SEO audit for Shopify and WordPress websites: Platform-specific checklist and remediation roadmap

Why a platform-aware SEO audit matters

An SEO audit for Shopify and WordPress websites must treat each platform as a different technical and content environment. Shopify often uses centralized hosting, theme-based templates, and apps that change site behavior. WordPress typically uses plugins, varied hosting, and flexible URL and template control. A single checklist that ignores platform-specific quirks misses key ranking and indexing issues. Layzr.ai focuses on tailored website audit, SEO audit, site audit, and landing page analysis to make platform differences actionable.

Start with a comparative audit plan

• Identify canonical URL patterns on both sites.
• Compare sitemap generation and submission behavior.
• Check robots directives and any platform-specific meta control.

Technical checklist: platform-specific items

Shopify

• Validate theme-generated canonical tags and ensure canonicalization does not point to collection or filtered pages.
• Inspect app-injected scripts and apps that append tracking parameters or create duplicate content.
• Confirm that structured data is included in product and collection templates.

• Verify SEO plugin settings for XML sitemaps, meta robots, and canonical management.
• Audit permalink structure, category and tag archives, and noindex rules for thin pages.
• Check for plugin conflicts that duplicate or remove essential schema output.

• Crawlability: ensure key pages return 200 and blocked pages return correct status.
• Mobile rendering: test mobile viewport and dynamic content rendering.
• HTTPS and mixed content: confirm all assets load via secure URLs.

Content and on-page SEO that matters

A platform-agnostic content audit misses template-driven content issues. Focus on these steps:

• Verify unique title tags and meta descriptions for product, category, and blog pages.
• Compare product descriptions across channels; short or copied content harms rankings.
• Ensure internal linking supports primary landing pages and prevents orphan content.

Speed and resource audit

Page speed behavior differs by platform due to theme code and plugin/app load. Audit steps:

• Measure initial server response and full load on mobile and desktop.
• Identify heavy JavaScript or third-party scripts injected by apps or plugins.
• Review image delivery, lazy loading, and modern image formats supported by the site.

Structured data and SERP appearance

Structured data plays a big role in product and recipe snippets. Audit tasks:

• Confirm product schema on product pages and check for accurate price and availability fields.
• Ensure blog posts include article schema and clear author/date markup where applicable.
• Validate schema output after plugin or theme updates to avoid markup regressions.

Apps, plugins, and third-party scripts

Third-party code affects indexing, speed, and data accuracy. Audit checklist:

• Catalog installed Shopify apps and WordPress plugins that affect front-end output.
• Identify scripts that delay rendering or block crawlers via robots or X-Robots headers.
• Confirm analytics and tag manager setups do not duplicate tracking or inject broken tags.

URL structure and redirects

URL handling is a frequent source of ranking loss after migrations or redesigns.

• Check for inconsistent trailing slash usage and www versus non-www patterns.
• Audit historical redirects and ensure 301s point to relevant canonical destinations.
• Confirm search parameters that create duplicate URLs are handled via canonical tags or parameter rules.

Migration and multi-platform considerations

When migrating from WordPress to Shopify or vice versa, an SEO audit must include:

• Complete URL map and redirect plan.
• Validation of title/meta and schema transfer for high-value pages.
• Post-migration crawl to detect orphaned content and broken links.

Prioritization and remediation roadmap

An audit without clear priorities creates long to-do lists that stall work. Use these prioritization rules:

• Fix blocking technical errors first: indexing, robots, and canonical conflicts.
• Next, address speed and render-blocking scripts for top landing pages.
• Then, improve content depth and structured data on revenue-driving pages.

Monitoring and continuous checks

SEO performance fluctuates after changes. Set up continuous monitoring:

• Weekly crawl of primary landing pages to detect regressions.
• Scheduled checks of sitemap health and indexing counts.
• Periodic landing page analysis for conversion-focused pages.

How to get a combined Shopify and WordPress audit

Layzr.ai supports comprehensive website audit, SEO audit, site audit, and landing page analysis that treat Shopify and WordPress sites as distinct technical ecosystems. For a combined platform audit, run a focused crawl across representative templates and produce a remediation roadmap organized by platform, page type, and impact. For access to site audit tooling and audit service details, visit Layzr.ai site audit tools.

Final checklist to finish an audit

• Confirm sitemap and robots rules are correct for each platform.
• Validate canonical tags and redirect maps.
• Run structured data validation across templates.
• Address top speed issues for mobile and desktop on key landing pages.
• Produce prioritized remediation tasks and a monitoring plan.