How to Configure SEO

Nowadays, search engine optimization or SEO gradually defines itself as an essential medium
to help e-business gain competitive advantages. Operating SEO productively is the answer to
all of the hard-solving queries of every store owner about how to gain more traffic, how to attract
more customers, or how to make the brand more reputable and credible. The fact is that SEO
evolves day by day, so whoever makes use of it more quickly and effectively will gain
tremendous achievements. According to Rank Executives, 60% of web searchers click on the
initial link, which means first comes first serves. And millions of the following results will have to
share the rest 40%. How miserable! Clearly, the uppermost position on the search engine
results gives the business more chances to attract customers, strengthen brands, and boost
sales.

To help eCommerce stores popularize themselves on famous search engines like Google, Bing,
etc, Mageplaza has developed SEO Extension - a powerful yet easy-to-implement plugin for
online store administrators. Outstandingly, the Standard version of this module is totally FREE!
You can check it out!
In this article, I want to take you on a fast ride to understand thoroughly SEO configuration of a
Magento 2 e-store using Mageplaza extension. Don’t miss a single word until the end or you will
regret it, I assume. Let’s get started!

Table of contents

1. Unique Content
1.1. Canonical Tags for Categories
1.2. Canonical Tags for Products
1.3. Canonical URLs
2. Structured data
2.1. Search Engine Optimization for specific products
2.2. Structure Data Editor
3. Metadata SEO rules
3.1. General SEO rules
3.2. Rule information
3.3. Conditions
3.4. Actions
3.5. Preview
4. Control of site indexing
4.1. HTML Sitemap
4.2. XML Sitemap
 5. SEO checklist
6. Hreflang tag
7. Other features
7.1. Business Information
7.2. Social Profiles
7.3. Verifications
7.4. Redirects
7.5. Cross Links
7.6. Dashboard Reports

Of course, every adjustment means nothing if you don’t turn the module on. Navigate Stores >
Configuration > Mageplaza Extension: SEO > General and choose “Yes” as our first step in this
journey.

Unique Content
If you want to improve your SEO effectiveness and attain higher search ranking, it is essential to
get rid of content duplication, which means avoiding the same content in multiple URLs.

Canonical Tags for Categories

Canonical tags for categories can be set to display when admins navigate Stores >
Configuration > Mageplaza Extension: SEO > Duplicate content, then choose “Yes” in the Use
Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories field.

Canonical Tags for Products

Similar to the above procedure, enabling Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products at the
backend will help Canonical tags of Source Product to be presented at the frontend.
Canonical URLs

This configuration allows admins to decide whether to include canonical URL to Meta Header
Tags, as well as prevent all canonical URL for pages with NOINDEX robots due to its toxicity to
the SEO process. Moreover, admins can disable Canonical URL for specific pages with ease by
adding data right in the box.

Structure data
Admins can easily make any changes in structured data to adjust the display of products’
search results as they wish. No more boring content, no more muddled data arrangement. All
the basic info is adjustable and can be shown logically, which helps search results have a
higher ranking with more clicks.

To edit the structured data at the backend, the initial task is to enable it. This will also allow
products to be displayed on search engines on the frontend with their key information. Besides,
in the Enable Sitelink Searchbox field, admins can choose to show store search box along
with the store link or not.
Search Engine Optimization for specific products

Online store merchants can edit the product information in details, which will be shown on
search engines. More strikingly, that search results can be reviewed right on top. The only task
that admins have to do is typing in each blank what they want to be displayed. Impressively,
SEO insights notify the SEO effectiveness by colors based on the length of text so that admins
can make proper alterations.

Structure Data Editor

Look at the gif to see the structure data editing procedure! You can preview the changes of
structure data along with the text-length notification right when you add information in Meta
Title, URL Key, and Meta description fields. How convenient it is!

Metadata SEO rules

Setting SEO rules is the most important task for store administrators. Generating those rules
logically and effectively is the best way to have store ranked higher in search results. Based on
those rules, metadata for products, categories, and CMS pages can be configured with several
variables.
General SEO rules

After enabling the SEO rules, admins can set the application of H1 Heading for Products and
Category Pages. Also, if you want to automatically replace an image with text when that image
can’t be displayed on pages, you can choose “Yes” in Enable Automatic Alt Image field.

You can create new rules for certain pages like Product Pages, Category Pages, CMS Pages
as mentioned above, and even Layered Navigation. Let’s see how to do so in the gif below, and
I will explain in details later!
Rule information

After selecting a page to add a new rule, store admins can provide that new rule’s key contents
including name, status (Enable/Disable), where to apply, and the priority extent.

Conditions

The rules have to base on some principles, which will be regulated in Conditions. The
procedure is not complicated at all. What you have to do is just clicking on the small green icon
and searching in the provided list to choose the conditions you want. What if you don’t want that
condition anymore? Click on the red delete icon, that’s it!
Actions

I must say this is amongst the most important and complex configurations at the backend. Since
metadata is so essential to make search results readable and understandable by the majority, it
is adjusted with numerous variables to ensure the best SEO performance. Fortunately,
Mageplaza has provided a range of fixed syntax to use that make admins’ work a lot easier. The
rules enable to set 3 different templates of Meta Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords.

Preview
The metadata of all products including title, description, and keywords can be reviewed in a list.
Admins can check all of those information simultaneously instead of viewing each product at a
time.

Control of site indexing

Even though these two sitemaps all help manage site indexing at the backend, HTML sitemap
and XML one are used by different target objects. HTML is mostly built for users, whereas XML
is for search engine crawlers.

HTML Sitemap

HTML sitemap configuration enables admins to turn on/off HTML sitemap and other more
detailed items including Categories Sitemap, Page Sitemap, and Products Sitemap. Also,
admins are capable of adding more links by pasting their addresses into the blank box. HTML
can be placed at the bottom of site pages if store merchants choose so. Since it listed all of the
pages on the websites, users can search for their target destination quickly.
The image below is an example of how HTML sitemap is displayed on the frontend.
XML Sitemap

The configuration of XML sitemap is simply to enable or disable homepage optimization and
additional links. After turning it on, XML sitemap can provide the data of each page that web
users can visit. In details, those data include the last time site was updated, the frequency of
those updates, and the importance of a specific page to others on store’s site. This sitemap is
critically important since it helps search engine spiders to understand the site easier and thus
helps the page to get higher ranking and access rate.
Let’s see how an XML sitemap is presented.
SEO checklist

Located at Marketing > SEO: Checklist, SEO Checklist notifies the current status of your
stores’ SEO to help owners know what function is ok, and what needs checking. Based on this
checklist, you can adjust the settings in such a suitable way as to improve your store SEO
performance.
Hreflang tags

Hreflang tag is super helpful when store owners want to better the search procedure by
translating the search results into different languages in order to target to specific users in
several geographical areas. Hreflang URL can be enabled in particular aspects namely Product,
Category, and CMS Page. Besides, admins can decide to use language code from default
locale section. The language code is varied based on store merchants’ preference. The recent
choice can be set as default language if you select “Default Store View” in X-Default field.

Other features
Many other configurations can be done in Stores > Settings > Configurations >
Mageplaza Extension: SEO.
Business Information

The detailed information of the company can be viewed in the search results if store owners
enable it. If you don’t want to display a specific piece of data, just leave that field blank.
Social Profiles

Various social channels are provided at the backend. Enter your verified addresses in the
respective fields. Remember that this will be displayed only if you have already activated the
Business Information.
Verifications

This feature allows admins to certify their ownership of their site by adding verification code for
certain web services namely Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Pinterest and
Yandex Webmaster Tools.

Redirects

Admins can activate this function by choosing “Yes” in `Enable Redirects` field. Moreover,
`Better 404 page` allows all pages that crash 404 error to be reloaded and moved back to the
homepage.

Cross Links
Undoubtedly, using crosslinks is a helpful method to direct customers to your sales page from
anywhere, at any time with the links embedded in particular keywords. SEO crosslink will work
at the frontend only when admins turn its configuration on at the backend.
You can add the terminology that you want to attach links when navigating Marketing > SEO
> Manage Crosslinks. Then, select Add new term button.
Every detail of that term can be edited easily. Not only can you decide which keywords and
which links to add but you can also choose where and how to display them. For example, `Link
target` enables admins to select how pages will appear when customers click on that keyword,
which can be in a new tab, in a pop-up, or right in the current page. Additionally, to avoid the
situation of a page being overwhelmed with auto-linked terms, admins can limit the number of
links per page. Of course, you can also edit/delete existing terms with ease.

Dashboard Reports

The quickest way to keep track of your SEO performance is through daily reports on
Dashboard, so if you want to use this function, activate it by selecting Yes” in both Enable SEO
reports and Show Report on Dashboard fields. This report then allows e-store owners to be
aware of the duplicate content, missing metadata, low count word, and erorr pages.

Final words
It is undeniable that Mageplaza SEO extension is a must-have tool for any eCommerce store if
they want to advance their SEO performance and get higher ranking for their site in popular
search engines. Thanks to this module, carrying out complex SEO procedure has never been
easier and cheaper. In case you forget, let me remind you that Mageplaza SEO standard
version is FREE of charge. However, the Professional and Ultimate versions are also available
for anyone who desires to perfect their SEO resolution. You get what you pay for, don’t worry!
Of course, that SEO is essential doesn’t mean that it decides everything (even when the
majority of shoppers click on our links, they still can leave easily if there isn’t a single thing
attracting them!) but it gives us more chances to reach our target customers, and thus more
chances to gain good reputation, to sell more and rocket our profits.

Blog: Mage2tuts