Free Technical SEO Checklist for Ecommerce

Work through the sections in order, because crawling and indexing problems hide everything below them. Mark each item as pass, fail or not applicable, and note the URLs affected.

• Tools you'll need: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, a crawler (Screaming Frog, Sitebulb or similar), PageSpeed Insights and Google's Rich Results Test.
• Start with your most important templates: homepage, top collection or category pages, top product pages and your blog. Most technical issues repeat across every page that uses the same template.
• Fix in order of impact: anything that blocks indexing first, then duplicates, then speed and schema.

Search engines can only rank pages they can crawl and choose to index. Start here.

• robots.txt doesn't block important pages. Open yourstore.com/robots.txt and confirm product, collection and blog paths aren't disallowed.
• robots.txt blocks low-value URLs. Check that cart, checkout, account, internal search and endless filter combinations are disallowed or otherwise kept out of the index.
• An XML sitemap exists and is submitted. Open yourstore.com/sitemap.xml, then confirm it's submitted in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• The sitemap lists only indexable pages. Crawl the sitemap URLs and confirm each returns a 200 status, isn't noindexed and isn't canonicalized elsewhere.
• Important pages are indexed. In Search Console, open Pages (Indexing) and review "Crawled – currently not indexed" and "Discovered – currently not indexed" for product and collection URLs.
• No accidental noindex tags. Crawl the site and filter for pages with a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header that should be indexed.
• No 4xx errors on internal links. In your crawler, list broken internal links and fix or redirect them.
• No 5xx server errors. Check Search Console's Crawl Stats report for server errors and spikes in response time.
• Redirects are single hops. Filter your crawl for redirect chains and point links straight to the final URL.
• Soft 404s are fixed. Review Search Console for soft 404s, often empty collection pages or thin search pages.

A clear structure tells search engines which pages matter most and helps them find new products quickly.

• Key pages are within three clicks of the homepage. Check crawl depth in your crawler and surface deep collections in navigation or hub pages.
• Every product is linked from at least one collection. Look for orphan pages: URLs in your sitemap or analytics that your crawler didn't reach through links.
• Navigation uses real HTML links. Inspect the menu and confirm links are <a href> elements, not buttons or script-only actions.
• Breadcrumbs are on product and collection pages. Confirm they reflect the category structure and link back up the hierarchy.
• Collections link to related collections. Check that top category pages link to their subcategories and to closely related categories.
• Blog posts link to relevant products and collections. Spot-check your top posts for links to the pages you want to rank.
• Anchor text describes the target page. Replace "click here" and "shop now" links with descriptive text where possible.

Online stores create duplicate URLs easily. Canonical tags and consistent URLs tell search engines which version to rank.

• One version of the site resolves. Test http, https, www and non-www versions and confirm they all redirect to a single version.
• Every indexable page has a self-referencing canonical. Crawl the site and check canonical tags on products, collections and posts.
• Product URLs inside collections canonicalize to one URL. On Shopify, check that URLs like /collections/shoes/products/runner point to /products/runner, and that internal links use the canonical version.
• Tracking parameters don't create indexed duplicates. Search Console's Pages report and a site: search help spot URLs with ?utm_ or ?ref= parameters in the index.
• Trailing slashes and capital letters are consistent. Confirm /Shoes and /shoes/ redirect to one version.
• No near-duplicate titles or descriptions. Filter your crawl for duplicate title tags and meta descriptions, which often come from variants or filtered pages.
• Thin or duplicate collection pages are consolidated. Merge collections that list almost the same products, and redirect the one you remove.

These problems are specific to stores and are often where the biggest technical wins are.

• Faceted navigation doesn't create crawlable duplicates. Apply filters (size, color, price) and check whether each combination creates a new indexable URL; limit indexing to filter pages with real search demand.
• Sort and view parameters aren't indexed. Check that ?sort_by= and ?view= URLs canonicalize to the main collection page or are blocked from crawling.
• Pagination is crawlable. Confirm page 2, 3 and so on of collections use real links, have their own canonical and aren't noindexed.
• Product variants don't compete with each other. Check whether color or size variants have separate URLs; if they do, make sure they canonicalize correctly or carry unique content.
• Temporarily out-of-stock products stay live. Keep the page indexable with "out of stock" availability, rather than removing or redirecting it.
• Permanently discontinued products are handled. Redirect them to the closest replacement or category, or return a 404 or 410 if there's no good match.
• Internal search pages are noindexed. Test /search?q= URLs and confirm they carry a noindex tag or are blocked.
• Empty collections aren't indexed. Find collections with zero products and either fill, noindex or remove them.

Speed affects both rankings and conversions, and slow product pages hurt both.

• Core Web Vitals pass on mobile. Check Search Console's Core Web Vitals report for LCP, INP and CLS issues by template.
• Product images are compressed and sized. Run PageSpeed Insights on a product page and fix "properly size images" and "next-gen formats" warnings.
• Below-the-fold images lazy-load. Inspect image tags for loading="lazy", and make sure the main product image does not lazy-load.
• Apps and third-party scripts are audited. List every script on product pages and remove apps you no longer use.
• Layout doesn't shift as the page loads. Watch the page load on a phone and check for jumping reviews widgets, banners or images without set dimensions.
• Fonts load efficiently. Check for too many font files and use font-display settings that show text quickly.

Google uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing, so the mobile page is the one that counts.

• Mobile pages show the same content as desktop. Compare product descriptions, reviews and structured data on both versions.
• Tap targets and text are readable. Test key pages on a real phone: buttons shouldn't overlap and text shouldn't need zooming.
• Pop-ups don't cover the main content. Check that email sign-up and discount pop-ups don't block the page as soon as it loads on mobile.
• Mobile navigation exposes key collections. Open the mobile menu and confirm top categories are reachable through links.

Structured data helps search engines and AI tools understand your products, prices and business.

• Product schema is on every product page. Test a few product URLs in Google's Rich Results Test.
• Offer data is complete and accurate. Check price, currency, availability and URL inside the Offer, and confirm they match what shoppers see.
• Review and rating markup reflects real, visible reviews. Confirm aggregateRating values match the reviews on the page.
• Shipping and return details are included where possible. Check for shippingDetails and hasMerchantReturnPolicy in your Offer markup, or set these in Merchant Center.
• BreadcrumbList schema matches the visible breadcrumbs. Test product and collection pages.
• Organization schema is on the homepage. Include your name, logo, URL and social profiles, and keep them consistent everywhere.
• There are no structured data errors. Review the Enhancements and Merchant listings reports in Search Console.

If you sell in more than one country or language, search engines need to know which page to show where.

• Hreflang tags are present and reciprocal. Each language or country version should reference all the others, including itself.
• Hreflang URLs return 200 and are canonical. Crawl the hreflang targets and fix redirects or non-canonical URLs.
• Currency and language don't change on the same URL without signals. Check that automatic geo-redirects don't stop crawlers from seeing every version.

If your store relies on JavaScript, make sure important content still reaches search engines and AI crawlers.

• Key content appears in the raw HTML. View the page source (not the inspected DOM) and confirm product names, prices, descriptions and links are present.
• Google renders the page correctly. Use URL Inspection in Search Console and view the rendered HTML and screenshot.
• Links don't depend on JavaScript events. Confirm internal links work as plain <a href> elements.
• Reviews and FAQs aren't hidden behind scripts. Many AI crawlers don't run JavaScript, so check that this content is in the HTML too.

AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews need to reach your pages and understand them before they can cite you.

• AI search crawlers aren't blocked. Check robots.txt for rules blocking OAI-SearchBot (used for ChatGPT search), PerplexityBot or Bingbot, unless you've decided to block them.
• You've made a deliberate choice about training crawlers. GPTBot (OpenAI's training crawler) and Google-Extended are separate from search crawlers; blocking them doesn't remove you from ChatGPT search or Google Search.
• Key pages start with a direct answer. Check that collection guides, buying guides and FAQs answer the main question in the first one or two sentences.
• Your business details are consistent. Compare your name, description, contact page and social profiles across your site, Google Business Profile and marketplaces.
• Product facts are stated plainly. Confirm materials, dimensions, compatibility and care instructions are written as text, not only in images.
• FAQ sections answer real shopper questions. Review product and collection FAQs against questions from customer support and reviews.

Technical SEO isn't a one-time job. Set up monitoring so new problems get caught early.

• Search Console is verified for the whole domain. Use a Domain property so all subdomains and protocols are included.
• Bing Webmaster Tools is verified. Import your site from Search Console and confirm the sitemap is listed. Bing's index also feeds other search and AI products.
• Email alerts are on. Make sure Search Console messages reach an inbox someone reads.
• You crawl the site on a schedule. Run a full crawl monthly and after any theme change, app install or migration.
• Indexed page counts are tracked. Note the number of indexed products and collections each month and investigate sudden drops.

We'll review your store against this checklist and send you a prioritized list of fixes. Request a free technical SEO audit, or see how our technical SEO services handle the fixes for you. For a full review of content, products and collections too, start with an ecommerce SEO audit.