With something like 200 or so ranking factors on the books, it’s tough for an everyday eCommerce merchant to keep track of them all, and then to design and implement an effective SEO strategy.
Adding to this situation is the fact that each and every eCommerce platform has its own nuances that make it more difficult to optimize the website, both for SEO and UX.
Here’s one drawback about an open-source platform like Magento. Despite the fact that there is such a large support community, the fact that merchants must host their own eCommerce stores and see to features like security and site speed can make it tough to optimize.
One of these factors, site speed, has a significant impact on both SEO and UX. Here’s why it matters and what a Magento SEO company can do for you.
Site Speed and User Experience?
It’s not 1999 anymore. Users are not willing to wait for a page to load patiently, as though there isn’t a competitor online store elsewhere that they can patronize.
In fact, site speed doesn’t just affect UX, it is one of the most important factors influencing it. Apparently, something in the area of 40% of users will abandon a web page if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
Figures actually vary according to the source, and there are several that put those estimates at much higher numbers. Whatever you figure you trust, the point here is clear; users are intolerant of slow load times.
Slow load speeds can hinder your website in other ways, too. For example, a slow loading page injures brand credibility.
Just think about it from your point of view. If you’re not willing to stay on a page that’s slow loading, neither are your customers.
Site Speed and SEO
Search engines are also intolerant of slow load speeds. Magento SEO experts agree on this. Site speed is one of those features of technical SEO that for better or worse directly affects a Magento store’s ability to rank effectively in the search engine results pages.
This technical issue is also unique because the longer it takes a web crawler to crawl a page, the more it will chew up a website’s crawl budget, adversely affecting how frequently the pages get indexed.
What’s with Magento?
Site speed isn’t just a prime concern for Magento websites; it’s a concern for all eCommerce websites. However, there are a few unique platform-related hurdles that Magento sites need to clear in order to be more fully optimized.
Technical issues like sloppy or excessive coding (in the form of JavaScript or CSS), improperly arranged product categories, and poorly optimized images can all adversely affect the overall optimization of a Magento website.
In addition, since Magento is not a SaaS, updating it is the responsibility of the administrator. If you don’t update a Magento website as updates become available, your search engine optimization and therefore search engine rankings can suffer.
Even the theme featured by your website can affect your search engine optimization. Some themes are slower than others by nature, which can bring down the overall site speed score of your website.
What a Magento SEO Company Brings to the Table
The difference between a Magento SEO company and a Magento merchant is that one necessarily has an expert grasp of all of the technical features of the platform as well as a comprehensive authority in the realm of SEO best practices.
A Magento SEO company can render eCommerce SEO services to a Magento client that takes into account the unique needs of the merchant’s platform. In addition to content publication and link building, Magento SEO services often include much more thorough platform-specific optimizations with respect to coding, image and structure optimization, and more.
To learn more about how a dedicated Magento SEO campaign can start driving more organic traffic to your online store, visit 1DigitalⓇ Agency at 1DigitalAgency.com. They’ve been executing Magento SEO campaigns for clients in various industries for ten years and can help bring your website up to speed – literally.
