Ecommerce SEO Checklist 2024

In order to succeed long-term in the ecommerce market, you must have a game plan for search engine optimization (SEO). It’s essential to land your site on the first search engine results page because most customers won’t click through to page 2. Our comprehensive ecommerce SEO checklist is designed to help you identify and overcome the issues that are holding your site back in the SERPs.

Step 1: Site SEO Analysis

The first step on our SEO checklist for online store is to conduct a thorough examination or audit of your site. This audit takes about an hour and can be completed using free tools accessible online. Once you know what the problems are, you'll be able to make the necessary changes and become more visible to your potential customers.

The audit is based on the four steps for getting ranked by Google:

1. Google needs to find your site.

2. Google's robots need to crawl your site.

3. Google needs to index individual pages on your site.

4. Google ranks the indexed pages in search results.

Plus two factors that are important for users:

1. Usability features

2. Security features

Once you have read the description of each of these six steps, you can score yourself on the parameters listed to see how your ecommerce site lines up.

• Is It Easy to Find Your Online Store?

Search engines are robots. They aren't human. That means that you have to use language that robots recognize if you want them to understand your site. From the outset, bots need you to provide two things to help them recognize and understand your site:

• An XML sitemap

• Structured data

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a text file that lists all of the URLs on a website and how they are related. XML stands for "extensible markup language." The sitemap can include:

• Information about each URL

• When the URLs were last updated

• How important each URL is (in a hierarchy)

• Whether versions of the URL exist in other languages

Having an accurate, up-to-date sitemap (along with clear internal linking) increases the chances that your pages will be crawled and indexed by search engine bots, especially if some of your pages aren't linked directly from the navigation bar. It also lets search engines know if pages have been added or removed, making the crawling process more efficient.

Structured Data

Structured data or schema markup refers to additions to your website's code that further clarify the contents of each page to search engines. For example, if you are selling tickets for a concert or event, schema markup highlights the name, location, date, time, and price of the event so that this information is shown to users on the search engine results page.

To see how a page displays on SERPs, sign in to the Google Search Console and click on "Search Appearance." If your site has any structured data (featured information that is relevant to users), you will be able to see it here.

• Is Your Store Easy to Crawl?

Once Google has found your site, its robots will crawl the pages at regular intervals and decide which ones should be indexed for a listing in SERPs. If your site has a lot of pages with issues (such as broken links or 404 Page Not Found errors, 30X redirects, or unmoderated user comments), search engine bots won't be able to crawl your site efficiently.

To find out whether your site is crawlable, use Google's Crawl Error Report and look for issues that made it difficult for the crawler bots to crawl your site in the past 90 days. You can generally deal with technical issues through Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools)—a tool that is free to use once you can verify that you are the owner of your site.

• Are Your Store Pages Easy to Index?

Pages need to be indexed in order to appear in search results. Google's index report tells you which pages on your domain have been indexed by Google. Ideally, the kinds of pages you want to be indexed are:

• Home page

• Category pages

• Product pages

• Blog articles

The kinds of pages you don't want to be indexed are:

• "Create an account" page

• Login page

• Wishlist

• Cart

• Checkout

As part of your website index report, you can view content keywords that your pages are ranking for in the Google Index section. Any strange keywords indicate that your website might have been hacked. Non-content-related keywords indicate that your pages need some TLC as far as keyword optimization.

• Does Your Site Rank Well?

Your ranking refers to the position of your page in search results for any given keyword. Your goal with this ecommerce SEO checklist is to appear at the top of search results, ensuring that your site can easily be found. There are over 200 factors — both on-page and off-page — that influence ranking. 

Relevant Keywords

Relevant keywords are critical for improving your rankings — after technical errors have been identified and fixed. Keywords refer to the words and phrases users include in their search queries; they help search engines provide helpful results.

If you run a startup or medium-sized business, long-tail keywords should make up the bulk of your keyword strategy. You have a better chance of ranking for these keywords because they are more specific and competition for those is not as tough. Your primary keyword for each page should be unique and appear in:

• URL

• Title tag

• Meta description

• H1 header

• H2 subheaders where relevant

• Body of the text (roughly 1-2 instances per 500 words)

• ALT tags for images

• Filenames for images, videos, and sound files

Backlinks From Other Sites

When deciding how valuable a page is to users, search engines like Google also look for links to your page from other websites that give equity (a vote of confidence) to your page. These external inbound links are known as backlinks and are essential for improving your ranking.

While backlinks, in general, are good, not all backlinks carry equal weight. Inbound links from top-level domain sites ending in .edu and .gov are the most valuable, followed by links from relevant high-authority blogs and news sites. Backlinks from spammy or poorly written pages are unlikely to help your ranking.

Calculate Your On-Site SEO Score

After reading through the ecommerce SEO checklist for your audit, give yourself a score for each item listed below. This is the baseline score that you can use to assess your situation and decide what to focus on next.

	Scoring	My Score
Findability
XML Sitemap	Yes = 2;  No = 0	/2
Google's Structured Data Testing Tool	All pages marked up = 2;  Some pages = 1;  No pages = 0	/2
Crawlability
Google's Crawl Error Report	No errors = 2;  Some errors = 1;  Multiple errors = 0	/2
Indexability
Google's Index Report	All relevant pages indexed = 2;  Some relevant pages not indexed and/or some irrelevant pages indexed = 1;  No pages indexed = 0	/2
Rankability
Keyword Optimization	All indexable pages have unique keywords and an optimized title tag and meta description = 2;  Some keyword optimization = 1;  No keyword optimization = 0	/2
Backlinks	Backlinks from top-level domains = 2;  Backlinks from low-to-medium-authority sites = 1;  No backlinks = 0	/2
Usability
Easy to Navigate	Yes = 2;  Somewhat = 1;  No = 0	/2
Optimized for Mobile	Yes = 2;  No = 0	/2
Security
Secure Socket Layer certificate (HTTPS)	Yes = 2;  No = 0	/2
Secure Checkout	Yes = 2;  No = 0	/2
Total Score		/20

Create Your Own Ecommerce SEO Checklist

Now that you have a starting point for SEO, we'll explain the steps you need to take to improve your score and increase your traffic.

1. Set Up Tracking

You need to be able to track ecommerce marketing metrics like your traffic and organic search performance with SEO tools in order to know whether your strategies are working. Begin with Google Analytics for the basic information about traffic and organic search results. Then integrate Google Search Console and/or Bing Webmaster Tools for more organic performance tracking features:

• Upload your sitemap

• Check which pages are indexed

• Find errors and crawl issues

• Organic keyword performance

• On-site engagement

• Backlinks

• Test structured data

• View your organic search appearance

• Test mobile-friendliness

2. Optimize Your Site Architecture

This is about getting found, getting your pages crawled and indexed, and making your website easier to use. If you use a content management system like WordPress, you can use plugins for most of these steps. Certain ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce may even complete these steps for you.

Create an XML Sitemap and Robots.txt File

If you don't already have a sitemap (a page of code that explains your site to search engines), this should be the first item on your ecommerce SEO checklist. Some content management systems have plugins that help you create a sitemap (for example, Yoast SEO for WordPress). If not, you might need to hire a web developer to create this XML file for you.

As you create your sitemap, write up a robot.txt file with a "disallow" directive for the pages you don't want to be crawled. These are pages that are necessary for the user experience but that you don't want to appear in Google search results. For example:

• User Login

• Account setup

• Cart

• Checkout

• Order status

• Thank You page

• Site search results

• Wishlist

Once your XML sitemap is complete, add the sitemap URL to the root folder of your website (https://www.website.com/sitemap.xml) and submit it to Google through the Google Search Console at Sitemaps > paste sitemap URL > "Submit"

Robots.txt files don't need to be submitted to Google. Simply upload the file to the root folder of your domain (https://www.website.com/robots.txt) and Google will find it automatically. Files that are already uploaded can be tested with the robots.txt Tester. Files that are stored locally on a computer can be tested by developers with Google's open-source robots.txt library. 

Add Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumb navigation helps humans and robots navigate your site and return easily to category pages without having to hit the "back" button. It also lowers your bounce rate and can improve your ranking in search results. Here is an example of breadcrumb navigation from Nordstrom. Customers can easily return to “Home,” “Women,” or “Clothing” pages with a single click.

If you use a content management system like WordPress, the easiest way to add breadcrumb navigation is to download an applicable plugin. Alternatively, a web developer can write the necessary code for you. If you'd like to create breadcrumb navigation yourself, refer to this breadcrumb guide from Google Search Central.

Add Schema

As mentioned earlier in this article, schema markup or structured data labels the elements of each page of your site with description tags to help Google display a summary to users. This "business card" version of each page helps Google classify web pages into types (review, recipe, article, medical) so that it can offer internet users the most relevant results. Some content management systems like BigCommerce create structured data automatically.

Adding schema markup (if you don't have it already) is easy and doesn't require any knowledge of code. Simply open the Google Structured Data Helper, enter the URL of the page, select the kind of schema you need, and start tagging the relevant items. Once you're done, hit "CREATE HTML" and paste the code into the header of the source page code. You can test the schema with the official Schema Validator tool to see how your search result will appear to users. 

3. Optimize Your Content

Now that Google can find your website, the next (and ongoing) challenge is to build your website's authority and relevance in order to be found by users. There are two major strategies that improve website rankings—keywords and links—and each one needs to be used correctly in order for ecommerce stores to succeed.

Keywords

Keywords are the link between customers and online stores. Customers enter keywords in Google (or their chosen search engine) and search engines return the web pages that contain the same words in their content (or that are otherwise associated with those keywords, such as through hyperlinking). Because the results are based on keywords, you will need to outrank all of the other pages that use the same keyword in order to appear at the top of the list. The more pages that use that keyword, the more competition you will have in order to rank.

Selecting Keywords

For an ecommerce store, keywords (what users need and you offer) will generally describe your products and services. For example:

• locksmith in Beverly Hills

• best protein supplement for workouts

• comfortable men's running shoes

• silver love heart necklaces

The kinds of keywords you will want to select for your ecommerce SEO checklist are those that:

• Have a high search volume

• Have low competition

• Are directly relevant to your business and products

To find out which variations of keywords your potential customers actually search in Google, you can use keyword research tools like Google's Keyword Planner or Ahrefs.

Using a tool like Google Trends, you can also see whether interest in that keyword is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable over time.  

Long-Tail Keywords

For businesses that are just getting started or operating in highly competitive markets, identifying long-tail keywords will provide your best chances of ranking well because they are more specific and have less competition from big-name stores like Amazon and Apple.

Some long-tail keywords represent highly specific searches by customers with an immediate intent to buy. An example would be "14 inch ASUS laptop with Intel Celeron processor" as opposed to just “ASUS laptop.” 

Other long-tail keywords are information queries by customers with an intent to learn, such as "what are the advantages of a vegetarian diet." These types of keywords work well for blog articles and can serve as a first step in your sales funnel for niche topics. 

As the owner of an ecommerce store, it's important that you cater to both of these audiences—those who want to learn and those who want to buy—with a comprehensive content marketing strategy. As interested internet users become informed about the advantages your products and services offer, they may continue through the conversion funnel and eventually make the decision to buy. 

Where to Place Keywords

Once you have selected your keywords, place them in the following places to maximize your chances to rank. This should form part of your ecommerce SEO checklist:

• Page URL. Optimizing your URL helps users and search engines crawl and index your page, improving organic search visibility. Keep the structure of your URLs consistent for a clean, easy-to-understand website and for site links to potentially appear on the SERP.

• Title Tag. These are the page titles that appear on the search engine results page (SERP) and browser tab. Every page should have a unique title tag that includes the keyword and is around 50-60 characters in length.

• Meta Description. This is the short description that appears in the SERP under the title tag and URL. It should contain the primary keyword and be 150-160 characters in length. While the meta description doesn't affect the ranking as strongly, it does affect the user click-through rate.

• H1 Header. This is the on-page title and should contain the primary keyword to assure users that the contents of the page are exactly what they expect after reading the title tag and meta description on the search engine results page.

• H2 and H3 Subheadings. Subheadings show users and Google the relevance of your page. The subheadings provide the outline of your article and should deliver a unified message that's focused on your primary and secondary keywords.

• Body of the Text. Use the target keywords within the content itself. There’s no hard and fast rule about how often to use the keywords, but they should appear naturally and organically. You don’t want to overuse or force your keywords repeatedly into the content. This is a black-hat technique known as "keyword stuffing" that is common with cheap SEO and is very off-putting to users.

• Images and Videos. Where it makes sense, use the keyword in the alt text (also called the "alt tag") of images and videos so that they will appear when internet users search for that keyword. You should also use the keyword in the filename for images and videos that appear on the page.

Prioritize Keyword Optimization

For a large online shop, it can take a long time to optimize every page with keywords. To get the best bang for your buck, you'll need to prioritize the pages that have the highest chance of converting into sales:

1. Homepage

2. Top five to 10 category and product pages

3. The rest of the category, subcategory, and product pages as you can

Remember that every page should have a different target keyword so that they are not competing against each other for the top spots in search results.

Write More Content

Google rewards ecommerce websites that populate their pages with content. Generally, you are looking at anywhere from 300 to 2,000 words or more of unique content per page with an appropriate keyword saturation. The quality of your content is not only helpful for your ranking but also serves to connect with your buyers—educating them about your different products, how they are used, and how these products can enhance their life. If you can't write your content yourself, you can hire a freelance writer or a reputable SEO company to write this content for you.

Category and Subcategory Pages

The content (or "copy") on your category and subcategory pages should introduce the collection, describe the kinds of products in the collection, and explain who or what the collection is for. Include your target keyword at least once or twice on the page and weave in your brand message.

Individual Product Pages

Start with the top-selling products and work your way through the rest. The copy on product pages should describe the product, include unique keywords, and describe how the product can enhance the user's life. Product pages often end with a call to action to encourage the user to buy.

Blog

Your blog, learning center, resource page, and FAQs pages are where you cater to informational queries. This is where you'll focus on long-tail keywords and aim to educate rather than sell. A winning strategy for improving the ranking of your informational pages is to find out which long-tail keywords your competitors are using and create more valuable content on the same topics. Eventually, this should convert into a higher ranking and increase your traffic and sales.

4. Avoid Penalization

After you've gone to the effort of completing your ecommerce SEO checklist, make sure that you find and fix any on-site SEO issues that might earn you a penalty from Google. There are free SEO tools that crawl your site and provide a report to help you find and fix:

• Duplicate content. This often occurs when product descriptions are copied and pasted from the manufacturer's or a competitor's website. It can also occur if you offer search filters.

• Duplicate title tags. This may occur when title tags are generated automatically and you have several products with the same name (in different colors and sizes).

• Duplicate meta descriptions. This usually happens when the copy is pulled from the manufacturer’s page and no unique meta description has been created.

• Missing title tags. Title tags make pages easier to index.

• Missing alt tags/alt text. Alt tags make images easier to index.

Fix the Technical issues that Lead to Duplicates

The canonical tag can help you avoid penalization for technical duplicates. This covers filtered pageviews and internal search results as well as URL variations (URLs with or without the HTTPS://, WWW., or end slash/). When you tag the primary page as canonical, Google will index the canonical page and disregard any further variations—preventing duplicates.

Rewrite Any Duplicate Content

If you do have content that's copied from elsewhere, rewrite these pages with unique, high-quality content and keywords that will help you rank higher on the search engine results page. Rewrite the pages with the highest traffic first and continue to rewrite the rest of the pages as your resources permit. Unique content really does make a difference—as well as being the most ethical way to do business.

5. Acquire Links from Relevant Sites

In addition to keywords, Google assesses the value and authority of your site based on its backlinks. The more other websites link to your site, the higher Google's esteem for your site and the better you will rank in SERP.

Link-building is a long-term endeavor that requires finding and pitching high-authority sites and creating content that others will want to share. Backlinks from top-level domains like .edu and .gov websites are the most effective for improving your rankings, while backlinks from social media and your Google My Business page are easy ways to increase your traffic.

Make sure you know how to identify great sites for link acquisition.

6. Improve Usability

All of the previous items on this ecommerce SEO checklist are designed to help increase your traffic. Once you manage to get more people onto your site, make sure you give them a great experience.

Improve the Time It Takes for Your Site to Load

The ideal page load time for users is 2-3 seconds. Much more than that and users will give up and hit the “back button” without hesitation. To find out how your load time checks out, test the URL with PageSpeed and fix any issues it finds. In general, you can improve your page load time by:

• Minifying CSS, HTML, and JavaScript

• Optimizing images to reduce the file size

• Embedding videos from YouTube or Vimeo rather than uploading them directly to the page

Optimize for Mobile

In the United States, 31% of ecommerce sales are made on mobile devices. Consequently, optimizing your site for mobile is important for rankings as well as sales. Test your site with Page Speed Insights to see what your site looks like on mobile devices and fix any issues you find. Many content management systems allow you to view and edit your site in "mobile mode" to make this process easier.

Optimize for Internal Site Search

A potential buyer will often search for products that they wish to buy in the website's internal search bar. This provides data you can track and analyze and also supplies valuable information about the products your customers want and which names they use to look for them. To optimize your internal site search, note any synonyms, abbreviations, or misspellings that are causing problems and fix any problems with search filters so that buyers can find what they need quickly and easily.

Deal with Out-of-Stock Notifications

Sometimes, products may go out of stock. However, you don't necessarily want to delete the page because you've worked hard to build its authority and ranking. Instead of removing "out of stock" pages, consider keeping the page live and adding a "temporarily out of stock" notification. Customers can fill out a form to be notified when the item is back in stock. If you don't plan to restock the item, redirect the page back to the category or to a similar product that the customer might like.

Add Security and Trust Features

Last but not least, help users feel safe on your site with essential security features. At a minimum, you will want:

• An SSL certificate (to create an HTTPS URL)

• A secure payment gateway 

• Trust badges

• Customer reviews and ratings

Once you do have a few ratings and reviews, highlight them with schema markup so that they'll appear in your SERP listing. If you can build trust before users even click through, they'll be much more likely to make a purchase.

SEO Is Worth the Effort

This ecommerce SEO checklist should give you enough ideas to get started on improving your organic ranking in Google, increasing your traffic, and ultimately increasing your sales. 

Some business owners start out doing their search engine optimization themselves and end up becoming experts. Others, including most larger businesses, hire an agency like AMG who specialize in ecommerce SEO services to meet their ongoing optimization needs. Whichever path you choose, know that SEO is necessary and well worth the expense. Customers look at the first page of search results—so make sure to be on it!