Ecommerce SEO Audit: Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide & Tips

An ecommerce SEO audit is a comprehensive review and analysis of your online store’s website to assess its search engine optimization (SEO) performance. By conducting an ecommerce SEO audit, you can pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to enhance your website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Why is an ecommerce SEO audit essential? Ecommerce presents unique challenges and requirements in the realm of SEO.

Unlike other types of websites, ecommerce platforms face specific issues such as:

Optimizing hundreds or thousands of category and product pages
Differentiating your products and content from competitors
Establishing your brand’s authority and trustworthiness within your niche
Ensuring a positive review trajectory of your products and capturing them effectively
Providing a seamless user experience across various devices and platforms

An ecommerce SEO audit can assist in addressing these challenges and more. It’s a key tool to increase your organic traffic, boost your conversion rates, and reduce your marketing expenses.

In this guide, we will demonstrate how to conduct an ecommerce SEO audit step by step, highlighting the essential components, tools, and best practices. Additionally, we will offer advanced tips and highlight common pitfalls to avoid. Let’s dive in!

Key Components of an Ecommerce SEO Audit

An ecommerce SEO audit encompasses three primary components: technical SEO checks, on-page SEO evaluation, and off-page SEO strategies. Each element addresses a unique facet of your website’s SEO performance, necessitating distinct tools and methodologies for assessment and enhancement. Let’s delve into each component and its implications.

Technical SEO Checks

Technical SEO checks lay the groundwork for any ecommerce SEO audit. They ensure your website is crawlable, indexable, swift, and secure for search engines and users alike. Key technical SEO factors to assess during an audit include:

Core Web Vitals: These metrics evaluate the loading, interactivity, and visual stability of your web pages. As part of Google’s ranking signals, they significantly impact your site’s user experience and conversions. Tools like [Google PageSpeed Insights] or [SE Ranking Website Audit] can help measure and enhance your Core Web Vitals.
Crawlability and indexation: These processes allow search engines to discover, access, and store your web pages. Ensuring your website is easily crawlable and indexable, without crawl errors, broken links, or duplicate content, is crucial for your rankings. Tools such as [Google Search Console] or [Screaming Frog SEO Spider] are invaluable for monitoring and addressing crawlability and indexation issues.
Site security: Protecting your website and its users from malicious attacks and data breaches is vital. Site security not only affects Google rankings but also user trust. Ensuring your website uses HTTPS and has a valid SSL certificate is essential. Tools like [SSL Checker] or [SEMrush Site Audit] can verify and improve your site’s security.

On-Page SEO Evaluation

The next phase, on-page SEO evaluation, focuses on your web pages’ content and structure and their alignment with the search intent and expectations of your target audience.

Key on-page SEO factors to consider include:

Keyword analysis: Identifying the most relevant and profitable keywords for your ecommerce site is crucial. Keywords should have a high search volume, low competition, and high conversion potential. Tools like [Google Keyword Planner] or [SE Ranking Keyword Research] are essential for conducting keyword analysis and optimizing your pages.
Title tag and meta description optimization: These HTML elements describe your web pages to search engines and users. Optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions to include target keywords, a unique value proposition, and a clear call to action can significantly improve visibility. Optimization tools include [SEOptimer] or [Yoast SEO].
Duplicate content: Identical or very similar content across multiple web pages can confuse search engines and weaken your authority. Avoiding duplicate content with canonical tags, 301 redirects, and unique product descriptions is vital. Tools like [Siteliner] or [Copyscape] can help detect and address duplicate content.

Off-Page SEO Strategies

The final component, off-page SEO strategies, involves actions outside your website to enhance your reputation and authority in your niche.

Effective off-page SEO strategies include:

Backlink analysis: Assessing the quality and quantity of links from other websites to yours is critical. High-quality backlinks signify popularity and trustworthiness to Google. Analyzing your backlink profile for opportunities to gain more relevant, authoritative links is essential. Tools like [Ahrefs] or [SE Ranking Backlink Checker] can facilitate this analysis.
Content gap analysis: Comparing your content with that of your competitors can reveal new keywords, topics, and formats that interest your target audience. Content gap analysis can guide you in creating more engaging and relevant content. Tools for this analysis include [SEMrush Content Gap] or [SE Ranking Competitor Research].
Social media integration: Linking your website with your social media profiles and encouraging content sharing can boost brand awareness and engagement. Tools like [AddThis] or [ShareThis] can integrate social media buttons and widgets on your site, tracking social media performance.

These components constitute the essentials of an ecommerce SEO audit, offering a comprehensive checklist for improving your online store’s ranking, traffic, and conversions.

Performing the Ecommerce SEO Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now that you know the key components of an ecommerce SEO audit, it’s time to put them into practice. In this section, we will show you how to perform an ecommerce SEO audit in four simple steps, using some of the tools and methods we mentioned earlier. Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Assessing Your Current SEO Performance

The first step of an ecommerce SEO audit is to assess your current SEO performance and establish a baseline. This will help you measure your progress and identify your main goals and priorities. To assess your current SEO performance, you should:

Track your organic traffic and conversions: Use tools like Google Analytics or SE Ranking Marketing Plan to track how much organic traffic and conversions your website is generating, and which pages and keywords are driving them. You can also use tools like Google Search Console or SE Ranking Keyword Rank Tracker to monitor your rankings for your target keywords and see how they change over time.
Conduct a competitor analysis: Use tools like SEMrush or SE Ranking Competitor Research to analyze your competitors’ websites and see how they compare to yours in terms of traffic, keywords, backlinks, content, and more. You can also use tools like SEMrush Content Gap or SE Ranking Keyword Grouper to find keyword opportunities that your competitors are ranking for but you are not.
Perform a SWOT analysis: Use a SWOT analysis framework to identify your website’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This will help you focus on your competitive advantages and address your main challenges.

Step 2: Technical SEO Audit

The second step of an ecommerce SEO audit is to perform a technical SEO audit. This will help you ensure that your website is crawlable, indexable, fast, and secure for both search engines and users.

To perform a technical SEO audit, you should:

Measure and improve your Core Web Vitals: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or SE Ranking Website Audit to measure and improve your Core Web Vitals, which are a set of metrics that measure the loading, interactivity, and visual stability of your web pages. You should aim for a score of at least 90 for each metric.
Monitor and fix your crawlability and indexation issues: Use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog SEO Spider to monitor and fix your crawlability and indexation issues, such as crawl errors, broken links, duplicate pages, robots.txt file, sitemap.xml file, canonical tags, and 301 redirects. You should aim for a clean and error-free crawl report and index coverage report.
Check and improve your site security: Use tools like SSL Checker or SEMrush Site Audit to check and improve your site security, such as using HTTPS, having a valid SSL certificate, and implementing security headers. You should aim for a secure and encrypted connection for your website and its users.

Step 3: On-Page SEO Audit

The third step of an ecommerce SEO audit is to perform an on-page SEO audit. This will help you optimize the content and structure of your web pages and match the search intent and expectations of your target audience.

To perform an on-page SEO audit, you should:

Conduct a keyword analysis: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SE Ranking Keyword Research to conduct a keyword analysis and select the most relevant and profitable keywords for your ecommerce website. You should aim for keywords that have high search volume, low competition, and high conversion potential.
Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions: Use tools like SEOptimer or Yoast SEO to optimize your title tags and meta descriptions for each web page. You should aim for title tags and meta descriptions that include your target keywords, unique value proposition, and clear call to action.
Detect and eliminate duplicate content: Use tools like Siteliner or Copyscape to detect and eliminate duplicate content on your website or on other websites. You should aim for unique and original content for each web page, using canonical tags, 301 redirects, and unique product descriptions.

Step 4: Off-Page SEO Audit

The fourth and final step of an ecommerce SEO audit is to perform an off-page SEO audit. This will help you boost your reputation and authority in your niche by building high-quality links and creating engaging content.

To perform an off-page SEO audit, you should:

Analyze your backlink profile: Use tools like Ahrefs or SE Ranking Backlink Checker to analyze your backlink profile and identify opportunities to acquire more high-quality links from relevant and authoritative sources. You should aim for a diverse and natural backlink profile that supports your site’s relevance and trustworthiness.
Perform a content gap analysis: Use tools like SEMrush Content Gap or SE Ranking Competitor Research to perform a content gap analysis and find and fill the gaps in your content strategy by comparing your website with your competitors’. You should aim for creating more engaging and relevant content for your target audience that covers new keywords, topics, and formats.
Integrate social media: Use tools like AddThis or ShareThis to integrate social media buttons and widgets on your website and encourage social sharing of your content. You should aim for increasing your brand awareness, reach, and engagement with your potential and existing customers on social media platforms.

Congratulations! You have completed an ecommerce SEO audit for your online store. By following these steps, you can improve your website’s ranking, traffic, and conversions, and stay ahead of your competitors.

Remember to monitor your SEO performance regularly and make adjustments as needed. Happy auditing!

Advanced Tips and Common Pitfalls to Avoid

In this section, we will share some advanced tips and common pitfalls to avoid when performing an ecommerce SEO audit. These tips will help you take your ecommerce SEO to the next level and avoid some of the mistakes that many online store owners make.

Implementing Structured Data for Enhanced Listings

Structured data is a standardized format for providing search engines information about a webpage and its content. This information can help search engines display more informative and visually appealing search results, such as rich snippets, carousels, and knowledge graphs.

For ecommerce websites, structured data can provide Google with valuable information about your products, such as product name, description, price, availability, rating, number of reviews, etc. This can help your products stand out in the SERPs and attract more clicks and conversions. To implement structured data for your ecommerce website, you should use the Product schema markup, which is a set of predefined properties and schema types that describe a product.

You can use tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or Schema App to generate and test your structured data code. You can also use Google’s Rich Results Test to see how your structured data will appear in the search results.

Optimizing for Voice Search and Mobile Users

Voice search is one of the fastest-growing types of search, especially among mobile users. According to Google, 27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile. Voice search is different from text-based search, as voice queries are usually more conversational, longer, and formulated as full sentences or questions.

To optimize your ecommerce website for voice search and mobile users, you should:

Make your content scannable: Use short paragraphs, bullet points, headings, and subheadings to break up your content and make it easy to read and understand.
Claim your Google My Business listing: If you have a physical store, make sure to register your business with Google My Business and provide accurate and up-to-date information about your location, opening hours, contact details, etc. This can help you appear in local voice searches and Google Maps.
Read the official user guides: Learn how each voice assistant works and what kind of queries they can answer. You can read the official user guides for Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, and Alexa to get familiar with their features and capabilities.
Focus on long-tail keywords: Use tools like AnswerThePublic or Semrush to find long-tail keywords and questions that your target audience is asking. Incorporate these keywords into your content and provide clear and concise answers.
Create frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages: FAQ pages are a great way to provide relevant and useful information to your customers and voice searchers. You can use tools like AlsoAsked or QuestionDB to find common questions related to your products or niche and create FAQ pages that answer them.

Avoiding Common Ecommerce SEO Mistakes

Finally, you should avoid some of the common ecommerce SEO mistakes that can hurt your rankings and conversions. These mistakes include:

Neglecting site speed: Site speed is a ranking factor and a user experience factor. You should optimize your site speed by compressing images, reducing redirects, removing unnecessary plugins, using fewer widgets, and upgrading your hosting.
Poorly designed site structure: Site structure is important for both SEO and UX. You should design your site structure in a logical and intuitive way, using categories and subcategories, breadcrumbs, navigation menus, and internal links. You should also use descriptive and consistent URL structures for your pages.
Forgetting about faceted search: Faceted search is a feature that allows users to filter and sort products by various attributes, such as color, size, price, brand, etc. Faceted search can improve user experience and conversions, but it can also create duplicate content and indexing issues. You should use canonical tags, robots.txt file, and noindex tags to prevent these issues and optimize your faceted search.
Not thinking enough about conversion: Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving your website’s ability to turn visitors into customers. CRO can complement your SEO efforts and boost your revenue. You should use tools like Google Analytics or Optimizely to track and improve your conversion rates.
Putting too much content on category pages: Category pages are important for ecommerce SEO, as they help users and search engines find and understand your products. However, putting too much content on category pages can harm your SEO and UX, as it can distract users from your products, slow down your page speed, and dilute your keyword focus. You should use concise and relevant content on your category pages, and use internal links to direct users to more detailed content on your product pages or blog posts.
Not thinking about E-A-T: E-A-T stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, and it’s a concept that Google uses to evaluate the quality and credibility of websites. E-A-T is especially important for ecommerce websites, as they deal with sensitive information and transactions. You should demonstrate your E-A-T by providing accurate and helpful information, displaying customer reviews and testimonials, having clear and transparent policies, and securing your website with HTTPS and SSL.
Not putting the customer first: The ultimate goal of ecommerce SEO is to provide the best possible experience for your customers and meet their needs and expectations. You should always put the customer first and create your website and content with them in mind. You should use tools like Hotjar or SurveyMonkey to collect feedback and insights from your customers and use them to improve your website and SEO strategy.

By following these advanced tips and avoiding these common pitfalls, you can take your ecommerce SEO audit to the next level and achieve better results for your online store.

Conclusion: Maximizing Your Ecommerce Website’s Potential

In this article, we’ve guided you through the process of conducting an ecommerce SEO audit for your online store. An ecommerce SEO audit involves a thorough review and analysis of your website’s SEO effectiveness, focusing on technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. By adhering to our detailed guide, you’re equipped to pinpoint and rectify any issues impeding your site’s ranking, traffic, and conversion rates, ultimately enhancing your website’s user experience and authority.

We also divulged some advanced tips and highlighted common pitfalls to steer clear of during your ecommerce SEO audit. These include the implementation of structured data, optimization for voice search and mobile users, and the avoidance of typical ecommerce SEO blunders. By leveraging these insights and sidestepping potential errors, you can elevate your ecommerce SEO efforts, propelling your online store to new heights. We trust you’ve found this article both useful and enlightening.

Should you have any queries or wish to share feedback, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Moreover, if you require assistance with your ecommerce SEO audit, we’re just a message away.

Our team comprises seasoned ecommerce SEO specialists dedicated to helping you unlock the full potential of your ecommerce website. We appreciate your time spent reading and wish you success in your auditing endeavors!