Need help attracting organic traffic to your e-commerce store?
Here’s the reality.
You might use a top-tier e-commerce platform, have a sleek and stylish store design, and conduct extensive A/B testing. But your store won’t reach its full potential without solid organic traffic.
This is where an e-commerce SEO audit becomes crucial.
An SEO audit helps you pinpoint areas for improvement, providing a clear pathway to enhance your rankings.
In this guide, I’ll explain an e-commerce SEO audit, why it’s essential, and how you can kick-start the process with my e-commerce SEO audit checklist.
Key Takeaways
An e-commerce SEO audit is a very comprehensive review of your online store’s SEO, examining on-page, off-page, and technical factors. Conducting an e-commerce SEO audit can boost traffic, increase conversion rates, and reduce marketing expenses. Technical factors evaluated during an audit include Core Web Vitals, crawlability, and site indexation. On-page factors encompass mobile responsiveness, title tag, meta description optimization, and issues like duplicate content. Off-page factors you can assess in an audit include your backlink profile and potential content gaps.
What Is an E-commerce SEO Audit?
An e-commerce SEO audit, or e-commerce site audit, is an in-depth analysis of your online store’s health and performance from an SEO standpoint. A thorough audit reviews various aspects of your store, including all of its pages (such as the homepage, category pages, and product pages), technical performance, and off-page SEO factors like backlink quality and quantity.
By conducting an e-commerce SEO audit, you can identify your site’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement, which can help boost your site’s visibility in Google and other search engines.
Although SEO audits can be time-intensive, you should aim to complete one at least once a year. The potential increase in revenue from improved search engine rankings will likely outweigh the time and effort required to run the audit.
Why Is an E-commerce SEO Audit Important?
Why is it crucial to conduct an e-commerce site audit? E-commerce websites have specific needs and characteristics that distinguish them from other websites.
“There are key differences between e-commerce sites and other websites,” says William Kammer, VP of SEO at NP Accel.
These include:
- Proper optimization of category and product pages
- Highlighting what sets your products apart from your competitors
- Establishing experience and authority by demonstrating team expertise and building customer trust
- Ensuring a consistent trajectory of positive product reviews by focusing on quality and customer service, and capturing those reviews in appropriate places.”
By conducting an e-commerce SEO audit, you can identify technical issues affecting your website’s ranking, improve overall performance, and enhance the user experience. Additional benefits of e-commerce SEO audits include:
- Increased traffic: SEO optimization can help your site rank higher in search, bringing more visitors. This can lead to greater visibility for your e-commerce business.
- Improved conversion rates: A better-optimized website is more likely to convert visitors into paying customers, increasing sales.
- Competitive advantage: Strong e-commerce SEO can give you a significant edge over competitors and keep you ahead in your industry.
- Reduced marketing costs: SEO can lower your marketing expenses, allowing you to gain exposure without heavy reliance on paid ads or other costly marketing campaigns.
- Better ROI: An improved return on investment means your SEO efforts can be more cost-effective and yield more excellent business value.
Given these benefits, conducting an e-commerce SEO audit is a smart move to keep your business growing and competitive in the evolving digital landscape.
15 Steps to Perform an E-commerce SEO Audit
Want to ensure your e-commerce SEO audit is as thorough as possible? Follow this comprehensive 15-step checklist, covering everything from technical SEO to content and link-building analysis.
Technical SEO Audit
1. Check Your Crawlability Crawlability measures how easily search engine crawlers can scan your website. If your site is crawlable, it will likely be indexed quickly and ranked for more keywords. Use Google Search Console’s “Crawl Stats Report” to evaluate your site’s crawlability.
2. Analyze Core Web Vitals Core Web Vitals are metrics used by Google to evaluate your site’s performance and user experience. They include:
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- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The time it takes to render the most significant content.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Response time for user input.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Degree of layout shift during loading.
- Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s Core Web Vitals.
3. Run an Indexation Analysis. This step helps you discover which pages are indexed by search engines. Pages that need to be indexed won’t appear in search results, impacting your site’s ranking. Common reasons for indexing issues include auto-generated URLs or poor internal linking. Use Google Search Console to identify indexation issues.
4. Verify Your Sitemap A sitemap guides search engine crawlers through your website. Ensure your sitemap is accurate and accessible. Check that it’s listed in Google Search Console’s “Sitemap” section. Additionally, examine your robots.txt file to avoid blocking essential pages. For e-commerce sites, ensure these parts are not blocked:
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- Shopping cart
- Checkout
- Account
- Login and signup
- On-site search pages
5. Ensure You’re Using HTTPS HTTPS is a security protocol that encrypts communication among your website and users. It’s also a Google ranking signal. Ensure you have an SSL certificate, then confirm HTTPS is active on your site. If not, install an SSL certificate to avoid browser security warnings and improve your site’s trustworthiness.
6. Check Mobile-Friendliness Google primarily indexes websites based on their mobile version. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your site’s mobile responsiveness. If needed, consider using a responsive design, reducing image size, and optimizing for mobile users to improve your performance.
7. Fix Broken Links Broken links harm the user experience and can negatively impact SEO. Tools like Ahrefs and Screaming Frog can help find broken links. Correct broken links by updating them or using redirects.
8. Canonicalize or Remove Duplicate Content Duplicate content confuses search engines and can affect your site’s ranking. Audit your site to find and canonicalize or remove duplicate content, particularly for product listings and similar pages.
9. Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions These should be clear, concise, and relevant. Use the Detailed SEO Extension or Screaming Frog to audit and optimize these elements across your site.
Content Audit
10. Optimize Category PagesCategory pages define your site’s structure. Ensure they are well-organized and appropriately categorized. URLs should reflect the hierarchy, and content should be descriptive.
11. Optimize Product Pages Product pages require specific SEO optimization. Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions, add structured data (Schema), and include customer reviews and FAQs for social proof. Evaluate your product pages’ ranking using tools like Ubersuggest to identify where improvements are needed.
12. Add or Optimize Internal Links Internal linking helps search engines understand your site’s structure and distributes link equity. Ensure links are relevant and use keyword-rich anchor text to connect pages logically.
13. Add or Optimize Alt Text Alt text helps search engines understand images. Ensure all images have descriptive alt text, especially on product and category pages.
Off-Page SEO Audit
14. Check Your BacklinksBacklinks are crucial for SEO ranking. Evaluate your backlink profile for quality and quantity. If needed, build backlinks by:
- Mining competitors’ backlinks using tools like Ahrefs.
- Creating valuable content that attracts links.
- Participating in online forums and discussion groups.
- Writing guest posts for relevant blogs.
15. Conduct a Content Gap AnalysisIt identifies opportunities for new content to existing content. Use this analysis to discover topics to boost your SEO and generate new blog ideas.
Following this 15-step e-commerce SEO audit checklist ensures your site is customized for search engines and provides a smooth user experience.
Conclusion
E-commerce SEO audits are an essential component of any digital marketing strategy. They allow you to identify areas for improvement and ensure that your conversion rate optimization efforts are supported by sufficient traffic.
Conducting a site audit might feel overwhelming, but I hope my e-commerce SEO audit checklist simplifies your process. Remember to cover all the critical points mentioned above and to perform regular audits to maintain optimal results. If you still need help with the intricacies of SEO, consider exploring our monthly SEO packages and let our experts help you.
