Most Magento SEO problems are technical: too many crawlable URLs, conflicting canonicals, weak structured data and slow mobile pages. Use this checklist to audit your store. Each item says where in Magento to fix it.
1. Core Configuration
- Search engine friendly URLs on: Stores → Configuration → General → Web → Use Web Server Rewrites = Yes.
- Category path in product URLs: Catalog → Catalog → Search Engine Optimization → Use Categories Path for Product URLs = No, to keep one URL per product.
- Canonical tags for categories and products: set both canonical options to Yes in the same section.
- Create permanent redirect when URL key changes = Yes, so renamed products keep their rankings.
- Robots instructions per store view in Content → Design → Configuration → Search Engine Robots. Make sure production is
INDEX,FOLLOWand staging is blocked.
2. Crawl Control for Layered Navigation
- Decide which filters deserve indexable pages (often brand or a key attribute within a category) and give them unique titles, headings and copy.
- Point canonicals for other filter, sort and limit combinations to the category, and avoid linking to endless combinations.
- Do not block filter URLs in robots.txt and canonicalise them at the same time — Google cannot see a canonical on a page it is not allowed to crawl.
- Watch Search Console's Crawl Stats and Pages reports for "Crawled – currently not indexed" growth.
3. Duplicate Content
- One URL per product (no category paths) and self-referencing canonicals.
- Configurable product children set to "Not Visible Individually" unless they have their own content.
- Unique descriptions for important products and categories — not just manufacturer copy.
- Thin search result pages (
/catalogsearch/) set to noindex.
4. Structured Data
| Page | Schema | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Product with Offer | Include price, currency, availability, SKU, GTIN/brand where available; reviews only if genuine and on-page |
| Category & product | BreadcrumbList | Matches the visible breadcrumb |
| Home | Organization, WebSite | Logo, contact details, sameAs profiles |
| FAQ content | FAQPage | Only for real questions and answers visible on the page |
Validate with Google's Rich Results Test and monitor the Merchant listings and Product snippets reports in Search Console. On Hyvä, structured data is easy to output from ViewModels in templates.
5. XML Sitemap and robots.txt
- Enable the sitemap (Stores → Configuration → Catalog → XML Sitemap) and generate it by cron, one per store view.
- Exclude out-of-stock products only if they will not return; otherwise keep them with clear availability.
- Reference sitemaps in robots.txt and submit them in Search Console.
- Keep robots.txt short. Block internal search and account pages, not CSS or JS files Google needs to render pages.
6. Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
- Full-page cache with Varnish or Fastly, verified hit rate.
- LCP image prioritised (not lazy-loaded) on category and product pages.
- Third-party scripts audited — chat, reviews and tags are frequent INP problems.
- Consider Hyvä when Luma's JavaScript makes mobile Core Web Vitals impossible to pass.
Our Magento speed guide covers this in depth.
7. International SEO
- hreflang annotations between equivalent store views (Magento does not add them by default).
- Localised URL keys, metadata and content per store view.
- Separate sitemaps per store view and the correct country targeting signals (domains or subfolders).
8. Migrations and Upgrades
- Crawl the site before and after any upgrade, Hyvä migration or replatforming and compare status codes, titles, canonicals and structured data.
- Map every changed URL to a 301 redirect.
- Check robots settings on the new environment — a staging
NOINDEXcopied to production is a common, costly mistake.
9. Content and E-E-A-T
- Category pages with helpful introductory copy and buying guidance, not keyword stuffing.
- Real author and company information, clear contact details and returns policies.
- Genuine customer reviews; never mark up reviews that are not shown on the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Magento good for SEO?
Yes, when configured well. It provides URL rewrites, canonical options, sitemaps and metadata fields. Most problems come from layered navigation, extensions and themes rather than the platform itself.
Should I use category paths in product URLs?
Usually not. Product URLs without category paths avoid duplicates and stay stable when you reorganise categories.
Does Hyvä improve SEO?
Hyvä improves page speed and makes structured data easier to implement, which supports SEO. Content and links still matter most.
Want these fixes implemented?
We are Magento developers who do technical SEO — so fixes go into code, not just a report.
Written by the Magento Services engineering team — Magento 2, Adobe Commerce and Hyvä specialists since 2014. We write about problems we solve on real client stores.