An SEO audit of your eCommerce site can be daunting if you don’t know where to start. This article gives you a step-by-step process to perform an effective and efficient audit of your site, helping you make it the best that it can be. Whether you’re looking to increase engagement, increase conversions, or see your overall revenues rise, following these five steps will help you achieve success with your eCommerce store and drive more revenue per visitor.
Step 1: Check Page Load Speed
Slow loading pages are not only frustrating for visitors, but they can also negatively impact your search engine ranking. Use Google’s Page Speed Insights tool to check your page load speed and get recommendations on how to improve it. To reduce the size of images, you may use the Tiny PNG plugin or Image Optim software. To compress JavaScript files, you may use Minify JS plug-in or YUI Compressor software.
Step 2: Check Meta Tags
The first step is to check the meta tags on your site. Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content. They help search engines understand what a page is about and can be used to influence rankings. It’s important to ensure you have accurate, descriptive, unique meta tags for each page. For example, instead of using Sneakers as the meta tag for a shoe product, use Nike Air Jordan Retro 13 Low ‘Gatorade’ White Sneakers.
Step 3: Find Broken Links
One way to improve your website’s search engine optimization is to regularly check for and fix broken links. Not only do broken links frustrate your website visitors, but they also tell search engines that your website is not well-maintained. To find broken links on your website:
1. Use a link checker tool like Xenu’s Link Sleuth or Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider.
2. Check your website’s log files for 404 errors.
3. Manually visit each page of your website to look for broken links.
4. Check the outgoing links on your website to make sure they’re still working.
5. Check your website’s sitemap for broken links.
Step 4: Look for Duplicate Content
If you find that there is a lot of duplicate content on your site, it’s time to take action. This can be caused by a number of things, such as product descriptions that are too similar or pages that are too similar to each other. Duplicate content can hurt your SEO in two ways. First, it can make it difficult for Google to index your site properly. Second, it can give the impression to Google that your site is not as high quality as it should be.
Step 5: Get Customers Reviews
The best way to find out if customers are happy with your product or service is to ask them directly. You can do this by setting up a customer review system on your website. This allows customers to leave feedback about their experience with your company. Make sure to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. This shows that you care about your customers and their opinions.
Conclusion
SEO is critical for any eCommerce site that wants to rank well in search engines and attract organic traffic. By performing a regular audit of your site, you can ensure that your SEO is up-to-date and effective.
Jim is a digital marketing consultant, author, and instructor. He has more than 4 years of practical experience with SEO and digital marketing. Jim holds an MSc Degree in eCommerce and has consulted with Fortune 50 companies in different industries. He blogs regularly about SEO and Digital marketing, and his work has been referenced by leading marketing websites.
