When most people think about SEO, they jump to keywords, blogs, and backlinks. But for ecommerce businesses—especially those with large product catalogs or custom functionality—technical SEO is what makes everything else work.
If your ecommerce site is slow, difficult to crawl, or full of indexing errors, even the best content in the world won’t help. That’s where technical SEO comes in.
Technical SEO vs. Marketing SEO: What’s the Difference?
Google and other search engines are in the business of providing a product (search results) to their customers (the user). Their goal is to provide the most relevant results to the user as quickly — and easily — as possible. In turn, Google rewards sites that provide quality content and a favorable user experience.
While Technical SEO and Marketing SEO both help your site rank higher in search, each has distinct roles and related activities. Below are some examples for each:
Technical SEO
- Improving site speed
- Fixing broken URLs and redirect errors
- Resolving content loading errors
- Optimizing image files
- Creating an SEO-friendly site structure
Strategy & Marketing SEO
- Writing blog posts and other content
- Performing keyword research
- Managing Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads
- Improving metadata
- Building internal links and backlinks
We’ve met many clients who’ve invested significant time and money in the marketing side of SEO, but are baffled why they aren’t seeing results. Once we uncover the technical areas that need improved, we start making real progress.
Get a Complimentary Site Performance Audit
Get a live consultation on the technical factors impacting your website's speed and performance.
Why Technical SEO Matters in Ecommerce
Technical SEO is the safeguard that optimizes your site’s fundamentals for search engine access and indexing.
When search engines can’t access your online store, the value of the content or products you offer becomes irrelevant because your site won’t appear in search results. This is especially true for ecommerce sites with a substantial volume of pages, including category, subcategory, and product pages.
Ecommerce sites—especially on platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify—are different from standard websites. They often contain:
- Hundreds or thousands of product URLs
- Multiple variations of the same product
- Filtering and search features that generate duplicate or dynamic URLs
- Frequent changes to URLs, categories, and availability
- Heavy image use and third-party integrations that slow performance
These elements create unique technical challenges that directly impact SEO.
How IntuitSolutions Helps Online Store Improve Technical SEO and Close More Sales
Without proper attention to technical SEO, your ecommerce store can suffer from:
- Pages that never get indexed because of poor internal linking or crawl traps
- Duplicate content due to filter combinations or variant URLs
- Slow load times, which increase bounce rate and reduce conversion
- Broken links and redirect chains, confusing both users and Google
- Lack of structured data, limiting visibility in search features like rich snippets
In short: if Google can’t understand or access your site efficiently, your rankings—and your revenue—will suffer.
What Platforms Like BigCommerce and Shopify Get Right (and Where They Need Help
Many ecommerce platforms, like BigCommerce and Shopify, offer built-in SEO advantages, such as:
- Responsive, mobile-ready themes
- CDN and SSL support
- Schema markup for product pages
However, merchants often need custom development or expert guidance to address:
- Canonical tags on filtered URLs
- Custom 404s and redirect strategies
- Schema for bundled products or blog content
- Crawl budget issues from excessive dynamic URLs
- Core Web Vitals performance optimization
Rank Higher with Technical SEO Enhancements for your Ecommerce Store
If you’re serious about helping your site rank higher, perform better, and improve conversions, it’s crucial to implement the right Technical SEO strategy.
We have a proven track record helping hundreds of merchants across industries in all stages of growth. We’ll help you get your site performing its best and driving the results you need to succeed online.
Send us a message or call us at 866-901-4650 to discuss how we can help your business.
Get a Complimentary Site Performance Audit
Get a live consultation on the technical factors impacting your website's speed and performance.
