How to Run an Ecommerce SEO Audit (5 Steps)

If you own or manage an online store, running an ecommerce SEO audit is essential. This can help you identify issues that could hinder your growth and traffic. However, you might not know what this process entails and how to carry it out successfully. 

Fortunately, conducting an SEO audit is easier than you might think. By learning what to look for and how to test your online shop, you can take the necessary steps to improve your site’s performance and drive more sales.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at search engine optimization for online stores. Then, we’ll show you how to perform an ecommerce SEO audit. Let’s get started!

What is SEO for Ecommerce?

You may have already heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This refers to the process of improving your website in order to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). However, you might be wondering what makes ecommerce SEO different from regular optimization practices. 

For starters, online shops need to pay special attention to their product pages. While regular sites typically focus on web pages and blog posts, ecommerce SEO also covers product descriptions and the main shop page.

Additionally, ecommerce SEO takes into consideration elements that can affect the User Experience (UX), such as the checkout process. 

Therefore, it’s not just about offering smooth site navigation and a logical site structure – you’ll also need to ensure that a shopper can complete their purchase without any issues. 

How to Run an Ecommerce SEO Audit (5 Steps)

Now, let’s look at how to run an ecommerce SEO audit. The following steps will help you ensure that your online store is optimized for search engines.

Step 1: Research Buyer Intent Keywords

Buyer intent keywords are search terms that suggest a user is ready to make a purchase. Basically, they’re words that a shopper enters into a search engine when they want to buy something in particular.

These may include phrases like “blackout curtains for bedroom” or “waterproof hiking boots for women.” 

When you set up your ecommerce business, you may have overlooked these buyer intent keywords. Additionally, since then, you may have changed your products or Unique Selling Point (USP).

You can use a tool like Google Search Console or Google Analytics to see which of your keywords and associated pages are ranking well, and which ones aren’t:

Then, you can use Google Keyword Planner to research buyer intent keywords, based on the type of products you sell:

If you’re not already using these keywords, now is the time to implement them into your ecommerce site. Don’t worry – we’ll show you how in the next step. 

Step 2: Optimize Your Product Pages

The next step in our ecommerce SEO audit checklist is to review your product pages and ensure that they’re optimized.

Basically, you’ll want to make sure that each product has the following:

• A primary keyword
• A meta title and description (which both include the keyword)
• A descriptive URL
• On page SEO content, like detailed descriptions of products and key features
• High-quality images with alt text

If there’s a product that’s missing any of the above, you’ll want to go ahead and add this information. This also includes any relevant keywords that you identified in the previous step.

It’s important to ensure that your buyer intent keywords are used in the meta data, product titles and descriptions, as well as alt text for images. But, at the same time, you’ll want to steer clear of keyword stuffing.

If a product page has too many keywords, you might need to remove some of them and vary your wording accordingly. That’s because over-optimizing can do more harm than good. Therefore, you’ll want to incorporate keywords naturally into your ecommerce site. 

Step 3: Ensure a Good User Experience

Your site’s user experience plays a key role in its performance. If your online shop is easy to navigate, then users are likely to spend more time browsing through your products. On the other hand, a disorganized website can drive users away, leading to a higher bounce rate.

Search engines like Google might see your high engagement rates as an indicator of a good user experience. This can help you climb the rankings in search results.

Therefore, the next step in this ecommerce SEO audit is to check your user experience. The easiest way to do this is to pretend that you’re a first-time visitor.

As you’re browsing your website, you’ll want to think about the following:

• How easy is it to find the products you want?
• Are calls-to-action like “pre-order today” or “buy now” clear and prominent?
• Is the menu straightforward to use?
• Are there easy shortcuts to essential pages, like main categories, bestselling products, and shipping details?

You’ll also want to test the checkout process. Shoppers should be able to complete an order without encountering any hurdles. Otherwise, they might abandon their carts.

Since the majority of users access websites using smartphones, you should also test your site’s mobile friendliness. To do this, you can use Google Search Console for its Mobile Usability report.

Step 4: Check for Broken Links and Images

Having too many broken links on your website can lower your search engine rankings. It could also make your site look unprofessional, and drive people away. So, checking for them should be the next step in your ecommerce SEO audit checklist.

Search engine crawlers use links on your site to understand the relationship between relevant pages. In fact, your site will have an XML sitemap to facilitate easier crawling.

Of course, checking every single link on your site can be quite cumbersome. But if you have a WordPress site, you can use a plugin like Broken Link Checker to do all the work for you:

This tool can be particularly useful if you link out to affiliate products or have an internal linking strategy. Vendors might have removed that product page, an item may no longer be available, or you may have deleted an old page on your site.

Broken Link Checker will also detect any missing images on your product pages. For example, you might have accidentally removed a few photos during a recent cleanup. 

Pages with missing images may discourage users from purchasing that product, as they’re unable to properly see what it looks like. 

Therefore, you’ll want to re-upload any missing images. Likewise, it’s important to replace broken internal links (or external ones) with valid URLs.

Step 5: Test Your Site Speed

Finally, let’s look at the technical SEO side, which is related to your website’s performance. Most importantly, you’ll want to run a speed test.

That’s because your loading times are an important part of your site’s SEO. Slow-loading pages can frustrate users, leading to lower engagement rates. What’s more, Google and other search engines may interpret this as a sign that your site is of poor quality. 

You can run a test on PageSpeed Insights or go to your Speed report in Google Search Console. This will give you a performance score for your ecommerce site, based on both desktop and mobile versions:

A poor performance score can be caused by various factors, including uncompressed photos and a large number of plugins. However, slow loading times may also be the result of a poor-quality hosting service. 

If you’re using WooCommerce, it might be time to switch to a hosting solution that’s optimized for this platform. For example, SirsteveHQ offers WordPress hosting plans for both startups and larger online stores.

These plans come with free caching to help boost your site’s performance. You’ll also get auto-updates to ensure that your store is running on the most recent software. 

Conclusion

Ecommerce search engine optimization covers everything from product descriptions and keywords to site performance and the user experience. You’ll want to make sure that users can browse through your shop and complete a purchase without any issues. Plus, your products should rank for relevant search terms. 

To recap, here’s how to do a comprehensive SEO audit for ecommerce websites:

1. Research buyer intent keywords with Google Keyword Planner.
2. Optimize your product pages by adding missing meta descriptions and target keywords.
3. Ensure a good user experience, including easy navigation and a seamless checkout process.
4. Check for broken links and images, using a tool like Broken Link Checker.
5. Test your site speed and update to a more powerful ecommerce hosting service, like SirsteveHQ.

Do you have any questions on how to run an ecommerce SEO audit? Let us know in the comments section below!