How to Perform SEO Audit for an Ecommerce Site?

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Ecommerce is highly competitive. Unless you regularly audit and optimize your marketing strategies, you aren’t keeping up with your competitors. 

Moreover, your site’s SEO health is directly linked to traffic, conversions, and sales. So, before you plan to push more product categories on your site, it is better to do a detailed Ecommerce SEO Audit.

7 Tips to Perform SEO Audit for an Ecommerce Site

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1. Check and Fix Any Crawlability and Indexation Issues

Get access to site audit tools like SEMrush’s Site Audit Tool, Screaming Frog, or SpyFu. And crawl your ecommerce site to scrutinize the crawlability, sitemap, broken links, etc. 

Along with the status of these metrics, these tools display suggestions on resolving redirects, crawlability issues, performance, etc. 

Moreover, ecommerce sites are most likely to have a long list of product and category pages. So, a vital measure is to scrutinize your crawl budget and protect it for the crucial pages. 

Some of the crucial tips for ecommerce sites include: 

• Use Google Search Console to scrutinize your ecommerce site’s crawl budget. 

• Pages like the Cart Page, Thank You page, Payment Page, etc., must not consumer your crawl budget. And you must use the Robots.txt file to Disallow the indexing. 

• Check if there are any duplicate pages and add the Disallow tag to stop their indexing. 

• Save the crawl budget by reducing the redirects up to a minimum.

Next, if you have a small ecommerce site, you can scrutinize some indexation issues manually. Search “site:yoursitename.com” on Google to check all the indexed pages. 

If you find some of your product pages missing, here are the possible issues:

• Your pages fail to adhere to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. 

• The developer has missed removing the NOINDEX tag or Disallow tag from some pages.

Moreover, if you witness any spam pages in your site’s indexed list, you need to remove them. Use Google’s Disavow Tool to request the removal of these pages. 

Here’s a screenshot of the Google Search Console:

2. Disallow Certain Ecommerce Pages with Robots.txt 

The robots.txt file comes in handy to set the site indexing instructions for search engine bots. Using the robots.txt file, you can apply the Disallow tag to the non-indexable pages using the robots.txt file.

For an ecommerce website, some of the most common non-indexable pages include – Thank You page, Cart Page, Order Summary Pages, etc. 

Locate and assess your robots.txt file using the root folder (https://domain.com/robots.txt). Or you can also locate the file using SEMrush’s Site Audit Tool. 

Follow these tips to find and fix any possible errors related to the robots.txt file: 

• Use the testing tool in Google Search Console to assess if there are any formatting errors in the robots.txt file. 

• Ensure you have only blocked the non-indexable ecommerce pages. A validation tool can help you check the blocked pages.

• A developer can also help you optimize any irrelevant Disallow rules in the robots.txt file. 

• Further, your robots.txt file must help search crawlers find your sitemap location.

Here’s an example of a robots.txt file:

3. Work Carefully on Your Ecommerce XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap helps search crawlers comprehend your site’s structure. It ensures that these crawlers do not miss out on any crucial pages on your site. 

Check your XML sitemap via the root folder (https://domain.com/sitemap.xml).

You can also use Google Search commands like “site:domain.com inurl:sitemap” or “site:domain.com filetype:xml” to locate the sitemap. 

An XML sitemap is highly crucial for large ecommerce sites with a vast number of pages. These include the product pages, filter pages, several listing and category pages, etc.

Moreover, these are rich media pages with product images, videos, etc. Thus, an XML sitemap helps you explain the structuring of these pages to search engine bots. 

The XML sitemap becomes all the more crucial for ecommerce sites as they do not have a definite internal linking structure. Cross-category internal linking and content-embedded internal linking aren’t common with ecommerce sites. 

So, take a good amount of time to create and structure your sitemap for your ecommerce site. After submitting it through Google Search Console, you can check your sitemap’s status.

The Sitemap report in the Search Console must display the “Success” status. Meanwhile, you must check for errors or resubmit the sitemap if the report shows “Has errors” or “Couldn’t fetch” status.

Also, a large ecommerce site is likely to have an extensive size. However, try to make it smaller than 50MB. 

Further, some recommended practices include:

• Ensure to place exact URLs (https://www.domain.com/product-name) in the sitemap 
• Use Yoast SEO to update the sitemap every time you add a new product or category page. 
• Ensure you have a single and updated sitemap copy on your ecommerce site. Don’t miss out on removing the older version when adding a new sitemap. 

Here’s a screenshot of the Yoast SEO’s sitemap configuration section:

4. Fix Duplicate Content Product Pages and Section with Canonical Tags

Ecommerce sites are most likely to show duplicate content. However, most of this content isn’t manipulative or malicious. And so, Google does not roll out a penalty for this type of content. 

Ecommerce pages generally have filter pages, which allow users to filter by a variable such as size, color, brand, etc. So, these filters make product information appear for multiple instances. Moreover, there can be cross-category pages for the same product.

Now, Google understands that these types of duplications are natural and non-manipulative. And the search engine wouldn’t drop you any penalty. 

However, you must highlight the original page with the canonical tag to avoid any indexing confusion. 

The rel=canonical attribute alongside the original page’s URL tells Google that this is the page that it must index. And now, Google will not index any other page that shows similar content.

Another type of content duplication evident on ecommerce sites is in product descriptions. 

A common practice is to copy & paste product descriptions directly from the manufacturer’s site. Avoid this type of duplication, and instead, you must create original product descriptions. This content is also crucial for your site SEO. 

Here’s a screenshot of how you can add canonical tags using SEMrush:

Read: Do You Think Quality Content Is Enough for On-Page SEO

5. Evaluate Ecommerce Product Pages and Category Pages

Product Pages

One of the most important assets of an ecommerce site is the product pages. Errors in your product pages directly affect your ecommerce sales. 

Some of the main product page optimization parameters to scrutinize: 

• Ensure that you have placed sufficient internal links on your site to direct the traffic to product pages. 
• Your product pages must include unique and keyword-focused meta titles and descriptions.
• Your product page URLs must be clean and short. And these URLs must not include the category URL inclusions as they occur for multiple instances across selected filters. 
• Moreover, do not forget to use the Canonical Tag to index the original product page copy. This tells Google to avoid crawling the filter-sorted pages. 
• Product pages that read “out of stock” must show related products and alternatives until the product is back for sale.
• Use unique content on these pages and encourage reviews on these pages.

Category Pages

• The category pages must have their unique focus keywords and Meta Tags.
• Add Canonical Tags to tell Google about the original category pages. These include the main category pages that show up in the navigation. 

Here’s an example of an “out of stock” product page showing related products:

6. Enhance the Ecommerce Site’s Speed and Web Vitals 

Your SEO audit report will likely offer you some performance optimization suggestions. 

Site speed and web vitals remain highly crucial for ecommerce businesses. Online shoppers are quick to bounce from your page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. 

Moreover, Google takes a closer look at the ecommerce site performance parameters. And your site’s loading time can grow your shrink your ranks in the search results.

Google’s Page Experience Update further focuses on the Core Web Vitals. Therefore, your ecommerce webpage performance becomes a significant ranking factor. 

Google recommends a web page must not take more than 3 seconds to load completely.

Meanwhile, this recommended load time is less than 2 seconds for ecommerce websites. 

Maile Ohye, in the Google Webmaster video, mentioned:

“2 seconds is the threshold for ecommerce website acceptability. At Google, we aim for under a half-second.”

So, scrutinize the load speed of your ecommerce web pages with the Google PageSpeed Insight tool.

Also, scrutinize the 3 Core Web Vitals on your page using the Core Web Vitals extension.

Further, use the performance error reports from these tools as a reference for your speed optimization tasks. 

Follow some of these speed optimization practices: 

• Ecommerce sites have rich-media pages, so you must compress the image and video files.

• Ensure the HTML, JS, and CSS files are minified.

• A Content Delivery Network (CDN) further adds to improved performance.

• Eliminate any unnecessary redirects that might be consuming your crawl budget and making your site slow. 

• Keep the HTTP requests up to a minimum.

• Apply Gzip compression for the HTML, JS, and CSS files

• Enable asynchronous loading for the JS

Here’s a screenshot of Google PageSpeed Insights:

Read: Tips to Increase Page Loading Speed

7. Scrutinize Your Ecommerce Site’s Mobile Experience and Optimize It

Mobile traffic has a huge influence on e-commerce sales. Moreover, 56% of all internet traffic is powered by mobile devices. 

Google places high value on the mobile-friendliness factor for search rankings. 

So, scrutinizing your mobile site performance is something that you cannot ignore. 

Use Google’s Mobile-friendly Test tool to assess if your ecommerce site meets the mobile compatibility parameters. Also, use the error report from this tool to fix site responsiveness. 

Also, you may consider creating Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) to enhance mobile performance. 

Google fetches these pages from the cache memory, so they take less time to load. 

However, these AMP pages are likely to appear different on desktop and mobile devices.

Moreover, if you use AMP for your site, you must check SEMrush’s SEO Audit Tool for AMP issues. These can be errors associated with AMP HTML, template issues, and layout differences. 

Ask your web developer to fix any such AMP issues.

SEO Audit for Ecommerce Site – FAQs

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Q1. What Would Be A Good Ecommerce SEO Audit Checklist? 

Ans. Some crucial factors to check during an ecommerce SEO audit include:

• Crawlability issues and site indexation
• Robots.txt file implementation and Disallowed Pages (Thank You, Order Summary, Cart, etc.)
• XML Sitemap errors and optimizations
• Duplicate content fixes with Canonical Tags
• Product page optimizations (Meta Tags, URLs, Canonical Tags, etc.)
• Site performance and core web vitals
• Mobile platform compatibility and AMP errors

Q2. What are the Top 5 Recommended Tools for Ecommerce Site Audit? 

Ans. 

• SEMrush’s Site Audit Tool, 
• SpyFu, 
• Ahrefs Site Audit Tool 
• Screaming Frog, 
• DeepCrawl.

Q3. What Would be Some Crucial Ecommerce Site SEO Practices?

Ans. You can always take care of some crucial SEO optimizations like:

• Saving crawl budget through minimum redirects, disallowing indexation of Cart Pages, Order Summary, and Thank You page
• Checking, optimizing, and resubmitting the XML sitemap
• Using a canonical tag to tell Google about the original product page for indexation.
• Optimizing the keyword mapping, Meta Tags, and product descriptions on the product pages
• Adding product schemas on these pages and encouraging reviews on them
• Attracting authoritative backlinks to your ecommerce site
• Optimizing the ecommerce site’s mobile experience and page speed

Q4. Why do Businesses Hire Professionals for Ecommerce SEO Audit?

Ans. An Ecommerce SEO Audit can be an extensive task depending upon the size of your website. Moreover, tasks like sitemap optimization, crawlability issues, product page optimizations, etc., require expert assistance. 

Key Takeaways

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Here are key parameters to analyze and optimize during an ecommerce site audit:

• Check the crawlability errors, crawl budget, indexed pages, and fix related errors.
• Use robots.txt to disallow Thank You, Order Summary, Cart pages, etc. 
• Build an XML sitemap, submit it, and check its success status.
• Ensure to add canonical tags to original product pages. This way, Google will index the original pages and ignore the filter-sorted product pages. 
• Optimize product page URLs, include Meta Tags, add canonical tags, write unique product descriptions, etc. 
• Scrutinize site speed and core web vitals. And optimize your product pages to load within 2 seconds.
• Check your ecommerce site for a mobile platform experience. Optimize its responsiveness and use AMPs for better performance.