Ecommerce SEO Audit: A checklist of everything you will be looking for during an eCommerce SEO audit.

Introduction

SEO is a complex and ever-changing field. What worked last year may not work this year, and what works for one site might not work for another. That’s why it’s important to audit your eCommerce site regularly to ensure you’re taking advantage of the latest SEO techniques. This checklist will give you an overview of everything you’ll need to look for during your next audit.

What is an eCommerce SEO audit?

An eCommerce SEO audit is a comprehensive review of your online store to identify potential areas of improvement in your search engine optimization strategy. The goal of an audit is to help you understand how well your store is currently optimized and identify any areas where you may be able to improve your rankings and visibility in search results.

How can you tell if your website needs an SEO audit?

There are a few different ways to tell if your website could benefit from an SEO audit:

-Traffic has decreased: If you’ve noticed a sudden drop in traffic, it could be due to a change in Google’s algorithm or a penalty. An audit can help you identify the cause of the problem and find a solution.

-Traffic is stagnant: Even if your traffic hasn’t decreased, it could be stale. If you’re not seeing the growth you want, an audit can help you identify where you need to make improvements.

-You’re not ranking for important keywords: If you’re not ranking for the keywords you want to be found for, an audit can help you understand why and find a solution.

-Your competition is outranking you: If your competitors are outpacing you in search results, it’s time to find out why and make some changes.

Checklist for performing an SEO

Here is a shot of our favorite set of KPI’s to follow:

There are a lot of different factors that go into an effective SEO strategy, so it’s important to cover all your bases when you’re performing an audit. Here’s a checklist of everything you’ll need to look for:

On-page analysis:

On-page SEO is all about optimizing your website for search engines. This includes things like your title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and images. An audit will help you identify any areas where you can improve your on-page SEO.

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Off-page analysis:

After you have completed your on-page analysis, it’s time to move on to your off-page analysis. This will involve analyzing your link profile and looking for any red flags that could be hurting your SEO efforts.

Technical SEO:

The technical aspects of your website can have a big impact on your SEO. This includes things like your site’s speed, sitemaps, and breadcrumbs. An audit will help you identify any areas where you can improve your website’s technical SEO.

Keyword research:

Keyword research is essential for any SEO strategy. An audit will help you identify the best keywords to target for your business and make sure you’re using them effectively.

User experience:

Your website’s user experience is important for both SEO and conversions. An audit will help you identify any areas where you can improve your website’s design, navigation, and content to make it more user-friendly.

Why Is an SEO Audit Necessary for eCommerce Sites?

An SEO audit is a necessary part of any eCommerce website’s health checkup. By auditing your site, you can identify any areas that need improvement and make the necessary changes to improve your SEO strategy. In doing so, you can ensure that your website is ranking high in search results and generating the traffic and conversions you want.

A study recently reported that 71 percent of people never scroll past the first page of search results. That means if your website isn’t on the first page, you’re missing out on a lot of potential traffic. An audit can help you identify the changes you need to make to get your website onto that coveted first page.

Not only will an audit help you improve your website’s ranking in search results, but it will also help you improve your conversion rate. A study by HubSpot found that a website’s organic traffic can have a significant impact on its conversion rate. In fact, they found that websites with a strong SEO strategy had an average conversion rate of 14.6 percent, while those with a weak SEO strategy had an average conversion rate of just 4.5 percent.

Checklist for an E-Commerce SEO Audit

On-page analysis

On-page SEO is all about optimizing your website for search engines. This includes things like your title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and images.

Title Tags:

Your title tags should be unique and descriptive. They should also include your target keyword.

Meta Descriptions:

Your meta descriptions should be brief but still, provide enough information to entice users to click through to your website. They should also include your target keyword.

Header Tags:

Your header tags should be used to structure your content and make it easy to read. They should also include your target keyword.

Images:

Make sure all of your images are optimized for search engines by including descriptive alt text.

Keyword optimization:

Content is the most important part of on-page SEO, so make sure your target keyword is included in your content in a way that makes sense. Don’t stuff your keywords in there just for the sake of it.

Off-page analysis

Off-page SEO refers to the things you can do to improve your website’s ranking that is not directly on your website. This includes things like link building and social media.

Link building:

The number and quality of links pointing to your website is a signal to search engines that your website is popular and relevant. The best way to get high-quality links is to create great content that people will want to link to.

Social media marketing:

An audit will also help you analyze your social media marketing strategy. This includes things like looking at your social media profiles and posts to see if you’re using the right keywords and hashtags.

PR:

An audit can also help you measure the success of your PR strategy. This includes looking at things like media mentions, backlinks, and social media shares.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is all about optimizing your website for search engines. This includes things like site speed, mobile friendliness, and indexing. An audit will help you identify any areas where you can improve your technical SEO.

Site speed:

Make sure your website loads quickly by optimizing your images and using a caching plugin.

Mobile-friendliness:

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly by using a responsive design and optimizing your pages for mobile devices.

Indexing:

An audit will help you ensure that your website is being indexed properly by search engines. This includes things like submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console and using the proper robots.txt file.

Keyword Research

Before you can even begin to improve your eCommerce website for search engines, you need to know which keywords you should be targeting. This is where keyword research comes in.

There are a number of different ways to go about conducting keyword research, but some of the most popular methods include using tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends.

Once you’ve conducted your keyword research, you should have a good idea of which keywords you should be targeting.

User experience:

Make sure your website is easy to use and navigate. This includes things like having a well-designed layout, using clear and concise text and providing helpful and informative content.

Best SEO Tools for Auditing Your eCommerce Site

Now that you know what to look for in an eCommerce SEO audit, it’s time to start using some tools to help you with the process. Here are some of the best SEO tools for auditing your e-commerce website:

1. Google Search Console: This is a free tool from Google that allows you to see how your website is performing in search results. It also allows you to submit your sitemap and robots.txt file, and it provides other valuable data such as click-through rates and keyword rankings.

2. Google Analytics: This is another free tool from Google that allows you to track your website’s traffic and conversions. It also provides other valuable data such as bounce rate and time on site.

3. SEMrush: This is a paid tool that offers a free trial. It allows you to track your website’s SEO progress, keyword rankings, and backlinks.

4. Moz: The use of this tool is to audit your eCommerce SEO progress. You can use the free trial to Moz in order to see what improvements have to be made.

5. Ahrefs: This is a paid tool that offers a 7-day trial. It allows you to track your website’s keyword rankings, backlinks, and organic traffic.

6. PageSpeed Insights: This tool returns information on how well a page performs on the Chrome User Experience Report and on a set of real-world devices.

7. Majestic SEO: Exclusively focused on link analysis, this tool provides information on a website’s link profile, including anchor text and link strength.

WRAPPING UP

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts that go into the process of optimizing an eCommerce site for search engines. That’s why it’s so important to get help from experts who know how these pieces fit together and how they work in tandem with one another. Our team has helped many clients improve their SEO strategy by focusing on areas such as user experience, technical SEO, and keyword research.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you with your eCommerce SEO efforts, contact us today for a free consultation.