e-commerce (chapter 2) site audit : getting the basics right by tim capper

Beginners guide to Auditing your E-Commerce site. We cover the most common problems encountered within an E-Commerce site, and how to check for these problems using both free and paid tools.

E-Commerce Site Audit: Getting the Basics Right

Tim Capper at Online Ownership

onlineownership.com plus.google.com/+TimCapper

▪Tools▪Domain redirects & canonicalization▪Visibility ( robot.txt & sitemap )▪Mobile Friendly▪Dealing with 404’s and 301’s▪Site & Page speed▪Images▪Content▪SEO wins

E-Commerce Site Audit


▪You ▪SEMrush▪Google Search Console ( formerly webmaster tools )▪Google Page Speed Test▪Google Mobile Friendly Test▪Google Structured Data Testing Tool▪IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit ( iss.net )▪Visual SEO Studio▪Varvy.com ( formerly feed the bot )

Tools for Site Audit


Domain canonicalization or redirection to the preferred domain is normally taken care of by most e-commerce CMS systems, however this may only be top level, so it is worth checking category down to product level.

It is Crucial that you get your sites redirection rules correct !

Domain Canonicalization


Tools:

You can manually check by removing www or adding www to the url in address bar

Varvy redirection tool

SEMrush site audit tool

All e-commerce sites should by now be serving their entire site through HTTPS. As with the previous section, check that your redirection is working across all pages.

Some CMS may handle this for you, but double check top line, category and page level URL’s .

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)


Tools:

A developer

Manually check redirection

Varvy redirection tool

It’s common for retailers to have multiple pages for every product they sell. the rel=“canonical” is a tag you can place on your product pages to tell search engines which of these pages is the “canonical,” or the preferred page for that product. Using this tag gives you more control over which of your URLs Google lists in search results.

Product Canonical & Parameters


Tools:

Manually view page sourceand check for canonical In <head>

SEMrush will show as duplicate pages

Google search console will show as duplicate pages

Review blocked pages in Robots.txt file and correct any issues, this includes allowing CCS and JS. Using fetch and render in Google search console provides an insight into how Googlebot views your pages and which resources are being blocked by robots.txt.

Make sure your sitemap.xml is submitted to search console and error free.

Visibility


One of the most common mistakes is that a site has not updated their CMS versions and is not mobile responsive … slap developer!

The other main error, is blocking CSS and JS in robots.txt, which invalidates your responsive design.

Mobile Friendly


Tools:

Google mobile friendly tests

Google search console fetchand render / robots.txt

Competent developer

Fix internal links to any 404 pages. Review redirects, are they correct ( 301 or 302 ). Can a 404 page be redirected ?, can I make better use of my 404 pages?

404’s and 301’s


Tools:

SEMrush site audit

Google search console

Use page speed insights to help diagnose where content of a web page is slowing down the display of a page. Insights also provides suggestions to help improve the page speed.

Site & Page Speed


Tools:

Page speed insights anda competent developer

Fix broken or missing images. Try and provide informative file names. Images must have a Title and where possible also provide Alt Text.

It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. Google will use this information to help determine the best image to return for a user's query.

Images


This is your one shot to sell your product. Provide unique and descriptive information about your sites Pages, especially your products.

You have 7 sec to make an impression to the customer, don’t blow it by not taking the time to sell the product.

Content


Structured Data Markup ( schema ): ▪for site pages ( find your best fit )▪product markup on product pages▪review markup.

Blog▪on main domain▪provide useful and informative information for your customers.

Google Business Page▪If your business has a physical address, create a Google business page. Branding for your name

that money cant buy.

Seasonal Landing Pages▪Don’t 404 these till next season. Provide information about next seasons products, what to expect,

launch date, email alert signup.

SEO Wins



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e-commerce (chapter 2) site audit : getting the basics right by tim capper

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