Work in this order: access, product data, collection pages, product pages, supporting content, authority, then measurement. Doing it in a different order wastes effort, because each stage depends on the one before it.
This is the actual list we work through, written so you can use it without us. Most items take under an hour to check and the whole pass takes a day for a small store.
Nothing here is gated, and there is no download form. If you want it as a document, copy the page.
Can Everything Be Found and Read?
Start here. If pages cannot be reached, indexed or read, nothing further on this list will help.
If you find a large indexing gap here, stop and fix it before doing anything else. Recovering pages that already exist is faster and cheaper than creating new ones.
ACCESS CHECKS
Compare the number of products you have live with the number actually indexed. A large gap is your biggest problem and it is invisible unless you look.
Check whether search engine crawlers are blocked anywhere they should not be, particularly on collection and product pages.
Check whether AI crawlers are allowed. Many stores block them without knowing.
Look for products with no internal link pointing at them, which are effectively hidden.
Check how many clicks it takes to reach your deepest product from the home page. More than three or four is a problem.
Look at how many pages your
filters and sorting options create, and whether they are all being crawled.
Is Your Product Data Complete and Correct?
Check that every product carries the fields machines need, and that the values are right. Wrong data is worse than missing data, because it gets listings rejected.
The last item catches many stores. Deleting a discontinued product throws away everything that page had earned. Leaving it live and unavailable frustrates buyers. There is a correct middle answer and most stores have not chosen one.
PRODUCT DATA CHECKS
Every product has a name a buyer would actually search for, not an internal code.
Price, currency and availability are present and accurate.
Unique product codes are present where they exist, since these connect your listing to the wider product world.
Shipping cost and delivery time are stated, ideally on the product page rather than at checkout.
Reviews are
marked up so ratings can appear in results.
Images have real descriptions rather than file names.
Out of stock products are handled deliberately rather than being deleted or left indefinitely.
Do Your Collection Pages Do Anything?
Check whether each collection page targets a phrase people search, whether it has any writing on it at all, and whether it helps someone choose.
If you only fix one type of page on your store, fix these. They target the searches buyers use while they are still choosing, which is where the volume and the future customers are.
COLLECTION PAGE CHECKS
Each collection targets one phrase buyers actually use, and no two collections target the same one.
There is real writing on the page, not just a heading above a grid.
A short direct answer appears near the top, explaining what this category is and how to choose within it.
Guidance appears below the product grid so buyers who already know what they want are not blocked by an essay.
The page links to related collections and to the
guides that explain the category.
Collections targeting nothing are merged or removed rather than left to dilute the rest.
Would Your Product Pages Convince a Stranger?
Check whether each page answers the questions that stop people ordering, and whether the writing exists anywhere else on the internet.
The first check is the fastest and the most sobering. Most stores discover their product descriptions appear on forty other sites word for word.
PRODUCT PAGE CHECKS
The description is yours, not the manufacturer’s. Search a sentence from it in quotation marks and see how many other stores appear.
The page says who the product is not right for, which is the single most trusted thing a product page can do.
The questions your support team answers most often about this product are answered on the page.
Specifications are presented as data rather than buried in a paragraph.
The obvious alternatives are linked, so a comparing buyer stays on your site.
Real
reviews are present and the poor ones have not been hidden.
Is Anything Supporting Those Pages?
Check whether you have the guides, comparisons and answers that bring in buyers who are still deciding, and whether they link to the pages that sell.
Three or four properly built guides linked correctly will do more than thirty unconnected articles, and take less time to produce.
SUPPORTING CONTENT CHECKS
There is a buying guide for each of your main categories, linked from and to the collection page.
The
comparisons buyers actually make are covered, including comparisons with products you do not sell.
The common questions in your category are answered somewhere on your site, each in its own place rather than buried in a long article.
Every guide links to the collection or product it supports, using the words people search rather than the words click here.
Nothing is published purely to fill a schedule.
Does Anyone Else Say You Exist?
Check who links to you, who mentions you, and whether those mentions describe you consistently. This is what search engines and AI tools use to decide whether you are worth naming.
The first item is the fastest win available to most stores and costs nothing but a set of emails.
AUTHORITY CHECKS
Your suppliers, stockists, partners and trade bodies link to you. Most stores have never asked and most would say yes.
You appear in the
roundups and comparison articles that rank for your category. If you do not, find out what those writers require.
Your brand is described the same way across your own site, your social profiles, your listings and any press coverage.
You have real reviews on the platforms buyers in your category check.
Nothing in your
link profile was bought from a network, and if it was, you know which.
Can You Tell Whether Any of It Worked?
Finish by writing down where you stand today. Without a record, you will not be able to tell improvement from seasonality six months from now.
Do this before you start changing things. It takes an afternoon and it is the difference between knowing whether the work paid off and having an argument about it.
MEASUREMENT CHECKS
Organic revenue by month for the last year, and split by product category if you can.
Rankings for the phrases that already send you money, not the ones you wish you ranked for.
Ten questions from your category, asked of four AI tools, with the answers
recorded and dated.
Index coverage, meaning products live compared with products indexed.
Page speed on your top collection and product pages, measured on a phone.
