How (and why) You Should Conduct an Ecommerce Site Audit

What to Review

Site Search 

• Review search reports for common queries. Are they accurate? Can shoppers find what they’re looking for? Does the no results found page lead to a dead end? Shoppers who search are more likely to convert so this part of the shopper experience is crucial.

Merchandising

• Click through category pages and assess that the right products are on display. Are boost rules being taken advantage of? Banners? Badges? Geo-targeting? Check out this merchandising strategy guide for more.  

Recommendations

• Intelligent product recommendations drive up average order value if they’re used effectively. Review products suggested to shoppers at each step of the journey. Also assess cross-selling and unsold relevant items versus displaying unrelated products at random.

SEO

• Realistically, a site’s performance on search engines deserves an audit of its own. From reviewing current rankings and identifying keyword gaps, to fixing issues with technical SEO. Give plenty of time for this step. 

Site Speed

• Page load times affect everything from user experience to SEO. This step is easy to check thanks to free online tools, but fixing issues takes time. Run speed tests regularly to stay on top of technical problems that can slow down your site. 

Broken Links

• As with site speed, broken links are a big no-no from both a shopper and search engine perspective. They are also common in ecommerce because of discontinued products or restructured categories. Luckily, it’s very easy to find any broken links that have cropped up since the last audit using online tools and Google Analytics.  

Mobile

• Don’t confine an ecommerce site audit to desktop. Many retailers treat the mobile experience as a set-and-forget aspect of a site redesign or upgrade. However, as stores evolve, or as new lines are added, check for unexpected impacts on the mobile version of the store. 

Make Time for Regular Ecommerce Site Audits

If you’ve been putting off an ecommerce site audit, consider this a sign to pencil it in. The first step? Stop thinking of an “audit” as a painful-but-necessary task. Look at it as a chance to revamp the shopper experience to get your site in tip-top-shape for Black Friday / Cyber Monday. 

If gaps are found, get in touch. If you’d like to learn more about ecommerce site audits, check out Searchspring’s Site Audit webinar. 

Get more Black Friday / Cyber Monday tips by visiting the Searchspring Black Friday Content Hub and attend our Black Friday / Cyber Monday Webinar Series.