Ecommerce SEO checklist
The ecommerce-specific SEO list: faceted navigation that does not leak, category pages that rank, product structured data, and the canonical discipline stores need.
15 checks · copy it, print it, argue with it.
Ecommerce SEO is not blog SEO with a cart, the failure modes are specific: faceted URLs eating crawl budget, thin category pages, out-of-stock products killing rankings, and duplicate content wearing three tracking parameters. This is the store-specific list; the general launch checklist covers the site-level baseline first. Work it in sections, technical, then architecture, then product-level, and treat it as a quarterly audit, not a one-off: store SEO decays without rhythm.
Technical foundations, the store machinery
- Faceted navigation: filters crawlable only where they add value, canonicals correct elsewhereunmanaged facets multiply URLs exponentially and eat crawl budget like popcorn
- Parameter and tracking URLs canonicalised or blocked deliberatelyevery utm-variant of a product page competes with itself unless told not to
- XML sitemap segmented: products, categories, pages, submitted and monitored separatelysegmented sitemaps turn index diagnostics from guesswork into arithmetic
- Product schema on every product page, price, availability, reviews where honestrich results earn clicks before rankings do; fake review markup earns penalties
- Core Web Vitals measured on product and checkout templates specificallythe money templates, not the blog, that is where speed converts
Architecture, how the store is built
- Category pages treated as ranking assets: unique intro content, curated internal linkscategories rank for “buy X” intent, products rarely can
- Every product ≤3 clicks from home on the main navigation pathsdeep products are invisible products, to crawlers and customers alike
- One URL per product, variants handled properly, not duplicated per colour/sizevariant URLs are the classic quiet duplicate-content factory
- Breadcrumb navigation with schema, on every product and categorybreadcrumbs are wayfinding for users and context for search
- Internal search: curated results for high-value queries, noindex on empty resultssite search data is the cheapest keyword research you own
Product-level, where stores win or lose
- Unique product descriptions, manufacturer copy is duplicate content by definitionthe single highest-effort, highest-return ecommerce SEO task
- Out-of-stock policy: keep the URL, swap availability, suggest alternativesdeleting stock-out pages burns equity that restocking would have reclaimed
- Discontinued products: 301 to the closest category or successor, never a bare 404retired pages still receive links and traffic, route them somewhere useful
- Product images: descriptive filenames, alt text, compressed to specimage search is a real channel for product discovery
- Reviews: indexable content on product pages where genuinely presentuser content is the freshness signal a static catalogue cannot generate, and only real reviews survive scrutiny
Quarterly, in this order, this list compounds, which is the entire strategy. Ecommerce SEO as a service exists for stores that want the rhythm without the internal hours.
Quarterly, and only when the numbers move
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