Is WordPress a Blog in the eyes of Google?

[soralsokal]

Hi,

My online Shop is based on WordPress with the WooCommerce plugin. Now, I have met a SEO guy who told me that's bad in the eyes of Google:

Because Google apparently sees my website as a blog and not as a E-Commerce site.

Wow, this statement really confused my, since I am working so hard on content and good rankings. Any opinions on this would be appreciated.

Best, Robin

[Bryan_Loconto]

Hey Robinl!!

We have several projects that use WooCommerce. All have an online store and blog. No problems with any of them!

I am not sure where he is getting that idea from as I am certain Google understands that WooCommerce is a WP plugin that allows you to run the online store on the WP (blog) platform. Was this just his opinion or was there any supporting information that he gave you? Maybe based on another project he'd worked on?

IMO and experience, you are fine to use this set up. We have several sites set up using this same structure without any issues. We've even moved some Opencart and Magento sites over to use WooCommerce. They too are doing just fine!

[benjaminmarcinc]

Hey,

I Agree with Bryan, and I myself have ecommerce websites with woo commerce that have blogs as well. When you go to the posts section and add a post that should be going to the blog section on your website. Google is looking for good rich content on your pages explaining each product.

[soralsokal]

Thank you for your feedback. He didn't give any specifics, just said that Google puts WordPress sites in the 'blog' category.

Although, I don't know if Google is differentiating between blogs and ecommerce sites in terms of ranking.

The question is: If you have the same content on all pages and one system WooCommerce (WordPress) and one Magento, would that make a difference? My guess is not, but I am not an expert Thanks again for you answer.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Certainly Robin! I'm happy to share my experience and opinion

In terms of rankings, Google simply bases it on relevancy. I don't think you should worry too much about blog vs ecommerce. Woo Commerce is a great tool and IMO delivers the best of both worlds. It gives the ability to have an online store while at the same time, gives the blog platform where you can post relevant content for your site users.

To answer your question, I first need to clarify what you mean by:

"If you have the same content on all pages and one system WooCommerce (WordPress) and one Magento, would that make a difference?"

Do you also have a Magento store?

[soralsokal]

No, it was a thought on a fictional experiment.

If you create 2 online shops with the same content, the results would be the same (forget about duplicate content for that thought experiment).

Now will the results still be the same if you have 2 different systems, e.g. Magento and WordPress? Given that URL structure, social shares and other ranking signals are equal.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Ahh ok I follow you! Well, we haven't run any actual experiments using 2 online shops like the example you mentioned (one using Woo & the other using another platform). But we have taken existing OpenCart & Magento sites that were already ranking for competitive terms and migrated them over to WooCommerce. The rankings dipped for a short period but recovered and have since superseded the rankings they had before.

I was skeptical of WooCommerce at first but it has become our preferred solution for eCommerce. I'm not saying the others are bad or anything.

To answer your question, I don't think it would make a difference if you used one platform over another if they were both structured the same and had similar social engagement, etc. As long as you keep things RELEVANT and keep the site geared around your target audience needs, you should be fine either way.

Hope this helps!!