How to Perform an Ecommerce SEO Audit in 2024: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you run an ecommerce website, you know how important it is to rank well on search engines like Google and Bing. But how do you know if your site is optimized for SEO? How do you identify and fix the issues that are hurting your rankings and traffic? That’s where an ecommerce seo audit comes in.

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An ecommerce seo audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website’s technical, on-page, and off-page SEO factors. It helps you find and fix the problems that are preventing your site from reaching its full potential. An ecommerce seo audit can also help you discover new opportunities to improve your site’s performance and user experience.

In this article, we will show you how to perform an ecommerce seo audit in 2024, using the latest tools and best practices. We will cover the following steps:

Step 1: Crawl your website
Step 2: Analyze your site speed and mobile-friendliness
Step 3: Check your site structure and navigation
Step 4: Review your content and keywords
Step 5: Audit your backlinks and online reputation
Step 6: Implement the recommendations and monitor the results

By following this guide, you will be able to conduct an ecommerce seo audit that will boost your site’s rankings, traffic, and conversions. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Crawl your website

The first step of an ecommerce seo audit is to crawl your website using a tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs Site Audit. These tools will scan your site and collect data on various SEO aspects, such as:

URLs, titles, meta descriptions, headings, and images
Status codes, redirects, canonicals, and robots.txt
Internal and external links, broken links, and anchor texts
Duplicate content, thin content, and content gaps
Schema markup, structured data, and rich snippets

Crawling your website will help you identify and fix the technical issues that are affecting your site’s crawlability, indexability, and usability. Some of the common technical issues that you should look for and fix are:

404 errors, 500 errors, and other server errors
Redirect loops, chains, and broken redirects
Missing, duplicate, or poorly written titles and meta descriptions
Missing, duplicate, or irrelevant headings and images
Missing, duplicate, or conflicting canonical tags and hreflang tags
Missing, incorrect, or outdated schema markup and structured data
Orphan pages, dead-end pages, and pages blocked by robots.txt

Fixing these technical issues will improve your site’s health and performance, and make it easier for search engines and users to access and understand your site.

Step 2: Analyze your site speed and mobile-friendliness

The next step of an ecommerce seo audit is to analyze your site speed and mobile-friendliness using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Google Mobile-Friendly Test, and Google Core Web Vitals. These tools will measure and evaluate your site’s loading speed, responsiveness, and user experience on different devices and browsers.

Site speed and mobile-friendliness are crucial for ecommerce SEO, as they affect your site’s rankings, traffic, and conversions. According to Google, 53% of mobile users abandon a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load, and 79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with a site’s performance are less likely to buy from the same site again.

Some of the factors that can slow down your site and harm your mobile-friendliness are:

Large images, videos, and files
Unoptimized code, scripts, and stylesheets
Excessive plugins, widgets, and ads
Poor hosting, server, and CDN configuration
Lack of browser caching, compression, and minification

To improve your site speed and mobile-friendliness, you should implement the following best practices:

Optimize your images, videos, and files using tools like TinyPNG, Cloudinary, and HandBrake
Minify and defer your code, scripts, and stylesheets using tools like Autoptimize, WP Rocket, and Async JavaScript
Reduce your plugins, widgets, and ads to the essential ones, and remove any unused or outdated ones
Choose a reliable hosting provider, server location, and CDN service that can handle your site’s traffic and load
Enable browser caching, compression, and HTTP/2 using tools like WP Fastest Cache, WP Super Cache, and LiteSpeed Cache

Improving your site speed and mobile-friendliness will enhance your site’s performance and user experience, and increase your site’s rankings, traffic, and conversions.

Step 3: Check your site structure and navigation

The third step of an ecommerce seo audit is to check your site structure and navigation using tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Ahrefs Site Audit, and Google Search Console. These tools will help you visualize and evaluate your site’s hierarchy, depth, and internal linking.

Site structure and navigation are important for ecommerce SEO, as they affect your site’s crawlability, indexability, and usability. A good site structure and navigation should:

Be logical, clear, and consistent
Reflect your site’s goals, categories, and products
Follow the principle of three clicks or less
Use descriptive, keyword-rich, and user-friendly URLs, breadcrumbs, and menus
Use internal links, sitemaps, and navigation bars to guide users and search engines

Some of the common issues that can damage your site structure and navigation are:

Flat, deep, or complex site hierarchy

Missing, duplicate, or irrelevant categories and subcategories
Long, dynamic, or non-descriptive URLs
Missing, duplicate, or inconsistent breadcrumbs and menus
Missing, broken, or excessive internal links
Missing, outdated, or incorrect sitemaps and navigation bars

To improve your site structure and navigation, you should implement the following best practices:

Organize your site into a simple, intuitive, and scalable hierarchy, using no more than three levels of depth
Create and optimize your categories and subcategories based on your site’s goals, keywords, and user intent
Use short, static, and descriptive URLs that include your target keywords and match your site’s hierarchy
Use breadcrumbs and menus that reflect your site’s structure and help users and search engines navigate your site
Use internal links that connect your pages and products in a relevant and natural way, using descriptive and varied anchor texts
Use sitemaps and navigation bars that list and link to your main pages and products, and submit them to Google Search Console

Improving your site structure and navigation will improve your site’s crawlability, indexability, and usability, and make it easier for users and search engines to find and access your site.

Step 4: Review your content and keywords

The fourth step of an ecommerce seo audit is to review your content and keywords using tools like Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Ahrefs Content Explorer, and Google Analytics. These tools will help you research and analyze your target keywords, content quality, and content performance.

Content and keywords are essential for ecommerce SEO, as they affect your site’s relevance, authority, and conversions. A good content and keyword strategy should:

Be based on thorough keyword research and competitor analysis
Target high-volume, low-competition, and high-intent keywords
Cover the different stages of the buyer’s journey and the search funnel
Provide unique, valuable, and engaging information to your audience
Include relevant and persuasive calls to action and offers

Some of the common issues that can hurt your content and keyword strategy are:

Missing, duplicate, or outdated keyword research and competitor analysis
Targeting low-volume, high-competition, or low-intent keywords
Ignoring the different stages of the buyer’s journey and the search funnel
Providing thin, duplicate, or low-quality content to your audience
Missing, irrelevant, or weak calls to action and offers

To improve your content and keyword strategy, you should implement the following best practices:

Conduct regular keyword research and competitor analysis using tools like Ahrefs Keywords Explorer and Ahrefs Content Explorer

Target high-volume, low-competition, and high-intent keywords that match your site’s goals, products, and audience
Cover the different stages of the buyer’s journey and the search funnel, from awareness to purchase, using different types of content, such as blog posts, product pages, landing pages, and FAQs
Provide unique, valuable, and engaging content to your audience, using original, relevant, and optimized text, images, videos, and audio
Include relevant and persuasive calls to action and offers that entice your audience to take action, such as buy, subscribe, or contact

Improving your content and keyword strategy will improve your site’s relevance, authority, and conversions, and make it more appealing and persuasive to your audience and search engines.

Step 5: Audit your backlinks and online reputation

The fifth step of an ecommerce seo audit is to audit your backlinks and online reputation using tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer, Ahrefs Link Intersect, and Google My Business. These tools will help you monitor and evaluate your site’s backlink profile, online reviews, and social media presence.

Backlinks and online reputation are important for ecommerce SEO, as they affect your site’s trustworthiness, popularity, and conversions. A good backlink and online reputation strategy should:

Be based on quality, relevance, and diversity of links and sources
Aim for natural, organic, and editorial links from authoritative and relevant websites
Encourage positive, authentic and genuine reviews from satisfied customers and influencers
Leverage social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to build and engage your audience and promote your brand and products

Some of the common issues that can harm your backlink and online reputation strategy are:

Low-quality, irrelevant, or spammy links from untrustworthy or unrelated websites
Negative, fake, or outdated reviews from unhappy customers or competitors
Lack of social media presence, activity, or engagement

To improve your backlink and online reputation strategy, you should implement the following best practices:

Monitor and audit your backlink profile using tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer and Ahrefs Link Intersect, and disavow any toxic or unwanted links
Encourage and collect positive, authentic, and updated reviews from your customers and influencers, using tools like Google My Business, Trustpilot, and Yotpo
Create and optimize your social media profiles, pages, and posts, using tools like Facebook Business Suite, Twitter Analytics, and Instagram Insights, and interact with your audience and influencers

Improving your backlink and online reputation strategy will improve your site’s trustworthiness, popularity, and conversions, and make it more credible and attractive to your audience and search engines.

Step 6: Implement the recommendations and monitor the results

The final step of an ecommerce seo audit is to implement the recommendations and monitor the results using tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ahrefs Rank Tracker. These tools will help you apply the changes and track the impact of your ecommerce seo audit on your site’s rankings, traffic, and conversions.

Implementing the recommendations and monitoring the results are essential for ecommerce SEO, as they help you measure and improve your site’s performance and user experience. A good implementation and monitoring strategy should:

Be based on a prioritized and realistic action plan
Follow the best practices and guidelines of SEO and web development
Test and validate the changes before and after applying them
Track and analyze the key metrics and indicators of SEO success
Adjust and optimize the strategy based on the feedback and results

Some of the common challenges that can hinder your implementation and monitoring strategy are:

Lack of time, resources, or expertise to execute the changes
Technical difficulties, errors, or conflicts when applying the changes
Lack of testing, validation, or backup when applying the changes
Lack of tracking, analysis, or reporting when measuring the results
Lack of flexibility, adaptability, or optimization when adjusting the strategy

To improve your implementation and monitoring strategy, you should implement the following best practices:

Create and follow a prioritized and realistic action plan that outlines the tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities for each change
Follow the best practices and guidelines of SEO and web development, and use the tools and resources available to you
Test and validate the changes before and after applying them, using tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ahrefs Site Audit, and backup your site regularly
Track and analyze the key metrics and indicators of SEO success, such as rankings, traffic, conversions, bounce rate, dwell time, and click-through rate, using tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ahrefs Rank Tracker
Adjust and optimize your strategy based on the feedback and results, and keep up with the latest trends and updates of SEO and ecommerce

Improving your implementation and monitoring strategy will improve your site’s performance and user experience, and help you achieve your ecommerce SEO goals and objectives.

Conclusion

An ecommerce seo audit is a vital process for any ecommerce website that wants to rank well on search engines and attract more customers. By following the steps and best practices outlined in this article, you will be able to perform an ecommerce seo audit that will boost your site’s rankings, traffic, and conversions.

If you need help with your ecommerce seo audit, you can contact us at Copilot. We are a team of experienced and professional SEO experts who can help you with your ecommerce SEO needs. We can provide you with a comprehensive and customized ecommerce seo audit report, along with actionable and effective recommendations and solutions. Contact us today and let us help you take your ecommerce website to the next level! 🚀