Which eCommerce Platform is Best for SEO?

Are you looking to build the strongest foundation for your website by discovering which eCommerce platform is best for SEO? You've come to the right place. We have conducted a short study to find out the real live results of which platforms are ranking best.

If you're looking to launch an online store, either as an exclusive venture or to supplement your offline business model, selecting the best eCommerce platform should be one of the top items on your agenda. While several contributing factors will influence your decision, the role of Search Engine Optimisation makes it a key ingredient in the recipe for success.

Here's all you need to know.

What is a Content Management System? 

A website Content Management System is a type of web management application that is used to manage the creation, publication, and editing of digital content. It offers a user-friendly approach to website building that covers various aspects of aesthetic design, content, and – crucially – SEO.

The CMS is backend software, meaning that only website administrators and authorised content creators will see it, and enables you to preview content before it is published to the public domain. The best systems also incorporate a range of analytical tools and insights.

CMS software is incredibly popular as it removes the need for coding knowledge, allowing virtually any user to create stunning websites. For the sake of time, money, and avoiding dreaded 404 messages, it is one of the best solutions by far.

What are the popular CMS's?

There are dozens of CMS packages available on the internet that can be used for blogs, forums, static websites, social networks, portfolios, and more. When building an online store, it's vital that you choose a CMS that is suited to creating an eCommerce site. Let's take a look at five of the best.

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular CMS by a considerable distance, boasting a 35% market share of all websites and 62% market share of CMS's. Virtually all web hosting services provide WP-dedicated packages, which can be very useful for first-time website owners.

Virtually all web users are familiar with website made by WordPress, and that familiarity can help the business. Meanwhile, WordPress is blessed with a plethora of eCommerce plug-ins to ensure that the commercial aspects are under control. Crucially, SEO plug-ins that utilise a simple traffic light system allow for easy SEO management too.

Shopify

Founded in 2004, Shopify is now used to power over 1 million businesses around the globe. Thanks to the combination of eCommerce facilities and retail point-of-sale systems, it is particularly ideal for small merchants hoping to take their companies online.

Shopify is easily used in conjunction with a range of web hosting services, while the user-friendly CMS ensures that adding product pages that are supported by strong SEO strategies is a quick and painless process.

Magento

Magento is a powerful CMS system that is written in PHP and is designed primarily with eCommerce in mind. It uses a range of out-of-the-box features and can be easily integrated with a host of third-party features, including payment processing facilities.

From an SEO standpoint, it allows users with minimal experience to master meta tags, keywords, and other features. The makeup of eCommerce sites created on the site also enable products to appear on Google's 'shopping' tab.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a SaaS (Software as a Service) eCommerce platform that focuses solely on its hosted shopping cart product, which allows users to start selling within 24 hours. As well as simple content uploads, it has a dashboard that boasts various elements that can be updated for opitmised performance.

Search Engine Optimisation is one of the key features that is heavily promoted from the dashboard, with clear indications of how users can boost their product pages with SEO in mind. Data is presented visually for added convenience and accessibility.

Open Cart

Open Cart is a PHP-written eCommerce platform that uses MySQL. The open-source online management system includes various themes and designs to create beautiful sites while using a user-friendly dashboard for managing published and unpublished content.

The powerful platform also boasts an in-built SEO management tool that can cover products, customers, orders, taxes, coupon codes, and more. Even without previous experience, achieving a good SEO outcome is easy.

Why is it Important to get your SEO Correct?

From the moment that you consider launching an eCommerce site, the need for a CMS platform that supports your bid for a robust SEO strategy is emphasised time and time again. While you appreciate that it is an essential feature, you might still be left unsure of the reasons behind this.

SEO is a crucial component for marketing any website but is especially crucial for eCommerce sites. Here are some of the benefits to be gained from improved SEO.

• Appear on the coveted first page of Google to gain more traffic, specifically from hot leads.

• Establish the brand as a trustworthy and professional industry leader.

• Save money on other marketing campaigns – SEO is arguably the cheapest to master.

• Improve the user experience as they will be navigated to the appropriate product pages.

• Gain better conversion rates than traffic gained from other marketing strategies.

SEO is one of the most significant features of the website creation process. It affects sales revenue, time management, and customer targeting. Do not get it wrong.

The Study

After reading countless articles about which CMS ranks the best in Google, we decided to survey the top ranking results in a number of eCommerce niches to see which ones were actually ranking best.

To get accurate results, we used the following criteria for niche choice:

Has to be a higher volume niche.
We excluded high-authority, popular brand sites.
We looked at the top 3 results and identified which CMS they used.

The searches we chose are:

promotional products (Aus)
pet treats (Aus)
gym equipment (Aus)
cbd oils (USA)
meal delivery (USA)
office supplies online (Aus)

The Results

The raw data showed us the following were the most common ranking CMS's:

custom = 45%
wordpress = 33%
magento = 11%
shopify = 6%
big commerce = 6%

The Data

Th following is the data we collected:

promotional products:
https://www.promotionproducts.com.au/ - custom
https://www.logopro.com.au/ - magento
https://www.freshpromotions.com.au/ - magento

pet treats:
https://australianpettreatcompany.com.au/ - wordpress
https://www.budgetpetproducts.com.au/ - custom
https://www.cleardog.com.au/ - wordpress

gym equipment:
https://thefitness-shop.com.au/ - wordpress
https://gymdirect.com.au/ - shopify
https://www.aussiefitness.com.au/ - custom

cbd oils:
https://medterracbd.com/ - custom
https://purekana.com/ - wordpress
https://fabcbd.com/ - wordpress

meal delivery:
https://www.blueapron.com/ - custom
https://www.homechef.com/ - custom
https://www.freshdirect.com/ - custom

office supplies online:
https://www.megaofficesupplies.com.au/ - big commerce
https://www.cos.net.au/ - wordpress
https://www.winc.com.au/ - custom

Conclusion

It is fairly clear that unless you have the money to invest in a custom-made CMS, your best option is to build your website on WordPress.