Ultimate eCommerce SEO Checklist

The team at PushOn have put together this handy ultimate eCommerce SEO checklist. In case you are about to launch a new eCommerce website or have a shiny version of your current site in with the dev team. Whether you are a seasoned eCommerce industry veteran of twenty years or just landed your first job in an eCommerce growth hacking team, this list is for you.

The Ultimate eCommerce SEO Checklist is for migrating platforms or launching a new website, and the steps to find before, during and after site launch. Fill out the embedded pdf file below and do it multiple times if you have more than one website.

From launching a new WordPress WooCommerce site or a Shopify one to diving into a world of Magento customisations to re-launching a custom enterprise Hybris site, this list will be your ultimate guide along the way.

Use this Ultimate eCommerce SEO Checklist form and make a copy for each site you want to keep track of progress on. None of the fields are required, and the form is set to allow you to return to update answers as and when you complete the checklist tasks.

Please go ahead and feel free to modify and tailor to your own needs. For detailed notes on each section and checklist item refer to PushOn guide

Ultimate Pre-Launch eCommerce Checklist

Before you choose your eCommerce technology or even before getting started with any coding, you should consider how the site architecture and taxonomy is laid out, with the corresponding HTML and SEO features to support it. Remember you want to the customer to get to the product page in a minimum number of clicks.

Technical Development Considerations [more in the form]:

Old site architecture recorded in site spreadsheet
New site architecture recorded in site spreadsheet
URL Redirects Documented
Hosting partner chosen, confirmed and ready
Extensions and Licence keys are up to date
Test orders – Confirm the site transacts correctly [test payment goes through also] Product Search Filters – Confirm all required search filters are in place and working – consider a custom site search solution like Algolia
Are you a multi-geo portal? Are you offering translation features? Weglot provides an excellent solution.
How will you add products? How many SKUs do you have? Ten products can be manually added. 60,000 need a robust CSV import solution
Sitemap – is generating correctly
Google Search Console is configured and connected
Canonical URLs – defined and set
Site Speed – Checked and within sensible tolerance levels
Newsletter and Integrated Marketing – Implemented and functioning

Content & SEO considerations:

Focus Keyword is clear and prominent in title, description
Content – Optimised with good internal link structure
Images – Alt tags in place
Structured metadata – Header tags in place appropriately through the content
Schema – Organisation, Product, Pricing and Review schema mark up in place
AMP – Accelerated mobile pages in place for blog content
Breadcrumbs – In place and functioning correctly
International SEO Considerations – see point above about Weglot
Payment Gateways – Configured for each country
Translation Options – In place and working

Brand considerations may seem obvious when launching an eCommerce site. It is important to note that accessibility and usability must be at the forefront of any design or branding process when it comes to developing a website. Ensuring a site is both usable across devices and browsers is critical.

Branding & Design considerations:

Colour Schemes – Consistent with brand guidelines
Logo – Consistent with brand guidelines and scales for a range of devices
Font – Consistent with brand guidelines and suitable for readability
A tone of Voice – Consistent with brand guidelines
Images – Suitable quality and scale correctly. Zoom that works

Post Launch Checklist (Short Term)

The initial post-launch checks:
Databases – Ensure no test data remains
Split Testing – Split test key areas (e.g. Checkout) to optimise ASAP
Analytics – Check bounce rates and exit rates for increases
404 Monitoring – Double check those redirects are working correctly

Post-site Launch Checklist (Medium to Long Term)

Ongoing considerations:
Internal Site Search Analysis – Does the search return correct results. Searchandising banners, rules and redirects can be utilised
New Content – Review search console and analytics to develop a content plan to target new opportunities
Banner/Upsell Testing – Integrate upsell software based on basket contents.

We hope you find this Ultimate eCommerce SEO Checklist useful! Remember SEO is not just about Google