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By Darren Hall
Head of Client Services – Finsbury Media
When an e-commerce site starts slipping in rankings or flatlining in revenue, “let’s do an SEO audit” is often the default suggestion.
The problem? Most audits you’ll find online are either too generic to be useful, or so technical they end up gathering dust in a PDF folder.
A good audit in 2025 isn’t just a crawl report. It’s a revenue-driven health check that tells you exactly what’s blocking growth – and how to fix it in the right order.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the six core areas we assess for e-commerce brands – from niche retailers to high-volume stores – to diagnose and fix SEO issues. The aim? Get your product and category pages in front of more ready-to-buy customers, without wasting months chasing vanity metrics. If you want to skip ahead, our full E-commerce SEO Agency service page explains exactly how we approach this in more detail.
Why a proper audit matters in 2025
Google’s updates over the last 18 months – from the Helpful Content system to the INP Core Web Vital – have made it clear:
Your site needs to be technically sound, quick to use, and full of genuinely helpful content.
For e-commerce, that means:
- Every product needs unique, well-optimised content
- Category pages must act as SEO hubs, not just product lists
- Your technical setup must handle filters, pagination, and large catalogues without creating crawl waste
- Core Web Vitals need to be competitive, or you’ll lose out in the tie-breaker rankings
If you’re unsure where you stand right now, a specialist e-commerce SEO audit is the quickest way to find out.
The six audit areas we cover
1. Technical foundations
- Crawl for broken links, redirect chains, and orphan pages
- Check indexation in Google Search Console – are the right pages being indexed?
- Review faceted navigation setup – block low-value filters, optimise high-value ones
- Test Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) on mobile and desktop
- Confirm HTTPS coverage and no intrusive mobile pop-ups
2. Site architecture
- Is your category/sub-category structure logical and scalable?
- Are URLs clean, descriptive, and keyword-friendly?
- Is breadcrumb navigation in place and marked up with schema?
- Can customers reach any product in three clicks or fewer?
3. On-page optimisation
- Unique product titles, descriptions, and metadata
- Keyword mapping to avoid cannibalisation
- Category intro copy that adds value without pushing products down the fold
- Clear heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3)
- Optimised images (compressed, descriptive alt text)
If you want to see how we implement this for clients, check out our e-commerce SEO optimisation process.
4. Structured data
- Correct Product schema with price, availability, SKU, brand, and reviews
- FAQ schema for common buyer questions
- Breadcrumb schema for enhanced SERP appearance
- Test structured data for rich results eligibility
5. Content quality
- Assess all content against Google’s Helpful Content guidelines
- Rewrite thin or duplicated descriptions
- Add buying guides or FAQs to category pages
- Update outdated blog or guide content
6. Off-site & brand signals
- Backlink profile analysis for quality and relevance
- Branded search volume trends
- Review presence and consistency across platforms
- Reclaim unlinked brand mentions
We’ve put together every single check we run – all 37 steps – into a simple, actionable PDF you can use to benchmark your store.
To access it, enter your details and we’ll send it straight to your inbox.
Inside you’ll find:
- The exact technical, on-page, and content checks we use on client sites
- Core Web Vitals testing criteria
- Structured data essentials
Off-site & brand health checks
(This is the same framework we use to run paid audits for 7-8 figure UK e-commerce brands.)
What makes our audits different
Most audits stop at “here’s what’s wrong”. We go further:
- Fix order based on commercial impact – If a key category drives 40% of your revenue, that’s where we start.
- Implementation pathways – Clear, developer-ready instructions, or we handle the fixes in-house.
A real-world example
We audited a mid-sized retailer whose organic category traffic had dropped 28% year-on-year.
We found:
- No intro text on category pages -> thin content in Google’s eyes
- Faceted URLs all indexable -> 1,500+ duplicate pages
- PDPs used stock manufacturer descriptions
After our fixes:
- Category traffic up 42% in 3 months
- Core Web Vitals improved from “Needs improvement” to “Good” across all metrics
- CTR from search up 15% thanks to rich result enhancements
What you’ll get from a proper audit
- Clarity on your biggest SEO leaks
- A plan that’s realistic to action
- Evidence you can take to stakeholders
- Revenue impact forecasts for the fixes
The bottom line
An e-commerce SEO audit in 2025 isn’t about finding “errors” for the sake of it – it’s about finding what’s holding back revenue and fixing it in the smartest order.
The stores that win this year are the ones combining:
- A clean, fast, technically sound website
- Buyer-focused content
- Structured data that earns richer SERP real estate
If you’re serious about improving rankings and sales, our E-commerce SEO Agency team can deliver the full audit and implementation – or just the insights if you want to handle fixes in-house.
FAQs
1. How long does an e-commerce SEO audit take?
Most audits for small-to-mid sized e-commerce sites take around 10–15 working days, depending on the size of your catalogue and platform. Larger sites with tens of thousands of SKUs can take 3–4 weeks, especially if we’re reviewing complex faceted navigation or multiple store views. Our process includes a full technical crawl, content assessment, structured data review, and backlink analysis. You’ll get a clear, prioritised list of fixes plus a call to walk through the findings. We focus on what will make the biggest commercial difference first — not just dumping a list of hundreds of “errors” on you.
2. Will an SEO audit help if my traffic has dropped after a Google update?
Yes — in fact, it’s one of the quickest ways to find the cause. Google’s Helpful Content and Core Web Vitals updates have hit many e-commerce sites that rely on thin product descriptions, slow page speeds, or bloated category structures. An audit pinpoints whether you’ve lost visibility due to technical issues, content quality, or lack of authority. We’ll then recommend specific fixes to align with the latest ranking signals. In many cases, we can help reverse a drop by cleaning up low-quality pages, improving site speed, and optimising core categories before rebuilding lost rankings in a sustainable way.
3. Can I do an SEO audit myself with free tools?
You can run a basic check using Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and Screaming Frog’s free version. These will flag some issues — like crawl errors or slow loading times — but they won’t give you prioritisation or context. A professional audit uses multiple advanced tools combined with human expertise, especially for handling platform-specific SEO quirks in Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce. The real value is knowing which issues actually matter to rankings and revenue. Without experience, it’s easy to spend months fixing things that make no difference, while ignoring problems that could be costing you thousands in lost sales.
4. How much does an e-commerce SEO audit cost in the UK?
Prices vary depending on site complexity, but most of our e-commerce audits for UK retailers fall between £1,500 and £5,000. This includes a full technical, on-page, and off-site review, plus a prioritised action plan. Large multi-language or multi-domain setups can cost more due to the added complexity. We always focus on return on investment — in many cases, fixing just a few critical issues found in an audit can pay back the cost in a matter of weeks. Think of it as a business health check that identifies where your online shop is leaking money and how to fix it.
5. What happens after the audit is complete?
Once the audit is complete, you’ll have three options: implement the changes in-house, have us handle them for you, or work with your own developer while we oversee the process. We can provide follow-up checks to confirm everything is implemented correctly and having the intended impact. For many clients, the audit is the start of a longer relationship, where we continue to manage SEO, create optimised content, and monitor site performance. The key is acting quickly — the faster fixes are applied after an audit, the sooner you can recover lost rankings, traffic, and revenue.