Ecommerce SEO Audit: Free Checklist and Step by Step

An ecommerce SEO audit is a review of an online store’s technical setup, on-page content, and off-page factors to identify areas for improving search engine rankings and user experience.

In this blog post, I’ll guide you through a focused, step-by-step audit process that I’ve been optimizing and polishing since 1996, when I started building websites and ranking them on AltaVista (Google was not yet a significant player at that time).

Before continuing this lecture, go ahead and download the checklist to perform the audit while reading this blog post:

Now that you have the checklist in your hands, let’s jump in…

1. Technical SEO Audit

These days, everything is much simpler than in the 90s.

Back then, technical SEO audits were done manually with Microsoft Excel… it was a nightmare, the work always took many weeks to complete and it was very costly.

Today, we can do all that and more by simply using SEO tools like aHrefs or SEMRush.

Personally, I prefer aHrefs for U.S. and Latam ecommerces and SEMRush for European ones. At FJ Solutions, for our Shopify SEO Service, we use aHrefs..

How to run a Technical SEO Audit using aHrefs

1. In the main menu, go to “Site Audit,” and click “+ New Project.”
   
2. Make sure your ecommerce is in Google Search Console (GSC). If it’s not… take a moment before continuing, and set up your GSC first.
   If you already have it, click “Import.”
   
3. Select your ecommerce site from the listing and click “IMPORT.” 
4. And then… wait for the audit to finish.

Once complete, you’ll get an overview, which could look like this: a website with just a few SEO errors.

Or it could look like this: a website with almost 50% of its pages containing errors.

Now, below this overview, you’ll see the list of errors.

The ones in red are the most critical and should be your primary focus.

Most of these will require both an SEO expert and a developer to resolve.

2. Google PageSpeed Insights test

This tool is very technical.

You might not fully understand the report you receive, but do not worry, this is only for your developer and your ecommerce SEO expert.

1. Go to Google PageSpeed Insights page, enter your ecommerce domain, and then click “Analyze”:
   
2. Once you get the report, you will see a lot of technical details and highlighted numbers, something like this:
   

In this summary, you’ll see a number between 0 and 100. This number reflects how your website performs in different areas that Google considers important, such as: SEO, website performance, accessibility and best practices.

As you can imagine, it’s great to have all these numbers in green (from 90 to 100), but in these days, with all the third-parties installed and website effects such as animations, scripts, etc., it’s complicated.

All you need to do here, is to send this report to your SEO agency, or at least, to your developers.

3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a powerful tool designed to identify technical SEO issues on your ecommerce website.

So, yes… this is another technical tool.

While it generates an advanced crawling report, it’s essential to prioritize fixing high-priority issues first, such as broken links, server errors, or missing titles.

Many of the warnings aren’t actual issues… but often, you’ll find major errors that will impact your rankings.

Once these high-priority items are addressed, move on to medium-priority issues like duplicate content or page speed optimizations. 

Always share the findings with your development or SEO team to ensure swift resolutions, maximizing your SEO efforts efficiently.

How to Crawl your ecommerce using Screaming Frog SEO Spider

1. Open the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool.
2. Enter your domain name:
3. Click on “Start”…
4. And that’s it!

Simple, right? But not when it comes to analysis and fixing!

Either way… that’s your SEO Expert job, not yours!

4. Competitors SEO Analysis

There are two great tools for this:

1. aHrefs
2. SEMRush

For Europe, I recommend SEMRush, and for USA and Latam, I recommend aHrefs.

Let’s use aHrefs for this case, and a “dog treats” ecommerce company as an example.

Here is the step-by-step guide to discover your online competitors:

1. Go to “Keyword Explorer” on aHrefs, and type your main keywords one by one:
   
2. Once you click on “Search”, on the left side menu, click on “By Domain”, under “Traffic Share”:
   
3. Once you do that, you’ll see the main domain competitors for all the keywords from your niche:
   
4. Visit each of them, and then select 5.
   Criteria to select:
   – One needs to be the one that has the most Domain Authority.
   – Then pickup one with similar Domain Authority to you (+/- 5)
   – And the other three, should be between the one with the most Domain Authoriy, and yours.
   These are going to be your main competitors.

5. Google Search Console Analysis: Identifying Low-Hanging Fruits Keywords

One of the most effective ways to improve your ecommerce SEO is by focusing on what we call “low-hanging fruits” in SEO.

What are SEO Low-Hanging Fruit Keywords? These are keywords you are already ranking for that require minimal effort to improve and can drive significant results.

By analyzing Google Search Console data, you can uncover these hidden gems—keywords that are performing well but need a small push to rank higher on the first page of Google.

Here are the detailed steps:

1. Go to your Google Search Console domain property:
   
2. Then click on “Performance”:
   
   “Total Clicks” and “Total Impressions” are selected by default.
   Manually select “Average position”.
3. Below in the table, go to “Filters”, and add one for “Position”:
   
4. Select “Greater than”, enter the number 10, and then click on “DONE”:
   
5. Order the listing by “Position” with the arrow pointing up:
   
6. Now you’ll see all the keywords you are ranking from, on the second page of Google (position from 10.x to 19), and the third page of Google (from 20.x to 29).
   These keywords are your “SEO Low-Hanging Fruits”.
   You now need to manually select the ones that are going to drive revenue to your business first.
7. Once you discover a conversion keyword, click on it, so you can see what page is ranking for this keyword:
   
8. You need to copy this page, into a Google Sheet, in which you will have just 3 columns:
   1. Page URL
   2. Focus Keyord
   3. Av. Position
   This needs to be sent to your SEO Expert, so he can prioritize these low-hanging fruits keywords based on potential: Monthly Search Volume and potential revenue for your ecommerce.

6. Ecommerce Keyword Research:  Mapping the Right Keywords to the Customer Journey

Keyword research can be approached in two ways:

1. you can do it fast, 
2. or you can do it right.

While a fast approach might give you some immediate results, thorough keyword research takes time… at least one to two weeks of effort.

Yeah, I know, it sucks.

But think of it like giving your ecommerce SEO its essential nutrients. 

Just as your body can’t produce essential amino acids on its own, your SEO strategy can’t succeed without the right keywords. 

You have to provide them yourself, and doing it right is key to long-term growth and success… and, most importantly: revenue!

By doing your keyword research thoroughly, you’ll achieve these outcomes, covering four essential needs of your ecommerce business:

1. Customer Journey Keyword Research
   Your ecommerce keyword strategy should align with the different stages of the customer journey: awareness, consideration, and decision.
   The keywords you target at each stage should match the search intent of your potential buyers, from those casually browsing to those ready to make a purchase.
   
2. Blog Posts Opportunities for Attraction
   Different stages of the customer journey require targeting different types of keywords.
   Identifying and using the right keywords at each stage ensures that you’re meeting the needs of your audience, wherever they are in their buying process:
   • Awareness (Top of the Funnel):
     Target informational keywords that focus on broad topics or common questions. These are often “how-to” or “what is” queries.
     For example, a keyword like “how to choose the right coffee machine” can attract users who are in the research phase.
   • Consideration (Middle of the Funnel):
     At this stage, focus on comparison keywords.
     These keywords reflect a deeper interest in specific products or services.
     For example, keywords like “best dog treats under $10” or “dog treats and chews” indicate that the customer is comparing options and getting closer to a decision.
   • Decision (Bottom of the Funnel):
     High-intent keywords are crucial here, as they indicate a readiness to purchase.
     These could include product-specific searches, such as “buy dog treats near me” or “cheap dog treats in bulk”.
     
3. Advanced Funnel Keywords for Advertising
   As potential customers move down the funnel, they’re closer to making a purchase.
   This is where you need to target high-intent keywords: those that signal a readiness to buy.
   These keywords are not only ideal for your product pages but are also perfect for advertising campaigns to drive conversions.
   
4. Link Building and PR Keyword Opportunities
   Finally, don’t overlook the keywords that can help with your link-building and PR efforts, such as those that start with “Best of…” or “10 Best…”.
   These are often broader industry-related terms or topics that can generate backlinks from authoritative sites, improving your domain authority, boosting your overall SEO performance and, as a secondary benefit, driving traffic to your product detail pages.

Let’s jump in…

How to do Ecommerce Keyword Research?

Again, for this research I recommend two paid tools:

1. aHrefs
2. SEMRush

As I mentioned before: I prefer aHrefs.

Let’s dive into this step by step:

1. Let’s start with the keywords you’re already ranking for:
   • Go to your Google Search Console domain property:
     
   • Go to “Performance” and select “Last 3 months” as the date range, then click “EXPORT” and choose “Google Sheet”:
     
   • Copy the entire Keywords, under column “Top queries”:
     
   • Then go to aHrefs and click on the main menu the option “Keywords Explorer”, and paste all the keywords and select your Country target:
     
   • Click “Search” and you will get a report similar to this:
     
   • Apply the following filter:
     
     So you see only keywords with more than 50 monthly Search Volume.
   • Now, manually (yes, I know: manually) review each keyword.
     As mentioned earlier, you can do this quickly or do it the right way. Remember, this is the cornerstone of your SEO strategy… and the SEO channel will provide your ecommerce with the best-qualified traffic, with the lowest CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost).
   • Perform a manual keyword selection and classification the right way.
     How to perform a manual keyword selection and classification the right way?
     This is the most important part of your SEO Audit, no doubt.
     But… as it’s going to take a lot of time from you: be patience. Break it into 30-minutes blocks, so it doesn’t overwhelm you.
     Want a quick solution? Hire an Ecommerce SEO expert 🙂
     Here is the step-by-step guide:
     • From the keyword listing, you’ll see a + sign and a square:
       
       This will be used to select important keywords, and add them into your aHrefs “Keywords List”:
       
       You will end up with 4 keywords lists:
       • Customer Journey: these keywords that participate or belong to your customer’s journey.
       • Blog Post Opportunities: these are keywords that will potentially become blog posts, either for attraction, decision, or conversion stages.
       • Link Building: these are keywords that only have in the Google`s page result, listing of products or companies. These are the foundation for your Link Building Strategy, in order to increase your Domain Authority.
       • Google Ads: these are keywords that people are paying for already, with a good Search Volume. Add those that have +$5 per click. The more people pay for them, the more revenue that keyword can generate.
     • Let’s say that I find a keyword that it’s in the awareness stage of the customer journey, with a good Search Volume (depending on your niche and ecommerce maturation, but it’s usually higher than 25):
       
       You click on the + symbol and, if you don’t have this list created, click on “Keyword list” and then “+ New list”:
       
     • I always use a code for the website (FJS in my case), and then the type of Keyword list: Customer journey” in this case:
       
     • And now, what you need to do once the list is created, is to click on the + symbol when you discover a new keyword, and add it to the right list:
       
     • Repeat this, until you finish reviewing all keywords listing.
   • Once you finish reviewing your keywords listing, move on to the “Site Explorer” section inside aHrefs, enter your website and click on the magnifying glasses:
     
   • Once there, on the left side menu, click on the “Organic keywords” section. You’ll see something like this:
     
   • Apply the filter of 25 for “Volume”:
     
   • Then, order the list by “Volume”:
     
   • And again… dive into the joy of MANUALLY reviewing each keyword, and assigning it to the right list inside aHrefs. If you’ve lost your patience, you can ask for our Ecommerce SEO services 😀
   • Many of these keywords will be repeated, so this time it’s going to be easier.
   • Once you finish, it’s time to go after your competitors.
2. Time to analyze what your competitors are ranking for.
   The following procedure needs to be repeated for each of your 4-5 competitors.
   Let’s start:
   • In the main menu of aHrefs click on “Site explorer”, enter your competitor and click the magnifying glasses:
     
   • Again, click on Organic Keywords, add the “Volume” filter to show those that have a monthly search volume higher than 25, order the list by “Volume”, and start manually adding keywords to your lists.
     
     If you have done a good SEO job, then you will have most of keyword already… if not, you have some work ahead…
   • Once you finish with that, we will spy on what keywords they are using in Google Ads. For such, we will click on the left side menu the option “Paid keywords”.
     If they’re not advertising, you’ll see something like this:
     
     If they are, analyze these keywords and add them to your list… if they are worth it.
3. Once you finish with all your competitors (you might be exhausted), time to review the work you’ve done.
   • Click on “Keywords Explorer”, and below the box in which you enter your keywords, you will find all your lists:
     
   • Click on the one you labeled “Customer Journey”, and you will see a listing of all the keywords you selected:
     
   • Now review all your keywords. Some of them you added at the beginning of the process, but now they may not be worth it.
     I’m 100% sure that you now have a MUCH DEEPER understanding of your ecommerce keywords… that feeling of being “in control” of your online business is great, right? 🙂
   • Once you review all of them, then on the left side menu click on the option “Matching terms”:
     
     Here, you’ll grow your Blog post opportunities keywords or find low-hanging fruits, which will form the foundation for your Content Marketing Strategy, the cornerstone to lowering your CAC.
   • First, we will find high-volume keywords, with low competitors. So go to your filters on the top, and set KD (Keyword Difficulty, which means how difficult is it to rank first on the first page on Google)  to 15 and alick ·”Apply”:
     
   • Then “Volume” to 250, and click “Apply” and then “Show Results”:
     
   • Review the keywords, and add valuable ones to your lists.
   • Now, let’s review Keywords with Rich Snippets.
     Rich snippets are enhanced search results that display additional information beyond the standard title, URL, and description. These snippets can include details like reviews, ratings, images, product prices, or the classic “People also ask” section.
     Rich snippets improve click-through rates by providing users with more context directly on the search results page, attracting more qualified traffic and improving visibility…
     So, clear all your previous filters, then click on “SERP features”, select “Featured snippet” and “Show results”:
     
   • Now, one more time, review all the keywords.
   • Repeat this process for all your other lists: Blog, Ads and Link Building.
4. Once you’ve finished, classify your Customer Journey keywords, for each stage of the customer journey:
   – Awareness
   – Consideration
   – Decision
5. In the left side menu, click on your Customer Journey list:
   
6. Then on the top right side options, click “Export”:
   
7. And in the options, just select all your keywords:
   
8. Now remove column A (#) and column I (Last Update):
   
9. Empty column C (Country), and rename it as “CJ Stage” (which means: Customer Journey Stage):
   
10. You’ll now need to manually (yeah, I know… don’t hate me!) review all your keywords, and assign them to a stage in the Customer Journey:
    – Awareness: your ideal client has a problem or pain. He/She’s experiencing or expressing symptoms and therefore it would search with phrases such as “how to attract more visitors to my ecommerce”.
    – Consideration: now your ideal client has defined and given a name to their problem or pain (lack of SEO), and is considering potential solutions (such as hiring and ecommerce SEO Agency, looking for a freelancer, or DIY).
    – Decision: your ideal client has decided for a solution, but doesn’t know who will provide it (example: “best SEO agency in Miami”, “ecommerce seo services near me”).
11. Another task you will have, during this review, is to highlight those keywords that you consider important for your ecommerce. This is going to be used by the Ecommerce SEO expert in the next step:
    
12. Once you have reviewed ALL your keywords… your Ecommerce Keyword Research is done.

Now you have the SEO Audit done. Good job!

Time for prioritization…

7. OPTIONAL – GA4 and Google Tag Manager Audit

While not directly part of an SEO audit, setting up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM) is crucial for accurately measuring the impact of your Ecommerce SEO efforts. 

These tools allow you to track and evaluate not only the efficiency of the SEO work you’re doing, but also the performance of other marketing channels, such as email marketing, SMS marketing, and paid advertising.

By having GA4 properly set up, you will be able to measure not only your average Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), but also your CAC by channel. 

This lets you analyze how well each marketing channel (SEO, email, SMS, paid ads) contributes to your overall conversions and revenue.

How can you Audit your GA4 for CAC by channel calculations?

First, you need to have access to your GA4.

Here’s your step-by-step guide:

1. Go to “Reports”, in the left side menu:
   
2. And then click on “Traffic Acquisition”:
   
3. You’ll see on the first column, the section called “Session primary channel group (Default Channel Group)”:
   
   This is automatically generated by GA4. It’s good, but it won’t fit YOUR channels, so it’s not accurate and won’t provide the value you need.
4. If you GA4 it’s right set to calculate CAC by channels, you should have one tailor-made to your brand, like this for example:
   
   “Session FJS – CAC By Channels” (this is created by our CRO team), and if you click on it, you should see your own channels, the revenue generated by each, and the lead generation:
   

IF you can’t calculate your CAC by channels… then all your customer acquisition strategy is going nowhere.

Basically, you don’t know how much are you paying to acquire a new customer in average, and what channels are the best to acquire new customers… which means, that you don’t know how to scale 🙁

8. Prioritizing Your To-Do List: Expert Recommendations for Ecommerce SEO

As I already mentioned, you’ll likely have a long list of tasks to tackle. 

This can feel overwhelming, so it’s crucial to prioritize these tasks effectively. 

Not all SEO tasks carry the same weight, and improper prioritization can lead to wasted time and missed opportunities. 

Remember the WHY behind the work you have done in this ecommerce SEO audit: increase your revenue.

So, having revenue written in your forehead, is time to prioritize based on how much revenue (or lead generation), the fix or the improvement it’s going to generate.

The challenge with that, is that if you are a “normal” ecommerce owner or manager, you probably don’t know the potential behind each initiative or fix.

That’s why this step should be handled by an Ecommerce SEO expert, not just anyone. 

The expert will categorize the tasks into three priority levels:

1. Immediate Actions (Priority 1)
   These are the critical tasks that need to be addressed immediately, as they are going to have a big impact on your revenue or lead generation.
   These could include major issues identified in the Technical SEO Audit (such as broken links or missing meta tags), urgent fixes from the Google PageSpeed Test, or quick wins from the Search Console Analysis (e.g., low-hanging fruit keywords that can drive quick results).
   These tasks will have the most significant impact on your site’s SEO performance if done right away.
   
2. Important Tasks (Priority 2)
   Once the critical issues are addressed, it’s time to focus on the next set of important tasks.
   These include key actions uncovered in tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider (such as fixing duplicate content or refining internal links), insights from the Competitor SEO Analysis, and essential updates from the Ecommerce Keyword Research (like optimizing content for keywords in the consideration and decision stages).
   These tasks are important but should only be tackled after the immediate actions are completed.
   
3. Low-Priority Tasks (Priority 3)
   These are the tasks that can be done when there’s extra time or resources available, although they may not always get done.
   These could include smaller updates identified in the Technical SEO Audit or ongoing optimizations that are good to have but don’t require immediate action.
   While they might not be urgent, they can still contribute to long-term SEO success.
   In my +20 years of Digital Marketing experience… these tasks NEVER get done. Why? There’s always something else that comes up that generates more revenue or leads… it happens EVERY TIME, believe me.

Prioritizing your SEO efforts is essential to ensure your time and resources are used effectively. 

Without a clear prioritization strategy, you risk focusing on tasks that won’t deliver the biggest return on investment.

At the end of the day, the purpose behind all this detailed work narrows down to one key objective: increasing the revenue of your ecommerce. 

That’s all about.

A well-executed SEO audit not only helps your website scale but also improves profitability by driving more organic traffic while lowering Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

In my 20+ years of experience, organic traffic from SEO consistently delivers the lowest CAC and the highest conversion rates. 

It’s the most valuable, high-quality traffic you can attract. 

By optimizing your ecommerce for SEO, you’re setting the foundation for long-term growth, better scalability, and ultimately, a more profitable business.

If you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to respond as soon as possible. And if you disagree with any point or have something to contribute, I’d love to hear your thoughts—please share them in the comments!