Technical SEO: the foundation under your store, sorted.
Most stores lose search traffic during a replatform. I've moved three without losing a single position.
- One point of contact: me
- Analysis and implementation
- Everything documented and verifiable
What technical SEO actually is.
Technical SEO is about whether a search engine can reach, understand and correctly index your store. Everything below sits inside a technical SEO analysis.
Crawlability
Can a crawler reach your pages? Robots.txt, internal linking, JavaScript rendering, server responses and crawl budget that doesn't leak into URLs that don't matter.
Indexation
Which pages belong in the index and which don't. Noindex rules, thin or duplicate pages, and why Google crawls pages but doesn't include them.
Redirects
301s that are correct, no chains or loops, no 302s that should have been permanent, and no bulk redirect of everything to the homepage.
Speed
Core Web Vitals in the field and in the lab: LCP, INP and CLS. Render-blocking scripts, image formats, third-party tags and server response times.
Structured data
Product, Offer, Breadcrumb, FAQ and Organization schema that validates and matches what's actually visible on the page.
Canonicals
One canonical URL per piece of content. Variants, filters, sort parameters and tracking parameters all point to the right version.
Hreflang
Language and country versions that reference each other, with a correct x-default and no one-way or broken references.
Log file and Search Console analysis
What the crawler actually does on your store, instead of what a tool assumes should happen.
And what technical SEO is not
- Writing copy. Content is a separate discipline and sits outside technical SEO.
- Link building or PR. Building authority is a different engagement.
- Devising a keyword strategy. I look at the technology, not at your copy brief.
- A list of tool scores. A green score is not a result.
Where technical SEO breaks on e-commerce sites.
In a store, technical problems don't come from carelessness — they come from scale. Every catalogue, filter and platform switch adds URLs nobody oversees anymore.
Variants indexing as separate URLs
Every size, colour or flavour gets its own URL with no canonical to the parent product. Google sees dozens of near-identical pages and picks one itself — usually not the one you want.
Filters creating infinite URL space
Faceted navigation combines colour, size, brand and price into thousands of combinations. Crawl budget goes to pages with no search demand while new products wait days to be indexed.
Pagination
Pages 2 through 40 of a category sharing one title and canonical, or falling out of the crawl paths entirely so deeper products become unreachable.
Out-of-stock products
Products that disappear return a 404, or stay live as an empty page. Both cost you accumulated value. There's no rule for what happens when an item leaves the catalogue.
Migration debt from earlier platform switches
Redirect chains three or four hops long, legacy URL patterns still being crawled, and structured data from a platform you stopped using two years ago.
Redirects left on temporary
A 302 meant as a stopgap that's still there two years later. The old URL's signals never fully transfer to the new one.
Why an audit without implementation delivers nothing.
A report changes nothing about your indexation. A shipped change does.
I've seen plenty of audits end up as a PDF in a folder. Not because they were bad, but because the translation step was missing: which template change belongs to which finding, which developer picks it up, and what happens when the next theme build overwrites it.
A technical SEO analysis produces findings with priority, root cause and the exact place in the code or store settings where it goes wrong. That's step one. Step two is getting it into your store — canonicals in the theme, redirect rules in a verifiable file, schema in the templates, filter rules in robots.txt or via parameter handling.
So I don't deliver a standalone audit with no follow-through. You get the findings, and then I implement them or guide your developer until they're live and visible in Search Console. I make no claims about positions or traffic — Google decides that. What I do is remove the technical causes of the traffic you're missing.
What that looks like in practice.
Two stores I moved. Both cases document the full redirect and indexation process.
Questions about technical SEO.
What is technical SEO?
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Technical SEO covers everything that lets search engines crawl, render, understand and index your site: crawlability, indexation, redirects, speed, structured data, canonicals and hreflang. It is not about writing copy.
What does a technical SEO analysis involve?
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I crawl your store, compare that against Search Console and log file data, and map which URLs are indexable, where crawl budget leaks, which redirects are wrong and which templates set structured data or canonicals incorrectly. You get findings with priority and root cause, not just a score.
How long does a technical SEO engagement take?
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The analysis itself typically takes five working days. Implementation depends on the platform and the number of templates involved; on an average Shopify store that's a few days, on a custom platform longer.
Can you guarantee my rankings will improve?
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No, and nobody who promises that can deliver it. Google decides rankings. What I do is remove the technical causes preventing pages from being crawled, indexed or interpreted correctly.
I'm migrating to another platform. When should I involve you?
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Before the new URL structure is fixed. Most migration damage comes from decisions already made before anything goes live. Joining afterwards works too, but then you're repairing instead of preventing.
Do you only work on Shopify?
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No. Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Lightspeed and custom platforms. The principles are the same; only where you configure them differs.
Can I get the analysis without implementation?
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Only if you have your own developer to pick it up. In that case I deliver the findings with technical notes and verify afterwards that they were implemented correctly.
Do you work with a team?
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No. You work with me directly, from analysis through implementation and the verification afterwards.
Start with a technical SEO analysis.
Or run your situation past me first at no cost — I'll say so if there's no technical problem.
SEO Audit
Full analysis of technology, indexation, structure and authority, with a prioritised list of findings and a roadmap. Delivered in five working days.
Run your situation past me.
Send me your URL and what you're running into. I'll look at it and tell you honestly whether there's technical ground to gain and what it would take.