Search Engine Optimization is an important area to address when implementing and developing an ecommerce solution to ensure competitive search engine performance. The following guide outlines current Spree Search Engine Optimization features and future optimization development possibilities.
Existing Search Engine Optimization Features
Chapter 1 contains a description of the work that has been completed to address common search engine optimization issues.
Relevant, Meaningful URLs
The helper method seo_url(taxon) yields SEO friendly URLs such as demo.spreecommerce.com/products/xm-direct2-interface-adapter and demo.spreecommerce.com/t/categories/headphones.
Each controller is configured to serve the content using these keyword-relevant, meaningful URLs.
On Page Keyword Targeting
Several enhancements have been made to improve on-page keyword targeting. The admin interface provides the ability to manage meta descriptions and meta keywords at the product level. Additionally, H1 tags are used throughout the site for product and taxonomy names. The ease of extension development and layout changes allows you to target keywords throughout the site.
Clean Content
Spree uses Skeleton, a responsive CSS framework that allows clean HTML that also responds well to any screen size. Having clean HTML with minimal inline JavaScript and CSS is considered to be a factor in search engine optimization.
On Site Performance Optimization
Spree has been configured to serve one CSS and one JavaScript file on every page (excluding extension inclusions). Minimizing HTTP requests is considered an important factor in search engine optimization as the server performance is an important influence in the search engine crawl behavior for a site.
Google Analytics integration
Google Analytics has been integrated into the Spree core and can be managed from the “Analytics Trackers” section of the admin. Google Analytics is not included on your store if this preference is not set. The Google Analytics setup includes e-commerce conversion tracking.
Planned Search Engine Optimization Features
Although several common search engine optimization issues have been addressed, we are always looking for the new best practices in SEO. Contributions to address issues will be very welcome. Visit the contributing to spree section to learn more about contributing.
Product and Taxonomy Page Title Enhancements
Page titles are an important part of search engine optimization and should be meaningful and relevant to the page content. There are a few configuration settings for getting the best page titles possible. “Site Name” will appear in the beginning of each of your titles. When possible, we assign an appropriate title after that (product name, taxon name, etc), but when we can’t do that, we use the “Default Seo Title”.
Alt Attribute on Product Images
The alt attribute on product images currently pulls data from product titles or the image filename. Enhancing the image alt tag can improve image search performance.
Known Duplicate Content Issues
In the Spree demo, it is a known issue that demo.spreecommerce.com contains duplicate content to demo.spreecommerce.com/products. Duplicate content can be a detriment to search engine performance as external links are divided among duplicate content pages. As a result, duplicate content pages may not only not be excluded from the main search engine index, but pages may also rank poorly in comparison to other sites where all external links go to one non-duplicated page.
Integration of Content Management System or Content
There has been quite a bit of interest in development of CMS integration into Spree. Having good content is an important part of search engine optimization, as it not only can improve on page keyword targeting, but it also can improve the popularity of a site which can in turn improve search engine optimization.
Tool Integration
In addition to integration of Google Analytics, several other tools can be implemented for SEO purposes such as Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Webmaster Tools and Quantcast. Social media optimization tools such as Pinterest, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter may also be integrated to improve social networking site performance.
Spree SEO Extensions
The following list shows extensions that can improve search engine performance. Refer to the GitHub README for developer notes.
External Search Engine Optimization Efforts
Spree cannot control factors such as external links, quality of external links, server performance and capabilities. These areas should not be ignored in implementation of search engine optimization efforts.