Ecommerce SEO Fundamentals Checklist
If SEO has ever felt like running through a to-do list with no idea what it’s doing for your bottom line, you’re not alone. Checklists are great at keeping things tidy, terrible at telling you what actually drives profit.
In this guide, we start with the fundamentals of ecommerce SEO, how it really works for brands, and then show you how to use a straightforward checklist as a tool, not a crutch.
Our 100% Free Proven Ecommerce SEO Checklist
We use this checklist with every new project we start.
The Basics Every Ecommerce Brand Must Nail Before “Advanced SEO”
I’ll speak to you as someone who lives on both sides of the table:
I own ecommerce brands, and I run SEO.
I’ve been through the classic cycle: install an SEO app, tick off a giant checklist, publish a few “SEO blogs”… and watch almost nothing change in revenue.
The hard truth:
Until your ecommerce SEO fundamentals are dialed in, every “advanced” on-page trick and off-page link strategy is basically decoration.
This page gives you the operator’s view of SEO:
How search intent actually works for ecommerce
Which basics you must cover first
How to use a standard SEO checklist in a way that actually moves profit
At the end, you can grab our Ecommerce SEO Checklist and implement all the “boring basics” in the right order, on the right pages.
Why Standard SEO Checklists Don’t Move Your Numbers (Yet)
You’ve seen the pattern:
“Ultimate SEO Checklist 2025”
57 on-page tasks, 34 technical tasks, 19 content ideas
Your team ticks off half of them… and your organic revenue barely moves
Here’s why that happens in ecommerce:
The checklist treats a blog and a brand the same
It doesn’t care which pages actually print money
It optimises everything equally, instead of focusing on search intent + profit
The checklist isn’t the villain.
It’s just incomplete on its own.
What you’re missing is a mental model:
Which basic SEO tasks matter most for ecommerce, and in what order should we do them?
Once you fix that, a standard checklist becomes a weapon instead of busywork.
Spoiler: Basics First, Advanced Later
Before we get tactical, let’s be crystal clear:
Schema experiments, topical maps, fancy link campaigns, digital PR, AI-generated content clusters…
All the sexy stuff I also love playing with as an SEO nerd…
…are low ROI if you haven’t covered the basics:
Clean site structure
Money pages (collections/products) mapped to search intent
Standard on-page elements done properly
Technical hygiene at least “good enough”
Spoiler: this entire page is about those basics.
Your advanced on-page and off-page strategies should sit on top of this, not instead of it.
Fundamental #1: Start With Search Intent on Your Money Pages
If you understand search intent, you already know this, but it’s worth repeating:
The fastest wins in ecommerce SEO live where intent and money meet.
That means:
Someone searches “shapewear dress black” – they want a collection or high-intent PLP
Someone searches “eco laundry strips 60 washes” – they want a product or very focused category
Someone searches “how to get rid of knee pain when running” – they’re earlier in the journey and need problem-solution content + smart internal links
So before you open any checklist:
List your top 10–20 money pages
Best-selling collections
Highest-margin products
High-intent landing pages from ads that should also win in SEO
Map 1–3 primary intents for each:
“Compare options,” “find best X for Y,” “buy X now,” “learn how to fix [problem]”
Decide:
Which search queries belong to each page
Which one page “owns” each core intent, so you avoid cannibalisation
Then—and only then—run your standard on-page checklist on those URLs first.
Fundamental #2: Collections and Product Pages First, Content Second
Most generic SEO content talks about “publishing helpful articles.”
Helpful is good. Revenue is better.
In ecommerce, your collections and product pages are where:
Most buying intent lands
Most of your CRO work already sits
Most of your revenue is supposed to happen
So the order of operations is:
Collections (categories)
Align title/H1/meta with commercial intent
Add a clear intro and supporting copy that explains who it’s for, why it’s different, what to choose
Add FAQs that answer buying objections directly on the page
Add internal links to your strongest guides/comparisons
Product pages (hero SKUs and bestsellers)
Unique, benefit-driven copy (not manufacturer boilerplate)
Clear sizing, use-cases, social proof, FAQs
Internal links from collections and related content
Content (guides, hubs, comparisons)
Built to capture earlier intent and push people back to collections/products
Structured with clear headings, snippets and FAQs so both humans and LLMs understand it fast
Your checklist (titles, metas, headings, schema, alt text, etc.) gets applied hardest to these pages, not sprinkled evenly across the entire domain.
Fundamental #3: Structure and Crawl, Then Settings and Hacks
A lot of “SEO basics” start with site settings:
Connect Search Console
Submit sitemap
Configure your SEO app
Choose canonical rules
All useful. But from an owner’s perspective, one thing comes first:
Is our site structure simple, logical and crawlable?
Ask yourself:
Can a new visitor understand what we sell from the nav in 3 seconds?
Are important collections buried behind filters, tags or search?
Are there multiple URLs trying to rank for the same thing?
Are we accidentally letting filters and faceted navigation create endless junk URLs?
Once the structure makes sense:
Then submit a clean sitemap
Then lock in canonical rules
Then use index/noindex in a deliberate way
Then automate as much as possible inside your theme/app
Your standard technical checklist is powerful here—but only if it’s built on a sane structure.
Fundamental #4: The “Boring” On-Page Basics Are Non-Negotiable
Here’s the part nobody likes to hear:
The basics you’ve seen a hundred times still matter:
One clear title tag per page that aligns with search intent and reads like a promise, not a keyword dump
A single, descriptive H1 that matches the main topic
Supporting H2/H3s that break the page into logical sections (great for users, SEO and LLMs)
Meta descriptions that sell the click and clarify what the page is about
Body copy that actually talks to your ideal customer, answers questions and uses relevant phrases naturally
Internal links that connect related pages, with anchor text that makes sense
Alt text that briefly describes the image in context (not keyword salad)
For LLMs, this structure is gold:
Clear headings → easy to parse
Short paragraphs and bullet lists → easy to extract and summarise
Direct Q&A sections → easy to reuse as answers
For search engines, it’s still the core of how they understand and rank your pages.
Advanced stuff like entity SEO, custom schemas, and sophisticated content clustering work better when these basics are rock solid.
Fundamental #5: Technical SEO = Make It Easy to Load, Crawl and Buy
I don’t obsess over fixing every Screaming Frog issue listed…
I do obsess over this:
Where can I remove friction in the complete customer journey?
So when you go through technical items in your checklist, think:
Indexation hygiene:
Can Google find and index our money pages reliably?
Are we de-indexing obvious junk (search results pages, faceted URLs, test environments)?
Speed:
Are collection and product pages loading fast enough on mobile?
Are we killing speed with unneeded apps, scripts and huge media?
Stability & UX:
No layout shifts pushing the “Add to Cart” down the screen
No aggressive pop-ups blocking content
Forms and checkout work smoothly on all devices
Nail these for your core pages using the checklist, and suddenly every other SEO and CRO effort converts better.
Fundamental #6: Content That Feeds the Funnel (and the Algorithms)
LLMs and search engines both love clear, useful, structured content.
For ecommerce, that means your supporting content should:
Answer real pre-purchase questions (“is X safe?”, “how to choose Y?”, “X vs Y?”, “how to wash/store/use?”)
Live close to your money pages (linked from collections, nav, footers, emails)
Be structured with:
Clear H2s that look like questions
Short, direct answers under each
Lists, tables and steps where appropriate
Think in content “hubs”:
One pillar guide around a core problem or product type
Several supporting articles that go deeper into sub-topics
All of them linking back to the right collections and products
This is where LLMs will often pull answers from in the future—and where human visitors will get their final push to buy.
Your checklist will tell you to “add FAQs”, “expand content”, “use internal links”.
Use those tasks to build structured, intent-driven hubs, not random blog posts.
Fundamental #7: Measure Like an Owner, Not Like a Tool
If you measure the wrong things, your checklist will feel like theatre.
Instead of only tracking “issues fixed” or “errors resolved,” track:
Organic revenue and orders over time
Share of revenue from organic vs paid
Performance of the exact pages you’ve optimised using the checklist:
Organic sessions
Add-to-cart rate
Conversion rate
Assisted conversions from content pages
Ask yourself every month:
Did the changes on these 10–20 URLs move revenue or key leading indicators?
Which type of optimisation gave us the best lift?
Where should we double down, and what should we stop doing?
This is how you turn a standard SEO checklist into a profit system instead of a “SEO chores” list.
Our 100% Free Proven Ecommerce SEO Checklist
We use this checklist with every new project we start.
How to Use Our Ecommerce SEO Checklist (Without Wasting Time)
Here’s exactly how I’d tell my own team to use a standard checklist:
Pick your battlefield
Choose 10–20 pages: key collections, hero products, and one or two important guides.
Map intent and keywords first
Decide which queries and user intents each page should own.
Run the checklist on those pages only
Titles, metas, H1/H2s, copy, internal links, schema, images, speed, indexation, etc.
Wait for data, then roll out
Watch rankings, traffic, and revenue.
When you see what works, scale to the next batch of pages.
Only then play with “advanced” tactics
Entity SEO, large content clusters, aggressive link-building, digital PR, etc.
Now they land on a strong foundation instead of a shaky site.
Check out our Beginner to Hero Ecommerce SEO Crash Course
Any other questions? Reach out to us!