Most online stores start their SEO at the wrong end: they open a blog.
It is understandable. It is the visible part, it can be shown in a meeting, and it feels productive. But when the product pages are not indexed, or all carry the supplier's identical description, the blog brings traffic to a shop Google does not know how to sell.
Where do you start with ecommerce SEO?
| # | What | Why first |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The important pages are indexable | without this nothing else counts |
| 2 | Original copy on the products that sell | twenty shops have the supplier's text |
| 3 | Category structure | where the real search volume sits |
| 4 | Product structured data | price and availability in the results |
| 5 | Content and blog | it works, but after the other four |
The first two are worth more than the other three combined, and they are also the most tedious. That is precisely why they get skipped.
One: how many of your pages are indexed?
Before optimising anything, look at what Google actually holds. It takes half an hour and it rearranges everyone's priorities. Start from the Page indexing report in Search Console: it shows how many pages are indexed, how many are not, and why.
- NOICount the indexed pages and compare against how many you really have
- NOISearch for filters in the results — dozens of URLs with `?colour=` mean wasted crawl budget
- AICheck for accidental noindex — more common than people think, often from a plugin
- NOIConfirm the sitemap holds only real pages — discontinued products and dead pages weaken it
The classic case is a 400-product catalogue with 12,000 indexed URLs, nearly all filter combinations. Google spends the crawl there instead of on the products, and the products never get in. Google's guide to faceted navigation describes the same mechanism: crawl spent on useless URLs is time taken from new, useful ones, and the cleanest fix is disallowing the filters in `robots.txt`.
Optimising a page that is not indexed is time given away.
Two: product descriptions, but not all of them
Rewriting 400 product pages is a project that never ends and nobody finishes. Do not do it.
Take the twenty products generating the most revenue and rewrite those. Then the twenty with plenty of visits and few sales, which is usually a copy problem. Everything else can stay as it is for months without anything changing.
What a description that works needs: the words customers use to search for the product rather than the ones in the technical catalogue; the two or three questions anybody would ask before buying, answered; and a reason to choose this model over the one next to it.
Three: categories, where the volume is
This is the part online stores treat worst, and where the searches actually are.
Nobody searches for a product code. Plenty search for "running shoes for overpronation" or "second-hand yellow gold jewellery". Those are category searches, and the page that should answer them is nearly always a grid of products with not one line of text.
Two paragraphs at the top and a question section at the bottom are enough to turn it into a page that can rank. How to write answers in an extractable way is in the AEO guide.
Four: which structured data does a store need?
Not all of it. Three.
`Product` with price and availability, because that is what shows in the results and moves clicks: Google uses it to show price, availability, review ratings and shipping right in search. `BreadcrumbList`, because it makes the site structure legible. `FAQPage` on categories, if you put real questions there. Do not expect the FAQ box in the results, though: Google stopped showing it on May 7, 2026.
Anything beyond those three is optional and nobody notices. One caution only: when the price in the structured data does not match the price on the page, Google notices, and the remedy is worse than the problem. The guidelines require structured data to be a true representation of the page, and breaking that can mean a manual action and lost rich results.
What you can postpone without regret
Speed, unless the site is dramatically slow. Going from 2.1 to 1.8 seconds does not move rankings the way fixing 400 duplicate descriptions does. Google says as much: it shows the most relevant content even when the page experience is sub-par.
Backlinks, at the start. They matter, but there has to be something worth linking to first.
And the blog, which is where almost everyone begins. It works, and we do it too, but after the first four points. What loses the sale once the traffic has arrived is in the abandoned cart guide.
Frequently asked questions
Where do you start with ecommerce SEO?
By checking what is actually indexed, not by optimising. The classic case is a 400-product catalogue with thousands of indexed URLs that are filter combinations: Google spends the crawl there and the real products never get in. Optimising a page that is not indexed is time given away.
Do I have to rewrite every product description?
No, and that is the project that never ends. Rewrite the twenty products generating the most revenue, then the twenty with many visits and few sales, which is usually a copy problem. Everything else can stay as it is for months without anything changing.
Do category pages matter for ecommerce SEO?
They matter more than product pages, because that is where the search volume sits: nobody searches a product code, plenty search a category with an attribute. The problem is that they are almost always grids without a line of text, and two paragraphs plus a few questions are enough to make them rankable.
Which structured data does an online store need?
Three: Product with price and availability, BreadcrumbList, and FAQPage on categories that contain real questions. Anything else is optional. The only caution is that the price in the structured data must match the page, because the mismatch gets detected and the remedy is worse than the problem.
Do catalogue filters hurt SEO?
When they generate indexable URLs, yes, considerably: tens of thousands of combinations consume the crawl budget that should go to products. They need handling so combinations do not become standalone pages, keeping only the categories that answer a real search indexable.
How long does ecommerce SEO take to show results?
On the first two points, indexing and the descriptions of products that sell, the first movement shows within weeks, because something that was stuck gets unstuck. Beyond those, it takes months, and anyone promising SEO results in thirty days is describing a case that is not yours.
Want to know what is holding your store back?
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Founder of As Growth, an AI-first growth partner. He runs growth and strategy across partner businesses: OroEtic, Giojello, Equity Plus and others. Apply if you want to work with us.