Most SEO audits we see waste 80% of the time on issues that don’t matter. Here’s the 2026 checklist we run, in priority order.
1. Technical foundation (P0)
- Indexable URLs match the URLs you actually want ranked.
- Canonicals consistent and pointing to the right targets.
- XML sitemap clean (no 404s, no noindex, no redirects).
- Robots.txt not blocking anything critical.
- HTTPS, no mixed content, redirects from HTTP and www variants.
2. Crawlability & faceted nav (P0)
- Crawl simulation matches expected URL set.
- Faceted nav doesn’t produce thousands of low-value URLs.
- Pagination handled (rel="next/prev" or sensible content-distinct paginations).
- Internal linking has hub-and-spoke structure, not just a flat list of products.
3. On-page templates (P1)
- Title and meta description templates match intent and stay within length limits.
- H1 unique per page, matches the dominant keyword cluster.
- Category pages have intro copy (200–400 words) above the product grid.
- Product pages have intent-matched copy, not auto-generated supplier feed text.
4. Structured data (P1)
- Product schema with name, image, description, brand, sku, offers.
- Breadcrumb schema matching the visible breadcrumb.
- Organization schema sitewide.
- Review schema only where reviews actually exist on the page.
5. Core Web Vitals (P1)
- LCP under 2.5s on mobile for category and product pages.
- INP under 200ms.
- CLS under 0.1.
- Real-user data (CrUX / RUM), not just lab scores.
6. Content gaps (P2)
- Queries you should rank for and don’t.
- Queries you used to rank for and lost (and why).
- Buyer-guide and supporting content gaps competitors are exploiting.
7. Backlink profile (P2)
- Referring-domain growth trend.
- Anchor-text distribution — over-optimised or natural?
- Toxic links to disavow.
- Link-building priorities for the next 90 days.
8. Competitive context (P2)
- Top 3 competitors by traffic in your category.
- What they rank for that you don’t.
- How their backlink and content programs differ from yours.
9. 90-day action plan
The deliverable isn’t the audit. It’s the 90-day plan that follows it — month-by-month priorities, effort vs. impact estimates, and owner suggestions. Without that, the audit is decoration.
If you’d like us to run this checklist on your store, ask for a free Ecommerce SEO Audit.
