The first time I audited an online store, the owner proudly showed me 4,000 product pages. Google had indexed barely 900. Another few thousand were near-duplicates created by filters, and the best-selling category page had no text at all. He did not need more content. He needed an audit.
Here is the checklist I use. Work through it in order, because fixing crawling problems before rewriting copy saves a lot of wasted effort. Tick each item as you go.
Part 1: Crawling and indexing (can Google see the right pages?)
1. Check indexed pages against real pages. In Google Search Console, compare your indexed pages with the products and categories you want found. A big gap means a crawling, duplication or quality problem to investigate.
2. Review the Pages report for reasons. Look at "Crawled, currently not indexed", "Duplicate" and "Excluded" groups. Each reason points to a different fix.
3. Make sure your sitemap is clean. It should list only canonical, indexable, 200-status URLs: no redirects, no noindex pages, no parameter junk.
4. Check robots.txt. Confirm you are not blocking CSS, JavaScript or important sections. Block only things that genuinely should not be crawled, such as cart and checkout steps.
Part 2: URLs and duplicates (the classic e-commerce trap)
5. Give each variant a sensible URL. Google's ecommerce guidance suggests each variant, such as a colour or size, can have its own URL, with the parameter version pointing its canonical to the main product URL if the parameter is optional.
6. Use self-referencing canonicals everywhere. Every indexable page should point to itself, and your internal links, sitemap and canonicals should all use the same URL form.
7. Clean up junk parameters. Do not link to URLs with session IDs, tracking codes or timestamps. Remember that fragments such as #color are not used by Google for indexing.
8. Handle empty categories and old products. Google's guidance: use noindex on empty categories, and a 404 if a category is removed. For discontinued products with a close replacement, a 301 to the best match is usually kinder than a dead end.
[ADD: one real finding from a ClicZeo store audit, anonymised: for example how many duplicate URLs a filter created and what changed after the fix.]
Part 3: Product and category pages (do they deserve to rank?)
9. Write unique product descriptions. Copying the manufacturer's text means your page is the same as everyone else's. Describe who the product is for, sizes, materials, care, and what makes it different, using your own photos and tests where you can.
10. Put the buying facts in HTML. Price, availability, shipping, returns and specs should be readable text, not buried in images or loaded in ways a crawler might miss.
11. Strengthen category pages. Categories often carry the highest search demand (here is how to optimise category pages). Give them a clear H1, a short helpful intro, internal links to subcategories and a few buying tips. Avoid walls of keyword text hidden at the bottom.
12. Check titles and meta descriptions. Unique, readable and honest. Put the product type first and a differentiator next; skip keyword lists.
13. Make headings and internal links logical. One clear H1, supporting H2s, and links between related products, categories and guides with descriptive anchor text.
14. Show real reviews. Genuine customer reviews add useful content and trust. Do not fake or buy them.
Part 4: Structured data and feeds (can machines understand your products?)
15. Add Product markup that matches the page. Google distinguishes product snippets (where people cannot buy directly) from merchant listings (where they can). For a store, merchant listings are the relevant type. Include accurate price, currency, availability and images.
16. Use ProductGroup for variants. Google's documentation supports variant markup so it can see which products belong to one parent.
17. Add BreadcrumbList and Organization. Breadcrumbs show your hierarchy; Organization can hold business details and your return policy.
18. Keep your Merchant Center feed accurate. Google says on-page markup and a Merchant Center feed together help it understand and verify your product data, and it may use feed pricing when the page lacks it. Mismatches between feed and page cause problems, so check them regularly.
Part 5: Speed, mobile and trust
19. Test Core Web Vitals on real mobile pages. Use Search Console's report and PageSpeed Insights on your top templates (home, category, product, cart). Fix the template, and many pages improve at once. On a WooCommerce store, the right free WordPress SEO plugins for caching and images do much of this work.
20. Check trust signals. HTTPS everywhere, visible contact details, shipping and returns pages, clear policies and an "About" page. They help customers buy and make your business look real to Google.
Quick wins you can do today
If you only have an afternoon, do these four. Open Search Console and compare indexed pages with the pages you actually want found. Pick your five best-selling products and check that each has a unique description, clear price and availability in the HTML, and Product markup that matches what is visible. Open your top category page and ask honestly whether a first-time visitor would know what to choose. Finally, load your best product page on a mid-range phone over a normal connection and note how long it takes before you can buy. These checks take little time and often reveal the problem that matters most.
How to prioritise what you find
An audit can produce a hundred issues. Sort them by two questions: how many pages does it affect, and how close is it to revenue?
• Fix first: indexing blocks, wrong canonicals, broken product pages and feed mismatches.
• Fix next: thin category pages, duplicate descriptions and missing structured data.
• Fix later: minor title tweaks and small speed gains.
Re-check Search Console a few weeks after each batch of fixes and note what moved. Do not expect overnight results; indexing and ranking changes take time to appear.
Make it a habit
Run the full checklist twice a year, and a short version (items 1, 2, 15, 18 and 19) every month. Add it to your launch process too: every new template or category should pass the checks before it goes live.
The bottom line
Great e-commerce SEO is rarely glamorous. It is the dull work of making sure Google can reach the right pages, that each page is unique and useful, and that your product data is accurate everywhere. Work through the 20 checks, fix the biggest ones first, and keep a record of what you change.
If you would like a professional audit of your store, talk to the ClicZeo team.
