SEO Audit Service

Is your website appearing on Google? If not, why? If so, is it for relevant, lucrative search terms? Our SEO audit report will provide you with answers to such questions. More importantly, it will provide you with a tailored action plan to help rectify any ranking barriers or damaging SEO practices. This should act as a blueprint for generating high-quality organic traffic and growing your online store.

SEO Audit Service
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Inside Your SEO Audit

Almost a quarter of eCommerce orders comes from organic traffic, and yet SEO is constantly underestimated in terms of its ability to generate revenue. By attracting high-quality traffic to your site, a solid SEO strategy will turn your website into a constant, long-term source of revenue. Our audit is the first step to creating such a strategy. We will dissect all aspects of your site’s SEO, including…

PPC Account Structure
PPC Targeting
Backlink Profile
Internal Link Structure
Crawlability
Website Speed

Keywords

Content Formatting

Backlink Profile

Internal Link Structure

Crawlability

Site Speed & Performance

Your SEO Audit in More Detail

There are three main types of SEO: on-page, off-page, and technical. Your organic strategy must account for all three if your site is to start dominating SERPs (search engine results pages), and that is something our audit will make very clear.

We will also go one step further and evaluate your site’s mobile SEO and local SEO, two additional factors that can have a direct effect on your rankings. SEO has many moving parts; our end goal is to help ensure that yours work in harmony with one another.

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On-page SEO refers to optimising your site’s visible content and anything else in the HTML source code. In turn, our audit will evaluate all on-site elements, including…

Content Quality

Firstly, is your content well-written and free of grammatical errors? Secondly, does it address what your potential customers expect to see when they click on it? In other words, does it match search intent? Search intent simply refers to the purpose behind a user’s query. Given that the goal of search engine algorithms is to deliver relevant results to their users, matching search intent is crucial to ranking well.

Thirdly, is it well-formatted? Headings, for instance, are crucial to SEO as they help search engines understand what your content is about, and thus help your site rank for relevant queries. A recent study conducted by SEMrush found a link between blogs with detailed heading structure (h1, h2, h3, h4) and traffic and engagement. Over 50% of these blogs were labelled “high-performing”.

SEO tools will also help us identify any duplicate content that may be harming your organic success. Duplicate content is a particular issue for eCommerce sites when they have different variations (colour, size, shape) of the same product with the same descriptions. The solution is typically to introduce canonical tags.

Keyword Targeting

Keyword research must inform all (indexed) on-site content and title tags. Structuring your content according to what your target audience is searching for is the only way you are going to bring the right traffic to your site. That is, the traffic that will be interested in the products/services you offer.

A keyword audit will quickly help us see whether your content is informed by keyword research. We will survey your competitive landscape to identify industry terms that you should be targeting, as well as potential “content gaps” that you could capitalise on.

Metadata

We will also analyse your meta titles and meta descriptions. As mentioned above, your meta titles (or title tags) must have your keywords in them. After your actual on-page content, the title tag is one of the most important ways to tell search engines what your page is about and, thus, what you want it to rank for.

Whilst not a direct ranking factor, your meta description is your chance to stand out on the SERP. Therefore, missing meta descriptions could affect your CTR (click-through rate). Do you use include keywords in your meta descriptions? Do you include incentives that will encourage clicks?

Off-page SEO is the practice of optimising a website through measures taken outside the actual website. Our audit of your site’s off-page SEO will involve analysing your…

Backlink Profile

Backlinks are simply links from another website to a page on your site. Given that they are one of the most important ranking signals, the quantity and quality of backlinks that your site has accumulated will have a significant and direct impact on how well it ranks. The quality of any given backlink will largely come down to how authoritative and relevant the referring domain is.

Our audit will analyse your backlink profile and provide you with a backlink toxicity score. Some backlinks can do more harm than good, especially if agencies you have previously worked with have used link-building strategies that are now penalised by Google. For example, links from spam sites that were built solely for the purpose of link building. Toxic backlinks can work against your SEO efforts. If you cannot get them removed by contacting the owner, you can “disavow” them.

We will also examine the anchor text (the copy that is displayed on the link) of each of your backlinks. Is it relevant to the content of the page it links to? Does it use keywords that you hope to rank for? Links with poor, undescriptive anchor text are a missed opportunity.

Backlink Opportunities

Our audit report will draw attention to the types of backlinks (and referring domains) you should target, whether that is through guest blogging, press releases, or reaching out to people in your industry that would be willing to share your content. Moreover, we will highlight any broken link-building opportunities. Our SEO tools will identify any broken backlinks leading to your site. If we find any, we will usually recommend that you contact the site owner to change it to a different page or set up a 301 redirect.

Social Media Engagement

Despite being separate from search engines – and thus separate from SEO – social media still has some connection to off-page SEO. Whilst a good social media presence is not a direct Google ranking factor (but it is for Bing), it can still have a huge impact on brand awareness, authority, and reputation. These are the same things that off-page SEO strives for! Therefore, our audit will suggest how you could better use your social media pages to galvanise your off-page SEO efforts.

Technical SEO is a form of on-page SEO. However, it refers solely to the work that is done on the website’s “technical” elements that make it easier for search engine bots to crawl, and thus rank. This is effectively anything aside from the content itself. Our technical SEO audit will evaluate your site’s…

Internal Link Structure

Your internal link structure guides search engines through your website, making it easier for search engine robots to crawl and identify the most important pages on your site. It is also an important part of on-page SEO, as it can help search engines understand what you would like that page to rank for (through targeted anchor text).

We will examine your internal linking strategy, assessing your site’s “crawlabiility” and whether its most important pages (homepage, category pages, best-selling product pages) are appropriately weighted by your internal link structure. This will involve highlighting any “orphaned” pages (pages without any links to any other page) and those with high click depth (pages hidden deep in your site that require many on-site clicks to get to). The goal is a clear and simple site architecture.

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is simply a list of all the URLs that make up a site that you want to be indexed. It helps Google understand your site structure and makes the crawling process as efficient as possible. A well-organised XML sitemap is particularly important for eCommerce websites as they tend to be especially large (category pages, filter pages, product pages).

We will ensure your sitemap is exactly how it should be. For example, the pages that you do not want to be indexed are left out of it (privacy policy, contact forms, “thank you” page). What we sometimes see on our client’s websites is a lack of consistency in terms of their signalling to Google. They may use meta robots or robots.txt to tell Google to not index a page, yet include that same page on their sitemap. This will impact your site’s crawlability.

Page Speed & Performance

Page speed has been a direct Google ranking factor since 2010. Just like users, therefore, search engines do not appreciate slow websites. In terms of user experience (UX), it will increase bounce rate and decrease conversion rate. When it comes to SEO, it will directly affect your site’s ranking.

The connection between UX and SEO continues to strengthen as the Google Algorithm continues to become more user-centric (e.g. the introduction of Core Web Vitals). In turn, SEO audits must now pay close attention to the UX factors that affect site ranking.

We will evaluate your site’s page load speed and file minification, and then identify how we can improve performance. Image file size, for example, is often a problem for eCommerce sites with many product images on a single category page. Our audit will provide technical solutions to such issues that will help improve your rankings.

Local SEO is the process of optimising a site for local search results (e.g. shop near me). As part of our audit, we will look at your Google Business Profile and suggest where it could be improved. Is the information accurate and complete? Are there enough positive and up-to-date reviews? According to Google, customers are 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete Business Profile.

We will also look into whether you are targeting location-specific keywords on certain pages and, if not, suggest if it might be worthwhile. Due to low keyword competition and high search volume, for example, we may tell a London-based furniture company to start targeting “furniture outlet London”.

Local SEO was originally a way to increase foot traffic to a physical location. In turn, many eCommerce businesses operating entirely online have continued to view it as such and do not see much value in it. A local SEO strategy no longer serves this sole purpose. Local search optimisation is just another way to boost your online visibility and brand reputation.

Mobile SEO is the practice of optimising a site for use on mobile devices or tablets. Mobile-friendliness has been a ranking signal since 2015. Four years later, Google took this one step further and switched to mobile-first indexing. Although desktop is also very important, this means the mobile version of your site is now the primary indicator for your ranking. in turn, mobile-friendly websites will be prioritised in the SERP.

Our audit will examine your site according to a whole range of mobile-specific SEO considerations, flagging any issues preventing your site from being mobile friendly such as:

  • Unresponsive web design
  • Slow mobile load speed
  • Small font size (is it readable without zooming in?)

Mobile commerce accounted for 60% of total UK retail online sales last year, so it is not something you can afford to neglect.

An SEO Action Plan to Grow Your Business

SEO Digital Team

The organic landscape is in constant flux. Improving competitors and constant Google Algorithm updates mean that you cannot allow your SEO efforts to fall by the wayside and your site’s online visibility to drain away. That’s why you must treat SEO as an ongoing process.

Our audit is fuelled by industry-leading SEO analysis tools combined with experts that know exactly how to extract actionable insights from the data they gather. We will focus particularly on your site’s category pages and product pages. Are they all targeting unique keywords? Are they indexed correctly? Are they prioritised by your internal link structure?

Many marketing agencies attempt to make SEO appear inaccessible to businesses. We will not try to do that. As well as more technical recommendations, our SEO audit report will lay out simple changes your site can make that – if implemented correctly – will skyrocket you up the rankings.

The Process

Reach out to Us

01. Reach out to Us
Book a free 30-minute discovery call at a time that suits you to discuss a potential SEO audit. This is also a chance for us to better understand your business goals and provide you with a quote.

Website Review

02. In-depth SEO Analysis
If you take us up on our offer, our SEO experts will evaluate your site’s organic performance, identify any on-page, off-page, and technical issues that are damaging it, and start problem-solving.

Receive UX Audit

03. Receive Your SEO Audit
Within 7 days, you will receive your detailed SEO audit report. It will explain exactly why you are struggling to rank well for relevant queries and/or why traffic is dropping off. It will also provide you with tailored, actionable solutions to these issues.

Elaboration

04. Elaboration
We will then offer you a follow-up call with our SEO experts to talk through our insights and recommendations. This is an opportunity to ask any further questions you may have and tap into our SEO expertise.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our SEO Audit Services

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For any eCommerce business, your website is the centrepiece of your business efforts. If it is not visible on the SERP, you will not generate any traffic and, thus, you will not generate any sales. Paid advertising is a great way to target ready-to-buy customers, but it can be an expensive endeavour, especially when going after competitive keywords.

Meanwhile, if you start to rank organically for keywords that bring in your ideal customers, your website will drive long-term revenue. You will also not have to pay a penny for your spot on the SERP! By identifying what is stopping your site from ranking for these keywords, our SEO audit is the first step to becoming a market leader in your industry.

Check out our blog on why an SEO audit is so important for eCommerce brands to learn more.

A good SEO audit involves unpicking all aspects of your site’s on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. As long as you know what you are looking for, much of it it can be done manually by simply scrolling through your site and identifying any damaging practices. However, we also use automated SEO software to help us identify issues, especially more technical ones that are hidden in your website’s code.

Once you understand the problems that are stifling your site’s organic performance, the next step is to formulate tailored solutions. For example:

  • Problem: one or more of your category pages is targeting the same keyword (keyword cannibalisation), and thus search engines are struggling to work out which page should be prioritised for that term.
  • Solution: using keyword research, you would need to identify a unique keyword that each category page should target individually, suggesting alterations to title tags and on-page content accordingly.

An SEO audit needs to be conducted routinely for your site to maintain any organic success you may be having or understand why it is struggling. That is why we recommend getting an SEO audit at least every 6 months and/or any time your site undergoes a big change (e.g. a website migration).

SEO is an accumulation of good practices; however, there are constant alterations to what search engines consider “best practice”. For example, there are around 500-600 changes in the Google Search Algorithm every year and any one of these could affect your site’s traffic and/or ranking. Following an initial audit, opting into our ongoing eCommerce SEO services is one way that you can constantly keep on top of and adjust to any shifts in the organic landscape.

There are a number of SEO issues that apply to all kinds of websites, such as missing metadata, redirect chains, broken links, and content not informed by keyword research. However, given that our audit is tailored to online stores, there are also a number of eCommerce-specific SEO issues that we look out for when conducting an audit. These include…

  • Product pages that lack content or use content from manufacturers.
  • No product reviews.
  • Lack of schema markup.
  • Slow page load speeds on category pages with lots of images.
  • Keyword cannibalisation across product and category pages.

And much more…

The price of an SEO audit can range anywhere from £500 to £10,000, depending on the complexity of your website and the scope of the project. Our SEO audit is on the affordable end of the scale, available from just £1,500+VAT!

For this price, you will not simply receive a spreadsheet of impenetrable data like many basic audits often provide. Rather, we will thoroughly break down each on-page, off-page, and technical issue damaging your organic performance. Each fix will then be prioritised according to the most critical issues and what will produce the most significant improvement. Included in the fee is also a one-to-one consultation with one of our SEO experts.

Most SEO audits typically take around 2-6 weeks. When you use our service, however, your in-depth audit report will be with you in just 7 days. This owes to a mixture of highly intelligent SEO analysis tools and experts who know exactly what they are looking for.

Following an initial audit, we also offer ongoing SEO services. This allows us to constantly monitor your performance and ensure your website consistently generates high-quality organic traffic.

Schedule an SEO Consultation


Our Other Auditing Services

UI/UX Audits

Our UX audit is all about picking apart your website’s usability and functionality. User experience is intimately linked with conversions, and so we will identify any issues that could be preventing users from engaging with your eCommerce site and clicking that all-important “Complete Purchase” button. We will also explain how to solve these issues.

PPC Audits

Our PPC audit is your opportunity to find out whether you could be getting a better return on your ad spend. We will identify any areas of potential wastage and detail exactly how these inefficiencies can be remedied, whether that is through more granular audience segmentation or a complete revamp of your Google Shopping campaigns.