Shopify store audit checklist: every check that affects sales

A Shopify store audit checks the pages a shopper sees against the things that cost sales: speed, the path to checkout, trust, tracking and how search engines read the store. This checklist lists every check our audit runs on a Shopify store, grouped by area, with a guide for each that explains the fix in Shopify terms.

Work through it top to bottom, or run the free audit to see which items your own store fails.

Speed

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how to get under 2.5 seconds, with Shopify steps
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): what a good score is and how to improve it
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): why your store jumps and how to stop it, with Shopify steps
• Slow product and collection pages: how to compare templates against the rest of your site, with Shopify steps
• Google mobile performance score: what it means and how to raise it
• Time to First Byte (TTFB): how fast your server should answer, with Shopify steps
• Page weight: how big should an ecommerce home page be?
• WebP and AVIF images: why modern formats make product pages faster, with Shopify steps
• Third-party scripts on ecommerce sites: how much is too much?, with Shopify steps
• Broken images, scripts and stylesheets: how to find failed requests

Conversion and UX

• The viewport meta tag: make your store render properly on phones
• Title tags and meta descriptions for store pages: length, content and what to avoid
• Add to cart buttons: what makes shoppers find and use them, with Shopify steps
• Alt text for product images: how to write it for shoppers and search
• One H1 per page: heading structure for ecommerce pages
• Favicons and home-screen icons: small details that signal a real store, with Shopify steps
• Machine-readable price and availability on product pages
• How many product photos do you need? Showing products from several angles
• Breadcrumbs on product pages: help shoppers back to the category
• Site search for ecommerce: why shoppers who search buy more, with Shopify steps
• What belongs in an ecommerce header: logo, cart and a clear menu
• Value proposition above the fold: say what you sell and why buy here
• Product images that build trust: size, quality and what shoppers look for
• Price, shipping and delivery clarity on product pages, with Shopify steps
• Mobile tap targets: how big should buttons and links be?
• Product name, price and buy button on the first phone screen
• A continue shopping link in the cart: keep shoppers in the store, with Shopify steps
• Let shoppers remove items from the cart easily, with Shopify steps
• Save for later and wishlists in the cart, with Shopify steps
• Combined filters on category pages: size, colour, price and more, with Shopify steps
• Sorting on category pages: let shoppers order products their way, with Shopify steps
• Email keyboard on checkout: set the right input type for phones, with Shopify steps
• Password recovery at checkout for returning customers, with Shopify steps
• Back to top links on long home pages, with Shopify steps
• Keep legal and policy links out of the main navigation, with Shopify steps
• Wishlists on ecommerce stores: when they help and when they do not, with Shopify steps
• Let shoppers ask a question on the product page: chat, phone or form, with Shopify steps
• Product title length: write titles that show fully in Google results, with Shopify steps
• Quantity selectors: use a stepper or number field, not a dropdown, with Shopify steps
• Search box hints: show example queries, not just the word Search, with Shopify steps
• Size charts on product pages: reduce returns and doubt, with Shopify steps
• Sticky headers: keep navigation, search and cart in reach while scrolling, with Shopify steps
• Search autocomplete: suggest products and terms as shoppers type, with Shopify steps
• Empty cart pages: point shoppers to something to buy, with Shopify steps
• Mini-cart links: offer both a way to the cart and to checkout, with Shopify steps
• What a mini-cart should show: item, price, total and count, with Shopify steps
• Free shipping progress in the mini-cart: how much more to spend, with Shopify steps
• Say what size the model is wearing, with Shopify steps
• Add to cart or quick view on category product cards, with Shopify steps
• Zoom on product photos: let shoppers look closer, with Shopify steps
• Buy button text: say plainly what the button does, with Shopify steps
• Default sort order on category pages: why best sellers first, with Shopify steps
• Second photo on hover for category product cards, with Shopify steps
• Label sold-out products clearly on category pages, with Shopify steps
• Highlight the current section in the main navigation, with Shopify steps
• Hide the coupon field behind a link in the cart, with Shopify steps
• Change quantities in place in the cart, with Shopify steps
• Tell shoppers how tax is handled in the cart, with Shopify steps
• Show free shipping progress in the cart, with Shopify steps
• Show an estimated delivery date in the cart, with Shopify steps
• A lock icon on the checkout button, with Shopify steps
• Mention your return policy in the cart, with Shopify steps
• Show how many products a category lists, with Shopify steps
• Keep shoppers on the product page: avoid outgoing links in content, with Shopify steps
• Ask for email or phone first at checkout, with Shopify steps
• Guest checkout: why forcing an account loses orders, with Shopify steps
• Show a way to get help at checkout, with Shopify steps
• Let returning customers log in at checkout, with Shopify steps
• Numeric keyboard for number fields at checkout, with Shopify steps
• Show checkout progress: which step the shopper is on, with Shopify steps

Trust and policies

• HTTPS for online stores: why shoppers and Google expect it
• Return, shipping, privacy and terms pages: what every store needs, with Shopify steps
• Contact information for online stores: how shoppers expect to reach you
• Mixed content warnings: how to find and fix insecure resources
• What to put in an ecommerce footer: policy links, social profiles and trust cues
• Express checkout and instalment options: why offering more payment methods helps
• Product reviews and ratings: how to show social proof on product pages

Tracking and tech

• Meta Pixel not firing PageView: how to find out and fix it, with Shopify steps
• Google Analytics 4 not collecting data: how to check and fix it, with Shopify steps
• Duplicate Google Analytics 4 tracking: how to find double counting, with Shopify steps
• Cookie consent banners for online stores: do you need one?, with Shopify steps
• Duplicate tags and pixels: how to find tags loading twice

Store discovery

• Is your store online? How to check it loads for every visitor
• Is your store indexable? Noindex tags, canonical URLs and how to check them, with Shopify steps
• Product structured data: how to add price and availability for Google, with Shopify steps
• Open Graph tags: how your store looks when a link is shared
• robots.txt for ecommerce stores: what to allow, block and link, with Shopify steps
• XML sitemaps for online stores: how to check and submit yours, with Shopify steps
• www vs non-www: how to make your store open at one address, with Shopify steps
• Custom 404 pages for stores: return a real 404 and help shoppers back in, with Shopify steps
• Product URL structure: short, readable addresses without tracking parameters, with Shopify steps
• Lazy loading images: when it helps and when it slows the page, with Shopify steps
• Gzip and Brotli compression: how to check pages are sent compressed, with Shopify steps
• Product page headings: how to organise content with H2 and H3 subheadings, with Shopify steps
• Product image file names: why IMG_4821.jpg costs you search visibility, with Shopify steps
• Linking social profiles from your store: where and why, with Shopify steps
• Content delivery networks for ecommerce: how a CDN speeds up your store, with Shopify steps
• Keep cart, checkout and account pages out of search results, with Shopify steps
• Internal links on product pages: how related products help shoppers and search, with Shopify steps
• Using the product name in the URL, title and heading, with Shopify steps
• Redirect chains and loops: how the http address should reach your store, with Shopify steps

How often to run a store audit

Run one after any theme, app or plugin change, and on a schedule for stores you manage. A change that fixes one problem often opens another, such as an app that adds a second tracking pixel or a theme update that moves the buy button below the first phone screen.