SEO audit of an online store

An SEO audit of an online store is a check of the site for everything that stops search engines from finding, crawling, indexing and showing the store's pages for the right queries: technical condition, catalog structure, duplicates, meta tags, content and links. The result of the audit is a list of problems with priorities and specific fixes.

In plain words

A search engine goes through three steps: it finds a page (crawling), stores it in its index, and then decides who to show it to and at what position. An SEO audit answers three questions:

1. Does Google see all the important pages? Categories, subcategories, product pages, articles.
2. Is it not wasting time on unnecessary ones? Thousands of pages of filters, sorting, internal search, URLs with UTM tags.
3. Is it clear from each page which query it answers? Title, text, structure, internal links.

For an online store the second point is usually the most painful: a catalog with filters can generate an almost endless number of addresses.

What is checked

1. Crawling and indexing

• Google Search Console reports: how many pages are in the index, how many are "Discovered, currently not indexed," which errors there are.
• Response codes. Google treats pages with a 4xx code as nonexistent and removes them from the index; with 5xx it temporarily slows crawling, and if the errors continue, it also drops the pages from the index (Google Search Central).
• "Soft 404s." A page returns code 200 but shows "product not found" or an empty list. Search Console flags it as a soft 404 (Google). In stores this is typical for sold-out products and empty categories.
• robots.txt. It controls crawling but does not remove a page from search: a blocked address can end up in the index without a description if links point to it. To keep a page out of search you need `noindex` or a password (Google).
• Sitemap. The file should contain only the pages you want to see in search (Ahrefs). A sitemap helps find addresses but does not guarantee indexing (Google).
• One main version of the site. http, https, www and non-www should redirect to one address (Ahrefs).

2. Catalog structure and internal links

Google advises building a store like this: the menu leads to categories, categories to subcategories, subcategories to all products. A category should link to each of its products, because Googlebot may not find all products by crawling alone (Google, e-commerce site structure).

What is checked: - whether there are products you can reach only through site search: Googlebot usually does not enter queries into search, so such products need to be linked or added to a sitemap or Merchant Center feed (Google); - whether links are ordinary `<a href>` and not JavaScript events; - whether the home page and blog link to key categories and bestsellers: Google uses the number of internal links as a signal of a page's relative importance (same source); - "orphan" pages with no internal link at all, and broken internal links (Ahrefs).

3. Duplicates: filters, facets, sorting, pagination

This is the central part of a store audit.

Faceted navigation (filters by color, size, brand, price) on URL parameters creates an almost endless space of addresses. The consequences according to Google: the crawler crawls many useless pages before it figures out they are useless, and so it finds new useful pages more slowly (Google, faceted navigation).

What to do, per Google's recommendations:

• If filtered pages are not needed in search: block the filter parameters in robots.txt; or move the filters into a fragment after `#`, which Google usually ignores. `rel="canonical"` and `rel="nofollow"` also help, but in the long run are less reliable than robots.txt (Google).
• If some filters should be in search (for example, "men's Nike sneakers" is a real query): use the standard `&` separator, keep the same order of filters in the path, avoid repeats, and return 404 for combinations with no products, nonsensical combinations and nonexistent pagination pages (Google).

Duplicates with parameters. The same product page at addresses with `?gclid=` or `utm_` is the classic example from Google's documentation. Ways to consolidate duplicates, from the strongest signal to the weakest: a 301 redirect, `rel="canonical"`, including only the main address in the sitemap (Google, duplicate URLs).

Product variants (color, size). Google advises giving each variant its own address, by path (`/t-shirt/green`) or by parameter (`?color=green`); if the parameter is optional, the canonical points to the address without it. Google treats the fragments `#black` / `#white` as one page (Google, URLs for e-commerce).

Pagination. Each page of a list is a separate URL (for example `?page=2`) with its own canonical, not a canonical to the first page. Google no longer uses `rel=prev/next`; the pages must be connected with ordinary links. "Load more" and infinite scroll must be backed by links, because the crawler does not click buttons (Google, pagination).

4. Meta tags and headings

• A unique and accurate `<title>` for every page (Google, SEO Starter Guide).
• Meta description: one or two sentences, unique to the page; Google often takes the snippet from the page text, but sometimes from the description (same source).
• Google does not use the meta keywords tag (same source), so it is not worth spending time on.
• In a store with thousands of products, meta tags are generated from templates. The audit looks for templates that produce identical titles for different pages.

5. Content

• Whether the category answers the query: a clear name, a useful intro, filters, not just a grid of products.
• Unique product descriptions instead of ones copied from the supplier. Copying someone else's text is a problem, although Google applies no "duplicate penalty" as such (Google).
• Alt text for product photos (same source).
• Pages that are losing traffic, and queries where competitors appear in search and you do not (Ahrefs).
• Structured data (Product, price, availability, reviews): Google treats it as a separate topic in its e-commerce guide (Google, e-commerce).
• Language versions. For a store with Ukrainian and English versions you need hreflang annotations with an ISO 639-1 language code (`uk`, `en`); each version must point to all the others, otherwise the tags are ignored (Google, hreflang).

6. Links

• Broken pages that external links still point to: restore them or redirect them so link equity is not lost (Ahrefs).
• Manual actions in Search Console and sharp traffic drops that coincide with algorithm updates (Ahrefs).

7. Speed and the mobile version

Google indexes the mobile version of a site, so it must contain the same main content, the same structured data and meta tags as the desktop one (Google, mobile-first indexing). Core Web Vitals is the only page experience aspect that, according to Google, ranking systems use directly; but high scores do not guarantee top positions (Google, page experience). More in the article Technical audit of a site.

Specifics of large catalogs

Google writes separately about the crawl budget: the set of addresses Google can and wants to crawl. It depends on how many requests the server can handle and how interesting Google finds the site. The guide is aimed roughly at sites with 1 million or more pages with weekly changes, 10 thousand or more pages with daily changes, or sites with many addresses in the "Discovered, currently not indexed" status (Google, crawl budget). A store with 20 thousand products whose prices and availability update daily fits this description.

What follows for the audit: - noindex does not save budget: Google still requests such pages. To block crawling, use robots.txt (Google). - Products removed for good return 404 or 410; products that are "temporarily out of stock" are usually better left accessible. - Redirect chains should be cut to one step (Google). - Server speed: the faster and more stably a site responds, the more Google crawls (Google). - A sitemap with `lastmod` for frequent updates (same source).

How an SEO audit differs from a technical audit

The query "technical SEO audit" usually means the overlap: those items of the technical audit that affect search (indexing, response codes, redirects, duplicates, robots, sitemap, speed). In Ahrefs, most of the 13 audit steps correspond to such technical checks (Ahrefs).

Common mistakes

• Blocking filters in robots.txt and setting noindex on them at the same time. If crawling of a page is forbidden, Google will not see its noindex.
• A canonical from every pagination page to the first. Products from the second page onward may drop out of Google's view.
• Opening all filter combinations for indexing instead of the ones with real demand.
• Deleting sold-out products with no redirect or 404, leaving empty pages with code 200.
• An audit without Search Console data: a crawler shows what is on the site, but not what Google sees.
• A list of hundreds of items with no priorities. Ten fixes sorted by impact on traffic are more useful.

FAQ

What does an SEO audit of an online store include? A check of indexing and response codes, robots.txt and sitemap, catalog structure and internal links, duplicates from filters and pagination, meta tags, content, external links, the mobile version and speed.

How is a technical SEO audit different from an ordinary one? A technical one checks only what stops Google from crawling and indexing pages. A full SEO audit adds content, queries, competitors and links.

How often should you do an SEO audit of a store? A full one after a redesign, a move to a new platform or a sharp drop in traffic. In between, it is worth regularly looking at the Search Console indexing reports.

Do you need to block filters from indexing? Those with no search demand, yes, most reliably via robots.txt. Combinations with real demand can stay open, with clean addresses and filled-in meta tags.

Does site speed affect rankings? Core Web Vitals are used in ranking, but the relevance of the page to the query remains the main thing.

Related terms

• Technical site audit
• E-commerce
• Technical specification for an online store

Sources

• Google Search Central, Managing crawling of faceted navigation URLs — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/crawling-managing-faceted-navigation
• Google Search Central, Consolidate duplicate URLs — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls
• Google Search Central, Large site owner's guide to managing your crawl budget — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/large-site-managing-crawl-budget
• Google Search Central, HTTP status codes, network and DNS errors — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/http-network-errors
• Google Search Central, Introduction to robots.txt — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro
• Google Search Central, Sitemaps overview — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview
• Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide — developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
• Google Search Central, Ecommerce — developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce
• Google Search Central, Designing a URL structure for ecommerce sites — developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/designing-a-url-structure-for-ecommerce-sites
• Google Search Central, Help Google understand your ecommerce site structure — developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/help-google-understand-your-ecommerce-site-structure
• Google Search Central, Pagination and incremental page loading — developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/pagination-and-incremental-page-loading
• Google Search Central, Localized versions of your pages (hreflang) — developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions
• Google Search Central, Mobile-first indexing best practices — developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing
• Google Search Central, Understanding page experience — developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience
• Ahrefs, How to Do an SEO Audit (secondary source) — ahrefs.com/blog/seo-audit