Paul Ryazanov was invited to join a panel of SEO experts on the Majestic SEO Podcast to discuss one of the most important and often misunderstood topics in ecommerce: how to get SEO right from the start. The panel included Luke Carthy, Yvie Ansari, Ritu Goel, Dominic Lill, and myself, hosted by David Bain.
We covered a lot of ground — from platform selection to site structure to building a strategy that actually ties back to business goals. Here are the key points I shared during the discussion.
Platform Selection Should Be Business-First, Not SEO-First
When clients ask me which ecommerce platform to choose, I always start with the business — not the SEO. Google does not really care if your site runs on Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce. What matters is the structure, the content, and the technical foundations.
The decision should be driven by your business requirements. If you are running a large operation with heavy customisation and B2B needs, Magento is worth considering. If you are a B2C store with a relatively straightforward catalogue, Shopify is hard to beat. For smaller operations that want flexibility, WooCommerce is a solid option.
From the migration data I see working with clients, the top five platforms people are moving to right now are Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Shopware, and BigCommerce. Magento is not in the top for migrations — mainly due to cost — but it remains strong for large-scale operations.
The Two Things Most Ecommerce Sites Get Wrong
When I look at my clients, the number one mistake is not having Google Search Console properly set up. You would be amazed how many businesses I work with that either have not configured it at all, or have set it up incorrectly — with HTTP instead of HTTPS, or the wrong domain variation. It sounds basic, but it is the foundation of everything.
The second biggest issue is indexation. When a client is paying for link building but only 20% of their pages are actually in Google’s index, there is a fundamental problem. If your pages are not indexed, they cannot rank — no matter how many backlinks you build. This is especially common with large catalogues where product descriptions come directly from suppliers and appear on dozens of other sites.
Do Not Wait Until After Launch to Think About SEO
One of the most common requests I get is someone saying they have just launched their website and want me to check their SEO. By then, the damage is often already done. The cost of fixing SEO issues after Google has indexed a poorly structured site is significantly higher than getting it right before launch.
My advice: before you publish a new site, have an SEO professional review it. Launch with noindex if you need to, run Google Ads to drive initial traffic, and only remove the noindex once the technical foundations are solid.
Featured Snippets Are Underrated
During the podcast, I also shared something I believe is underestimated in ecommerce SEO: producing content pages optimised for featured snippets. If you are wondering how a smaller brand can compete with Amazon in search results, this is one of the most effective approaches. Create pages with specific, well-structured content that Google wants to display as a featured snippet, and you can outrank even the most authoritative domains for targeted queries.
You can listen to the full Majestic SEO Podcast episode to hear the complete discussion, including insights from all five panelists on taxonomy, site structure, category management, and building SEO strategies that actually drive revenue.
You can also see the video version on YouTube. For more about my speaking engagements and podcast appearances, visit my Speaker page.
Conference Speaking: From PubCon Las Vegas to Building a Global Ecommerce Practice — the full story of how speaking at conferences like PubCon helped shape my career in ecommerce.
Building Ecommerce Camp — Why I Founded a Community for Ecommerce Founders — how Ecommerce Camp brings together the kind of practitioner knowledge discussed in the Majestic podcast.