How to Audit Your Shopify Store: A Step-by-Step Checklist

A Shopify store audit means walking through your catalog, product pages, SEO, speed, checkout and analytics in order and writing down what is broken. You don't need an agency: an afternoon and the Shopify admin are enough to find most of the problems that quietly cost sales.

Go in order: the fixes at the top usually matter most.

Step 1: Audit the catalog

Start in Products in the admin, where the cheapest problems live.

- Products priced at $0. Sort by price, or export from Products → Export and sort the CSV. A $0 product is either a mistake or a free gift that should be set up on purpose. - Sold-out products still listed. Filter by inventory and decide for each one: restock, hide it, or keep it visible with a clear "back soon" note. - Duplicates. Look for products with almost the same title. Two listings for one item split reviews, links and search traffic. - Missing descriptions or images. A product with no description or one blurry photo is a page you send traffic to with little chance of selling. - Leftovers. Make sure test products and old seasonal items aren't still Active.

Step 2: Audit your product pages

Open your five best sellers on your phone, the way most visitors see them.

The first screen should show the photo, price and Add to cart button without scrolling. Read the description as a stranger: does it say what the product is, who it's for and what makes it different? Check that sizing, materials, shipping time and returns are easy to find.

- Weak: "Premium quality. Best seller. Buy now." - Better: "Stainless steel water bottle, 750 ml, keeps drinks cold for 24 hours. Fits standard car cup holders."

Step 3: Audit SEO

For each product, collection and page, scroll to Search engine listing and check the SEO title and meta description. Empty ones, or the same text on many products, are worth fixing. Then check:

- Homepage title and description: Online Store → Preferences. - Image alt text: a short, plain description on each product image. - Old URLs: if you changed a product handle, make sure a redirect exists under URL redirects (in Navigation or Menus, depending on your admin). - Google Search Console: submit `yourstore.com/sitemap.xml`, which Shopify generates automatically, and review the Pages report for URLs that aren't indexed.

Step 4: Audit speed

Run your homepage, a collection and a product page through Google PageSpeed Insights, and look at the web performance report in Shopify Analytics. Look for what is clearly heavy, not a perfect score.

The usual causes are oversized images, leftover code from uninstalled apps, too many apps loading scripts on every page, and autoplay videos or sliders at the top of the homepage. Removing one unused app often helps more than any other tweak.

Step 5: Audit checkout

Place a test order: turn on test mode for your payment provider in Settings → Payments, or buy a cheap product and refund it.

Watch for surprises: shipping costs that appear only at the last step, a forced account before paying, missing payment methods, or a confirmation email with the wrong details. Review Settings → Checkout and Settings → Shipping and delivery too. Anything that surprised you will surprise a customer.

Step 6: Audit analytics

In Analytics → Reports, open the conversion funnel: sessions, added to cart, reached checkout, completed. The step with the biggest drop tells you where to look first.

- Many sessions, few add-to-carts: usually product pages or pricing. - Many carts, few checkouts: often shipping costs or trust. - Many checkouts started, few completed: the checkout itself.

Commonly cited rough conversion rates for online stores sit in the low single digits, but they vary widely by niche, price and traffic source, so compare your store against its own past months rather than a generic benchmark.

EcomBoost AI runs much of this audit for you: it scans your catalog for $0 prices, sold-out products still listed, duplicates and missing descriptions or images, scores your store health, and fixes many of those problems in one click. If you'd rather have a full review done for you, there's a [$99 store audit](/audit), or you can start by pasting your store address to [check your store free](/free-store-check).

Frequently asked questions

### How often should I audit my Shopify store?

A full audit once a quarter suits most stores, plus a quick catalog check after any big import, sale or theme change. Problems like sold-out products and missing descriptions pile up gradually, so short regular checks beat one big yearly cleanup.

### Can I audit a Shopify store without installing an app?

Yes. Everything above can be done with the Shopify admin, Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. Automated checks mainly save time on large catalogs.

### What should I fix first after an audit?

Fix what blocks a sale first. A broken checkout, $0 prices or sold-out best sellers come before SEO titles or speed tweaks, because they lose money on visitors you already have.