ECommerce SEO Audit Checklist: On-Page, Off-Page & Technical SEO
- by Mohsin Ali
- Updated: July 13, 2022
Are you not getting enough visitors to your e-commerce website? If you are unsatisfied with the traffic you are receiving, look at what we have for you in-store.
So, instead of quitting because you can’t establish an e-commerce store that brings in much traffic and sales, you must perform an enterprise SEO audit on your e-commerce website. This will solve your problems of lack of visitors and sales.
So, instead of quitting because you can’t establish an e-commerce store that brings in much traffic and sales, you must perform an enterprise SEO audit on your e-commerce website. This will solve your problems of lack of visitors and sales.
Are you still wondering what an SEO Audit is? It is basically about improving your website so that it can appear in different search engines, be it google, yahoo, or any other.
Getting your website featured on the first page will engage a lot more visitors on your website than getting it placed on, let’s say, the 6th page of the search engine. SEO is necessary for any website because only through Search Engine Optimization can you rank your website on the first page of SERPS.
Want to learn more about it? You can do so here by clicking on the article “What is SEO audit.”
Even before the pandemic of Covid 19, people used online shopping very much. However, since the pandemic, people have started to rely a lot more on online shopping. An estimated 81% of peoplesearch for products/services online.
The question now arises why we are emphasizing E-commerce website SEO audits. An ecommerce SEO audit is understanding and knowing your website’s organic visibility and identifying the areas that need to be improved to place your website on the first page of the search engine. However, an ecommerce SEO audit depends on many factors.
SEO Audits for an ecommerce website are meaningful because it helps you identify where improvements are needed. And since ecommerce websites are constantly changing, it is essential to optimize them regularly.
The new products pages replace the old ones. Moreover, if the ecommerce company operates in a multimarket, then its SEO should be optimized regularly according to the local and international needs. You can quickly audit your ecommerce website with the help of an SEO checklist for ecommerce sites.
Before starting with any new strategy, you must know your target audience.
There are two types of audiences.
So, you plan to have your website placed on the first page of any search engine to attract more visitors to your site, consequently increasing the chances of your services or products being sold.
But to achieve this goal, you need to have an SEO strategy that is well researched in every respect, be it on-page, off-page optimization, or knowing what techniques are being used by your competitors to lure in traffic.
We have a must-to-follow SEO audit checklist to help you get traffic by placing your Ecommerce store website on any search engine, be it Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine.
Getting your website featured on the first page will engage a lot more visitors on your website than getting it placed on, let’s say, the 6th page of the search engine. SEO is necessary for any website because only through Search Engine Optimization can you rank your website on the first page of SERPS.
Want to learn more about it? You can do so here by clicking on the article “What is SEO audit.”
Even before the pandemic of Covid 19, people used online shopping very much. However, since the pandemic, people have started to rely a lot more on online shopping. An estimated 81% of peoplesearch for products/services online.
The question now arises why we are emphasizing E-commerce website SEO audits. An ecommerce SEO audit is understanding and knowing your website’s organic visibility and identifying the areas that need to be improved to place your website on the first page of the search engine. However, an ecommerce SEO audit depends on many factors.
SEO Audits for an ecommerce website are meaningful because it helps you identify where improvements are needed. And since ecommerce websites are constantly changing, it is essential to optimize them regularly.
The new products pages replace the old ones. Moreover, if the ecommerce company operates in a multimarket, then its SEO should be optimized regularly according to the local and international needs. You can quickly audit your ecommerce website with the help of an SEO checklist for ecommerce sites.
Before starting with any new strategy, you must know your target audience.
There are two types of audiences.
- International Audience: If your international audience, you must adopt an SEO strategy relevant to the global market rather than focusing on the local market. Your SEO optimization will be based according to the international audience.
- Local Audience: If your target audience is local, you must perform a local SEO audit. There is no such general SEO strategy that could be used in all locations. Every location has a different set of audiences; thereby, it is necessary to adapt to the audience and formulate a strategy of SEO audit that makes sure your website stands out in the search engines among your competitors.
So, you plan to have your website placed on the first page of any search engine to attract more visitors to your site, consequently increasing the chances of your services or products being sold.
But to achieve this goal, you need to have an SEO strategy that is well researched in every respect, be it on-page, off-page optimization, or knowing what techniques are being used by your competitors to lure in traffic.
We have a must-to-follow SEO audit checklist to help you get traffic by placing your Ecommerce store website on any search engine, be it Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine.
On-page SEO Audit:
The first thing on an e-commerce audit checklist is an on-page SEO audit. It is simply about optimizing your website to be ranked higher on different search engines. Don’t know how to perform an on-page SEO audit?
Don’t worry; we’ll guide you through this, too, so your e-commerce website ranks further up on the search engines. You start your SEO audit using the following on-page SEO checklist for an E-commerce website.
Don’t worry; we’ll guide you through this, too, so your e-commerce website ranks further up on the search engines. You start your SEO audit using the following on-page SEO checklist for an E-commerce website.
Understanding the use of keywords:
The first and essential step that you need to take to start your e-commerce SEO audit by understanding the impact that keywords have on ranking your website. If you can identify the keywords that your target audience would probably use, then you can use those keywords to rank your website better.
Moreover, if you get the keywords right and your website gets ranked on the first page, when your audience enters those relevant keyboards in the search engine, your website is more likely to get more visitors, which means more sales.
Also, with the help of Google Search Console, you can determine which pages of your e-commerce website lack rank. So, if the primary keywords have not been used by you on those pages enough, then you can use your main keywords in metadata and the content consumed by the audience.
Moreover, if you get the keywords right and your website gets ranked on the first page, when your audience enters those relevant keyboards in the search engine, your website is more likely to get more visitors, which means more sales.
Also, with the help of Google Search Console, you can determine which pages of your e-commerce website lack rank. So, if the primary keywords have not been used by you on those pages enough, then you can use your main keywords in metadata and the content consumed by the audience.
Understanding title tags and meta description:
The next thing you must focus on for your e-commerce SEO audit checklist is to examine your title tags and meta description.
These tags are visible to the user first in a search result. So, it is up to you to ensure that your title tag and meta description are unique and attractive to the users so that people get lured into clicking on your website.
Moreover, you can use the google search console to know many users have clicked on your listing. This is a significant part of auditing your website because the Click-through rate, abbreviated as CTR, helps you assess if the tags that you have been using are inciting interest among the users to click or not.
If not, then you can improve your tags for better CTR. It is crucial that you use your keywords in both of your titles. Because as compared to the first page, the CTR would be lower on the 3rd or 4th page.
These tags are visible to the user first in a search result. So, it is up to you to ensure that your title tag and meta description are unique and attractive to the users so that people get lured into clicking on your website.
Moreover, you can use the google search console to know many users have clicked on your listing. This is a significant part of auditing your website because the Click-through rate, abbreviated as CTR, helps you assess if the tags that you have been using are inciting interest among the users to click or not.
If not, then you can improve your tags for better CTR. It is crucial that you use your keywords in both of your titles. Because as compared to the first page, the CTR would be lower on the 3rd or 4th page.
Understanding your content:
It is not just that we should only be focusing on keywords while optimizing an e-commerce website, but we should also emphasize the content used on the website.
Quality content is vital as it keeps the readers engaged on the website. Your content must be related to the services or products you sell. Your content strategy should be holistic and fulfill your target audience’s needs.
Quality content is vital as it keeps the readers engaged on the website. Your content must be related to the services or products you sell. Your content strategy should be holistic and fulfill your target audience’s needs.
OFF-page SEO Audit:
Once you are done with an on-page SEO audit, it’s time to turn your attention to the off-page SEO side of your e-commerce store. It is an integral part of an e-commerce website SEO checklist. Off-page SEO includes factors that affect your website’s ranking; however, they cannot be altered directly. The off-page SEO audit includes:
1. Assessing Backlinks:
Backlinks are vital in ranking your website better in search results. Backlinks are links used by other websites to link your site. Your ranking in the search engine will likely increase if your website has high-quality backlinks.
When authoritative sites backlink your e-commerce website, it builds trust in your website, making people comfortable buying from your ecommerce store.
Moreover, you can even find out which website is backlinking your website or content through a tool called Ahrefs Backlink checker. Through this tool, you can even know if any spammy website is linking your content.
You can ask such people to remove the backlinks as such backlinks from spammy sites are of no use.
When authoritative sites backlink your e-commerce website, it builds trust in your website, making people comfortable buying from your ecommerce store.
Moreover, you can even find out which website is backlinking your website or content through a tool called Ahrefs Backlink checker. Through this tool, you can even know if any spammy website is linking your content.
You can ask such people to remove the backlinks as such backlinks from spammy sites are of no use.
2. Assessing Social Media Profiles:
If you think that your social media profiles, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., don’t impact your ranking, then you are mistaken.
When you share pages of your websites on different social media platforms, it generates more traffic and establishes additional links, which in turn helps improve the ranking of your e-commerce website on search engines.
It is time if you have not yet thought about sharing your links or pages on your social media account. See the difference it makes to the traffic yourself.
When you share pages of your websites on different social media platforms, it generates more traffic and establishes additional links, which in turn helps improve the ranking of your e-commerce website on search engines.
It is time if you have not yet thought about sharing your links or pages on your social media account. See the difference it makes to the traffic yourself.
Technical side of SEO Audit:
Until now, you learned about on-page and off-page SEO audits, but now it’s your turn to dive deep into the technical side of e-commerce audits. Though you might find this aspect of e-commerce boring, this part of the SEO checklist for ecommerce websites is significant, just like on-page and off-page SEO audits.
If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can get help fromthe online marketing agency Houston. However, if you want to give yourself a shot, here is what you need to do.
If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can get help fromthe online marketing agency Houston. However, if you want to give yourself a shot, here is what you need to do.
1. Asses Robots.txt and XML Sitemap:
Both Robots.txt and sitemap XML are essential in making search engines understand your website. Google relies on robot.txt. With its help, search engines get to know which sites to crawl and which ones they should ignore.
This helps Google not crawl on particular pages of your e-commerce website, such as shopping cart pages. Instead, it would help if you told Google to crawl your blogs or pages where you have listed all your products.
Whereas the function of XML Sitemap is to direct search engines to the pages of your website, which are most essential so the search engines can index them.
This helps Google not crawl on particular pages of your e-commerce website, such as shopping cart pages. Instead, it would help if you told Google to crawl your blogs or pages where you have listed all your products.
Whereas the function of XML Sitemap is to direct search engines to the pages of your website, which are most essential so the search engines can index them.
2. Assessing Indexability and Crawlability:
If your website cannot be indexed or crawled by Google, then your website wouldn’t appear on the search results.
You can use Google Search Console to check if your website can be indexed or crawled by Google.
If google can’t crawl your site, you need to check your robotx.txt file, and internal links are also to be added to your pages.
Moreover, getting more backlinks from trusted websites is better so that Google can find your website easily.
You can use Google Search Console to check if your website can be indexed or crawled by Google.
If google can’t crawl your site, you need to check your robotx.txt file, and internal links are also to be added to your pages.
Moreover, getting more backlinks from trusted websites is better so that Google can find your website easily.
3. Assessing Speed of Page Load:
Your ranking search engines are also impacted negatively if your website loads slowly. The possible buyers from your website will redirect to someone else if your website takes time to load. The ideal time for a website to load expected by users is within 2 seconds only.
You can use Google Pagespeed Insights to see where you can make improvements and make your site load quicker. If your site load speed is low, you should compress large files or reduce the HTTP requests. You can even change your hosting provider.
You can use Google Pagespeed Insights to see where you can make improvements and make your site load quicker. If your site load speed is low, you should compress large files or reduce the HTTP requests. You can even change your hosting provider.
4.Assess mobile-friendliness:
Nowadays, web traffic is generated through mobile devices. So you should make sure your e-commerce website is mobile-friendly. If people don’t make your website mobile/tablet friendly, they will most likely resort to an e-commerce store that is more mobile-friendly.
Moreover, it is also used by Google as a factor for ranking the website. To assess the mobile-friendliness of your website, you may use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your e-commerce website loads the right way on mobiles.
If you find an issue with it, you should add a responsive design to your website for better mobile-friendliness.
Moreover, it is also used by Google as a factor for ranking the website. To assess the mobile-friendliness of your website, you may use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your e-commerce website loads the right way on mobiles.
If you find an issue with it, you should add a responsive design to your website for better mobile-friendliness.
5. Assessing Security:
An e-commerce website must be secure because people add their personal information to buy products. Secured websites also get favored by Google in ranking.
HTTP in URL means you have secured the site. However, if it isn’t secure, you can quickly connect it by buying a Secure Socket Layer certificate. Since you now know about SEO checklists for your e-commerce and understand SEO audit benefits. Now it’s time to implement everything you have learned to improve traffic on your e-commerce website.
Moreover, the ranking on search engines does not remain the same for long, so if your website ranks drop down, do not panic. Revisit the SEO Checklist we discussed to improve your strategy, compete with others, and get back on track again.
To learn more about the “benefits of SEO Audit,” you may click here.
If you still find any difficulties in SEO auditing your e-commerce websites or you want to hire someone to save time, then you can avail professional SEO services in Houston and get your e-commerce website on the first page of search engines to lure in more visitors and thereby increase your chances of sales.
HTTP in URL means you have secured the site. However, if it isn’t secure, you can quickly connect it by buying a Secure Socket Layer certificate. Since you now know about SEO checklists for your e-commerce and understand SEO audit benefits. Now it’s time to implement everything you have learned to improve traffic on your e-commerce website.
Moreover, the ranking on search engines does not remain the same for long, so if your website ranks drop down, do not panic. Revisit the SEO Checklist we discussed to improve your strategy, compete with others, and get back on track again.
To learn more about the “benefits of SEO Audit,” you may click here.
If you still find any difficulties in SEO auditing your e-commerce websites or you want to hire someone to save time, then you can avail professional SEO services in Houston and get your e-commerce website on the first page of search engines to lure in more visitors and thereby increase your chances of sales.
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