How it's done Custom SEO URLs in Shopware 6
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The visibility of a website in search engines is extremely important. That's why you should consider search engine optimization. This approach is crucial for the success of a business, especially when it comes to online stores. Shopware 6 has several SEO features. These allow you to customize the standard URL structure to increase your visibility. Adjusting the settings is an important step that you should not overlook.

A clear URL structure has a major impact on the visibility of your online store. Both customers and search engines find it easier to locate your store when it has understandable, easy-to-read URLs. They look convincing and professional. The shop's ranking improves because the search algorithm prefers so-called “speaking” URLs. With the help of understandable URLs, customers know where they are in the web shop. In our article, we describe how you can customize the standard structure of URLs in Shopware 6 and optimize visibility.

Why are individual SEO URLs important in Shopware 6?

The role of URL structure is undisputed. The more understandable and clean it is, the better the user experience and the indexing of web pages by Google. URLs that reflect the content of the website are prioritized by search engines. They should not contain numbers or technical parameters. This is a crucial factor because Google uses structured data for a better understanding of the content.

When we compare a generic URL with an optimized URL, we notice a few differences.

Generic URL:

https://www.domain.de/elektroauto-734214/

In this case, the URL has a product number, which is usually added in Shopware 6. It offers no added value for search engines or customers.

Optimized URL:

https://www.domain.de/bmw-elektroauto/

This URL describes the content of the website. Customers immediately understand what it is about. It increases both user-friendliness and Google ranking. There are no conflicts between products.

In order for the website to attract more new customers, it is essential that it has a user-friendly URL. When optimizing for SEO, you need to keep the following in mind:

  • URLs must be meaningful, contain relevant content, and describe the page content.

  • Keep URLs short.

  • Avoid using special characters. Make URLs unique and readable.

  • Optimized URLs provide you with invisible help that is beneficial to your business.

Importance of URL structure and SEO optimization

The URL shows a web browser how to access specific content on the internet. It consists of a domain name, the protocol (https://), subdomains (www), paths (/hosting), and query parameters. Each individual part of Shopware SEO guides the browser to the specific resource, making navigation easier for visitors and search engines.

A well-structured URL is an indispensable part of successful SEO. Short, simple URLs are more user-friendly for mobile devices. Thanks to optimization, success is guaranteed. Customers find websites much faster in search engines. Content can be correctly captured and indexed. This increases click-through rates and sales.

Shop operators usually take care of the design of the website so that customers can easily find their way around. However, you should also consider the URL. Customers trust readable, user-friendly URLs more. In addition, SEO tools can analyze and filter them better. Google rankings will suffer if identical content is accessible at multiple addresses. To avoid this, you should use canonical tags or clean up the URL structure. Canonical tags act as a request that the website is not a copy.

If the website has https, it is more secure for visitors. This encrypts the data transmission. If you change the URL structure or transfer the content, redirects should be set up. With the help of 301 redirects, you can avoid ranking losses.

How can you set up SEO URLs in Shopware 6?

We offer this tutorial to help you define the structure for SEO URLs. SEO-friendly URLs can be created automatically. Shopware 6 has everything you need to customize them. You don't need any additional plugins. Go to Settings and find the SEO section.

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Here you will see SEO URL templates. You can select a sales channel for which you want to configure the settings. You can configure URLs for all sales channels at the same time. There are templates for product detail pages, landing pages, and category pages.

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Product detail page

When defining a template for the product detail page URL, you should specify the variables in Twig format. When using variables, the entity fields (landing pages, categories) should contain the data. If variables refer to empty fields, no URLs will be created for the associated entities. You can choose from different variables. There are multi-level variables that are not added in full. You then have to adjust them manually in the SEO template field. For example, you have to manually add .name to the variable {{ product.translated }}.

Landing pages

When customizing templates for landing pages, you can select different variables. Here are a few examples:

{{landingPage.cmsPageId}} 
{{landingPage.metaTitle}} 
{{landingPage.createdAt}}

Category page

Many variables are available for customizing the template for category pages:

{{ category.id }} 

{{ category.translated.metaTitle }}  

{{ category.active }}

Some variables contain content that changes URLs regularly. Avoid using these variables, as they negatively affect SEO ranking.

You can also add filters to the SEO template. To separate filters, use “|” after the variable within {{}}. The template looks like this:

{ product.translated.name|lower }}/{{ product.productNumber }}

You can also append a for loop in ‘{{ part|lower }}’. Here is an example for category pages: 

{% for part in category.seoBreadcrumb %}{{ part|lower }}/{% endfor %}

Finally, click “Save.” If you reload the website and do not notice any changes, you must first clear the shop's caches and also use the indexer again. Go to Settings and open Caches and Indexes.

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Then you must delete the caches. After this procedure, you must update the indexes. Indexes are data structures with stored information. The update is necessary so that the changes you have made become current.

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Meta title and meta description

These are important elements that customers see in search results. Shopware 6 offers full control over these and allows you to set individual SEO titles and descriptions for each product or category. To do this, click on Catalogs – Products. Next, select a specific product and click on SEO.

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Best practices for SEO URLs in online shops

To optimize your website for Google, you should structure your URLs correctly. You should create as few alternative URLs as possible. It is not good if Google sends too many requests to the website. To help search engines better understand that URLs refer to the same page, you should use lowercase letters in the text of a URL. Show Google what the website is about by adding descriptive words. Paginated results should have unique URLs. Otherwise, there will be URL errors in URL structures with pagination.

You can increase online visibility and improve the shopping experience by optimizing the home page. Here are some best practices and valuable recommendations:

  1. Use appropriate keywords, ensure a clear, appealing structure, and fast loading times.
  2. Pay attention to the design of meta data. The meta title and meta description must be precise and appealing. The meta title should be no longer than 60 characters and have the main keyword at the beginning. The meta description should be 120-160 characters long.
  3. Increase the findability of hub pages in search engines by using keywords correctly in texts and headings. Pay attention to internal links.
  4. Avoid long URLs. Do not use filler words and prepositions. Limit yourself to relevant terms. Use color and size specifications.
  5. Write out umlauts and use hyphens instead of underscores to separate words. This allows search engines to read them.
  6. Try different URL variants for new categories and observe how they affect traffic.

Common mistakes and recommendations for avoiding them

Mistakes are often made when creating URLs. They have a negative impact on SEO and shop usability. Be aware of what is bad for your website's SEO ranking:

  • Same URLs for multiple products and categories;
  • Incorrectly generated SEO URLs;
  • Encoding problems when using umlauts and special characters;
  • Incorrect redirects (301/302);
  • Use of dynamic URLs with session IDs and parameters;
  • Incorrect configuration of SEO URL templates;
  • No manual adjustments made;
  • Different URLs due to upper and lower case letters;
  • No redirects set up;
  • No URL changes when products and categories are changed, moved, or deleted.

To avoid losses and achieve high SEO traffic, you need to regularly regenerate URLs, carefully customize SEO templates, use descriptive URLs, create URLs in lowercase letters, and avoid duplicate content. External tools (Screaming Frog, SEMrush, Ahrefs) should be used for better monitoring. They help to identify errors and evaluate meta data, keywords, and URL structure. This allows you to regularly perform an SEO audit of Shopware SEO URLs and quickly climb higher in Google rankings.

Important insights for optimizing SEO URLs

Shopware 6 offers a wide range of built-in SEO features, which is an advantage. With other e-commerce platforms, you have to purchase and install additional plugins. The standard features enable good ranking results right from day one. Thanks to proper optimization, your shop's chances of success increase even more as a result of improved visibility. The shop system allows URL editing for product and category pages so that important keywords can be added. There are advanced configuration options that enable correct metadata management.

Shopware store operators can significantly increase organic traffic through simple SEO optimizations. The changes can be easily made yourself in a few hours, leading to improved performance and user experience.

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