Looking to join a great team — open to 186/482 visa sponsorship in Australia. Learn more
What Is eCommerce SEO? A Complete Guide for Australian Online Stores

What Is eCommerce SEO? A Complete Guide for Australian Online Stores

Table of Contents

  1. What Is eCommerce SEO?
  2. How eCommerce SEO Works
  3. What Is SEO in eCommerce?
  4. Which eCommerce Platform Is Best for SEO?
  5. Which Website Builder Makes SEO Easier for eCommerce?
  6. What Are UR and DR in SEO for eCommerce?
  7. Technical SEO for eCommerce
  8. Conclusion
  9. FAQ

1. What Is eCommerce SEO?

eCommerce SEO is the process of optimising an online store so Google can easily find, understand, and rank your product pages. It includes improving category pages, product content, internal linking, site speed, structured data, and overall crawlability.

Unlike traditional SEO, eCommerce SEO has unique challenges: thousands of URLs, dynamic filters, product variants, pagination, inventory turnover and duplicate product descriptions. Australian stores often struggle with thin product content, slow Shopify themes, and poor indexing due to JavaScript-loaded product feeds.

If you’re new to SEO in general, start with our foundational guide What Is SEO?.

2. How eCommerce SEO Works

eCommerce SEO works by aligning your site structure and product content with how people search. This includes keyword targeting for buyers (e.g., “buy sneakers online”), improving product titles, adding schema markup, and tightening technical performance. The goal is to help Google quickly understand each product and place it where customers will actually find it.

Strong eCommerce SEO also depends on intent. Many Australian searchers use informational queries before they buy, so stores that cover buying guides, comparisons, and FAQs often outperform product-only sites.

3. What Is SEO in eCommerce?

SEO in eCommerce refers to applying SEO principles directly to online stores, including category hierarchy, product content optimisation, crawl budget management and link-building tailored for commercial pages. It’s not just adding keywords — it’s building a clean, predictable structure Google can easily process.

For many stores, the biggest gains come from fixing product duplication, adding proper product schema, and improving speed on mobile. Even basic improvements in these areas can lift impressions and revenue significantly.

4. What eCommerce Platform Is Best for SEO?

There’s no universal winner — the “best” eCommerce platform for SEO depends on how much control you need. Below is a simplified comparison of the most common platforms used in Australia:

PlatformSEO StrengthsSEO Weaknesses
ShopifyFast hosting, clean structure, good apps, easy for beginners.Rigid URL structure, duplicate content issues, JS-heavy themes.
WooCommerce (WordPress)Full SEO control, flexible URLs, rich plugin ecosystem.Requires proper hosting + technical upkeep.
BigCommerceGood performance and native SEO features.Less customisable for advanced technical setups.

For advanced SEO control, WooCommerce and custom builds perform best. For simplicity and reliability, Shopify still dominates the Australian market. Most small-to-medium businesses choose Shopify because it “just works”, even with its limitations.

5. What Website Builder Is SEO-Easy & eCommerce-Friendly?

Website builders like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix all support eCommerce, but they vary in SEO flexibility. If the priority is “easy + SEO-friendly”, Shopify usually wins because it balances simplicity with enough SEO features to rank well.

Wix and Squarespace are improving, but large Australian stores quickly outgrow their SEO limitations — especially around structured data, URL structure, and speed optimisation.

6. What Are UR and DR in SEO for eCommerce?

UR (URL Rating) and DR (Domain Rating) are Ahrefs metrics used to measure link strength. UR shows the strength of backlinks to a specific page (like a product or category). DR shows the overall authority of the entire domain.

For eCommerce sites, DR helps the whole store rank better, while UR affects individual product and category pages. A category with strong UR can outperform a competitor even if their domain has higher DR.

7. Technical SEO for eCommerce

Technical SEO is critical for online stores because of the sheer number of URLs and dynamic elements. eCommerce sites suffer more than blogs from crawl inefficiencies, duplicate URLs, parameter chaos, and slow performance.

To fully understand this part, see our dedicated guide What Is Technical SEO?. It explains crawling, indexing, structured data, and speed optimisation — all of which directly affect product rankings.

For eCommerce sites in Australia, the biggest wins usually come from fixing JS-based rendering delays, compressing product images, implementing canonical tags, and controlling facets/filters.

8. Conclusion

eCommerce SEO is the backbone of long-term organic revenue for online stores. When product pages load fast, use structured data, and avoid duplicate content, Google rewards them with consistent visibility. With Australian CPCs increasing every year, investing in SEO gives stores a stable, compounding traffic source that isn’t tied to rising ad costs.

Whether you’re on Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom build, a structured SEO approach helps you rank better, sell more, and reduce your reliance on paid advertising.

9. FAQ

What is eCommerce SEO?
eCommerce SEO is the process of improving your online store so Google can easily crawl, index, and understand your product and category pages. It includes technical optimisation, content improvements, structured data, page speed, and fixing duplicate URLs. The goal is simple: get more qualified organic traffic that converts into sales.
How does SEO work for eCommerce stores?
SEO works by aligning your site with how people search and how Google interprets your content. For eCommerce, this means optimising product titles, writing unique descriptions, improving category structures, managing filters and parameters, and ensuring the site loads quickly on mobile. Well-optimised stores make it easy for Google to rank the right pages for the right queries.
What is the difference between SEO and eCommerce SEO?
General SEO focuses on blogs, service pages, and informational content. eCommerce SEO focuses specifically on product, category, filter and search-result pages — all of which behave differently in Google. Managing crawl budget, duplicate content, and structured data is much more important for eCommerce sites.
Which eCommerce platform is best for SEO?
Shopify and WooCommerce are the two most common choices in Australia. Shopify is easier for beginners and offers fast hosting, but WooCommerce gives more control over URLs and technical optimisation. Larger stores often choose WooCommerce for flexibility, while SMB retailers typically prefer Shopify for simplicity.
Do I need technical SEO for an eCommerce site?
Yes — more than most websites. eCommerce stores have faceted navigation, product variants, paginated categories, collections, and large image libraries. Without strong technical SEO, Google struggles to crawl the site efficiently. If you want rankings, technical SEO is non-negotiable.
What are UR and DR in SEO for eCommerce?
UR (URL Rating) measures the backlink strength to a specific product or category page. DR (Domain Rating) measures the authority of your entire domain. Both come from Ahrefs and help benchmark how strong your site is compared to competitors.
How long does eCommerce SEO take?
Most online stores start seeing improvements within 8–12 weeks after fixing technical issues and improving product content. Competitive categories, like fashion or beauty, may take several months. SEO is cumulative — the longer you invest, the stronger your rankings become.
Why isn’t my Shopify store ranking?
Common reasons include: duplicate product descriptions, slow theme performance, over-reliance on apps, missing structured data, poor internal linking, collection pages with thin content. Fixing these can dramatically improve your visibility.
Does eCommerce SEO help if I already run Google Ads?
Yes. SEO reduces dependency on paid traffic, improves ROAS, and gives you compounding long-term visibility. Many Australian retailers use SEO + Ads together: paid channels capture short-term demand, while SEO builds a strong foundation for sustainable growth.
How do I choose keywords for eCommerce SEO?
Start with how customers search for products: brand queries, model numbers, generic product types, and buying-intent long-tails (“best hiking backpacks Australia”, “water bottle stainless steel 1L”). Use tools like Ahrefs to validate search volume and prioritise categories with real commercial demand.
|