As the eCommerce industry continues to boom, with eCommerce now accounting for nearly a third of all retail sales in the UK, the eCommerce space is becoming one of the most valuable and competitive areas for businesses to operate in.
These days, consumers can literally buy any product they want online, with many competitors all vying for the same customer. eCommerce brand visibility is now more competitive than ever before.
The days when eCommerce brands could rely solely on cheap social media ads or paid search ads to drive their traffic and sales are no longer viable. eCommerce SEO, with its potentially unlimited keywords and the cheapest ROI, has now become the foundation on which all eCommerce stores need to build.
Whether you are a local startup eCommerce store in Liverpool or an international eCommerce brand based in London, the eCommerce platform you use plays a vital role in your eCommerce success, especially when it comes to ranking highly in search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing.
Whilst some eCommerce platforms are built with advanced functionality to allow eCommerce brands more opportunities to showcase products in search engine results pages, other eCommerce platforms provide a more basic approach to SEO, meaning they are at a considerable disadvantage.
To help you better understand eCommerce platforms, we have ranked the best ones below based on their SEO capabilities.
1. Shopify
Over the last few years, Shopify has experienced a significant surge to become the #1 used eCommerce platform in the UK.
With over 200,000 Shopify eCommerce stores in the UK alone, its ease-of-use, clean design, product support, relatively affordable price point, and SEO capability (both in terms of standard SEO features and additional paid-for SEO functions) make it the best all-round eCommerce platform for new and established eCommerce brands.
Advantages:
- Clean Themes: Shopify has a variety of free and paid-for themes that are built using clean and light code, which means they provide a great user experience and can fully adapt to different mobile devices – key components of modern-day SEO requirements
- Fast Load Speeds: Along with their clean and light themes, Shopify stores are hosted on Shopify’s own fast servers and utilise Shopify’s own content delivery network (CDN), meaning Shopify stores always load fast, no matter where the customer is located or what device they are using
- SEO Customisation: Shopify has core SEO fundamentals baked into its platform, meaning users can create custom meta titles, meta descriptions and image alt text with the click of a button
- Structured Data: Shopify has key structured data and schema markup already included in its code, meaning your store will automatically get an extra SEO boost without the need for complex coding skills
- Scalability: Due to Shopify’s vast support network, there are literally apps to power a Shopify store anyway the owner desires, and SEO is no different, with a range of apps designed to perform specific SEO functions, meaning you can grow and scale your Shopify store’s SEO capability with ease
Dis-Advantages:
- URL Limitations: Due to the way Shopify’s platform is constructed, it uses fixed URLs for categories and products, which means less SEO and URL customisation
- App Dependency: Although Shopify’s platform comes with a lot of functionality baked into it, for more complex and customisation tasks, it relies on third-party apps, which can increase the total monthly cost of the platform
- Pricing: Shopify is known to be an excellent, cost-effective, and entry-level Commerce platform; however, for large brands and eCommerce stores that require more technical features, a ‘Shopify Plus’ subscription is needed, which makes it more costly than other comparable eCommerce platforms
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that effectively turns standard WordPress websites into full eCommerce stores.
WooCommerce is fundamentally a free plugin, making it an excellent choice for startup eCommerce stores or small, established eCommerce brands. As it is based on the WordPress platform, it has excellent flexibility and customisation potential too.
With over 150,000 WooCommerce stores active in the UK, it’s clear why this platform is a popular choice for eCommerce brands.
Advantages:
- Price: As WooCommerce uses WordPress, which is a free open-source platform, and comes with many free themes to choose from, you can start a new eCommerce store for practically zero cost
- Complete Control: WooCommerce runs on the free and open source WordPress platform, meaning you have full control over your eCommerce store’s features and technical functionality
- Plugin Range: WordPress’s huge developer support base means there’s a plugin available to do almost anything you need on your WooCommerce store. Whether it’s advanced SEO functionality you need or bespoke technical performance improvements, there will be a plugin available to help you achieve your eCommerce SEO goals
- Customisable URLs: As you can create fully customisable URL structures in WooCommerce, this gives you the ability to structure and scale your WooCommerce store according to your SEO strategy
- Flexible Content: Since WordPress started as a blogging platform, it is already set up to enable you to create specific types of content, whether it be a blog post, product guide or case study, giving you that flexibility to create specific content to match your customers’ needs and give your WooCommerce store a boost in SEO performance too
- Developer Support: WordPress has been the #1 content platform for many years, and because of this, it has a well-established developer support community. If you encounter any technical issues or require additional support for a bespoke feature, numerous developers will be available to assist and provide guidance.
Dis-Advantages:
- Hosting Dependency: As WordPress relies on independent hosting/servers, website and page load speed can be a lot slower if poor hosting/servers are used, meaning this can negatively impact SEO performance as well as provide a poor user experience, resulting in reduced product sales
- Maintenance: As WooCommerce and WordPress require a multitude of plugins to work, regular maintenance can be complex and costly. If regular maintenance is not conducted correctly, this can open your website up to security threats and financial issues
- Technical Knowledge: WooCommerce and WordPress were not developed to be a ‘plug and play’ platform like other eCommerce platforms. This means that for the everyday user, any technical improvements will need to be managed by an experienced and skilled WordPress developer, which could be costly
3. BigCommerce
Often seen as the primary challenger to Shopify due to its similar promise of an easy-to-use ‘plug and play’ eCommerce platform, BigCommerce has seen a surge in popularity over the last few years.
By designing its platform with numerous built-in features, BigCommerce prides itself on needing fewer external third-party apps to help power its eCommerce stores.
With over 2,500 BigCommerce stores now trading in the UK, BigCommerce is now seen as a good alternative for those who have used the other more popular eCommerce platforms.
Advantages:
- Customisable URLs: Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce allows the creation of fully customisable URLs, meaning better eCommerce SEO performance
- Automatic Redirects: One of the unique benefits of BigCommerce is that it can automatically redirect discontinued pages, meaning fewer broken internal links and improved user experience, which is key for eCommerce SEO performance
- Flexible Content: Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce has its very own content editor included in its platform, meaning it’s simple to create unique content assets like blog posts and product guides that can target more keywords and drive more organic traffic
- Scale & Speed: Similar to Shopify’s infrastructure, BigCommerce uses its own server and content delivery networks, meaning a fast, more reliable store, which is paramount for eCommerce SEO
Dis-Advantages:
- Complex Platform: Compared to some of the other eCommerce platforms we have mentioned in this article, BigCommerce is a lot more complicated to work with, meaning a steeper learning curve or a specialist developer is required to maximise the platform’s capability
- Less Options: BigCommerce has far fewer themes and plugins available than other eCommerce platforms, meaning less opportunity to optimise for SEO and user experience
- High Cost: BigCommerce operates on a variable pricing model, with costs increasing in line with an eCommerce store’s revenue. This means pricing can become an issue as an eCommerce store gains more popularity
4. Magento
The original O.G. eCommerce platform. Launched back in 2008, Magento was developed to be the first eCommerce centric platform designed purely for eCommerce and online stores.
Although in today’s eCommerce landscape, other eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce have stolen its limelight due to their plug-and-play approach, Magento is still a powerhouse eCommerce platform, championed by huge international eCommerce brands for its unrivalled flexibility and SEO capability.
The fact that there are over 7,500 Magento eCommerce stores active in the UK shows it still has a strong customer affinity all these years later.
Advantages:
- Flexibility: Among all the eCommerce platforms discussed in this guide, Magento offers the best flexibility. This makes it perfect for all manner of SEO improvements, whether they be basic improvements or more complex technical improvements
- Scalability: If you are an international eCommerce brand serving multiple countries or have an eCommerce store with 1000’s of products and categories, Magento is better designed to manage international markets and extensive product catalogues. If you are looking to scale your eCommerce store, Magento is the best eCommerce platform to help you achieve this goal
- SEO Capability: Magento has a range of SEO functionality available as part of its platform, so whether you need basic SEO or more complex technical SEO capability, Magento can provide this
- Integration: Another key benefit of Magento is its integration capability. Third-party tools and apps work great with the platform, meaning better SEO data and insights are available to help inform better decision-making
Dis-Advantages:
- Price: Out of all the eCommerce platforms we have covered in this guide, Magento is by far the most costly. Avid users say this reflects the more advanced features and functions within the platform; however, if you are a startup or small eCommerce brand, then Magento could be too expensive for your needs
- Complex Setup: Due to its complex architecture, Magento is not considered a ‘plug and play’ eCommerce platform like Shopify and BigCommerce. Instead, it requires technically skilled developers to build and maintain a Magento eCommerce store
- Performance: Again, due to its complex nature, if not built and maintained by skilled developers, Magento eCommerce stores can become cumbersome and bloated very quickly, meaning slow load speeds and poor user experience, which will result in poor SEO performance
5. Wix Commerce
Starting as a budget-friendly ‘all-in-one’ website solution for people with no website or coding knowledge, Wix’s bolt-on eCommerce offering has become very popular over the last few years, and its SEO capability has also seen significant improvements.
Whilst not as easy to use as Shopify and doesn’t have the advanced SEO capability of Magento, it does offer an excellent eCommerce solution for startup eCommerce brands looking to keep expenses as small as possible, and with over 94,000 Wix Commerce stores in operation across the UK, you can see why it is a popular choice for small eCommerce brands.
Advantages:
- User Friendly: Wix Commerce uses a ‘click and drop’ type approach, meaning it’s easy to use for beginners and requires minimal technical and coding knowledge
- Knowledge Base: Wix Commerce comes with a free knowledge base, which shows users how to edit and improve the SEO features of their Wix Commerce stores, which is excellent for beginners with no SEO experience or knowledge
- Fast Setup: Another key benefit of Wix Commerce is how simple and fast it is to set up an eCommerce store. This is perfect for users who want to get their eCommerce store up and running with minimal fuss and as quickly as possible.
- Load Speed: Wix Commerce themes are designed with fast loading times and mobile device responsiveness in mind, meaning they offer a great user experience, which is key for eCommerce SEO performance
Dis-Advantages:
- Limited Scalability: If your eCommerce store has a large number of products and product categories, Wix Commerce may struggle to manage your product inventory effectively. Also, if you experience fast growth or are looking to generate rapid growth, Wix Commerce is not ideally suited to these needs
- Basic SEO Functionality: Unlike other eCommerce platforms we have covered in this guide, Wix Commerce only has basic SEO customisation, meaning you won’t be able to compete SEO wise with eCommerce stores on other, more advanced and flexible eCommerce platforms
- Theme Constraints: Wix Commerce themes are designed in a way that makes switching between them difficult. This results in fewer opportunities to test different themes, giving it a significant disadvantage when it comes to other eCommerce platforms
Choosing The Right eCommerce Platform
As we have covered above, there is an eCommerce platform available to suit any needs.
Whether you’re a startup eCommerce brand requiring a budget-friendly platform with minimal technical expertise or a more established brand needing advanced SEO capabilities and product management features, you must choose the correct eCommerce platform for your unique needs.
As more and more commerce moves online, the UK eCommerce landscape is only going to get more competitive. Therefore, it’s a wise decision to ensure your eCommerce platform has all the SEO capability you need and potentially need. This way, you give your eCommerce store the maximum chance of success, both short-term and long-term.
Ready To Improve Your eCommerce SEO Performance?
Here at Greyhound Search Marketing, we have been SEO optimising eCommerce stores, both small and large, national and international, for many years, so we know what works and what doesn’t.
On top of this, we know how to make eCommerce stores more appealing to users by improving user experience and sales conversion potential.
If your eCommerce store is struggling to reach its full potential, our team can help boost traffic, increase sales, and help you stay ahead of the competition.
Get in touch with one of our friendly and specialist eCommerce team members today to see how we can turbo-charge your eCommerce SEO success!
