Shopping cart vendors make some pretty outrageous claims and while most of there claims can and are backed up we thought we would temper there enthusiasm with a list of things te Shopping Carts could do to improve search engine visibility for there users.
We will endeavor to keep this list up to date – but bare in mind that shopping cart software can be updated quickly and new plug-ins are being developed everyday. If you notice a search engine is not on this list don’t assume it is without fault, it just means we haven’t reviewed it fully yet – leave us a comment or send us an email and we will move it up our list.
All of them:
One thing we noticed with all of them if that with a little effort they could stop some SEO errors before they needed to be optimized.
- Don’t allow special character’s in Product name and page titles, and if you replace them out use a little common sense not just straight blond replacement
Big Commerce:
Does not create a sitemap.xml and obviously does not add sitemap.xml entry to robots.txt – for software vetted by Aaron Wall we are most unimpressed. I expect this will be fixed quite soon.
X-Cart:
Creates static HTML duplicates of you shopping cart but does not include canonical URL’s or other methods to mitigate duplicate content.
According to the X-Cart website it’s biggest SEO claim is that it allows you to specify META tags – while not technically not a short coming, META tags are all but ignored these days so it is a token benefit.
Shopify:
Adds sitemap.xml and friendly URLs but really that is where it ends. You have no access to page META data (for all the use it is anyway), a plain texbox so unless you know HTML you can not create very compelling product descriptions.
Interspire:
No Canonical URL support – although you can get it as a plug-in from Search Engine Strategies
Unless you know HTML you can not add HTML Head content, like extra META tags for noindex, noodp etc.
Zen Cart:
Yeah, well … if you want search engine lovliness just skip Zen Cart altogether – it just isn’t worth even talking about right now.
Magento:
If you can install and manage this monster of a store you will have the most wonderfully optimised and search engine friendly shopping cart. Shame most people get overwhelmed and walk away from it – the day Magento simplify it’s usage is the day the wipe the floor with every other shopping cart there is.
Volusion:
Does some weird things to make page title’s more search engine friendly. One big one we noticed was that it replaced apostophe’s with underscores which leads to some average looking URLs like /Car_Product_s/52.htm – I mean really ? surely /Car_Products/52.htm is easier for everyone and everything.
URLs only partially friendly – there seems to be only a surface job done here, as you drill into the site and extended product information the friendliness disappears.
osCommerce:
Newly installed osCommerce has all the search engine friendly features of a tepid glass of water. Thankfully as an open source product there are a few options to install plug-ins to fix that. Search the osCommerce website for Ultimate SEO URLs it has the best feature set and support.
eBay:
After we first published this article we were asked to add eBay. Search engine wise you are dreaming if you only use eBay. Create a static website on your own domain and point the shopping cart links at your eBay store if you want to be found it is your only hope.
The Conclusion:
I know we come down hard on Interspire and Big Commerce but they are clearly miles out in front of anything else on the market. We expect more because with someone like Mitchell Harper at the helm it really should have zero-config SEO from the outset. X-Cart is a long way off the pace but is about to be re-invented and we will revise our comments as soon as we see it in action, we expect big things and with all the players in the market at the moment they will have to step there game up. As with most things shopping cart Magento is clearly out in front, unfortunately using it is like trying to teach an elephant to bodyboard.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I am using Bigcommerce for my site and I really like it special compared to the other carts (Volusion is a big ile of steaming &^$%). But there are some little things that don't work about Bigcommerce.
I cannot customize the brand pages, there is no easy way to canonicalize the domain.
I guess nothing is perfect. But it's still much better then the others.
My two cents.
I never understood why Interspire (the folks that create Big Commerce) don't have built in support for canonical URL's. There is a talented bloke down the coast here that has created a plug in for Interspire to fix the problem http://www.shoppingcartstrategies.com/interspire/... – I haven't checked if you can add it to Big Commerce (via FTP) but it would be worth a peek
hi Andrew,
thanks for the link to the plug-in.
Unfortunately I haven’t found a way to get it working on BigCommerce. We’ll have to wait for the developers on this one.
So with Magento, would a business owner be “more independent” then the others? I can’t stand feeling trapped when Volusion’s support goes down hill – I even called them the other day about integrating a blog onto my site – mind you I am willing to pay the $. They told me they could not do that, however, I noticed one of their big clients has one – they told me “that client is a big partner so they are a little bit different” – nice! That really sucks!
Yes you can integrate a blog into a Volusion site – you need to host is separately though because there is no mechanism that allows you to host it with Volusion – the larger customers face this limitation as well – they just get better support and answers to there questions. Visit my contact form and get in touch and I will help you get the blog running and integrated.
Would you be more independent with Magento – yes I suppose but you would face other, equally cumbersome problems, but you would have that sense of ownership you don’t get with a hosted solution.
Will do Andrew – I am on Volusion’s highest plan… does it make any sense I should not get equal support? After all, I am supposed to be getting “Premium Support”
You should ideally, and it sucks that you don’t, I wish I could give you a solid reason that Volusion (and most vendors) don’t treat all customers and support tickets equally – they just don’t and probably never will.
Look for a Volusion community (forum, boards, chat rooms, blogs) and reach out for help there – more often than not it is faster and better
The reason you do not get solid support is because everyone, well about 95% hate their job. The company is crumbling internally which is resulting in a decline in customer satisfaction and strides in development. Too much time is being invested in rehiring and training the new people. 3 months go by, and the new people understand how crap their job is. Until this is fixed, Volusion will continue to upset their customers, and fall behind innovation. It’s weak to see small competitors like BC, Core Commerce, and 3D Cart all innovate more than Volusion, and Volusion is much larger than all of them combined. So if there is one thing I want anyone reading this to takeaway, it’s Volusion doesnt take care of their people, therefore the customers will get the crap end of the deal in the long run.
If you ever revisit this post for additions, perhaps you could briefly mention your opinions on CoreCommerce? Thanks for the post!
I am beating Core Commerce to death at the moment – when I see it bleed I’ll let you know