SEO: open source e-commerece vs. off the shelf

[dcostigan]

I'm trying to decide on a web development company.  Both would do our CMS with Wordpress, but for the e-commerce platform one would use shopify (off the shelf) and the other would use Woo-Commerce (open source).

SEO wise is there any benefit of going one way or the other? I am worried the off the shelf (shopify) would be weaker because it would be hosted on a different server than the CMS, plus I think the url structure would be less flexible through shopify (keywords would be further down url structure).

Thanks,

Dan

[LesleyPaone]

SEO would not be my main concern if it were me. I would chose the platform that you are best suited for on other factors. Honestly best SEO practices can be followed with just about any platform, you just have to find the one that fits your needs best. It is like car shopping, they will all take you to places you want to go, but you still have requirements outside of that.

[JaneCopland]

Ideally, I'd ask to see examples of the companies' work within these platforms for other clients. I agree with Prestashop that many companies have made many different platforms work for them in a variety of ways. Modern platforms are usually not too bad for SEO no matter what you go with, but all have their particular issues. I would not worry too much about keywords further down the URL structure; there are many more important factors for best SEO practice, and it's possible / likely that this is not an issue at all anymore. Where the ecommerce platform is hosted also should not be an issue.

The quality of site they can produce within these platforms would be my concern, and it's possible that a company with a "less desirable" platform can actually produce something that is of an overall higher quality, including when it comes to SEO. I'd definitely seek as many case studies / examples as possible.