E-commerce SEO Monthly Audit

Export the Pages report from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Tag any soft-404s on out-of-stock product pages, redirect chains from collection-page slug changes, and noindex regressions on canonical URLs. Attach the CSV to this step for the historical record.

Run PageSpeed Insights and Search Console's Core Web Vitals report against home, top collection, top PDP, and cart. Hero-image LCP and third-party script INP regressions are the usual culprits on Shopify themes after an app install. Record the worst-performing template's status.

Confirm tap-target spacing, viewport meta, and sticky add-to-cart behavior on iOS Safari and Android Chrome. Theme updates and Klaviyo / Privy popup changes are the common breakers; mobile conversion rate is the canary.

Confirm sitemap.xml only includes canonical, indexable URLs — no parameterized variants, no sold-through PDPs that have been redirected. Resubmit in Search Console after any catalog change of more than 50 SKUs.

Open a ticket with the Shopify or BigCommerce developer naming the failing template and the specific metric. Include the PageSpeed report URL and the field-data threshold being missed. Common fixes: defer non-critical JS, preload hero image, replace blocking review widget with deferred render.

Pull PDPs ranking 8–20 in Search Console; rewrite title tags to lead with the head term and include one long-tail modifier. Keep under 60 characters to avoid truncation. Do not stuff brand name into every title — that's prime real estate for differentiating modifiers.

Most Shopify themes ship with the collection title as H1 and the filter labels as H2 — confirm the hierarchy actually renders that way after theme customizations. Multiple H1s on a collection page is a frequent regression after a section-builder edit.

Test sample PDPs in the Schema Markup Validator and Rich Results Test. Common breaks: review schema sourced from a deactivated app, missing aggregateRating when reviews exist, price markup on out-of-stock items. Google penalizes review schema that doesn't match what's on-page.

Focus on top-20 revenue PDPs and top-10 collection pages. Lead with benefit + differentiator (free shipping threshold, return window, material). Auto-generated descriptions from product copy almost always truncate awkwardly in SERPs.

From each high-traffic blog post, link to the most relevant collection with descriptive anchor text — not "shop now." Cross-link complementary collections (men's tees → men's shorts) in the collection-page intro copy.

Use Ahrefs or Semrush to pull buyer-intent keywords with KD under your domain rating and search volume above 200. Cross-reference with Search Console Queries report for keywords already ranking 11–20 — those are the cheapest wins.

1,500+ words minimum on "best," "vs.," or "how to choose" intent. Include original photography, a comparison table, and FAQ schema. Link from the article to the most relevant collection above the fold and at the conclusion.

Identify posts that have lost 30%+ of their organic traffic year-over-year. Update screenshots, refresh internal links to current collections, replace deprecated tool mentions, and update the published date only when substantive content changed.

Pull the top-10 customer service tickets from Gorgias or Zendesk and confirm the help center answers them in FAQ schema. Sync wording with the actual on-page Q&A; mismatches cause Google to drop the rich result.

Target DR 50+ publications relevant to the niche, not generic marketing blogs. Pitch a specific angle tied to proprietary data or a customer story — editors reject generic "X tips for" pitches. Confirm dofollow link policy before writing.

Pull the new-referring-domains report from Ahrefs. Flag PBNs, scraper sites, and irrelevant foreign-language directories. Be conservative — Google generally ignores low-quality links, and an over-aggressive disavow can hurt more than help. Only disavow on confirmed toxic patterns.

Use Google Alerts and Brand24 to surface unlinked mentions. On Reddit, follow the subreddit's self-promotion rules — most require a 9:1 contribution ratio before linking. Genuine engagement converts to links and direct traffic.

Confirm post-purchase review request emails are sending on schedule and review count is trending up. Note: incentivized reviews violate Amazon ToS for products also sold there; keep on-site review programs separate from Amazon review solicitation.

BOPIS retailers, ship-from-store brands, and DTC sellers with a flagship retail footprint need local SEO. Pure-play national DTC without a physical address should skip the location-page work and stay focused on national authority.

Confirm seasonal hours, post a weekly product or event update, and reply to every review (positive and negative) within 7 days. Photo updates every 30 days correlate with map-pack ranking improvements.

One unique page per metro served — not boilerplate templates with city name swapped. Include local store hours, embedded map, store-specific photography, and locally-relevant copy. Boilerplate location pages get filtered out of local search.

Run Helium 10 Cerebro on top ASINs and reverse-engineer competitor keyword sets. Update backend search terms (under 250 bytes), bullets, and A+ content. Amazon's algorithm is independent of Google's — winning organic search doesn't mean winning Amazon search.

Compile organic sessions, organic revenue, top movers and decliners, and outstanding dev tickets into the monthly report deck. Send to the Director of E-commerce for review before the next month's planning meeting.