Thinking about hiring a BigCommerce SEO company? Let’s take a look at some of the ways they can actually optimize your BigCommerce store at a granular level, by addressing some site and page level ranking signals that affect search engine optimization (SEO).
What Is a Ranking Signal?
Ranking signals, also called ranking factors, are metrics considered by Google to be important, and which the algorithm uses when determining how to rank a page organically in the search results.
Though keyword research and strategy play big roles in SEO, not all ranking signals, even page level, and site-level factors involve keywords.
How Many Ranking Signals Are There?
There is no universal consensus among BigCommerce SEO experts on just how many ranking signals there are. Some are proven and confirmed by Google, others are strongly and justifiably believed to affect rankings, and others have what is known as a “splash effect,” wherein the ranking signal itself does not cause shifts in ranking, but it affects a signal that does.
While there is no hard figure, most experts agree that there are somewhere around 200 ranking signals that affect BigCommerce websites (and other platforms).
What Can a BigCommerce SEO Company Optimize
1.Site speed
Page and site loading speed are not only direct ranking signals that Google uses to evaluate the quality of an eCommerce business built on BigCommerce; these are factors that also directly affect user behavior. Most users will bounce within 3 seconds if a page fails to load.
That gives two good reasons to optimize your site for speed.
2.Code (Minification)
Too much code cluttering up the pages of your website could result in adverse rankings from search engines. We can’t say that too many online stores have too much code in their back ends, but the reality is that some websites have code that is non-functioning and only complicates the process by which crawlers crawl and index a web page.
Removing this excess, non-functional code is called minification and it positively affects SEO.
3.Site security
Users will bounce from a website that they do not consider secure and Google directly uses site security as a ranking signal.
4.Responsive development
In 2019, Google started mobile-first indexing, which means that Google will first crawl and index a website’s mobile page before even getting to the desktop version. Also, mobile commerce (M-commerce) is on the rise, so you need to develop a mobile-friendly version of your website anyway.
5.Internal link building
Internal linking is a ranking signal and it also streamlines and encourages a positive user experience for those that visit your website.
6.Title tags
After developing an organic marketing strategy around keyword research, a BigCommerce SEO company can systematically update your BigCommerce website’s title tags to make those pages more attractive to web crawlers.
7.Metadata
Meta descriptions, meta titles, and other data are relatively easy to adjust in BigCommerce’s backend. BigCommerce SEO services providers will do all of the heavy lifting; keyword research and content development necessary to optimize these ranking signals.
8.Miscellaneous content
The content on your website is a ranking signal in many ways. It adds expertise, authority, keyword density, relevance, and freshness to the website, all of which Google flags down and rewards with higher organic rankings.
A BigCommerce SEO company will not just provide useful, informative content; they will also scrub your website for duplicate content and optimize the new content to improve the user experience and encourage higher conversion rates.
9.Image alt data
Image alt data is another ranking signal that can be optimized pursuant to keyword strategy. The image files themselves can also be optimized for size, speed, and code.
10.URL slugs and structure
Nonsense URLs with lots of symbols and fragments don’t necessarily do harm to SEO, but a URL that is optimized for UX and by the keyword strategy can positively affect it.
Not sure where to start with any of these eCommerce SEO best practices? Built on the BigCommerce platform? Get a free SEO audit from the eCommerce SEO team of BigCommerce experts at 1DigitalⓇ Agency.
Their team of BigCommerce Elite Partners is exceptionally experienced with the BigCommerce platform and has launched many clients built on BigCommerce to new heights.
Check out their website, 1DigitalAgency.com, or get in touch with their eCommerce agency at 888-982-8269 or at [email protected].
