You may have considered using the necessary tools if you own a website. Although there is no shortage of platforms in the market, Shopify and WordPress have maintained their reputations as the leading ones.
Having said that, choosing one of them to boost the rank of your website by using the right SEO strategies can be an immense challenge.
To make this decision easy, here is our blog on Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO.
Read on to learn which one is better for improving the visibility of your business and the Shopify vs. SEO pros and cons.
Shopify Vs. WordPress For SEO: Learning the Basics
Before we draw a comparison between Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO, it is important to know how they work in search engine optimization.
Shopify For SEO
Shopify is a comprehensive e-commerce platform that includes domains, hosting, and an online store editor.
It is ideal for companies who want to start implementing SEO instantly. You won’t have to do much tweaking because it’s made especially for online stores, so you’ll have all the tools you need.
If you use it, you don’t need a separate developer or coder for management.
SEO is integrated into Shopify stores. The platform automatically updates your sitemap on a regular basis and handles page speed. You can also modify your store’s components to follow SEO best practices.
However, no assurance adopting Shopify will result in good search engine ranks.
To see your store succeed in organic search, you must conduct keyword research, create valuable content, and acquire top-quality backlinks.
Shopify takes care of daily operations, including hosting and security. It charges a monthly membership fee, but you won’t be let down by its features, power, or support, which justifies the cost.
The basic shopify package in Canada is $29, for the shopify plan, the cost per month is $79. And the advanced shopify costs $299.
The credit card rates are different per transaction per plan.
If you want to create content using the right keywords, read this blog on Long-tail vs. Short-tail keywords.
WordPress For SEO
Anybody can improve their WordPress SEO by using some of the SEO practices.
You can improve your website’s authority and rating across all search engines. This will increase website traffic, leads, and conversions.
Some of the important SEO practices that you can use include:
- Internal linking your site
- Using XML sitemaps
- Employing the best SEO plugins
- Use tags and categories
- Optimize the images
- Update the URLs
The personal WordPress plan costs $4 per month, followed by the premium plan, which is around $8. Lastly, the business plans cost $25 per month.
These are the basics that you need to know to compare Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO in a better way.
Also Read: 10 SEO Examples to Implement in 2023
Shopify Vs. WordPress Pros and Cons
To make an informed decision when you choose between the two, it is integral to review the Shopify vs. WordPress pros and cons.
So, review the list of pros and cons below to choose between Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO.
Benefits of Shopify for SEO
To discuss Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO, let’s first look at the advantages of Shopify.
1. Quick Loading Speed
A site’s loading speed is a significant ranking factor for Google, and it is one of the key differences between Shopify and WordPress for SEO.
Because online retailers using Shopify have faster average page load times than WordPress, the platform won’t disappoint you.
This is due to two main factors. First, Shopify’s architecture is based on lighter apps that require fewer resources.
Second, their back-end server technology scales their processing to assure premium speed because all Shopify stores are hosted on their platform.
If you want to know more about Google algorithm updates, read our blog on Google November 2024 Core Update.
2. Option to Use SEO Apps
Numerous SEO tools are available in Shopify’s app store to help you increase the effectiveness of your online store’s SEO.
3. Includes SSL Certificates
SSL certificates are automatically included in Shopify’s monthly charge, even if you don’t register your domain.
This ensures that every store uses the best SSL encryption available; otherwise, there would be severe SEO penalties.
In addition to saving a significant amount of money on an SSL certificate, your website will have stable SSL encryption, increasing its security.
4. Easy To Use For Beginners
Shopify wants to simplify SEO for its users. In addition to offering the option to modify crucial SEO information like meta and title descriptions, the software automatically creates an XML sitemap.
5. Integrated Mobile Optimization
According to 64% of marketers, mobile optimization is a worthy investment.
Not to forget, it is another ranking factor mentioned by Google.
Having a mobile-optimized eCommerce store is essential since most web users now access the Internet via mobile devices.
Using a mobile theme architecture, Shopify streamlines the process of optimizing your website for mobile devices.
It guarantees a mobile-friendly store, which will help it rank higher for mobile SEO.
6. HTML5 and CSS Coding Optimization
This is the last key advantage that will help you choose between Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO.
Shopify offers great customization with its proprietary CSS editor, Liquid. This high level of SEO-optimized coding allows Shopify-powered online stores to have better user experiences and faster loading times.
Drawbacks of Shopify SEO
After reviewing the pros, let’s examine the cons to make a final decision about Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO.
1. Limited Options For SEO Customization
Shopify prevents its users from adjusting its SEO feature. More experienced web designers will be let down if they attempt to improve their site further using technological SEO advancements.
That is because Shopify is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, eliminating many of the tedious SEO optimization tasks for the user.
2. Hinders Blog Publishing To an Extent
Google values the quality of your site’s content; thus, highly, so producing rich and interesting material directly affects your SEO rankings.
Shopify is not as good as WordPress because it is a transactional website. This is one more prominent difference between Shopify Vs. WordPress for SEO.
Although you can have a blog on your Shopify website, there is little space for it.
And it lacks the blogging capabilities that WordPress-powered websites offer.
3. Challenges in Changing URL
Having a clean URL link structure in your store is essential. Often complicated and unmanageable, messy, or nonsensical URL structures will cause Google to penalize your eCommerce site.
Shopify does not give you as much flexibility for URL modification of your online store.
4. Insufficient Support for Structured Data
SEO involves optimizing your website for Google structured data, which is a major factor in rich search results snippets.
Despite offering a suitable degree of flexibility over meta tags, Shopify does not offer extensive support for structured data.
Pros of WordPress for SEO
Since we have taken a look at the shopify pros and cons in our Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO guide, it is time to shed light on WordPress.
1. Higher Possibilities for Optimization
The first pro that needs to be added to Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO comparison is the platform’s command of SEO elements.
Users can customize the website with a variety of parameters and receive the outcomes they desire.
They have the option to download many plugins to view all of a website’s source code, unlike Shopify, which prevents access after a certain limit.
2. Facilitates Blogging
In WordPress vs. Shopify, for SEO comparison, this is where the content management system outperforms its rival.
With the WordPress-based store, you have complete control over your SEO. Blog entries are essential SERPs these days, which makes them a major source of organic traffic.
3. Improved Customization of URLs
WordPress gives you more control over permalinks that search engine crawlers can understand. With WooCommerce, a free plugin for store management, customization options are limitless.
4. Compatible with a Great Variety of SEO Plugins
External third-party plugins significantly boost WordPress SEO and help you improve your SEO skills. Hence, it is an additional decision-making aspect in Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO comparison.
The Yoast SEO plugin, which allows you to alter website elements like the name, meta descriptions, heading tags, etc., is among the most widely used programs.
Cons of WordPress for SEO
Here are the drawbacks of WordPress:
1. Site May Have Increased Loading Times
The self-hosted WooCommerce store has issues with the hosting server, site plugins, database optimization, picture compression, and various other elements.
Due to all these factors, the loading speed of an online site is compromised. Therefore, Shopify has an advantage over WooCommerce when it comes to site speed.
2. Takes More Effort
The learning curve with WooCommerce is significantly higher than with Shopify if you are new to the world of these platforms and plugins.
If you don’t at least have a basic experience of working with self-hosted WordPress sites, you can rapidly find it confusing.
3. Hard To Optimize Themes
The wide selection of themes that are compatible with WooCommerce is not mobile-optimized. Despite the fundamental architecture being SEO-friendly, you may still not be able to do anything to optimize them.
In such cases, you may need to search for a highly optimized theme that comes at a higher license cost.
Shopify Vs. WordPress for eCommerce
Selecting the best eCommerce platform for your company might be difficult, but preventing bad performance or long-term migration expenses is crucial.
Here, you will find the most concise WordPress vs. Shopify for eCommerce comparison.
Shopify is a comprehensive e-commerce platform and service that handles nearly every aspect of an online store.
With features that keep customers returning, Shopify enables businesses to sell online with exceptional order and customer management.
Thousands of reliable third-party apps are available to Shopify merchants through the Shopify app store.
A network of knowledgeable technology partners is constantly expanding Shopify’s capabilities.
New apps and technologies are introduced every week to raise the standard of service that online retailers can offer.
On the other hand, WordPress offers a great deal of functionality and adaptability. If you are willing to put in the time and pay attention to its manual settings, you can fully leverage the power of SEO.
After comparing WordPress SEO and Shopify SEO, your needs will determine which option is best for you. Always think about reviewing every feature of the platforms.
WordPress is an option if you want a more customized brand, but Shopify will do the work if you want your website to have premium capabilities.
Shopify offers numerous tools that operate with a single click; however, WordPress offers ample room for manual SEO best practices.
FAQs
Are there any differences between WordPress and Shopify when managing SEO redirects?
Redirects can be readily managed using WordPress plugins, and Shopify has a basic redirect feature. However, more complicated adjustments would need human input.
Which platform is better for optimizing an online store: WordPress vs. Shopify for SEO?
With its built-in capabilities, Shopify is typically easier for novices to optimize, but for more experienced users, WordPress with WooCommerce offers greater flexibility and SEO control.
Is it possible to improve SEO by altering the URL architecture in WordPress and Shopify?
In contrast to Shopify, which has a URL structure that may restrict some SEO tactics, WordPress offers greater customization options for URLs.
In Conclusion
Ultimately, your choice of Shopify vs. WordPress for SEO depends on your business store’s demands and budget.
Shopify may be the solution for those with high technical needs, while WordPress helps those who want a more flexible website to tell their brand’s story.
Shopify aims to make starting an online store as simple as possible, while WordPress helps you with modification.
If you want to scale your business and boost your online ranking, contact The Dream Agency for guaranteed results.