SEO is a tough race. To win it and get ahead of the competitors, you need to be armed with the best SEO weapon.
Today, the Magento market offers a wide range of SEO extensions that vary in features, price, support/ update terms, installation and configuration conditions. This brings up the question:
How to choose an effective SEO extension for a Magento-based store?
In this SEO Extensions Review we’re going to compare the default Magento SEO functionality with 5 most popular Magento SEO solutions and hash over their features and performance.
Below are the toolkits we are going to analyze:
- Amasty SEO Toolkit
- Ultimate SEO Suite by Aheadworks
- CreareSEO
- Advanced SEO Suite by Mirasvit
- SEO Suite Ultimate by Mageworx
Let’s jump right to it!
Table of Contents
Solving Typical eCommerce Duplicate Content Issues
In case there are multiple URLs with identical or very similar content, the canonical meta tag can tell the search engines which URL is the main one.
Running a Magento based store, you need to precisely set the canonical URLs for category, product or CMS pages, canonicalize duplicate content across different domains, avoid content duplication for pages with and without trailing slash, etc.
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| Adding Canonical Tags | + | + | + | – | + | + |
| Canonical Tag meta header for product/category/reviews/layered navigation pages | – | + | +* (only for product and category pages) |
+* (only for CMS pages) |
+ | + |
| The root, the shortest or the longest category path for product canonical URL. | – | + | + | – | – | + |
| Сustom Canonical tag | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Cross-domain Canonical URL | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Canonical tag in HTML and XML sitemaps | – | – | +* (only for XML sitemaps) |
– | – | + |
| Disabling Canonical tag for any chosen pages | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Adding/ Cropping Trailing Slash for canonical URLs | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Canonical tag for associated products | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Adding Canonical tag to each product attribute separately | – | – | – | – | – | + |
Note! Canonical product redirects feature may influence your site performance workflow. That’s why we didn’t include it into our SEO comparison chart.
Creating HTML & XML Sitemaps
Sitemaps allow store owners to inform search engines what pages on their website are available for crawling. Also, they conveniently organize all pages in a hierarchical structure, so visitors can easily navigate through them.
HTML sitemap (a navigational sitemap for site visitors)
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| Extending the possibilities of the default Magento HTML sitemap | – | + | – | + | + | + |
| Including/ Excluding categories/ CMS Pages | – | + | – | + | + | + |
| Excluding any chosen page | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Adding extra and 3d party links | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Excluding out-of-stock products | – | + | – | – | – | + |
| Optimizing HTML sitemap meta page elements | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Designing sitemap page | – | + | – | – | – | – |
XML sitemap (backend, search engine sitemap)
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| Extending the possibilities of the default Magento XML sitemap | – | + | + | – | + | + |
| Including/ excluding products/ categories/ CMS Pages | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Adding product images | – | + | + | – | + | + |
| Customizing an image size | – | – | – | – | + | – |
| Adding any extra and 3d party links | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Automatic excluding out-of-stock products | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Compatibility with other SEO extensions (Amasty Prevnext extension, aW Blog, FishPig Attributes Splash Pages Magento module,etc.) | – | +* (only with Amasty Extensions) |
– | – | + | + |
| Validating an XML sitemap before saving | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Sitemap Index* | – | + | + | – | + | + |
Meta SEO Templates
SEO meta templates let you easily manage large amounts of important meta data for product and category pages.
Having just a list of attributes, you can automatically optimize such important elements of a product/category/blog page as a its name, description, URL, meta title, keywords, category meta description, keywords, alt-tags and dozens more.
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| SEO Meta Templates for product page elements | – | + | – | + | + | + |
| SEO Meta Templates for pages filtered by Layered Navigation | – | + | – | + | + | + |
| SEO Meta Templates for aheadWorks blog pages | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Creating SEO Meta templates for different Store Views | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| ‘Bulk-apply’ option | – | + | – | – | – | + |
| Applying templates to a chosen category, an individual product or a blog post | – | +* (but for blog posts) |
– | – | +* (but for blog posts) |
+ |
| Scheduler for automatic template applies | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Testing templates before they get applied | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Adding product/ category, subcategory, LN variables | – | +* (only for product & categories) |
– | – | +* (only for product & categories) |
+ |
| Using the randomizer feature in the templates | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Creating templates for any page by URL | – | + | – | – | – | – |
Every little aspect matters in SEO. Besides optimizing your homepage and product pages, it’s important not to forget about the pages of secondary importance.
These are category pages, pages with customer reviews and pages filtered with layered navigation.
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| Support of Rel=“next/prev” tag for categories | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Category Pager optimization | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Optimize sub-category URLs by removing parent categories | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Canonical tag settings for category pages | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| SEO-friendly URLs for product reviews pages | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Canonical tag settings for product reviews pages | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Optimizing meta data for layered navigation pages | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Optimizing layered navigation URLs | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Set canonical tags separately for each attribute on LN pages | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Canonical tag settings for layered navigation pages | – | + | – | – | – | + |
| Crawling and Indexation settings for pages of layered navigation | – | – | – | + | + | + |
| Min Count of filters to set NOINDEX, FOLLOW for LN | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW robots and NOINDEX, FOLLOW robots meta for attributes combinations | – | – | – | – | – | + |
Setting Crawling/Indexation Instructions, Redirects and Breadcrumbs
When optimizing your Magento website, you should get a full control over the way the search engines see it and behave on it.
That includes creating a crawling map (see the XML sitemap section*), restricting search engine bots from accessing some of your site pages, prioritizing pages for indexation, setting redirects, configuring an .htaccess file, etc.
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| Basic Meta Robots Settings | – | – | – | + | + | + |
| Robots Meta Header for pages without content | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Robots Meta Header for HTTPs pages | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Robots Meta Header for any additional pages | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Advanced Robots.txt editor | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Setting 301-302 redirects | – | +* (only 301) |
– | – | +* (only 301) |
+ |
| Specifying the time period to keep redirects on your site | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Selecting the destination of the redirect: product category or priority category | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Configuring .htaccess file | – | – | – | + | – | – |
| Advanced Breadcrumbs | – | – | – | – | – | + |
Markup Data Optimization (Rich Snippets)
Properly implemented Structured Data Markup lets your website stand out in search results. Snippet-rich pages get a higher click-through rate, drive a bigger amount of targeted traffic and, as a result, bring a bigger amount of sales.
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| Extended search engine rich snippets with product review stars, price, availability, etc. | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Rich snippet Breadcrumbs | – | + | – | + | + | + |
| JSON-LD Markup Method Support | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Rich snippets for Products | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Rich snippets for Categories | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Rich snippets Events listings | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Sitselinks Search Box | – | + | – | + | – | + |
| Rich pins (for Pinterest) | – | + | – | – | – | + |
| Open graph for product pages | – | – | – | + | + | + |
| Open graph for category pages | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Open graph for CMS pages | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Twitter cards | – | + | – | + | + | + |
| Including Merchant (Seller) Info | – | + | – | – | + | + |
| Including Website Info | – | – | – | + | + | + |
| Custom Properties support | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Custom description attribute support | – | – | – | – | – | + |
Auto Cross Links
Linking internal site pages lets you effectively distribute ranking power among site important pages, while linking to external sources will let you build relations with niche-relevant sites.
Cross links on product/category/CMS and AheadWorks Blog post pages—-+*
(but for AW blog pages)+
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| Automatically replacement of the targeted keywords with links | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Specifying cross link’s title and alt-tag | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Specifying a custom URL for a keyword to link to | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Defining the pages where auto replacement will be made | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Defining the max # of replacement | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Setting replacement priority | – | – | – | – | + | + |
| Advanced ways to add keywords (using “+” before and after keywords) | – | – | – | – | – | + |
Hreflang Tag Support (Alternate URLs)
Having a multi-lingual, multi-regional site, it’s important to notify Google which site it should show to foreign users. Here is when hrefland tag comes of great help.
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| Using the hreflang for category/ product/ CMS pages | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Alternate URLs Scope | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Setting X-default | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Using the language code from the default locale or setting it manually for each locale | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Using the country code from the default locale or setting it manually for each locale | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Previewing the hreflang setup to check errors | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Correct parsing of an XML sitemap with hrefleng tags | – | – | – | – | – | + |
SEO Reports
Detecting pages that have duplicate issues, long meta title and descriptions, empty meta tags, etc. is an important part of Magento SEO.
Manually, this boring and monotonous job takes an awful lot of time. Luckily, there are the extensions that take care of this stuff.
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| Product Page Optimization Report | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Category Page Optimization Report | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| CMS Page Optimization Report | – | – | – | – | – | + |
| Detecting pages with duplicates | – | – | – | + | – | + |
| General SEO Website Health Check | – | – | – | + | – | – |
| All duplicated product URL keys Report | – | – | – | + | – | + |
| SEO Toolbar | – | – | – | – | + | – |
Price, Money Back Guarantees and Support
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| Price | $290 | $159 | FREE | $149 | $249 | |
| Installation | +$59 | +55 | – | +49 | FREE | |
| Basic SEO Configuration | – | – | – | – | FREE | |
| Advanced SEO Configuration * | – | – | – | – | YES | |
| Free Support (days) | free for 4 months | free for 90 days | – | free for 30 days | FREE (lifetime) | |
| Free Updates (days) | free for 4 months | free for 90 days | – | free for 1 year | FREE (lifetime) | |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30-day | 45-day | – | 30 | 30-day |
* The review is accurate as of November, ’15.
Should you spot any changes, that occur as a result of the extension updates, please let us know ([email protected]).
