What Is a Technical SEO Audit and Why Your Store Needs One

This post is part of our Audit Series — covering technical, performance, and regular audits to help your online store thrive.



When was the last time you checked whether your online store is technically sound? Design and content matter, but there is an often-overlooked side of SEO that can make or break your visibility: Technical SEO. A Technical SEO Audit uncovers hidden issues that may be holding your site back from ranking well, indexing properly, or delivering a smooth experience for shoppers.



❓What Is a Technical SEO Audit?



A Technical SEO Audit is a comprehensive checkup of your website's technical health. Instead of focusing on keywords or content strategy, it examines how search engines crawl, index, and understand your site — and whether technical barriers are preventing them from doing so.

A typical audit reviews:



• Crawlability and Indexability (Can search engines reach your pages?)
• Site Architecture and Internal Linking (Is your structure logical and efficient?)
• Site Speed and Core Web Vitals (Do pages load quickly and consistently?)
• Mobile Friendliness (Does the mobile version perform as well as desktop?)
• Duplicate, Thin, or Orphaned Content (Are there pages causing SEO dilution?)
• Redirects, Canonicals, and URL Structure (Are signals clear and consistent?)
• Structured Data/Schema Markup (Can search engines understand your products?)
• Security and Technical Integrity (HTTPS, mixed content, broken links, etc.)



Each of these elements affects how well your online store can be discovered and ranked.



🚀Why Does Your Store Need One?



eCommerce websites face unique technical challenges due to large product catalogs, frequent updates, and complex navigation. Here are the biggest reasons to conduct a technical audit:



1. Product Catalogs Create Complex SEO Issues

Every product, variant, tag, filter, and collection can generate new URLs — some valuable, many not. Without proper controls, this leads to:



• Duplicate or near-duplicate content
• Massive index bloat
• Wasted crawl budget



A technical audit helps you identify which pages should be indexed, consolidated, or blocked from crawling.



2. Site Speed and Core Web Vitals Affect Rankings

Performance is now a ranking factor, and slow stores lose visibility and conversions. Google prioritizes sites that load quickly, remain stable, and respond fast on mobile.



A technical audit reveals where speed bottlenecks exist and how they affect SEO. Check out this [full article] on performance audits.



3. Technical Errors Block Indexing and Hurt Rankings

Misconfigured robots.txt files, broken internal links, faulty redirects, or missing canonicals can silently prevent search engines from accessing your most important pages.



A technical audit ensures your store is sending clear, consistent signals.



4. Mobile Optimization Is Essential

Most ecommerce traffic is mobile, and Google uses mobile-first indexing. If your mobile experience is slow, unstable, or difficult to crawl, rankings will suffer even if your desktop site is flawless.



5. Structured Data Gives You a Competitive Edge

Schema markup helps search engines understand your products, variants, reviews, pricing, availability, and more — unlocking rich snippets in search results.



A technical audit verifies that your schema is correct, complete, and error-free.



🧩What We Include in a Freetail Commerce Technical SEO Audit



Every agency approaches audits differently. At Freetail Commerce, our audits for BigCommerce and Shopify stores typically cover:



• Crawlability & Indexing Review – Ensure search engines can access your important pages and that irrelevant pages are excluded.
• Site Architecture & Internal Linking Analysis – Identify broken links, orphaned pages, and optimize link equity flow.
• Page Speed & Core Web Vitals Testing – Detect slow-loading pages, layout shifts, and interaction delays. We also offer a full performance audit
• Mobile Performance Check – Evaluate responsive design, touch responsiveness, and mobile user experience.
• Redirects, Canonicals & URL Structure Audit – Verify that all URLs send consistent SEO signals.
• Structured Data / Schema Markup Validation – Check product, review, and availability schema for errors or gaps.
• Technical Error Identification – Find broken links, missing images, 404 pages, or misconfigured scripts.
• Security & Trust Signals Review – Confirm HTTPS is active, no mixed content issues, and other trust-related factors.
• Prioritized Action Plan – Each finding comes with a recommended fix and priority level, so you know what to tackle first.



This structured approach uncovers hidden problems, ensures your store is search-engine friendly, and lays out clear steps to improve both rankings and customer experience.



💡The Bottom Line



A Technical SEO Audit is not just a maintenance task — it is a proactive way to prevent silent issues from damaging your visibility, traffic, and revenue. With regular audits, your store stays healthy, search engines can index your content effectively, and customers get the fast, reliable experience they expect.



👉 Want a second pair of eyes on your store? We offer no-pressure Technical SEO audits tailored to BigCommerce and Shopify merchants. Get in touch for a free consultation or to request a sample audit.