The goal of a search engine optimization (SEO) audit is to identify issues that may prevent search engines from ranking your content highly in organic results—and hinder your site from getting traffic.
Even small improvements in position can significantly increase SEO traffic to your site. According to FirstPageSage, the top three organic Google search results capture 68.7% of all clicks on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This guide explains the types of SEO audits you can run, the issues they uncover, and how to use audit tools to identify and fix problems that affect your site’s search performance.
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is the practice of evaluating elements of your website, including site structure, keyword usage, accessibility, and metadata, to identify areas for improvement.
These are some of the common SEO issues you can uncover in a website audit:
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Broken links. These occur when a link no longer leads to its intended destination, which can create a poor user experience. When internal links are broken, they can prevent search engines from properly crawling your site.
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Missing title tags. A title tag is an HTML element that serves as the headline for a page in search results. If they’re missing, your pages may be harder for search engines to interpret.
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Missing meta descriptions. A meta description is a short summary that may serve as the descriptive snippet for a page in search results. There’s no guarantee that your meta descriptions will show up on the SERP, but without them, search engines will generate their own snippets.
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No strategic keyword usage.Keywords are the words and phrases users type into search engines. Using keywords on your pages tells search engines what your pages are about and how to map them to user searches. If your pages lack keywords, it’s less likely that search engines will rank them.
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Poorly organized site structure.Site structure refers to how your pages are organized and linked together. When there’s no clear hierarchy or organization, search engines may have difficulty crawling and indexing your site, and users may struggle to find what they need.
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Slow load times.Slower pages can negatively impact search performance. Google includes page speed among its Core Web Vitals, which are used as ranking signals and affect how search engines evaluate page experience.
Because these issues can develop over time as your site changes, it’s important to review your SEO performance regularly. Best practice is to perform SEO audits approximately every six months, according to Semrush.
JJ Follano, cofounder of Zero Waste Store, also recommends conducting an audit when your business undertakes a major change, such as a rebrand. “Brands don’t always redirect a lot of the URLs from the old domain to the new one,” he says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “You could potentially lose a lot of the traffic that you’ve gained from your prior branding.”
Types of SEO audits
There are several ways to approach an SEO audit, each focusing on a different aspect of your site’s search performance.
Technical SEO audits
A technical SEO audit assesses your site’s infrastructure and how easily search engines can scan and index your pages. It looks at your site speed, metadata, link validity, use of canonical URLs (which tell search engines which version of a page to prioritize), and whether your site uses secure HTTPS connections.
For ecommerce websites, a technical audit also includes scanning your product pages and XML sitemaps to identify links to products that are no longer available or return errors, as well as duplicate pages created by filters or product variants.
Keyword audits
A keyword audit evaluates how successful your site is at ranking for target keywords and how much traffic your site is getting from organic search for those keywords. It focuses on analyzing your performance for keywords you’re already targeting rather than identifying new ones through keyword research.
A keyword audit may also assess your site’s performance in comparison to competitors, looking at terms they rank for that your site doesn’t, as well as keywords where they outrank you in search results.
On-page SEO audits
An on-page SEO audit examines the content and elements on your pages (such as product pages) that affect search visibility. If a technical SEO audit is like examining the interior framework of a house, an on-page SEO audit is like renovating individual rooms.
An on-page SEO audit looks for:
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Poor-quality meta information, such as titles or descriptions that don’t accurately reflect the content of the page, meet search intent, or encourage users to click through from search results
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Keyword cannibalization, which is when multiple pages compete for the same term
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Ineffective internal links, such as missing links between related pages or links that don’t clearly guide users to relevant content
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User experience (UX) issues such as confusing site navigation, mobile layouts that are difficult to use, or content that is hard to read or interact with
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Problems with content quality and relevance, such as pages that don’t fully answer questions, lack useful or original detail, duplicate other pages, or don’t align with what customers are looking for
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Missing or incorrectly structured data, which signals to Google what type of content exists within the page and enables it to be surfaced in SERP features
Off-page SEO audits
An off-page SEO audit examines external factors that affect how well you rank in search results. This includes how many credible pages link back to your site (backlinks), as well as whether you’re getting positive brand mentions across the web, including on social media, news sites, and review platforms.
For ecommerce sites, off-page SEO specifically evaluates whether your product pages are being referenced by credible sources with strong domain authority. Links to your pages from high-quality blogs, media sites, or review platforms signal to Google that your content is trustworthy and authoritative, which can help improve search visibility and rankings.
How to conduct an SEO audit
Use this step-by-step process to identify technical errors and other issues affecting your site’s search performance; then, take action to improve visibility, traffic, and conversions. While the exact steps may vary based on the type of audit, this framework applies to most ecommerce sites.
Record benchmark data
Start by recording your site’s current metrics—notably monthly organic search traffic (expressed as a percentage of total traffic or total visits) and total revenue being generated by SEO traffic.
“You must watch organic revenue,” says Kyle Risley, senior SEO lead at Shopify. “That’s where everything leads. Then, organic traffic, conversion rates from that traffic, and keyword rankings for your key product queries.”
Depending on the type of audit you’re doing, the additional SEO metrics you track per page will vary:
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Technical. Page load time, number of crawl errors (such as 404s), and pages with missing meta information.
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Keyword. Average ranking position for target keywords, organic click-through rate, and keyword-driven conversions.
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On-page. Bounce rates, number of pages targeting the same keyword (keyword cannibalization), and number of pages with ineffective metadata.
If you’re conducting an off-page SEO audit, you’ll look at additional metrics for your entire domain: number of referring domains, quality of backlinks, and positive brand mentions across the web.
These numbers are the baseline for your audit. Record them in a spreadsheet or document before you begin so you can measure improvement.
Choose your tools and run the audit
The tools you need for your audit will vary based on the type of audit you’re doing.
If you’re conducting a technical audit, there are plenty of free technical SEO tools you can use to get started, including Google Search Console (GSC) to audit crawlability and indexing, and PageSpeedInsights to audit site speed.
You can also use GSC to audit page rankings, impressions from organic search, and click-through rate from SERPs. However, if you want to audit your site’s performance against competitors, you may need to use a paid SEO tool like Semrush or Ahrefs.
To conduct a comprehensive on-page SEO audit, use a combination of tools. Tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider identify duplicate content, internal linking issues, and missing or incomplete structured data. For content quality, use tools like Google Analytics and GSC to identify pages with low traffic, poor engagement, or weak click-through rates.
To conduct an off-page SEO audit, you can use GSC to track incoming backlinks to your site for free. SEO platforms like Moz, Ahrefs, and Semrush also offer limited free backlink audit features that show you who links to your site, but you will need to pay to access unlimited queries and more advanced tools.
To assess brand mentions across the web, you’ll need a free tool like Google Alerts, which notifies you when your brand appears online, or paid subscriptions from Semrush or Hootsuite that track and analyze these references.
Fix the issues
Use your SEO audit findings to set clear goals for improvement. Follow a SMART framework (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) to make the process actionable, and ground it in actual search opportunity.
Use your goals to guide how you prioritize fixes. Focus on the issues that directly impact the metrics you’re trying to improve.
Address technical issues first, particularly those impacting crawling and indexing. If Google can’t properly access or evaluate your pages, on-page improvements will have limited impact. Once those high-impact fixes have been addressed, move to the remaining issues highlighted in your audit.
Shopify provides tools within its admin to help you implement these fixes. For example, you can create redirects to resolve broken or outdated links and update meta tags directly within product and collection pages. The Shopify App Store offers third-party SEO tools that can help you identify and implement additional improvements.
SEO audit FAQ
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is the process of reviewing your ecommerce site to identify issues that affect search engine visibility, such as poorly organized site structure, slow load times, broken links, and low-quality or outdated content.
Can ChatGPT do an SEO audit?
ChatGPT can help with certain aspects of an SEO site audit, such as scanning for title tags and metadata issues. However, it isn’t a replacement for dedicated SEO tools that can scan your site and provide a more comprehensive audit because it isn’t plugged into your site’s data the way that other tools are.
How much should an SEO audit cost?
You can conduct basic audits using free SEO tools like Google Search Console or Google PageSpeed Insights, which can identify issues with indexing, search performance, and site speed. Full audits with platforms like Ahrefs or Semrush generally require a paid plan, which start around $100 to $130 per month. Professional SEO audits can cost anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands, depending on the scope of work.
Can I do my own SEO audit?
You can do your own SEO audit using a combination of free and paid SEO tools. While these tools can identify issues across your site, you’ll still need to interpret results and prioritize fixes. For more complex sites, a professional audit may be the better option. These audits often include expert analysis, prioritization, and tailored recommendations that go beyond what automated tools provide.
