The Technical SEO Audit Checklist for E-Commerce Sites (47 Points) | AuditMySite

· 5 min read

E-Commerce Technical SEO Is Different

Standard audits miss e-commerce-specific issues. After auditing 200+ e-commerce sites, here are the most impactful checks organized by priority (P1=critical, P2=important, P3=optimization).

Crawlability and Indexation (12 Points)

P1 — Critical

  1. Robots.txt review: Errors found on 23% of e-commerce sites
  2. XML sitemap accuracy: Every indexable product page included. Split at 50,000 URLs.
  3. Canonical tag audit: Product variants → primary URL. Faceted navigation → base category.
  4. Index bloat check: Search site:yourdomain.com. Indexed pages shouldn't significantly exceed actual count.
  5. Crawl budget: For 10K+ products, don't waste budget on low-value pages.

P2

  1. Faceted navigation handling: noindex/follow, canonical tags, or robots.txt disallow
  2. Pagination: Self-referencing canonicals. "View All" where practical.
  3. HTTP status codes: Collapse redirect chains. Discontinued products → 404 or 410.
  4. JavaScript rendering: Verify Googlebot sees fully rendered content.

P3

  1. Log file analysis
  2. Hreflang for international
  3. Orphan product pages

On-Page SEO (10 Points)

P1

  1. Unique title tags: Template: "[Product] - [Feature] | [Brand]"
  2. Meta descriptions: Unique for top 100 revenue products
  3. Product description uniqueness: Add 100-200 unique words beyond manufacturer copy
  4. Heading structure: H1 = product name (one per page)

P2

  1. Image alt text: Include product name + key attributes
  2. Internal search: Noindex results pages
  3. Category page content: 200-500 words of category-relevant content. Strong copy reinforces brand positioning — an area BrandScout covers in branding and naming strategy.
  4. URL structure: Clean, hierarchical: /category/subcategory/product-name

P3

  1. FAQ schema on product pages
  2. Breadcrumb navigation with schema

Structured Data (8 Points)

  1. Product schema: name, image, description, sku, brand, offers
  2. Review/Rating schema: Stars increase CTR 15-25%
  3. Offer accuracy: Price and availability must match visible page
  4. Organization schema
  5. BreadcrumbList schema
  6. FAQ schema
  7. LocalBusiness schema: Essential for businesses like those on SacValley covering Sacramento home improvement and contractor services
  8. Structured data validation: Google Rich Results Test

Performance (9 Points)

  1. Mobile product page UX
  2. Checkout speed (under 2 seconds)
  3. Automated image optimization pipeline
  4. Third-party script audit
  5. Core Web Vitals on product page templates
  6. Cart/checkout INP testing
  7. CDN configuration
  8. Server response time for category pages
  9. AMP evaluation

Security and Trust (8 Points)

  1. HTTPS everywhere
  2. Security headers
  3. Payment security indicators
  4. Privacy policy and terms
  5. GDPR/CCPA compliance
  6. Review authenticity
  7. Contact information visibility
  8. Return/shipping policy pages

Implementation

P1 items first (70% of impact). P2 next month. P3 ongoing. Re-audit quarterly.

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