Ecommerce SEO checklist

Work down it in order. Each item says how to check it.

Seven groups, from the settings you fix once to the pages you keep improving. Most items need no tools beyond Google Search Console, which is free.

Before you start

Google Search Console is set up for your store.
How to check: you can see the Performance report for your domain.
Google Merchant Center is set up and linked.
How to check: your products show as approved in Merchant Center.
You have a list of the pages that make you money.
How to check: your top 20 collections and products by sales, written down.

Every product sits in at least one collection or category.
How to check: export products and look for ones with no collection.
Your main categories are linked from the menu.
How to check: each is one click from the home page.
Breadcrumbs show on category and product pages.
How to check: look for "Home > Category > Product" above the title.
Addresses are short and readable.
How to check: no codes or dates in category and product addresses.

Each category has its own title, based on what people search.
How to check: view the page source or use a browser SEO extension.
Each category has a few lines of useful text above the products.
How to check: look at the page on a phone; the products should still show on the first screen.
No two categories target the same search.
How to check: list each category's main phrase and look for repeats.
Very small categories are merged.
How to check: any category with fewer than three products.

Product titles say what the product is.
How to check: no internal codes on their own.
Descriptions are your own words.
How to check: paste a sentence into Google in quotes; other shops should not come up with the same text.
Images have clear file names and alt text.
How to check: hover or inspect an image.
Real reviews show on the page as text.
How to check: you can select the review text with your cursor.
Discontinued products redirect to a replacement or their category.
How to check: visit an old product address and see where it lands.

If you would rather someone else looked at your store, request a store review.

Each product has one address in your links.
How to check: click a product from a category and check the address bar.
Filter and sort pages are kept out of Google's index.
How to check: Search Console's Pages report, looking for filter settings in addresses.
The sitemap lists only pages you want found.
How to check: open /sitemap.xml, with no filter, search or account pages.
Robots.txt does not block anything important.
How to check: open /robots.txt and read each "Disallow" line.
Collection and product pages pass Core Web Vitals.
How to check: PageSpeed Insights for one of each.
No broken internal links.
How to check: a free crawler such as Screaming Frog.

Shopify owners can see where the platform handles some of these for them.

Product markup is present and correct.
How to check: Google's Rich Results Test on a product page.
Prices and stock in the markup match the page.
How to check: compare the test result with what the page shows.
Products appear in free listings.
How to check: Merchant Center, Performance, free listings.

Check Search Console once a month.
How to check: look at pages that fell, and any new errors in the Pages report.
Set up new products properly at launch.
How to check: title, own description, images and collection, before they go live.
Improve one category page a month.
How to check: pick the one with the most impressions and the fewest clicks in Search Console.

You can also have us check it as part of an ecommerce SEO audit.