Search engines rely on more than just content and keywords to rank ecommerce websites. Technical SEO focuses on the structure and performance of a site behind the scenes, ensuring that search engines can access and understand every page.

For ecommerce platforms, technical SEO plays a specific role. Online stores often deal with large product catalogs, complex filtering systems, and frequent content changes. These factors increase the risk of crawl errors, duplicate content, and slow performance.

This article outlines the technical SEO best practices for ecommerce platforms. It focuses on how site architecture, speed, security, and structured data influence visibility in search results.

Understanding Technical SEO For Ecommerce

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website's infrastructure to help search engines crawl, index, and understand its content. In ecommerce, this means making sure product pages, category pages, and navigation elements are accessible to search engines.

Ecommerce websites often contain thousands of URLs, filtering options, and content that changes due to stock updates or seasonal products. These conditions create more opportunities for crawl errors and performance problems compared to standard websites.

Technical SEO directly affects ecommerce metrics like visibility, traffic, and conversion rate. Research by Portent shows that a one-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by up to 20%. Google also uses page experience signals as ranking factors.

The main technical SEO elements for ecommerce include:

  • Crawlability: Making sure search engines can access all your important pages
  • Site speed: Optimizing load times for better user experience and rankings
  • Mobile design: Creating responsive pages that work well on all devices
  • Structured data: Adding special code that helps search engines understand products
  • Security: Implementing HTTPS and other trust signals

Ensuring Crawlability Of Large Product Catalogs

Search engines use programs called crawlers to visit and read web pages. If a page cannot be crawled, it will not appear in search results. This is especially important for ecommerce sites with thousands of products.

Creating A Clear Site Structure

A good site structure organizes pages in a logical way: homepage → category → subcategory → product. Pages should be no more than three clicks from the homepage to ensure search engines can find them easily.

Breadcrumb navigation shows the path from homepage to current page. It helps both users and search engines understand how pages relate to each other. For example:
Home > Women's Clothing > Dresses > Summer Dresses

Setting Up XML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps list all the URLs you want search engines to crawl. For large ecommerce sites, create separate sitemaps for:

  • Product pages
  • Category pages
  • Blog posts
  • Other content types

Submit your sitemaps to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Update them whenever you add or remove products.

Using Robots.txt Effectively

The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages to avoid. Pages like cart, checkout, and user accounts should be excluded since they don't help with SEO.

Example robots.txt for ecommerce:

/coUser-agent: 
*Disallow: 
/cartDisallow: 
/checkoutDisallow: 
/accountSitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

A common mistake is using "Disallow: /" which blocks your entire site from search engines.

Managing Duplicate Content Issues

Duplicate content happens when multiple pages have similar or identical information. Ecommerce sites often create duplicates through product variations, filters, or pagination. This confuses search engines about which version to rank.

Handling Product Variations

When you sell products in different colors, sizes, or materials, each variation can create a unique URL. Use canonical tags to tell search engines which is the main version.

For example, if you sell a shirt in multiple colors, add this code to all variation pages:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/product/main-shirt-page" />

Controlling Filter Parameters

Filtering options (like sorting by price or color) create URLs with parameters that can lead to duplicate content. For sorting parameters that don't change the actual content, use canonical tags pointing to the unfiltered page.

For example, a page with "?sort=price-low-high" should have a canonical tag pointing to the main category page.

Avoiding Session IDs In URLs

Some ecommerce platforms add session IDs to URLs to track users. This creates unique URLs for the same content. Use cookies instead of URL parameters for tracking to avoid this problem.

Optimizing Site Speed For Better Rankings

Site speed affects both search rankings and user experience. Slow sites lose visitors and sales. Google's Core Web Vitals measure specific aspects of page speed that impact rankings.

Compressing Product Images

Images are often the largest files on ecommerce pages. Optimize them by:

  • Using the right format (JPEG for photos, PNG for images with transparency)
  • Compressing files using tools like TinyPNG
  • Displaying images at the correct size (don't use a 2000px image for a 200px thumbnail)
  • Implementing lazy loading so images only load when they're visible on screen

Minimizing JavaScript And CSS

Too much code slows down page loading. Reduce this by:

  • Combining multiple JavaScript and CSS files
  • Removing unused code
  • Loading non-essential scripts after the page content
  • Using asynchronous loading for third-party scripts

Using Browser Caching

Browser caching stores files locally on visitors' computers so they don't need to reload everything on repeat visits. Set up caching for static elements like logos, CSS, and JavaScript files.

Making Your Site Mobile-Friendly

More than half of ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily looks at the mobile version of your site when deciding rankings.

A mobile-friendly ecommerce site has:

  • Responsive design: Pages that adjust to fit any screen size
  • Large buttons: Easy to tap with fingers (minimum 44x44 pixels)
  • Readable text: No tiny fonts that require zooming
  • Simple navigation: Menus that work well on small screens
  • Fast loading: Pages optimized for mobile connections

Test your site's mobile-friendliness using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test.

Implementing Product Schema Markup

Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand the content on your pages. For ecommerce, Product schema is especially important as it can lead to rich results in search listings.

Basic Product Schema

Product schema tells search engines specific details about your products. Here's a simple example:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{  
"@context": "https://schema.org/",  
"@type": "Product",  
"name": "Blue Cotton T-Shirt",  
"image": "https://example.com/shirt-blue.jpg",  
"description": "Soft cotton t-shirt available in multiple colors",  
"brand": {    
"@type": "Brand",    "name": "Example Brand"  },  
"offers": {    
"@type": "Offer",    "price": "19.99",    "priceCurrency": "USD",    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"  }
}
</script>

This code helps search engines display important information like price, availability, and ratings directly in search results.

Adding Review Schema

Customer reviews are valuable for both shoppers and SEO. Adding review schema can display star ratings in search results:‍

"aggregateRating": 
{  
"@type": 
"AggregateRating",  
"ratingValue": "4.5",  
"reviewCount": "89"
}

‍

Test your schema implementation using Google's Rich Results Test. This can be especially interesting for Local Businesses doing SEO.

Securing Your Site With HTTPS

Security is important for both SEO and customer trust. HTTPS encrypts data transferred between browsers and websites, protecting sensitive information like payment details.

Google gives a small ranking boost to secure sites and marks non-HTTPS sites as "Not Secure" in Chrome, which can scare away customers.

To implement HTTPS:

  1. Get an SSL certificate from your hosting provider or a certificate authority
  2. Install the certificate on your server
  3. Set up 301 redirects from HTTP to HTTPS versions of all pages
  4. Update internal links to use HTTPS
  5. Check for mixed content (HTTP resources loaded on HTTPS pages)

Handling Faceted Navigation For Ecommerce

Faceted navigation lets shoppers filter products by attributes like size, color, or price. While helpful for users, it can create SEO problems by generating too many URLs.

Identifying Which Filters To Index

Not all filter combinations need to appear in search results. Index only those that:

  • Match common search queries (like "blue denim jackets")
  • Contain a substantial number of products
  • Generate unique, valuable content

Managing Other Filter Combinations

For filter combinations that shouldn't be indexed:

  • Add noindex tags to prevent indexing
  • Use canonical tags pointing to the main category page
  • Block them in robots.txt if they're not useful for users

Monitoring Technical SEO Health

Technical SEO isn't a one-time task. Regular monitoring helps catch and fix issues before they affect rankings.

Essential Monitoring Tools

These tools help track technical SEO health:

  • Google Search Console: Shows indexing issues, mobile usability problems, and more
  • Google Analytics: Tracks traffic, bounce rates, and conversion data
  • Screaming Frog: Crawls your site to find broken links, redirect chains, and duplicate content

Regular Audit Schedule

Perform these checks regularly:

  • Weekly: Review Search Console for new errors
  • Monthly: Check for broken links and redirect issues
  • Quarterly: Run a full technical SEO audit

International SEO For Global Ecommerce

If you sell in multiple countries or languages, you need special technical SEO setup to help search engines show the right content to the right audience.

Using Hreflang Tags

Hreflang tags tell search engines which language and country each page targets. For example:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/us/product" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://example.com/uk/product" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/produit" />

These tags help prevent duplicate content issues across different country versions of your site.

Creating Localized Content

Don't just translate your content—adapt it for each market:

  • Use local terminology and spelling
  • Show prices in local currency
  • Adjust product descriptions for regional preferences
  • Include local shipping information

Growing Your Ecommerce Business With Technical SEO

Technical SEO creates the foundation for ecommerce success. By making your site easily accessible to search engines, you improve visibility and drive more qualified traffic to your products.

The best approach combines technical optimization with quality content and a great user experience. Regular monitoring and updates keep your site performing well as search engines evolve.

For complex ecommerce sites, working with technical SEO specialists can help identify and fix issues more efficiently. At 6th Man Digital, we integrate directly with client teams to implement effective technical SEO strategies that drive measurable business growth.

Ready to improve your ecommerce platform's technical SEO? Book an intro call with our team to discuss your specific challenges.