google Search Console to make sure certain areas aren’t slowing things down.

Don’t let crawl budget stop you from having a massive product catalog, but also, don’t let your massive catalog be the thing that’s killing your site performance. It’s a balancing act, and like any balance, you’ll occasionally fall over. Just make sure you get back up, learn from it, and keep fine tuning things.

Site speed and Core Web Vitals

Where site speed and overall health are concerned, few metrics are held in higher regard than Google’s Core Web Vitals.

Focusing on the Core Web Vitals, and putting a few other best practices into place, can do wonders for your site speed and technical SEO as a result. 

The first stop on your journey toward light speed? The Core Web Vitals.

Measure Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS).

The Core Web Vitals are three metrics that Google uses to gauge how well a site will perform in regards to the user experience.

Knock these Core Web Vitals out of the park, and you’ll be more likely to rank well on Google:

• Largest contentful paint (LCP): How long it takes your site to load the biggest chunk of content, usually the main portion of the page. Ideally, you want this at 2.5 seconds or less.

• Interaction to next paint (INP): How long it takes your site to register any kind of user interaction, like a click or key input. A good INP is 200 milliseconds or less. Worth noting the INP replaced First Input Delay (FID).

• Cumulative layout shift (CLS): A measurement of how much visual elements are shifting around a page as it loads and moves. The CLS is scored on a scale, with a great score being 0.1 or less.

Not only will a focus on the above vitals help you rank well with Google, you’ll also be checking the right boxes to deliver a great user experience right out of the gate.

Use fast, scalable hosting.

A fast, scalable web host is a core part of delivering great page load times.

Make sure your ecommerce site is powered by a host who can deliver the server and computing power needed to support fast page loads during both normal traffic, and when high traffic scalability is required.

Compress and serve images in modern formats.

Don’t resize images through code, resize them natively. Having images that are optimized for web (don’t forget alt text) use keeps file sizes at a minimum and means fewer bytes need to load.

Everyone loves a flashy image. Everyone, that is, except your web servers. Images, if left unchecked, can be larger than the rest of your page’s content combined. This is where image compression comes into play.

Use an image compression tool to resize your image natively, rather than via code. This will save you on storage in the long run, and keep things loading as fast as possible.

You can also implement lazy loading, which keeps images from loading until someone reaches a certain point on a page. This is done via the HTML code of the page itself.

You also want to ensure you’re using a modern image format. AVIF is increasingly common, taking the compression made popular by jpeg files and taking it a step further.

Lastly, consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to help expedite image and media delivery. A CDN will offer hosting via servers in strategic locations around the country, reducing latency for users and improving your overall site speed.

Minify and reduce render-blocking code.

Minify is a process by which you strip away unnecessary or redundant data that serves only to slow down your site.

Even small things like extra spaces in copy or dashes can result in bloat across your site, slowing down the rendering process. Cut it. Axe it. Trim the fat.

Limit third-party scripts.

Scripts and plugins can do all kinds of wonderful things and expand the functionality of your site. But, they can also come with a gnarly hit to your site speed.

Audit your third-party scripts and plugins, keeping only those you absolutely need. Once you’ve got it down to the must-haves, dig deeper and audit them to see if any are having a sizable impact on your site speed. If so, it’s time to debug or hunt for a more efficient option.

Audit and prune redirect chains.

Sometimes a redirect is borderline impossible to avoid. If you’ve got a page with a ton of SEO value but your URLs are changing, then a 301 redirect makes sense. But, a redirect chain is never a good thing.

Redirect chains occur when one URL redirects to another, which redirects to another, and so on. While these can be okay as a temporary fix while you perform major site renovations, you should prune them as fast as possible.

Use one of the many SEO tools available to hunt for redirect chains and either turn the URL into a single redirect via a 301, or just cut it entirely if it has no value.

Mobile optimization and mobile-first indexing

There’s no ignoring the mobile experience. Technically, you could ignore it, but it’d be at your peril — an estimated 70% of all ecommerce purchases occur via mobile.

It’s no surprise then that Google takes a mobile-first indexing approach. This means the mobile version of your site takes top priority when Google is indexing your site. If structured data or content is absent from mobile, it’s basically missing from Google.

Make sure you:

• Use a responsive design for your site, ensuring it works on mobile devices.

• Format on-page buttons so that they’re easy to tap via touchscreen.

• Cut popups that block core functionality or intrude on someone’s mobile viewing experience.

• Make sure search functionality works well on mobile, with facets and categories easy to select.

Lastly, follow Google’s mobile-first indexing best practices and keep up with the latest in any changes they make.

Site architecture and internal linking

Your site architecture and internal linking both play pivotal roles in how your site is crawled, and how customers navigate your site.

In order to make crawlers happy and keep shoppers from aimlessly fumbling about your store, you can do a couple of things.

Keep a flat, shallow structure.

First things first, keep your structure flat and shallow. In human speak, that means keeping your most important pages and URLs only a few clicks from home.

This approach will help crawlers rank these pages appropriately, and make them easier for customers to find. What’s good for the Google is good for the gander. Er, customer.

Use descriptive, keyword-relevant URLs.

Having URLs that actually tell users what’s on a page is better for long-tail strategies, click-through rates, and search engine rankings. Including keywords builds potential customer expectations that they will get the product information they’re looking for, too.

During your keyword research, make sure to flag which terms are prioritized on a page and whether that primary term is in the URL. If it’s not, fix it!

Add breadcrumb navigation.

Breadcrumb navigation — the series of catalog-like links that form your content architecture — should be included on every page.

Breadcrumbs enable site users to easily move backwards in their navigation, keeping them from getting lost whether they’re on the main page or 400-products deep in your catalog.

Build a deliberate internal linking strategy.

Don’t make your navigation do all the heavy lifting.

Having a backlink and internal linking strategy — linking to other pages within the content part of a website — builds trust with search engines and makes it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for on your online store and increase conversion rates.

Take your products and overall ecommerce experience into account when building this strategy. For instance, an article about athletic shoes should include a link to the appropriate category page, or include links to individual athletic shoes you carry, and so on.

Find and fix orphan pages.

Orphan pages are all alone in the world, without a single internal link pointing to them. Unless that page is on track to become Batman, this isn’t ideal.

Audit your site and ensure that every page has at least one internal link that directs both crawlers and customers to it, otherwise it’s simply eating up resources and providing no SEO value.

Canonical tags and duplicate content

Canonical tags are HTML code used to define the primary version of duplicate or near-duplicate pages. If you have product categories available under multiple URLs, a canonical tag will indicate which version should be indexed.

Now, what in tarnation does all of this mean and what should you do about it?

Why ecommerce sites create duplicate URLs.

Duplicate URLs are a common occurrence within ecommerce sites, typically stemming from various types of search or facets and filters.

More specifically, duplicate URLs can come from:

• Product collections: A category URL that encompasses a product line or category, like /shoes/athletic/womens/ can have a duplicate counterpart like /shoes/discount/athletic/womens/.

• Variants: Product variants, like a blue athletic shoe vs. a red one, can generate a URL depending on how the store is set up.

• Faceted search: Running any faceted search, like the shoe example above, can also generate similar URLs that have the same root.

There’s nothing wrong with any of the above, it’s simply a fact of life in the ecommerce world. But, it is something you have to deal with. Wait, what’s that? The solution, below?

How canonical tags consolidate signals.

A canonical tag can be included on any page, pinpointing which URL out of a series of duplicates should be indexed.

Canonicalization brings a number of benefits, beyond pointing crawlers in the right direction:

• Crawler budget is used as efficiently as possible, with low-value duplicates getting ignored.

• Keyword cannibalization, which occurs when you have multiple pages competing for the same term, is avoided with canonical tags.

• Link equity is preserved with canonicals. If multiple sites link to various duplicate pages, your canonical tag directs all that SEO value to a single page.

If you’re tech savvy or have the resources in-house, canonicals are pretty straightforward. There are also numerous tools and apps that can help you streamline the process, so don’t let a lack of tech knowledge stop you.

Handling faceted navigation and URL parameters.

Faceted navigation is a real boon to ecommerce sites, especially when you’ve got a large catalog or complex products with tons of options. While faceted search can create a URL headache, it doesn’t have to.

• Use canonical tags to point low-value filtered urls, like /shoes/athletic/womens/=?size8 to the main category page, /shoes/athletic/womens/.

• Block session IDs, sort order, and other non-content parameters in your robots.txt to prevent crawling, and keep them out of internal linking.

• Choose a URL structure for parameters and stick to it. For example, product type, subcategory, size, and so on.

Consistency is key. Keep up with audits to ensure links and URLs aren’t slipping through the cracks, rinse, and repeat.

XML sitemaps and robots.txt

It’s easy to confuse XML sitemaps and robots.txt, as both have vital roles in telling crawlers what exactly they should do with your site. Understanding each is essential to handling your technical SEO with all the care it deserves, as mixing the two up is like swapping the open sign with a map to your business.

XML sitemaps.

XML sitemaps are a listing of your site’s URLs and show search engines your site’s content and how to reach it.

As a general rule of thumb, there are a few things you should keep in mind when setting up your XML sitemap:

• Only include canonical, indexable URLs. Exclude filtered/faceted pages, out-of-stock or discontinued products, and any pages with noindex tags.

• Split sitemaps by type, like products, categories, blog, and so on, so you can monitor indexing performance separately in Search Console.

• Keep each sitemap under 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed, using a sitemap index file to link multiple sitemaps if needed.

• Submit the sitemap URL in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and reference it in your robots.txt file.

Remember: Your XML sitemap is like a map, telling crawlers what’s what and where what is. (Brilliant.)

Robots.txt and crawl directives.

The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages it can crawl, much like an open sign tells someone if they can come into your establishment. This helps avoid overloading a site and keeps it running smoothly.

When setting up your robots.txt and crawl directives, put the following best practices into place:

• Never block CSS/JS files needed for rendering. Blocking these can prevent crawlers from properly rendering and evaluating your pages.

• Include your sitemap URL directly in robots.txt so crawlers can find it immediately.

• Use specific disallow rules in place of broad ones, reducing the chances you accidentally prevent a high-value page from getting crawled.

• Block AI training crawlers in your robots.txt, including those like ClaudeBot, CCBot, and GPTBot.

Setting up your robots.txt can be intimidating at first. Much like other tasks throughout this article, if you lack the in-house resources, don’t be afraid to leverage tools to help.

Managing AI and retrieval crawlers.

Getting your pages to show up in AI tools, like ChatGPT or Perplexity, is huge in this day and age. But, you also want to manage AI training bots and retrieval crawlers properly, as these can hurt server performance (while gobbling up your homework).

Manage AI and retrieval crawlers by:

• Blocking the aforementioned AI training crawlers from accessing your root directory.

• Enabling user-driven AI retrieval from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and so on.

• Setting crawling caps on high-value or high-demand pages, preventing AI bots from rifling through them too often.

Things on the AI front are rapidly evolving, so don’t panic if you don’t feel you have a full grasp on things. Take your time, keep an eye on your Search Console performance, and don’t hesitate to bring in additional support (if you have the resources, of course).

Structured data and schema markup

Structured data and schema markup are both forms of data you can add to your site to help search engines better understand your site’s content. On top of this, structured data and even power Rich Results on Google, making it possible for pricing, reviews, and more to surface in the SERPs.

To make this happen, there are a number of data types to focus on.

Product schema.

Product schema describes a category of code that helps a search engine understand a product. When product schema is done properly, Rich Results are possible on Google, which is huge in the ecommerce space.

Make sure your product schema is complete and up-to-date with:

• Name: The product name.

• SKU/GTIN: Unique SKU or GTIN for said product.

• Stock: Whether the product is available or not.

• Offer: Schema that includes price, currency, availability, and more.

• Currency: Which currency the price is listed in.

• Image: An image of the product, including URL.

It bears repeating: The above is essential if you want rich snippets on Google. And, those are well worth the effort: pages with Rich Results can have an 82% better click-through-rate than their not-so-rich counterparts.

Review and AggregateRating schema.

Review and AggregateRating schema include a number of review-related data, making it possible for Rich Results to display your product ratings. This can boost click-through rate and help sell customers on your products before they even land on your site.

Review and AggregateRating schema go inside the code of each individual product page, with the following properties and more pertaining to that product:

• itemReviewed: The product reviewed.

• ratingValue: The average rating (numerical) of the product.

• reviewCount/ratingCount: How many reviews there are for the product.

• bestRating: Assigns a numerical value to the best possible rating, usually a 5.

• worstRating: Assigns a numerical value to the worst possible rating, usually a 1.

There are additional review schema you can add, many of which aren’t required but can help create a more enticing, rich result. Be sure to read up on Google’s full breakdown to explore which attributes you should include.

FAQ and BreadcrumbList schema.

Both breadcrumb and FAQ schema play a role in helping crawlers interpret how your site is laid out, context for each piece of content, and general site hierarchy.

FAQPage schema, as the name implies, is used for FAQ pages. 

This type of schema used to be used by Google for displaying expandable FAQ replies in search results, but no longer does. Despite this, it’s still a good idea to include, as it helps crawlers understand FAQ pages better, and it can improve the chances these pages are surfaced in AI overviews.

FAQPage schema is formatted as “@type: FAQPage,” with the following nested below for each response:

• @type: Question

• name: Question copy (“How do you get milk stains out of a fabric car seat?”)

• acceptedAnswer:

  • @type: Answer

  • text: “Your best bet is to set the entire car on fire, as there’s no coming back from a milk spill.”

In essence, the FAQPage schema format follows the flow of the FAQ itself. You establish that the type of data is a question, you list out the question copy, you establish the answer, and you input the answer itself.

BreadcrumbList schema is similar to FAQ schema, only it can apply to any page. With breadcrumb schema, the general idea is that you’re guiding the crawler through a series of pages and helping it understand where each one falls within a hierarchy. Think of your dropdown menu and which items are nested inside which, and so on.

BreadcrumbList schema is laid out as follows:

• @type: BreadcrumbList

  • ListItem

    • Position (Numerical)

    • Name

    • Item (URL for item)

Notice how BreadcrumbList follows a hierarchy itself, with the overarching list containing individual items, each one assigned a position, name label, and lastly the URL that corresponds with the page.

Validate with the Rich Results Test.

Once you’ve implemented any necessary Rich Results schema, it’s a good idea to see if it works. Google was kind enough to make a Rich Results Test, which you can try here.

Simply paste in your URL and see if the page passes or not. If it doesn’t, read the output from Google, return to your code, and start troubleshooting.

HTTPS and site security

There was a period where you’d often see “http” before sites, and then increasingly, “https.” The former is outdated and the latter is more secure, running a secure sockets layer (SSL).

SSL is a form of encryption, which keeps you and your visitors safe, and gives you a little boost in ranking potential, thanks to a decree from Google in 2014. Today, “https” is the standard, so make sure your site is protected and sporting an SSL certificate.

Most hosts and platforms, like BigCommerce, include SSL by default. To be sure, you can check if your URL has “https” before it, rather than “http.”

Technical SEO tools for ecommerce

Technical SEO is a big undertaking that’s riddled in equally technical hurdles. But, there are many powerful, trustworthy technical SEO tools for ecommerce that can make even the most technical of hurdles easier to clear.

The final word

There’s no denying it: technical SEO for ecommerce is A LOT. Don’t panic, but also, don’t neglect it. Instead:

1. Run a crawl with Google Search Console or a tool like Screaming Frog.

2. Check your Core Web Vitals and see how things are performing.

3. Audit canonicals and make sure faceted searches or filtered URLs aren’t causing a mess.

Once you’ve done the above, tackle everything else. The above is possible in a day, maybe two if you’re prone to getting distracted by “stuff.” And, the above alone can make a big difference.

The right ecommerce platform also makes a big difference. With a platform like BigCommerce, you can rest easy knowing your site is secure, templates are optimized (for mobile and general consumption), and integrations are seamless and less likely to clog things up.

See for yourself how BigCommerce is built to get you up to speed quickly, and keep things moving.

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