ecommerce technical seo checklist

As an ecommerce business owner, you understand the importance of having a well-optimized online store to attract and retain customers. Technical SEO plays a crucial role in improving your website’s visibility, driving more traffic, and increasing conversions. In this article, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive ecommerce technical SEO checklist to help you identify and fix technical issues that might be hindering your website’s performance.

Understanding Ecommerce Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing your website’s technical aspects to improve its search engine ranking, crawlability, and user experience. For ecommerce websites, technical SEO is critical to ensure that search engines can crawl, index, and understand your website’s content, products, and categories.

Ecommerce Technical SEO Checklist

I. Website Crawling and Indexing

**Verify website in Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools**:

Ensure that your website is verified in both GSC and Bing Webmaster Tools to monitor its performance, crawl errors, and sitemap submissions.

**Submit sitemap**:

Create and submit a sitemap to help search engines discover and crawl your website’s pages, products, and categories.

**Check website crawlability**:

Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify crawl errors, broken links, and duplicate content.

II. Page Speed Optimization

**Use page speed testing tools**:

Utilize tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to test your website’s page speed and identify areas for improvement.

**Optimize images**:

Compress images to reduce file size and improve page load times.

**Minify and compress files**:

Minify and compress HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files to reduce file size and improve page load times.

**Leverage browser caching**:

Enable browser caching to store frequently-used resources locally and reduce the number of requests to your server.

III. Mobile-Friendliness and Responsiveness

**Test mobile-friendliness**:

Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and responsive.

**Ensure responsive design**:

Verify that your website’s design is responsive and adapts to different screen sizes and devices.

IV. SSL and HTTPS

**Install SSL certificate**:

Install an SSL certificate to secure your website and protect customer data.

**Migrate to HTTPS**:

Migrate your website to HTTPS to ensure that all communication between your website and customers is encrypted.

V. URL Structure and Canonicalization

**Use descriptive and concise URLs**:

Use descriptive and concise URLs that include target keywords and are easy to read.

**Implement canonicalization**:

Implement canonicalization to prevent duplicate content issues and specify preferred versions of pages.

VI. Schema Markup and Structured Data

**Add schema markup**:

Add schema markup to your website’s HTML to provide search engines with additional context about your products, reviews, and business.

**Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper**:

Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to create and test schema markup.

VII. Content Optimization

**Conduct keyword research**:

Conduct keyword research to identify relevant and high-volume search terms.

**Optimize product descriptions**:

Optimize product descriptions with target keywords, meta descriptions, and header tags.

**Use header tags**:

Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure and organize content.

VIII. Local SEO (if applicable)

**Claim and optimize Google My Business**:

Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing to improve local search visibility.

**Use location-specific keywords**:

Use location-specific keywords in your website’s content, meta tags, and alt tags.

Conclusion

By following this ecommerce technical SEO checklist, you’ll be able to identify and fix technical issues that might be hindering your website’s performance. Remember that technical SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring and optimization. Stay up-to-date with the latest best practices and algorithm updates to ensure that your ecommerce website remains competitive and visible in search engine results.

Additional Resources

**Google’s Technical SEO Guide**:

A comprehensive guide to technical SEO by Google.

**Moz’s Technical SEO Audit Checklist**:

A detailed checklist for technical SEO audits.

**Ahrefs’ Technical SEO Guide**:

A guide to technical SEO by Ahrefs.

By prioritizing technical SEO and following this checklist, you’ll be well on your way to improving your ecommerce website’s visibility, driving more traffic, and increasing conversions.