Common SEO Mistakes in Magento 2 and How Canonical Tags Help Fix Them?

Running an eCommerce store is no easy task. One must look after the marketing, inventory management, customer service, and more. Indeed, juggling all these tasks can be quite challenging. For instance, the store admin may be too focused on customer service and end up ignoring critical aspects of the marketing strategy.

Resultantly, this can impact the store’s online visibility and undermine the sales. Speaking of marketing strategy, every eCommerce store owner must be familiar with search engine optimisation (SEO). It is the most effective way to increase the quality and quantity of organic traffic.

Although every eCommerce store utilises SEO, the results vary significantly. The reason is the store owners often make common SEO mistakes which impact their search visibility. For example, they fail to add canonical tags in Magento 2 correctly, leading to content duplication issues and more.

In this article, we will list the most common SEO mistakes in Magento 2 and discuss how canonical tags help fix them.

Common Magento 2 SEO Mistakes and Role of Canonical Tags in Fixing Them

1. Duplicate Content Issues

   The Problem

   You may notice that online stores have multiple URLs pointing to the same product, category, or other webpages. For instance:

   www.example/product1.com
   www.example/categoryabc/product1.com

   In the above example, both URLs are routing to the same product. The only difference is the first URL points to the product directly, while the second one includes the category as well. Likewise, the same product may be accessible after implementing a filter or using the sorting feature.

   You may think the problem is unique to Magento 2 alone, but that’s not the case. Instead, every eCommerce store owner regardless of the platform encounters it. The real issue is the search engines consider each URL as a separate page. Since the content is same for each URL, search engines don’t know which page to prioritise.

   Ultimately, different URLs for the same product or category are being indexed. This leads to lower overall rankings in the search engine results page. Thus, despite a robust SEO strategy, the store will have trouble ranking their page on top. There’s also a possibility that the store may face penalties for uploading duplicate content.

   The Solution

   The only solution to the above problem is to add canonical tags in Magento 2. A canonical tag is simply an HTML element which tells the search engine which page to prioritise. In other words, it tells the search engine which page is the master copy. Search engines will automatically ignore the other pages.

   For example, there are 5 URLs pointing to the same product. The best way to go about it is by adding a canonical tag to the main product URL. Search engines like Google will then automatically prioritise the main product URL rather than pagination, filtered navigation, or category URLs.

   In Magento 2, adding a canonical tag for product or category page is quite straightforward. All you need to do is go to the Admin Panel. From there, head to Stores -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Search Engine Optimization. Next, enable canonical tags for product and categories.

2. Mismanaging Pagination

   The Problem

   It is quite likely you have 100s of products on offer. It is not recommended to display all the products in one go. This is where pagination plays a vital role. The products may be displayed over 10, 20, 30, or more pages for better user experience. The problem is store owners fail to properly optimise these paginated pages.

   Resultantly, the search engines have trouble crawling the paginated pages. It is also one of the top reasons behind inefficient crawl budget utilisation, preventing important webpages from being crawled. These issues lead to various problems, including poor rankings and content cannibalisation.

   The Solution

   Again, the only solution to this problem is to add a canonical tag in Magento 2. The tags can be used to tell the search engine to prioritise the main category page. Alternatively, store admins can opt to focus on the first page of the paginated series. But that’s not the only way canonical tags help in dealing with paginated series.

   Most store owners don’t know that by using the "rel=prev" and "rel=next" tags, they can help the search engines understand the order of the paginated series. It can be challenging to add these tags in Magento 2 without coding or technical experience. This is why it is best to use a Magento 2 Canonical URL Extension.

3. Incorrect Canonical URLs for HTTPS and WWW Versions

   The Problem

   Another common problem is that search engines treat the ‘HTTP’ and ‘HTTPS’ protocols as separate URLs. The same is the issue with ‘www’ and ‘non-www’ URLs. Therefore, it is imperative for store owners to address this issue promptly as it results in duplicate content.

   The Solution

   Store owners can add a canonical tag to inform the search engine about the preferred version of the page. For instance, you can signal that ‘https://www.example.com’ is the master copy rather than the one with ‘http’ or ‘non-www’ version. Moreover, it is recommended to keep a consistent URL structure to avoid such issues.

4. Not Using Canonical Tags on Category Pages

   The Problem

   It is quite natural to have the same product assigned to multiple categories. Thus, the same product is accessible using different URLs. Again, this creates content duplication issues and the only way to address it is to add a canonical tag in Magento 2. Otherwise, the search visibility will be impacted.

   The Solution

   While Magento 2 does offer in-built features for adding a canonical tag to category pages, using an extension is always better. The reason is that it provides much more advanced functionality. The canonical tag ensures that only one category page is prioritised over the others.

5. Ignoring Canonical Tags on CMS Pages

   The Problem

   Lastly, store owners put too much emphasis on the category and product pages. Too often, they end up ignoring CMS pages like the home page, about us page, or even the blog section. These pages are important for SEO purposes since they drive considerable traffic. They also provide meaningful information to the users.

   The Solution

   Therefore, it is important to add a canonical tag in Magento 2 for the CMS pages. This will help consolidate link equity and ensure only the optimised version of the webpage is ranked. This will boost your store’s SEO performance significantly and also add create a better user experience.

   Final Thoughts on Canonical Tags in Magento 2

   This concludes our article on the most common SEO mistakes in Magento 2 and how to overcome them using canonical tags. Again, we would like to reiterate the Magento 2 does have in-built features for adding canonical tags. However, the features are quite limited. In most cases, you need to have a certain level of coding knowledge. Therefore, using a third-party extension such as Magento 2 Canonical URLs by FME is a better option.