PrestaShop SEO: set up the shop, then work on the catalogue

Setting 1: friendly URLs

By default, a PrestaShop address looks like product.php?id_product=27: it tells neither the visitor nor the search engine anything. Friendly URLs turn it into /2-music-ipods/27-ipod-nano-green, with the name of the category and the product. You switch them on in Shop Parameters, Traffic & SEO menu, SEO & URLs page, in the URL setup section.

The PrestaShop documentation warns that friendly URLs need a server that supports URL rewriting (Apache’s mod_rewrite module, for example). Check with your host before switching the option on: on a server that does not support it, the shop can become unreachable.

1. 1
   Check with your host that URL rewriting is enabled.
2. 2
   Switch on “Friendly URL” in SEO & URLs, then test a product page and a category page.
3. 3
   Switch off accented URLs if you prefer addresses without special characters.
4. 4
   Review the URL scheme: the default route for a product is {category:/}{id}-{rewrite}{-:ean13}.html. Do not change it on a shop that is already indexed without a redirect plan.

Setting 2: redirect to the canonical URL

The same PrestaShop page can have several addresses, especially with parameters (combinations, options, sorting). The “Redirect to the canonical URL” option groups these addresses into one. The documentation strongly recommends it, as a 301 once your changes are finished, and points out that it also depends on a theme that inserts the canonical tag correctly.

Since version 1.7.6, for a product with combinations, the canonical URL points to the default combination by default. That is the right behaviour in most cases: one indexed page per product, with the colour or size chosen on the page.

• No redirection: a risk of duplicate addresses.
• 301 (moved permanently): the main address is the only one to take into account. The recommended setting.
• 302 (moved temporarily): the main address might change. Avoid it in normal operation.

Setting 3: the SEO tab of every product and category

Every product page has an SEO tab with three fields that matter. The meta title tag, which the documentation calls the most important field, since it is the title that appears in search engines. The meta description, a two-line presentation of the product, ideally less than 155 characters. The friendly URL, which lets you rewrite the product’s address.

Category pages have their own friendly URL on their main configuration page. Fixed pages (CMS, customer account, generated pages) are set in the list in SEO & URLs, including the home page (the “index” line).

1. 1
   Meta title: what the buyer types, then a benefit. Not the shop name first.
2. 2
   Meta description: the use and what sets you apart, in one or two sentences.
3. 3
   Friendly URL: short, descriptive, in letters and numbers, with words separated by hyphens.
4. 4
   Every language: fill in these fields for each language of the shop, as the documentation recommends.
5. 5
   SEO option: PrestaShop can add the product’s attributes (colour, size) to its meta title; useful if people search for those attributes.

Setting 4: offline products

When a product is deactivated, PrestaShop offers three behaviours: no redirection (a “404 not found” page), a permanent 301 redirect to another product or a category, or a temporary 302 redirect.

Choose according to the situation: 301 to the model that replaces it or to its category when the buyer will find an equivalent there; 302 for a temporarily unavailable product that will come back; 404 when nothing matches it. Google treats 404 and 410 the same way, by the way: an indexed address that responds with a 4xx error is removed from the index.

Setting 5: the robots.txt file

PrestaShop generates a robots.txt from SEO & URLs. The file it produces excludes the files and folders that should not be public, for all robots. Be careful: the “Generate robots.txt file” button replaces the existing file. If you have added your own rules (for AI assistants’ crawlers, for example), add them after generating, and regenerate with care.

Then check that the file does not block access to your images, your style sheets or your category pages, and that it declares the address of your sitemap.

After the settings: content, speed, feeds

The settings stop you losing rankings; they do not win you any. What wins is category pages that answer a search, product pages rewritten with your own measurements, and a fast shop. Google considers an LCP good under 2.5 s, an INP under 200 ms and a CLS under 0.1.

On PrestaShop, speed is mostly decided by modules: every active module can add requests and scripts. Take stock, switch off what is no longer used, compress images, and test on mobile. Then connect the shop to Google Merchant Center for free Shopping listings.