Search engine optimization for shopware shops is about reaching the right target group. Shopware is indeed software that not only offers a great user experience but also has great SEO functions. We will show you the best SEO tips for your Shopware online shop.
What is Shopware?
Shopware was founded in 2004 and has developed into a leading eCommerce platform. In the Local market, Shopware is the market leader, but the company is also growing outside of Germany.
Finally, Shopware has become the most important alternative to:
- Magento,
- WooCommerce
- or Shopify developed.
The online community is enthusiastic about the vision of the platform: “The best buying experience on every device” is enthusiastic. And rightly so.
Shopware is supported by a lively community of developers who have already developed over 3,500 plugins and hundreds of themes.
Do you have a shopware shop, but no SEO success yet? Then sneak up! In our ultimate guide, we will tell you how to increase organic traffic in your shopware shop!
How do you manage to get your Shopware Shop well?
Before we can answer this question, it is important to understand how SEO works.
What is SEO?
SEO is the abbreviation for search engine optimization. It is generally a method with which attempts are made to improve the visibility of a website in the search results. The following applies: the further up on the search result and the more often a website appears in the search results, the more visitors you get. You can then convert these visitors into customers.
SEO has three important areas
Technology: The technical basis of a website that helps search engines to find and understand your site as quickly and efficiently as possible. It doesn’t work without a good foundation. A Shopware 6 Shop is perfect for SEO!
Relevance: For which search queries are your content relevant? If you know your target group, you will best create content for you that is useful for you. Do not primarily think of the search engine, but what is important for your customers.
Authority: Links to your website (so-called “backlinks”) from other pages with a similar topic strengthen your authority and trustworthiness.
In this guide for the SEO optimization of Shopware online shops, we focus primarily on technology and relevance. Backlinks come from outside and are therefore the same for every shop platform.
Shopware 6 SEO
Shopware 6 is the latest version of the popular online shop software. Are there any special features of the SEO for Shopware 6 shops compared to the predecessor Shopware 5? Yes, there are some important changes to search engine optimization in the new version. We’ll show you what’s new and give you a short guide on how you can best implement SEO on your Shopware 6 Shop.
What is new to Shopware 6 SEO?
You will appreciate the use of Shopware 6 if you want to edit your shop on any device. Thanks to the new SEO functions, it is now much easier to write content for your Shopware 6 shop.
With the new shopping Experience solution, each page of your online shop is adapted to the needs of users. In contrast to the SEO functions of Shopware 5, the new version can adapt faster to new SEO requirements.
Differences: Shopware 5 and Shopware 6 SEO
There are some innovations around SEO in Shopware 6, compared to the previous Shopware 5. Shopware developers claim that the new version of Shopware 6 was developed from scratch with the latest technologies. The platform should be ideal for all new e-commerce SEO requirements. We show you here what the most important changes for search engine optimization are.
Below you read our best Shopware 6 SEO tips. I wish you success!
SEO for pictures in Shopware 6
Among other things, the new SEO functions include the possibility of the pictures you upload
- New file names,
- Old attributes
- and to give titles.
The file name of the picture
The picture File Name helps search engines with the assignment on a topic. It should briefly describe what can be seen in the picture. This is relatively easy with product images. You can call the manufacturer and the model. In other pictures, you can describe what can be seen in a few words. Separate the words with a hyphen. The name is interesting for Google’s search for pictures. It is best to use a keyword in the name.
Alt-attribute in pictures
If the image cannot be loaded, the old text shows an alternative instead. This is particularly important for screen readers who use people with restrictions. Therefore, all search engines read this note on an image and attach great importance to it. Use the old text to describe the picture with the keyword as well as possible for this entire page. Without the text that is incomprehensible because you concentrate too much on the keyword.
Title of the picture
In the title of your pictures, you put a short text on the description again. It can be a little shorter than the old text. When you go to your picture, this text is displayed in a small pop-up.
SEO URLs in Shopware 6
In Shopware 6 there are now really practical templates for your URLs. This makes it easier for you to live for a good URL structure.
A good SEO online shop URL, for example, is something like: www.domain.com/category/product/
You can now easily create such a template in Shopware 6 and thus generate “speaking URLs”. Fortunately, special characters or long rows of numbers are no longer necessary. This is particularly important when sharing from the left.
Clear links are not only clicked more often but are also much nicer to look at than addresses that are not immediately understood.
Shopware SEO optimization
What is the best SEO optimization for your Shopware Shop? This is clearly one of the most common questions about Shopware online shops.
There is no one best SEO tip that applies to every shopware shop. The most important thing is that you have a good understanding of what search engine optimization is and how it can help your shopware shop. Good SEO helps your pages to get better positions in the search engines. So more people will reach your shop.
Shopware is undoubtedly a well-known and widespread e-commerce software. But that doesn’t mean that it has no weaknesses. It is true that Shopware is equipped with all the functions you need to optimize your own online shop for search engines. But that doesn’t mean that everything works automatically.
You have to know a lot about SEO for Shopware in order to best use the existing functions. Then the result is hopefully better positions in the search results and therefore more customers in your online shop.
If you are interested in Shopware SEO, it is best to start understanding how SEO generally works. You can find that and special tips for your Shopware SEO in this info post.
If you have any questions and want to discuss SEO for your Shopware Shop, you can contact us at any time without obligation.
The Best Shopware SEO Tips
Shopware SEO Tip No. 1
The first point is to use many pictures and if possible (YouTube) videos from your products. Pictures say more than 1000 words. And Google loves this type of media. Not least because YouTube belongs to Google. But please don’t exaggerate it. ?
SEO Tip No. 2
Another important SEO Shopware tip: Add a blog to your website. With a blog, you can show the search engines that your website is alive. Link your articles to external sources when they are relevant. This usually gives your shop a higher ranking in the results of search engines.
SEO Tip No. 3
Contact the operators of websites with high-quality content that matches your online shop so that you can link to your site. Perhaps you can exchange guest posts on your blog and place helpful links for both sides. Follow your incoming links with a tool and use the data to improve your SEO strategy.
Shopware SEO short tips:
- Add a sitemap so that search engines can find your site quickly.
- Use a keyword research tool like the Google Keyword planner to find suitable search terms. So you can optimize your blog articles and product descriptions.
- Also, use long search terms (long-tail keywords) for your Shopware SEO optimization if you are eligible for a product or a topic in the blog.
- Use the right keywords in the right places: Place e.g. keywords for your product directly in the product title
Shopware Sitemap: What you have to consider
A sitemap is a page or a file in which all links from your Shopware Shop are listed. It helps search engines because you can crawl your website better and faster. What do you have to consider in your Shopware Sitemap? The Shopware Sitemap is the heart. The more products in your Shopware Shop, the more important the sitemap. You should always keep the sitemap up to date. This means:
- New Products,
- Products that are sold out
- and products that were removed from the shop
Your Shopware XML sitemap
Shopware automatically creates your gzip-compressed XML sitemap. You can find them at this address: www.yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
These side types are automatically included:
- Product category pages
- Product detail pages
- Blog category pages
- Blog article pages
- Manufacturer pages
The following side types are not included:
Normal pages (e.g. pages only with forms, such as contact)
Set Shopware XML sitemap
There is only one setting for the Shopware XML Sitemap. You can determine how it is created. To change this, go to Settings> Sitemap
There you can set the update nervous and the method.
The creation of your Shopware XML sitemap should be an automatic process. You don’t want it to be created live after each change. That would have an impact on the speed of your online shop.
With the help of a cron job, you can set a regular update. The value for the cache time is given in seconds. 86,400 seconds (1 day) are sufficient for most Shopware 6 shops.
Of course, you can also adapt this value to your needs. If your pages don’t change so often, you can also set it to a week. If you insert new articles several times a day, it may be better to set a lower value.
In Shopware 5, these settings could be easily managed via the backend (settings> Cronjob). Such a tool is no longer available in the Shopware 6 Administration. This gap has closed a Shopware extension.
If you have installed the extension, just go to Settings> System> Cron Manager
There you activate the cronjob for creating your Shopware 6 Sitemap.
That’s it. With these simple steps, you set the XML Sitemap from your Shopware Shop. ?
Guide: The best Shopware SEO plugins
Shopware is known for the fact that it has powerful functions from the start. With Shopware 6 you can’t go wrong if you want to start an online store.
Shopware also offers the option of installing different plugins to expand the possibilities of the platform. In this section, we show you the 4 best Shopware SEO plugins.
Shopware SEO plugins
All plugins for Shopware are available directly from Shopware via the “Extensions” section. Here you will find hundreds of extensions or plugins. You can filter them after the shopware version, the ratings, and the price.
In the list of Shopware plugins, you will see a label in the top right. Over there:
- gold
- Silver
- bronze
- Blue
Excellent extensions with gold, silver, or bronze are particularly high quality. They were awarded Shopware based on their ratings and number of downloads for their quality and good support. If a plugin has a blue label, Shopware has developed the plugin itself.
1. Shopware Plugin: SEO Professional – From Dreischild GmbH
A web shop depends on the number of visitors. SEO can be an important element for this. With a website optimized for search engines, you have a greater chance of getting a higher position in the search results.
Although the standard version of Shopware contains many SEO optimizations, this plugin offers you an additional advantage. The plugin enables options such as:
- Slug adjustments,
- Different meta titles and descriptions,
- The manual setting of canonical tags
- And the adjustment of individual pages to NO index.
These functions will make your SEO life much easier.
2. Google Tag Manager + Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking for Shopware – by Webmatch GmbH
Measuring is knowledge. This applies particularly to the world of e-commerce. Do you prefer to rely on data and optimize your Shopware Shop for SEO based on the collected information? Then this Shopware SEO Plugin is just right for you!
The easiest way to do this is via Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. The enhanced e-commerce tracking of the plugin collects your important e-commerce data entirely
automatically. It takes care of the process comfortably so that you don’t have to touch the code of your shop.
3. Google Shopping Professional – by Synergy Networks GmbH
Do you want more attention for your products? Then you should definitely appear on Google Shopping! This is the list of articles you see when you are looking for a specific product.
With a simple implementation, this extension as one of the best Shopware SEO plugins ensures that your Store attracts more visitors. Which of course also leads to more orders in the best case.
With this Shopware Plugin, you export all important data from your online store to the Google Merchant Center. It immediately recognizes all the required, relevant product data.
The plugin saves you a lot of work that you would otherwise have to be done manually. A time that you can use much better for other tasks.
4. Google Sitemap Generator
Shopware 6 automatically creates a sitemap for your page. You can read how this works above in the Shopware Sitemap section.
One of the best Shopware SEO plugins is still the Google Sitemap Generator. It extends the standard Shopware functions for your sitemap. For example, you can easily exclude individual categories, subcategories, and articles from the sitemap. In this way, the search engines can concentrate on other more important pages.
Then when you call up your sitemap, you will see that a new grouped view for the individual sitemaps now appears.
With the Shopware SEO Plugin: Google Sitemap Generator, Shopware’s standard sitemap is significantly upgraded. With just a few clicks you get these super practical subcategories:
- Article sitemap
- Category-sitemap
- Blog-sitemap
- Picture-sitemap
- Manufacturer-sitemap
Shopware Meta Description: Instructions
The Shopware Metadata consists of the title and the Meta description in your Shopware shop. They are individually created for each page and have a major impact on the ranking, both directly and indirectly.
What does that mean?
If you use important keywords in your title, your pages will be better ranked for these keywords. And once your pages have ranked, you want users to click on your snippet and not on that of your competitors.
The title and the meta description of whether a user clicks on your snippet or not. Consider you as your digital figurehead.
So it is important that you think carefully about what you write in your titles and meta description. You can save a lot of time if you put on a template. For example:
- Name of the product
- Term according to which people are often looking for in connection with the product (the keyword)
- Followed by a separator
- And then the name of your shop
In most cases, this should lead to a good title and a good meta description. For selected important products, you can of course also work out a very individual title and meta description. Not every shoelace needs your full attention. ?
Set Shopware Meta Description
So how do you set your Shopware 6 Meta data on the title and meta description? It’s actually pretty easy.
You can enter both information in a field displayed in the backend of your Shopware 6 shop. Simply go to Catalog> Select Product> Select Product> Meta information
How do I find a Shopware SEO agency?
Shopware is a great tool to improve search engine optimization from your online shop. For example, Shopware helps you optimize your product pages and has integrated many other helpful SEO functions. For shop operators, it can still be overwhelming to understand the topic of SEO in full. And let’s be honest: are there not many more important things that you could do instead?
- Answer questions from customers
- Make new partnerships
- Or easy to advertise you and your product?
Are qualified Shopware partners and have a lot of experience in search engine optimization of online shops. We are happy to support you in your project. Just let’s speak without obligation and find out if we fit together! ?
