SEO best practices for BigCommerce product catalogs: Drive organic growth

Are you struggling to get your BigCommerce store noticed in search results? You’re not alone. With millions of eCommerce sites competing for attention, optimizing your product catalog for search engines isn’t just helpful—it’s essential for survival and growth.

BigCommerce provides an excellent foundation for SEO, but knowing how to leverage its capabilities can make the difference between page one visibility and being buried in search results. Let’s explore proven strategies to optimize your BigCommerce product catalog for maximum organic search visibility.

Keyword research: The foundation of BigCommerce SEO success

Before making any changes to your store, you need to understand what your potential customers are searching for.

Finding the right keywords for your products

Start by using industry-standard tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify high-intent keywords with reasonable search volume and competition levels. Focus on:

• Commercial intent keywords that include terms like “buy,” “price,” or “review,” as these typically drive higher conversion rates
• Long-tail keywords such as “best outdoor furniture for small spaces” that may have lower competition but attract highly qualified traffic
• Product-specific terms that directly match what you sell

For BigCommerce stores, it’s particularly important to align your keyword strategy with your product catalog structure. Think of your keyword map as a blueprint that mirrors your store’s organization.

The three core elements of effective keyword research

1. Search volume - Ensure keywords have enough monthly searches to be worth targeting
2. Competition level - Balance between high-value terms and what’s realistically achievable for your domain authority
3. User intent - Match keywords to where customers are in the buying journey (informational, navigational, or transactional)

Remember, keyword research isn’t a one-time task. Revisit and refine your strategy quarterly to adapt to changing search trends, seasonal fluctuations, and evolving customer behaviors.

Schema markup: Giving search engines clarity about your products

Schema markup is structured data that helps search engines understand the content of your pages, potentially improving how your products appear in search results.

Why schema matters for BigCommerce stores

Implementing Product, Review, and Offer schemas in JSON-LD format can dramatically enhance your presence in search results through rich snippets that display:

• Product prices
• Availability status
• Star ratings
• Review counts
• Special offers or discounts

These enhanced listings can increase click-through rates by up to 30%, giving you a significant advantage over competitors without rich snippets. Think of schema as your product’s digital business card - it provides all the essential information at a glance.

Implementation tips for BigCommerce

BigCommerce includes basic schema markup automatically, but you can enhance it by:

1. Using BigCommerce’s built-in review system to generate Review schema
2. Ensuring all product specifications are complete in your admin panel
3. Considering specialized BigCommerce apps that extend schema capabilities
4. Testing implementation with Google’s Rich Results Test tool

For example, Chair King Backyard Store leveraged schema markup as part of their SEO strategy, which contributed to a 28% revenue increase after their BigCommerce implementation. Their product listings now stand out in search results with pricing, availability, and rating information clearly visible.

Mobile SEO: Critical for modern BigCommerce success

With mobile devices accounting for over 54% of U.S. website traffic in 2021, mobile optimization is no longer optional—especially since Google uses mobile-first indexing.

Mobile optimization essentials for BigCommerce stores

1. Use responsive themes - BigCommerce offers mobile-friendly templates, but ensure yours is truly optimized for all screen sizes
2. Enable AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) - Activate this feature in BigCommerce for faster mobile loading
3. Test touch-friendly navigation - Ensure buttons and links are properly sized for finger tapping (minimum 44x44 pixels)
4. Optimize for speed - Aim for mobile page load times under 3 seconds

To put this in perspective: a one-second delay in mobile load time can impact conversion rates by up to 20%. That’s potentially thousands in lost revenue for even small to mid-sized BigCommerce stores.

Mobile-first indexing considerations

Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. For BigCommerce stores, this means:

• Images should be properly compressed and responsive
• Text should be readable without zooming
• Interactive elements shouldn’t be too close together
• Avoid resources that aren’t supported on mobile (like Flash)
• Test user experience with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test

Mobile optimization directly impacts both your search rankings and conversion rates, making it one of the highest-priority SEO factors for BigCommerce stores. Consider how your customers shop—many begin product research on mobile devices, even if they complete purchases later on desktop.

Navigation structure: Creating a seamless path for users and search engines

Your BigCommerce store’s navigation structure affects both user experience and how search engines understand your site hierarchy.

Optimize category structure and URLs

Create a logical hierarchy that makes sense to both users and search engines:

• Use a clear structure (e.g., Home > Outdoor > Furniture > Chairs)
• Keep URLs concise and descriptive (e.g., /outdoor-furniture/chairs)
• Avoid unnecessary parameters and subfolders
• Include primary keywords in category URLs

BigCommerce allows you to customize URLs for categories and products—take advantage of this to create SEO-friendly paths that include relevant keywords. Think of your URL structure as a road map that should be intuitive to follow for both humans and search engine crawlers.

Enhance internal linking with breadcrumbs

Enable breadcrumb navigation in your BigCommerce store to:

• Help users understand where they are in your site
• Create additional internal linking opportunities
• Provide search engines with clear hierarchy signals

Proper navigation structure improves crawlability, helping search engines discover and index more of your products. This is especially important for large catalogs where some products might otherwise get lost in the indexing process.

Consider implementing a “Related Products” section that intelligently cross-links items based on category, attributes, or common purchase patterns. This not only enhances SEO through improved internal linking but also increases average order value.

Content strategies for product catalog visibility

While technical SEO provides the foundation, content quality ultimately drives organic traffic to your BigCommerce store.

Avoid manufacturer defaults

One of the biggest SEO mistakes BigCommerce merchants make is using manufacturer-provided product descriptions. This creates duplicate content across multiple websites, diluting your SEO potential.

Instead:

• Write unique, detailed product descriptions for each item
• Include specifications, use cases, and benefits
• Naturally incorporate relevant keywords
• Tell the product’s story—what problems does it solve?

A furniture retailer might transform “Brown leather sofa” into “Hand-crafted Italian leather three-seater sofa in cognac brown, featuring sustainably sourced hardwood frame and comfort-first cushioning perfect for modern living spaces.”

Leverage user-generated content

Customer reviews and Q&A sections serve multiple SEO purposes:

• They add fresh, unique content to product pages
• They often naturally include long-tail keywords
• They improve engagement metrics, a potential ranking factor
• They build trust with prospective buyers

Encourage customers to leave reviews by sending follow-up emails after purchase and offering incentives for detailed feedback. Consider implementing photo reviews where customers can share images of products in use—this adds valuable visual content and increases conversion potential.

Enhance metadata for better click-through rates

BigCommerce makes it easy to edit metadata for all page types:

• Homepage metadata - Focus on your main keywords and brand value proposition
• Category pages - Include category keywords and highlight benefits or selection
• Product pages - Feature specific product names and unique selling points
• Blog posts - Create compelling titles that encourage clicks while maintaining keyword relevance

Tools like SEOKart can help audit and optimize your BigCommerce metadata from a single dashboard, identifying opportunities to improve title tags and meta descriptions across your entire catalog.

Advanced BigCommerce SEO strategies

Once you’ve implemented the fundamentals, consider these advanced techniques to further enhance your BigCommerce store’s organic visibility.

Leverage AI-powered content automation

Creating high-quality content at scale is challenging. Solutions like CrocoAI automate SEO content creation specifically for BigCommerce stores by:

• Synchronizing with your product feed via API
• Mapping keywords to your category structure
• Creating strategic internal links to products and category pages
• Building content hubs around high-value categories

This approach can significantly increase topical relevance and improve search rankings for your most important product categories. For instance, a kitchen supply store might develop content clusters around “professional baking equipment,” with articles linking to relevant product categories and individual items.

Optimize page load speed

Fast-loading pages improve both user experience and search rankings. For BigCommerce stores:

• Compress and optimize all product images using tools like TinyPNG or image optimization apps
• Minimize custom code bloat by eliminating unnecessary scripts
• Leverage BigCommerce’s CDN capabilities to deliver content from servers closer to users
• Consider AMP for product pages to dramatically improve mobile load times
• Implement lazy loading for images below the fold

Chair King saw a significant performance improvement after their BigCommerce migration, with 42% more users and 47% more sessions, partly due to improved site speed. Their case demonstrates how technical improvements directly translate to measurable traffic increases.

Implement regular SEO audits

Ecommerce sites change constantly as products come and go. Schedule regular SEO audits to:

• Identify and fix broken links or 404 errors from discontinued products
• Update metadata for seasonal relevance and current promotions
• Review keyword performance and adjust strategy based on analytics data
• Check for technical issues like duplicate content or missing alt text
• Analyze competitors for new keyword opportunities and content gaps

Consider using tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush’s site audit features to automate parts of this process, making it manageable even for small teams.

Bringing it all together: Your BigCommerce SEO action plan

Optimizing your BigCommerce product catalog for SEO isn’t a one-time task but an ongoing process. Start with these steps:

1. Conduct comprehensive keyword research aligned with your product categories
2. Implement enhanced schema markup for all product pages
3. Ensure your site is fully optimized for mobile users
4. Create a logical navigation structure with clean URLs
5. Develop unique content for all product and category pages
6. Set up regular SEO audits to monitor and improve performance

By systematically implementing these strategies, you’ll position your BigCommerce store for sustainable organic growth and increased visibility in search results.

Ready to take your BigCommerce SEO to the next level? Consider how an AI-powered solution like CrocoAI can automate much of this process, creating SEO-optimized content that’s perfectly aligned with your product catalog structure and business goals.