WooCommerce SEO is where you have full control, but with that comes full responsibility. Unlike some other platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce gives you the option to decide how your SEO setup will look from scratch.
Both single product pages and category pages offer great flexibility from the perspective of important SEO settings, including sitemaps, metadata and breadcrumbs.
Plus, because your WooCommerce website is still WordPress at its core, you also have the option to strengthen your conversion pages and give them more authority through core pages, blog posts and even author pages.
But before we dive into WooCommerce SEO, first things first.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a popular open-source eCommerce plugin for WordPress, which can be used to transform a regular WordPress site into a fully functional online store.
Read also: WordPress SEO Tutorial
By using SEO for your WooCommerce site, you can increase your online presence, grow your organic traffic, and ultimately generate more sales.
Sound good?
Let’s start with the practical steps that anyone can follow.
Install an SEO Plugin if You Haven’t Already
You need a WordPress SEO plugin that supports the optimisation of:
- WooCommerce pages, including product categories, brands and product pages
- Global identifiers such as GTIN and MPN, which can be added to schema markup and are useful for Google Merchant Center
- Noindex settings for pages such as Checkout, Cart and Account
- Standard website optimisation, regardless of website type, including metadata, Open Graph data and schema markup
Out of the box, this is something you can achieve with the free version of Yoast SEO or Rank Math.
All in One SEO Pack is also a good option, although editing metadata for the core WooCommerce pages is only available in the paid version of this plugin.
For WooCommerce, your SEO plugin should not only handle standard WordPress pages and posts. It should also support product pages, product categories, schema, breadcrumbs, XML sitemaps and noindex settings. A basic WordPress SEO setup is not enough if it does not properly handle WooCommerce content types.
Set Your Permalink Structure
There are three WooCommerce-specific URL issues that store owners often need to sort out:
- WooCommerce creates a designated shop page, even if your website is 100% eCommerce and your homepage should serve that purpose. After the initial installation, this page is usually
/shop/, but it can be renamed. - The
/product/slug - The
/product-category/slug
This is where many store owners get stuck, as the default /product/ and /product-category/ slugs can seem overly generic. Many people wonder how this will impact their SEO, especially when it comes to product category URLs.
And they are not entirely wrong.
This is not a major factor in how well your site is going to perform, but it can still impact your SEO because:
- Search engines generally prefer flatter site architectures. A URL like
example.com/product-category/mens-shoes/is three levels deep. If you remove the slug, the URL becomesexample.com/mens-shoes/, which tells Google that this category is a high-level and important part of your site’s hierarchy. - When a URL is shorter, the actual keywords, such as
mens-shoes, are more prominent. In a longer URL, the extra words, such as/product-category/, can slightly dilute the relevance of the keywords that actually matter to your customers.
You may also have a /brands/ slug, but in most cases this is not seen as an issue.
A simple solution for one-product-category websites, such as Nutribullet, which is a famous site using WooCommerce, is to use something like /all-blenders/ instead of /product-category/.
For a simple store, the decision is usually straightforward.
With multi-category sites, you can think about a couple of other options:
- Leave the
/product-category/slug as it is, or simply rename it to something like/collection/. - Completely remove the
/product-category/slug by using a simple dot in the WooCommerce product category permalink field, or by using Rank Math to remove this part of the slug. Rank Math can also remove the/product/slug.
Important: decide your permalink structure early. Changing WooCommerce URLs later can require redirects and, if handled badly, can temporarily affect rankings.
Note: WooCommerce’s official documentation states that this is not recommended. Their reasoning is that WordPress has to do more work to detect which page you are trying to access when the URL does not include the /product-category/ or /product/ slug.
However, in our own practice so far, we have not discovered disadvantages to this solution from either an SEO or maintainability perspective.
Set Up Google Search Console and Submit Your Sitemap
Your chosen SEO plugin will automatically generate an XML sitemap. However, your job is still to decide which pages should be included in the sitemap.
You can do this at a top level by noindexing an entire post type, or individually, as explained above with pages such as Checkout, Cart and Account.
Your sitemap should usually include products, product categories, important pages and blog posts. It should not become a dumping ground for every low-value URL on the site.
Once this is done, submit the sitemap to Google Search Console.
This provides Google with additional information about your website, such as which pages are most important. Google can then use this to better understand your site and crawl it more easily.
After submitting your sitemap, check Google Search Console regularly. It can help you spot indexing issues, sitemap errors, product enhancement warnings and pages that Google has discovered but chosen not to index.
Do Keyword Research for Products and Categories
Use Google Keyword Planner to understand several important points:
- What your customers are searching for
- The exact terms they are using
- Which keywords are better suited to category pages, product pages or blog content
The easiest situation is when customers are already using the terms you expect them to use.
But let’s take a look at one example where people often refer to “telescopic rods” as “collapsible rods”.
So, the often-overlooked goal of keyword research is not simply to find search volumes. It is to get into the shoes of your customers and understand how they use search.
Keyword research is not only about choosing the highest-volume keyword. Sometimes the best keyword is the one that matches buyer intent most closely.
Once you have your keywords, map them to the right page type. Broad commercial terms usually belong on category pages, specific product names belong on product pages, and question-based searches often work better as blog posts or buying guides.
For example:
- “Telescopic fishing rods” could be mapped to a category page.
- “Shimano telescopic spinning rod 10ft” could be mapped to a product page.
- “Best telescopic fishing rod for travel” could be mapped to a blog guide.
Optimise WooCommerce Category Pages
We briefly touched on optional slug optimisation earlier.
The common elements of a well-optimised WooCommerce category page include:
- Descriptions
- Internal linking
- Product display
- FAQs section
- SEO title and meta description
- A clear H1 heading
- Useful links to related categories or collections
If you were wondering why there is often a description just below the H1 tag, it is because Google can use this content to better understand the page. This is where many people make mistakes. This content should not be used to force in long-tail keywords. Instead, it should provide a short, helpful buyer’s guide.
Internal linking, in the form of links to related product categories, is good practice because it helps people navigate your website more easily. It does not have to be limited to subcategories only. You can also link to what you expect your visitors may be interested in, such as single products, product sets or related collections.
An FAQs section is still valid, even though Google no longer shows FAQ results as widely in the SERPs. FAQs can still be useful for other search engines, such as Bing, and for AI search tools. More importantly, they are useful for your customers.
Use FAQs to answer the questions you frequently receive, the questions you expect customers to ask, or the questions you discovered during keyword research.
A strong WooCommerce category page usually needs a clear H1, a short buyer-focused intro, a useful product grid, internal links to related categories, FAQs and a well-written SEO title and meta description.
Category pages are often one of the biggest WooCommerce SEO opportunities because they can target broader commercial keywords. Product pages usually target very specific searches, while category pages can target higher-level phrases such as “telescopic fishing rods”, “women’s stilettos” or “wide mouth water bottles”.
Optimise WooCommerce Product Pages
Always consider user-first content rather than cramming the page full of keywords. Product titles should be short and descriptive, while product descriptions should be unique, informative and engaging.
Add reviews. Your single product pages are where the first step of the conversion happens: adding a product to the cart. To help your visitors decide whether to make that click or not, you should add reviews to your single product pages.
Trust signals are also important. These can include 30-day free returns, certifications, awards, secure checkout messaging and delivery information. These elements help your customers feel more confident about adding a product to their cart.
Of course, reviews displayed site-wide are helpful as well.
Product pages should answer the questions a customer has before buying: What is it? Who is it for? What size or specification do I need? Can I trust this store? How quickly will it arrive? Can I return it?
A strong WooCommerce product page may include:
- A clear product title
- A short product summary
- Unique product description
- Benefits and specifications
- High-quality product images
- Reviews
- Delivery and returns information
- Trust signals
- Related products
- FAQs, if needed
Write SEO Titles and Meta Descriptions
You can heavily influence what is displayed in search results by writing useful and relevant meta titles for your WooCommerce site.
Example of a meta title in Google search results, showing the clickable blue title that users see before visiting a page.
Read more: Meta Tags: The Ultimate Guide
Meta descriptions are the snippets of information shown beneath your page title in search results.
Aim to keep your meta description informative and engaging, and use keywords naturally. It should be no more than 160 characters. Otherwise, Google may replace it with a description of its own.
Perfect example of a concise, informative meta description displayed underneath the blue title tag.
You should think about SEO titles and meta descriptions differently depending on the page type. A product page title should usually be more specific, while a category page title can target broader commercial searches.
Category title example:
Fly Fishing Rods UK | Lightweight & Travel Rods
Product title example:
Shimano Telescopic Fishing Rod 10ft
Meta description example:
Browse telescopic fishing rods for travel, spinning and coarse fishing. Compare compact rods for UK rivers, lakes and holidays.
Do not write every title in the same format if it makes your pages look duplicated. Product categories, products and blog posts should each have their own title style.
Optimise Product Images
The best approach is to optimise the size of your image and the filename before uploading it.
The reason is simple. If you upload a 10MB product image provided by your photographer, even an image compression plugin may struggle to reduce it to an optimal size.
Optimise image scale and size using Photoshop, Canva or an image editing tool of your choice.
Consider the following:
- Image size: Zoom in to 100%. Can your customers clearly see the details you want them to see? If yes, you do not need a bigger image. If you see more detail than necessary, you can scale the image down.
- Image format: For standard photography, use JPG. Avoid PNG unless you specifically need transparency, as PNG files can unnecessarily increase image size.
- Image sharpness: Can you notice the difference if you increase image quality from 80% to 100% in your image editing tool? If you cannot see a clear difference, 80% is usually fine. Increasing it to 100% may only add unnecessary weight to the image.
Once the image has been uploaded, do not forget the image alt text.
Image alt text is helpful for both search engines and users. It is the text that a reader will see when an image does not load, and it can also describe an image to users with visual impairments.
When adding alt text to an image, describe it clearly and naturally, as if explaining the image to someone who cannot see it.
Only then should you consider either:
- Image compression plugins
- Or, better yet, serving images as WebP and using Cloudflare or another performance solution
Product image SEO is not only about Google Images. It also affects page speed, user trust and conversion. Heavy images can slow down product and category pages, especially on mobile.
Schema Markup: Product, Collections and Breadcrumb Schema
Product and breadcrumb schema can often be handled automatically by SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math, but you should still check for errors in Google Search Console and Google’s Rich Results Test.
However, your job is not completely over.
You should still watch for errors over time. This is something you can monitor in Google Search Console. For example, the Enhancements section may show breadcrumb issues, while your Google Merchant listings may show missing fields such as GTIN, MPN, sale price or availability.
You can also test your pages using Google’s Rich Results Test.
Breadcrumbs are not always fully automatic and depend heavily on your theme. WordPress has introduced improvements in this area, but WooCommerce breadcrumb implementation still depends heavily on your theme and SEO plugin setup.
This is why choosing a theme that is compatible with your SEO plugin is important before making a final decision.
After publishing important product or category pages, test them using Google’s Rich Results Test and monitor the Enhancements section in Google Search Console. This helps you find missing or invalid structured data before it becomes a bigger issue.
Improve Internal Linking and Breadcrumbs
As you can see, some WooCommerce SEO topics naturally overlap.
We briefly touched on how you can improve internal linking on category pages. But to go further, you can also optimise:
- Main navigation
- Footer links
- Blog post links
- Contextual links between related products, categories and guides
- Homepage links to your most important categories
- Product page links to related products
- Breadcrumb links to help users and search engines understand hierarchy
This is probably one of the key advantages of WooCommerce. If you are not using blog posts and guides to support your product and category pages, you are not using WooCommerce to its full SEO potential.
Because WooCommerce sits on WordPress, it gives you one major advantage: WordPress is very well optimised for blogging. And yes, WooCommerce stores should make use of knowledge sharing.
For example, a blog post about how to choose the right telescopic fishing rod can internally link back to your telescopic fishing rods category page. This helps users continue their journey and helps search engines understand which pages are important.
Improve WooCommerce Page Speed
The loading time of a page makes a huge difference to user experience, which is a key consideration for Google when deciding how to rank a page.
You can implement common SEO methods for improving page loading speed, such as compressing images, reducing unnecessary plugins and using caching. However, when a WooCommerce store loads slowly, web hosting is often one of the main issues.
That said, hosting is not the only possible issue. WooCommerce stores can also become slow because of large images, too many plugins, heavy themes, tracking scripts, sliders, unoptimised product images, no caching or poor mobile performance.
For WooCommerce, always test the homepage, category pages, product pages and checkout. A homepage speed score alone does not tell you whether the full store experience is fast.
If hosting is the issue, consider a reliable managed WordPress or WooCommerce host. WP Engine is one example, but the best choice depends on your budget, store size and technical ability.
If you are more technically experienced, you may also consider more advanced hosting setups. However, for most small WooCommerce stores, reliable managed WordPress or WooCommerce hosting will usually be the better option.
Once your hosting is set up, it is important to install and configure a page speed optimisation plugin.
If you are on a budget, consider using W3 Total Cache. It offers full control, but it can be somewhat complex for beginners.
Alternatively, you can opt for the premium version of WP Rocket, which is simpler to use but does not offer a free version.
Mobile Optimisation
How often do you use a mobile device to browse online compared with a computer or PC?
Exactly.
Mobile optimisation is essential, as Google now prioritises the mobile version of a website through mobile-first indexing. If your WooCommerce store is not optimised for mobile devices, your SEO efforts can be seriously compromised.
Choose a responsive theme for your eCommerce store and test how it looks on multiple devices.
Astra is one popular option because it is responsive, customisable and widely used for WooCommerce stores.
Mobile optimisation is especially important for WooCommerce because many visitors will browse products on mobile before deciding whether to buy immediately or return later on desktop.
When checking your WooCommerce store on mobile, ask yourself:
- Is the add-to-cart button easy to tap?
- Are product filters easy to use?
- Is the checkout simple?
- Are variation dropdowns usable?
- Are product images easy to swipe?
- Does the basket work properly on mobile?
- Are pop-ups blocking the screen?
Test, Analyse and Improve Over Time
WooCommerce SEO is not something you set once and forget. It should be tested, measured and improved over time.
There is one reason above all others why we always encourage our WooCommerce clients to use a standard theme and not go through the rigmarole of a slow, arduous design process. It’s all down to us preferring to make decisions driven by data not by hunch. With that being said, this leads us to step X in our process, testing and iterative improvement.
A/B testing is not something that is particularly revolutionary when it comes to improving websites, which is why there are some amazing tools that help to guide design improvements. Some of these tools include programmes like Hotjar and Lucky Orange that reveal how users interact with web pages, revealing heatmaps of the most clicked on areas of a page and the percentage of users who reach a certain spot below the fold. Even good old Google Analytics can reveal areas to improve upon with a little digging.
For WooCommerce, testing can help you improve product pages, category layouts, checkout flow, calls to action and mobile usability. Small changes can make a meaningful difference when they are based on real user behaviour.
Use Google Analytics and Search Console to Monitor Performance
Set up an analytical SEO tool for your WooCommerce shop. GA4 has a free version that is simple to use and provides all of the basic information you need. Use this to track your website’s performance, including user behaviour and traffic sources.
By monitoring and analysing your website in this way, you can identify issues before they become major problems, and adapt your marketing strategies as you go to keep in line with what is working for your target audience.
Google Analytics can help you understand what users do after they land on your website, while Google Search Console can help you understand how your website performs in Google Search.
Use Google Search Console to monitor:
- Search queries
- Impressions and clicks
- Indexing issues
- Sitemap status
- Product enhancement warnings
- Breadcrumb issues
- Core Web Vitals
- Pages gaining or losing visibility
Together, Google Analytics and Google Search Console give you a much clearer picture of your WooCommerce SEO performance.
Final Words
Optimising your WooCommerce platform for search engines is a surefire way to increase your organic traffic stream and boost conversions.
If you’re struggling to rank on Google or garner much interest through search engine results, then this WooCommerce SEO tutorial is for you.
Start with the basics: install the right SEO plugin, set up your permalink structure, submit your sitemap, research your keywords, optimise your category and product pages, improve your images, check schema, speed up the site and monitor performance over time.
This guide should give you plenty to think about and work on within your WooCommerce store, but if you want to go one step further and have your site given a close inspection by an SEO pro, give us a shout.
