One of the most important steps in the process of setting up an online store is selecting the e-commerce platform that will best suit the needs of your business as well as your customers. Choosing the right e-commerce platform is no easy task; there are hundreds of e-commerce solutions available for businesses of all sizes, and numerous ways in which one platform is distinct from the next.

With that being said, one consideration that is often overlooked by business owners is to what extent the platform is built with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in mind.

Selecting an e-commerce platform built with certain SEO functionalities in place can prevent a lot of headaches further down the road, in the case that you need to make certain structural changes to your site. But the actual selection process can be hard to do without a clear outline of what an e-commerce platform should offer, or without adequate SEO knowledge. To make matters worse, there are a number of e-commerce companies out there touting the “SEO-friendliness” of their platforms which are, in all reality, quite SEO-unfriendly.

Before making a final decision about which platform is best for you, be sure to consider how your chosen platform stacks up against the 5 recommendations listed below. If these recommendations are hard for you to understand, a representative at the given e-commerce company should be able to walk you through how their platform handles these issues. (And, if they can’t – let that be the first red flag!).