Appearing in organic search results is one of the most sustainable ways to generate traffic for your ecommerce website. Yes, you can purchase pay-per-click ads on platforms like Google Ads, which can put your ecommerce site at the top of Google search results. But ads are expensive over the long term, and user behavior data indicates far more people click on organic search results than on ads.
Bringing organic search traffic to your online store requires ecommerce search engine optimization (SEO). This is a strategic approach to make your website rank highly when search engines answer user queries. To learn how your website is performing and what SEO factors to improve requires doing regular SEO audits.
Shopify SEO lead Kyle Risley recommends an annual or semiannual ecommerce SEO audit for businesses that can afford it (an audit can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the complexity of the website and the goals of the audit). Here’s a rundown of how regular SEO audits can improve your website visibility and drive the right types of customers to your online store.
What is an ecommerce SEO audit?
An ecommerce SEO audit is a comprehensive review and analysis of an online store’s website to assess its search engine optimization (SEO) performance. Companies run ecommerce SEO audits to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to enhance the website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Kyle notes SEO audits serve as a digital spring cleaning for ecommerce sites. “It’s a good opportunity to take a more comprehensive look at a website in a way that most business owners or site operators don’t do on a day-to-day basis,” he explains. “It’s kind of like going over your financials once or twice a year.”
Ecommerce SEO audit checklist
“Most people who are operating a store are probably using an ecommerce CMS like Shopify,” says Kyle. “Content management systems do a good job of automatically optimizing your SEO. However, those might not be optimized in the way that you, as a site owner, want. That’s where an audit comes in.”
Key components of an ecommerce SEO audit may include:
Keyword analysis
A strong keyword strategy is at the heart of any ecommerce SEO effort. Evaluate the relevance and effectiveness of the target keywords used on product pages, category pages, and throughout content on the website.
The best ecommerce keywords tend to be specific and descriptive, says Kyle: “If you sell products in a collection, make sure you use descriptive language to describe your collection. If you are selling red t-shirts, calling the collection ‘red’ won’t help you turn up in SEO. You’d want to call it ’Red T-shirts’ to show up in search results.”
On-page SEO
On-page SEO elements like title tags and meta descriptions play a big role in web page visibility. Examine the optimization of individual pages, including title tags (sometimes called meta titles), meta descriptions, headers, and URL structures. “Make sure your titles feature your brand name,” says Kyle.
A thorough on-page SEO audit will cover every one of your store’s product pages, with the goal of optimizing keyword usage and meta tags to attract the right kinds of shoppers.
Technical SEO
Check for technical issues that might affect search engine crawling and indexing, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and URL structure. Addressing these elements is sometimes known as off-page SEO. A technical SEO audit may not add content to your site, but it can help you rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP).
Content quality
Content strategy plays a big role in SEO. Assess the quality and uniqueness of product descriptions, blog posts, and other content on the website. “The big thing overall is to understand what questions a user has about a product and the information they need,” says Kyle. “Make sure that’s appearing on the page.”
Watch out for duplicate content across multiple pages, which can confuse search engines and diminish your search engine visibility. Content across pages can be similar, but pages should not use the same language verbatim.
You can also use a canonical tag to help search engines make sense of similar content. Canonical tags tell search engines which page should be considered the authoritative or primary version—even if another version of the page contains similar content.
Site architecture and structured data
Review your site structure—including your XML sitemap and internal links—to appeal to search engine algorithms. Kyle emphasizes the need to add structured data, or information provided in a standardized format, to your site. If you use Shopify as your CMS, you might consider SEO tools like Yoast SEO to implement fields that help you structure data.
Include information about each product’s name, price (including currency), estimated shipping times, and return policy. Search engine bots consume this information and consider it when trying to show relevant pages to users. “Google is showing more and more pieces of that structured data in your search results,” says Kyle. “When its search engine crawlers find that stuff, they display it right on the SERP, since it’s what a customer is looking for.”
Mobile friendliness
With each passing year, more and more ecommerce transactions take place on mobile devices, with sales slated to hit $710.4 billion by 2025. A mobile-friendly site gives you the best chance at winning this ever-growing slice of the ecommerce pie.
Optimize your store for mobile commerce, with pages rendering swiftly and properly. Run Google’s mobile-friendly test to check your site’s mobile friendliness and identify opportunities for improvement.
Internal and external links
Google and other search engines factor both internal and external links into their search algorithms, making them essential for boosting organic traffic. Analyze your website’s backlinks to identify opportunities for building high-quality, relevant links.
Ideally, you’ll have external sites linking to your web pages, but internal linking also helps. You should also use this opportunity to find and take down broken links that lead to dead pages—or reroute them to active pages.
User experience (UX)
Evaluate the overall user experience (UX), including site search functionality, page speed, mobile responsiveness, and ease of navigation. You want to eliminate any friction points that may arise between an initial landing page and the final stage of online checkout.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
Consider how well your website is optimized for converting visitors into customers, focusing on elements like calls to action, checkout process, and product pages.
Keyword targeting plays a role in conversion rate optimization. There’s little value in loading up a web page with keywords simply because they’re linked to a high search volume. Stick to highly relevant keywords that specifically appeal to users who would actually want to buy something that you sell.
Competitor analysis
When you conduct SEO audits, study the websites of brands that compete with yours. Identify what strategies they’re using, and find those that will work for you. You may also identify gaps in the competitor landscape, which you can use to solidify your niche.
Competitor analysis includes keyword research to find out what target keywords have been driving traffic to your competitors, as well as assessing their speed, searchability, and overall user experience. All of these metrics can help you set benchmarks to surpass.
Local SEO (if applicable)
If your business has physical locations, assess local SEO factors, such as local citations (online references that mention your location, number, etc.) and your Google Business Profile. Allow your physical locations to appear on mapping apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Category pages
Group the various items you sell into different category pages. This is an easy way to add content to your online store and boost search visibility. Some ecommerce stores go without category pages, says Kyle, “but they leave a lot of opportunity on the table.”
He offers an example: “Let’s say you sell spices. There are probably 20 to 30 different ways you can organize those spices. You should create pages for each category: Indian spices, Italian spices, etc. Or curry spices, barbecue spices, etc. That’s good because there’s a lot of buyer intent there.”
As you’re doing your audit, look for any category pages that might be outdated or any new category pages you could add to the mix.
Site security (HTTPS)
Confirm that your website uses HTTPS to secure the connection between the user’s browser and the server. Google considers HTTPS as a ranking factor, and having a secure site is crucial for building trust with visitors. Additionally, a secure connection is especially important for ecommerce websites handling sensitive customer data during transactions.
Schema markup implementation
Check if schema markup is implemented across your website—particularly for product pages. Schema markup is a type of structured data—code that provides additional context to search engines, helping them understand the content better by identifying elements such as prices, reviews, recipes, etc.
When you use schema markup to organize elements of your content, those elements can show up in rich snippets at the top of a SERP, which can potentially improve your click-through rates.
Product image optimization
Ensure that images have descriptive file names, include relevant alt text, and are compressed for faster loading times. Image optimization not only contributes to SEO but also enhances the overall user experience. It also helps you comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a set of guidelines and standards developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that make websites more accessible to those with disabilities.
Social media integration
Examine how well your ecommerce store integrates with social media platforms. Social signals can indirectly impact SEO, and having social sharing options on product pages can contribute to increased visibility. Make sure to use consistent branding between your website and social channels to create a cohesive experience for your customers.
Benefits of conducting an ecommerce SEO audit
Ecommerce SEO audits provide numerous benefits to an ecommerce business looking to optimize how it appears on search results and convert more site visitors into paying customers. Here are some outcomes you can expect from a thorough ecommerce website audit:
Improved search engine rankings
By identifying and addressing SEO issues through an audit, businesses can learn how they can improve their website’s search engine rankings. After implementing those improvements, business owners can increase the visibility of product pages and attract more organic traffic.
You can improve your site’s performance by optimizing on-page elements, addressing technical SEO issues like site speed and mobile friendliness, and ensuring that the site is optimized for search engine algorithms.
Optimized marketing efforts
An SEO audit can also help you align digital marketing efforts with your website’s SEO strategy. Using effective keywords, optimizing content, and ensuring a strong technical foundation can contribute to the success of other digital marketing initiatives. For example, understanding which keywords attract users may lead to greater success in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising as well, where you bid on which keyword SERPs you’d like your ads to be placed on.
More informative content
“Informational content can drive a lot of traffic to your website,” says Kyle. That’s because search algorithms boost websites that provide high-quality information. In the process of an SEO audit, you’ll identify which informational pieces of content already work well and where you have gaps to fill. Discovering these gaps can lead to a better user experience for your customers.
Still, Kyle offers words of caution: “You’re probably not going to sell a lot of products with content alone. Prioritize informational content around products that you sell and how they can solve a user’s issue. Ask: ‘Will someone end up buying something as a result of landing on this page?’” End each piece of informational content with a strong CTA to improve the chances of conversion.
A customer-focused website
A comprehensive SEO audit is a great opportunity for ecommerce websites to orient their content toward the consumer. “Put yourself in the shoes of the user,” instructs Kyle. “Make sure that you’re answering everything they need to know before purchasing.” He offers an example: “I did some work for a company that sells egg cartons, and their web pages were very precise about what size cavity was in each carton and the material they were made of. This really helped them reach the types of site visitors who actually wanted to buy the product they were selling.”
Ecommerce SEO audit FAQ
Are SEO audits worth it?
SEO audits can be expensive, and their value depends on the nature of your business. “For a site that’s actually making money from search, an SEO audit can be worth it,” says Kyle. “The price is going to vary if you DIY it—such as with Google Analytics and the Google Search Console. If you pay someone to do an SEO audit, the value is going to vary based on how much you rely on SEO for income.”
How long does an SEO audit take?
The duration of an SEO audit can vary widely depending on the size and complexity of the website, ranging from a few days for smaller sites to several weeks for larger, more intricate ones.
When should you conduct an ecommerce SEO audit?
Kyle suggests conducting an ecommerce SEO audit one to two times per year, assuming your budget can accommodate it. An audit may cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the size and complexity of your ecommerce store.
