Even though eCommerce has grown consistently throughout the years, the numbers are anticipated to soar in 2020. 2.14 billion individuals, or roughly 25% of the world’s population, are predicted to conduct online transactions in the upcoming year, in part due to a digital gold rush brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic.
When most businesses go digital, the choice between platforms frequently comes down to WooCommerce vs. Shopify (WordPress is a self-hosting platform with a free plugin called WooCommerce). Which platform is superior for SEO, while they both clearly have pros and cons?
This is not a simple enquiry. It depends, is the succinct response. Millions of people use each of them as a dependable and strong eCommerce platform to run their online product and service sales.
It can be challenging to declare one to be superior to the other because they are generally really identical in all respects. However, there are some significant SEO distinctions between them. In order to help you decide which platform is ideal for you, we will compare Shopify and WordPress only in terms of SEO in this article. Let’s go right to the specifics now.
Pros and Cons of Shopify vs. WordPress(WooCommerce) SEO
Shopify SEO
With over a million users globally, Shopify has made a name for itself as a dominant eCommerce platform. Shopify offers a simple-to-use system that is intended to function properly right out of the box with little configuration, with a focus on non-technical users.
Pros:
Mobile optimisation built-in:
If your website doesn’t function correctly on mobile devices, Google will utilise that as another important ranking factor, which will put you at a significant disadvantage. Using a mobile theme architecture, Shopify makes it easier to optimise your website for mobile use. In essence, they promise that your store will be highly ranked for mobile SEO and will be optimised for mobile.
Rapid loading time:
In addition to the fact that 53 percent of consumers will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load, loading speed is a significant ranking factor for Google. This is where Shopify excels, as websites built on this platform load pages more quickly on average than those built on WordPress/WooCommerce or other self-hosted platforms.
There are principally two causes for that. First off, the architecture of Shopify is based on programmes that use minimal resources and are lightweight. Additionally, because all Shopify stores are housed on their platform, its back-end server technology scales computation to guarantee top performance.
Available SEO apps:
Numerous SEO applications are available in the Shopify app store to boost your online store’s SEO performance, for example, Avada SEO Suite
Cons:
More expensive:
Without considering the costs associated with each platform, the comparison between Shopify and WordPress is incomplete. Shopify is undoubtedly expensive; the entry-level bundle costs $29 per month. You pay more for convenience, but it doesn’t really compare to WordPress’ one-time charge given that you aren’t given the ability to get into the specifics of your SEO.
Less modifications to the technology:
Unfortunately, Shopify forbids users from modifying the SEO component of the platform. It also ensures that more experienced web designers would be let down if they attempted to further improve their site with technological SEO advancements because it is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, eliminating many of the repetitious SEO optimisation operations for the user.
Limited capacity for blogging:
It is impossible to stress how important content is for SEO. Rich and interesting content is crucial for improving your SEO rankings, and Google gives your website’s content a lot of weight.
Unfortunately, when it comes to blogging, Shopify falls behind WordPress. Although you can have a blog on your Shopify website, it lacks the robust blogging functionality that WordPress-powered websites may offer and feels more like an afterthought.
WordPress SEO (WooCommerce)
WordPress is a self-hosting platform with the WooCommerce free plugin. Users of this platform can build a highly configurable eCommerce store. Although the platform and the WooCommerce plugin are free to use, you will need to purchase a license for many of the features you need from independent app developers. WordPress is not quite as user-friendly as Shopify, but the trade-off is that website owners may customise their stores to a great extent, especially when it comes to SEO, learn more.
Pros:
Uses adaptable SEO-friendly code:
WooCommerce was created with SEO in mind from the very beginning. Contrary to Shopify, the abundance of plugins gives you quick and simple access to your platform’s design, offering better SEO optimisation than Shopify’s limited access.
Many different SEO plugins:
You get access to the powerful Yoast SEO plugin if you run an eCommerce store on WordPress. The most popular SEO optimisation tool on the planet is Yoast, and for good reason. Yoast is absolutely unmatched when compared to other SEO tools because it offers the flexibility to adjust everything from names, meta descriptions, and images to image compression, server optimisation, and database access.
Strong blog support:
WordPress was initially developed as a blogging platform, and it has continued to improve over time. Running a WordPress-powered online store enables you to control a content SEO game with blogging features that Shopify users can only imagine.
Cons:
More manual SEO settings are necessary:
If you are not tech-savvy, you will find that WooCommerce has a considerably steeper learning curve than Shopify. If you don’t at least have a fundamental understanding of working with self-hosted WordPress sites, you can rapidly find yourself overwhelmed given that Shopify’s business philosophy is to make it as simple as possible to launch an online store.
Slower website speed on average:
Because of its highly streamlined server design and simpler code, Shopify’s key advantage is a faster loading website. The self-hosted WooCommerce store, on the other hand, is vulnerable to issues with the hosting server, site plugins, picture compression, database optimisation, and a variety of other elements that might negatively impact loading performance. Therefore, Shopify has the benefit in terms of site speed when compared to WooCommerce.
To wrap-up:
So which is better for SEO: WordPress or Shopify? There isn’t a simple solution. It all boils down to what your SEO needs are in this long-running discussion on eCommerce SEO.
If you want an easy-to-use platform for SEO elements, go to Shopify. Even with a minimal level of tweaking, your store will function well. However, more precise SEO improvements won’t allow you to delve further.
If you want a powerful WordPress CMS and a high level of adaptability and usability, choose WordPress. You’ll have a lot more SEO control at your disposal, but it will take more effort and have a steeper learning curve.
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