The ecommerce SEO checklist: 40 checks before you spend on ads

Forty checks across crawling, category and product pages, structured data, speed and feeds. Tick them online with a progress ring, or have the printable version emailed to you.

Free, no gate on the online version. Works for Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart and custom stores.

  • high impactHow to check: Open /robots.txt, then test a product URL with URL Inspection in Search Console and view the rendered page.
  • high impactHow to check: No redirects, noindex or non-canonical URLs in it; submitted in Search Console with few errors.
  • high impactHow to check: Search site:yourstore.fi with a filter parameter; filtered URLs should be canonicalised, noindexed or not linked.
  • mediumHow to check: Run a search on the store and check the robots meta tag on the results page.
  • high impactHow to check: Try all four variants of the home page and a product URL; each should land in one hop.
  • mediumHow to check: Page 2 should have a crawlable link and a canonical to itself, not to page 1.
  • mediumHow to check: Crawl the store with a desktop crawler and sort by crawl depth.
  • mediumHow to check: Look at "Crawled, currently not indexed" and "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" and know why each group is there.

Want it on paper? The printable version has all 40 checks on four A4 pages, with the "how to check" notes.

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Pikselipolku is an independent studio and is not affiliated with Google, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart or any other platform named here.

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Fix these three first

Picked live from what you have not ticked yet: high-impact checks before the rest, in the order I would work through them on a real store. Tick one and the next moves up.

worst three, right now13 high-impact open
  1. 1robots.txt does not block CSS, JavaScript or product images

    If Google cannot load the files that draw the page, it may index an empty template.

  2. 2The XML sitemap lists only indexable URLs that return 200

    A sitemap full of redirects and duplicates teaches Google to trust it less.

  3. 3Filter and sort URLs are kept out of the index

    Filters can multiply a 500-product store into millions of thin URLs that use up crawling.

the printable versionpreview

Four A4 pages, black and white friendly. Same 40 checks and wording as this page.

Prefer paper? Get all 40 checks as a printable PDF and tick them with a pen.

Send me the checklist

Where the checklist stops

A checklist finds the gaps. Some gaps are a ten-minute fix in your store admin; others are template, theme or server work. These are the signs you have reached the second kind.

  • Filters are creating thousands of URLs

    Check 3 failing on a large catalogue usually means deciding which filter pages deserve to rank. That decision is explained in faceted navigation, and it is part of an ecommerce SEO audit.

  • The fix lives in the theme or the server

    Rendering, redirects, canonicals and response times are rarely settings. A technical SEO audit traces each one to the template or server rule that causes it.

  • Merchant Center keeps disapproving products

    Checks 36 to 40 failing across hundreds of products points to the feed, not the products. Product feeds covers the usual causes.

  • Everything is ticked and traffic still does not move

    Then the gap is demand or competition, not hygiene: which searches your categories should answer. That is content and keyword work, not another checklist.

Questions about the checklist

Is the checklist free?

Yes. The online version on this page is free with no sign-up, and your ticks stay in your own browser. The printable PDF is free too; it only needs an email address so it can be sent to you. There is no paid upgrade and no locked section. Use it on as many stores as you like.

Does it work for any platform?

Yes. The 40 checks are about what search engines see, so they apply to Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart and custom builds alike. How you fix each one differs: on Shopify many fixes are theme edits, on WooCommerce and Magento often settings, extensions or server rules. The "how to check" notes are platform-neutral.

Will you email me afterwards?

Only if you ask. You get one email with the PDF. The newsletter box is unticked by default, and if you leave it that way you hear nothing more unless you write to me. If you do tick it, every email has a one-click unsubscribe link. owner to confirm

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  • Finlayson mill, Tampere, 1820. Cotton mill founded in 1820 by James Finlayson; the red-brick mill and chimney still stand by the Tammerkoski rapids.
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  • Sauna by a frozen lake, UNESCO 2020. Finnish sauna culture is on UNESCO’s list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
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