Anyone who runs a WooCommerce online store knows that more traffic usually means more sales. Generating traffic is therefore at the top of the to-do list for many store operators. The best organic way to increase traffic is search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, we explain how WooCommerce SEO 2024 works in particular.

Only what can be found can be bought. Between algorithms, technical terms and Google updates, however, it is not necessarily easy to find the right strategy. So what is SEO for online stores all about? And how do you implement this in WooCommerce? We list the eight most important measures, from the right product description to loading speed.

How does SEO work?

"SEO" stands for "Search Engine Optimization". This refers to various techniques and strategies that help to place a website as prominently as possible in the results list for certain queries in search engines such as Google. Prominent means: on the first page, preferably at the top.

Google is relatively selective and takes many different factors into account, such as content quality, keywords, website structure, backlinks and usability. Google always tries to direct users to the websites that are most relevant to their search query. The algorithms used are also constantly updated and optimized.

Placing your own website at the top of the search results page (SERP) can therefore be quite a complex undertaking. Especially for online stores with WooCommerce.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a free e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It is open source, i.e. easily accessible to everyone, and has now become the leading e-commerce store system. It is currently used by more than three million websites around the world.

In practice, WooCommerce is primarily characterized by the fact that it is very simple and versatile. With just a few clicks, you can transform your WordPress website into a fully equipped online store. The plugin has a modular structure and, just like WordPress, also offers its own plugins and themes. WooCommerce itself is basically "only" the technical basis for your e-commerce store.

Want to know whether WooCommerce is suitable for your store? Then you should take a look at our article WooCommerce: The advantages & disadvantages of the popular store plugin.

What is important for WooCommerce SEO?

It is particularly essential for online stores to be listed as high up as possible in search engine results. This is because the higher up a store is listed, the more potential buyers will find their way to the goods and services on offer.

WooCommerce is equipped with a number of technical and structural features that are inherently search engine-friendly and support SEO optimization. This gives WordPress users who implement their online stores with WooCommerce an advantage in the SEO game. However, additional adjustments are absolutely necessary if you want your store to top the results list.

We'll take a closer look at the specific adjustments you can make in a moment. First, let's take a quick look at the factors that Google attaches particular importance to when ranking online stores.

Ranking factors for online stores

Although Google itself does not explicitly reveal which of the more than 200 ranking factors are really relevant, there are some that have proven themselves in practice and are recognized by experts. The focus here is primarily on technical SEO.

Some important ranking factors for e-commerce stores in 2023 are, for example

• Crawlability
• Links
• Content (keywords)
• Structured data
• URL structure
• Pagespeed
• User experience (e.g. breadcrumbs)

WooCommerce SEO - tips and guide for 2024

Now comes the exciting part: we delve deeper into the topic of WooCommerce SEO and reveal a total of eight tips and measures that have proven themselves in practice. You can implement all of these in your WooCommerce online store with relatively little effort.

1. optimize product names and descriptions for SEO

A product name is one of the first things you enter when you create a product page in WooCommerce. The more precise, the better. The title should name the product exactly and contain the main keyword for the page.

How good your product descriptions are can further determine whether your products are purchased or not. This means that you need content on your site that is appealing to visitors and helps them make a purchase decision. At the same time, this information must also be optimized for search engines so that it is displayed to potential buyers in the first place.

Every good product description starts with detailed keyword research. See our step-by-step guide Keyword research for SEO success. This is the only way to know what your potential customers are looking for and to formulate your description texts in such a way that the relevant keywords are included. Google can then efficiently recognize and display your product pages. Include both the respective main keyword and suitable long-tail keywordsin the descriptions.

Important: You should not go into unnecessary detail in the descriptions, but you should also avoid keeping the texts too short. Otherwise, Google will quickly assume that it is "thin content" and that you cannot provide enough information. This can have a negative impact on your ranking.

2. optimize category pages

When optimizing your content, focus particularly on the higher-level category pages. This usually results in a higher search volume and therefore more potential for numerous potential buyers to land on your site - and then continue browsing the individual product pages.

Important: You should also make sure to avoid thin content and give your category pages plenty of content. Ideally, there should also be no categories in your store in which fewer than five products are listed.

3. use Automations

The more your WooCommerce store grows, the more products need to be provided with metadata. With several hundred or even thousands of products, this becomes extremely time-consuming. However, you can automate the process using your own WordPress code, snippets or plugins (more on this later).

This allows you to easily create title tags and meta descriptions for each product page based on various fragments on the page (e.g. H1, URL, etc.). This saves you a lot of work.

4. simplify URL structure

The URLs under which your products are available online may not seem particularly important at first glance - but they are actually an important ranking factor. An online store has a slightly different URL structure than normal websites.

Firstly, short and clear URLs are easier for users to handle and secondly, long and poorly structured URLs make it more difficult for Google crawlers to index your site. In the worst case scenario, this can lead to your WooCommerce store not being listed at all for certain search terms.

Your goal with WooCommerce SEO should therefore be "friendly" URLs . In other words, URLs that allow both users and Googlebots to quickly and easily recognize what they will find on the page. With permalinks, you can decide for yourself how the structure of links is created. With WooCommerce, you can choose between various options or define your own structure.

You should therefore stay away from numbers and letters in random order, special characters, dynamic URLs or too many subpages. Instead, use URLs that are as short as possible (maximum 74 characters) and contain the main keyword for the page. You should also avoid duplicate content. Problems can arise in particular if you assign a product to several product categories (including subcategories).

The category names should therefore only appear in the URL, for example, if you really only offer your products in one category. It is best to avoid subcategories as much as possible (or keep the names very short).

You can sometimes omit the category from the URL design altogether. This makes particular sense if you also use breadcrumbs.

5. set internal links with structure

Internal links push your WooCommerce store up the Google rankings - but only if they are set sensibly and follow a clear structure. Instead of randomly placing links to other articles when it suits you, you should develop a logical plan and stick to it.

A well-thought-out internal link strategy helps Google to understand why your pages are relevant, how they relate to each other and what added value they offer readers.

You can find out why internal links are still important and how to set up a good internal link structure in WordPress in our article Internal linking with WordPress: Important for your SEO.

6. optimize images

You should optimize the images in your WooCommerce store for two reasons:

1. SEO-optimized images improve the loading speed (page speed) of your WordPress website.
2. Your images will appear higher up in Google Image Search and generate additional traffic.

There are basically three types of images in WooCommerce: individual product images, catalog images and preview images. The following applies to all of them: In order for them to be displayed optimally, your individual crop should not be larger than the original image. You should also make sure to keep the image files as small as possible, ideally under 100 kB.

It is best to choose images that are between 800 and 1600 pixels wide and have a resolution of between 72 and 96 dpi. See our articles on this:

• How images and image sizes work in WordPress
• Optimize images with WordPress plugins
• Image SEO optimization with WordPress

7. improve user experience with breadcrumbs

If visitors can easily find their way around your store, they are more likely to make a purchase in the end. If the navigation is confusing, the loading time is too long or the content is not meaningful, they will quickly leave the page without making a purchase. This is not only bad for your business, but also has a negative impact on your search engine ranking.

Good product descriptions, meaningful titles and a clear URL structure already contribute significantly to the user experience (UX). You can also activate breadcrumbs, for example. Breadcrumbs are actually a series of contextual links that are usually displayed at the top left of the page. They show your visitors where they are currently located and the path they have taken through the store so far.

Store visitors can then use the breadcrumb navigation to jump back to higher-level pages or categories at any time with just a few clicks.

8. increase loading speed with fast hosting

No matter how well your WooCommerce store is otherwise optimized for search engines - if your pages take forever to load completely, this will not only cause visitors to leave quickly. It can also mean real losses in Google rankings for you.

Optimizing your images and keeping them as lean as possible is an important lever that we have already discussed. You should also make sure that you have fast and reliable WordPress hosting to lay the foundation for your WooCommerce online store to perform optimally at all times. We reveal further factors and instructions for better WooCommerce performance in our article Making WordPress faster.

The best WooCommerce plugins for SEO

Anyone who has worked with WordPress and WooCommerce hosting knows that the golden rule usually applies to plugins: less is more. However, there are some plugins that can help you with your WooCommerce SEO.

These are currently our favorite SEO plugins for WooCommerce SEO:

• The All in One SEO Pack is a beginner-friendly WordPress plugin with a very streamlined user interface that can be integrated into WooCommerce free of charge. Among other things, it offers XML sitemap support, enables simple Google Analytics integration and also creates automatic meta information.
• The SEO Framework is also free and almost leaner than All in One SEO, but can be a little overwhelming for beginners in terms of functionality. The plugin mainly allows you to quickly configure meta titles and descriptions and create detailed sitemap documentation.
• WordPress SEO is particularly popular in the German-speaking market. Onpage optimizations can be done quickly and easily. However, you have to pay a one-off license fee for the plugin.
• WP Smush is a real game changer for optimizing the images in your store. With the free plugin, you can compress your images without loss. JPG, JPEG, GIF and PNG files are supported.

Yoast SEO is probably the best known and most popular free SEO plugin for WooCommerce, see our comparison Yoast vs Rank Math - WordPress SEO plugins in comparison. It offers a comprehensive solution for all onpage SEO topics and is absolutely suitable for beginners.

It is particularly useful that you can enter your main keyword in Yoast SEO and check whether you have optimized your content for exactly this keyword and whether the texts are easy to read. The plugin also offers a preview of what your metadata will look like in the Google results list.

Thought of everything? WooCommerce SEO checklist

The bottom line is that you have a lot to think about if you want your online store to rank high in the Google SERPs. To make sure you don't forget anything, we'll give you a WooCommerce SEO checklist at the end:

• Carry out keyword research
• Choose an SEO-friendly theme
• Install SEO plugin
• Focus on category pages
• Enter SEO-friendly product names
• Optimize meta titles of products
• Customize meta description of the products
• Simplify URL structure
• Create a logical internal link structure
• Avoid duplicate content
• Optimize images (and videos)
• Improve pagespeed
• Keeping an eye on UX values

Frequently asked questions about WooCommerce SEO

Which SEO plugin for WooCommerce?

The most popular SEO plugin for WooCommerce is Yoast SEO. It provides comprehensive support for all on-page SEO topics and checks, for example, the readability of your content or whether your texts are precisely optimized for the selected keywords. Yoast SEO also recognizes duplicate content.

Is WooCommerce SEO-friendly?

In short: Yes! WooCommerce is SEO-friendly by design. Numerous functions are integrated into the plugin that you can use to optimize your online store for search engines. However, this also requires your input, see the tips and hints in this article.

What are the most important ranking factors for online stores?

Some of the most important ranking factors for e-commerce stores are crawlability, (internal) links, SEO-optimized content (e.g. product descriptions and category pages), a clear URL structure and a positive user experience.