Shopify SEO Audit

Imagine working hard to grow your online store, only to watch traffic vanish overnight. That’s exactly what happened to a European workwear eCommerce business. One small website update led to a threefold drop in revenue—and they didn’t see it coming.

With traffic and engagement metrics nosediving, they turned to us for answers. Our SEO audit uncovered hidden UX issues that tanked their rankings. The solution? Strategic fixes that helped restore lost traffic, sales, and visibility.

Where did the traffic go? The client faced a devastating 3x drop in revenue over six months. The decline started right after a series of website changes, but they had no idea what went wrong. They needed urgent answers before things got worse.

After diving into analytics, we uncovered alarming patterns:

• 69% of users accessed the store via mobile.
• Category pages, responsible for 70% of organic traffic, lost an average of 10 ranking positions
• Session duration (-18.28%) and active sessions per user (-23.4%) dropped.
• A steep ranking decline between June–August 2024 coincided with Google’s Spam Update.

Deeper Shopify SEO Audit

Our first thought? A Google update. We looked at the site’s link profile because the June 2024 spam update specifically targeted backlinks. 

No critical issues. No correlation with the ranking drop. If backlinks weren’t the issue, what was?

Further, we investigated all Shopify changes made between June–August 2024. 

Key findings:

Issue #1: Poor Category Page UX

Google rewards seamless navigation. But on this site, users landed on category pages and saw everything except the products. Instead, they had to scroll past banners, sliders, and brand logos just to start browsing. Some categories didn’t even display products—just subcategory links and SEO text.

People coming to buy should see products first—not walls of content.

• The result? Frustration, higher bounce rates, and Google de-prioritized these pages in search rankings.
• Fix: We revamped the category structure, ensuring products appeared first. No more buried listings—just instant access to what users came for.

Issue #2: A Poorly Configured Cookie Banner

To comply with Google’s Consent Mode V2, the client added a new cookie banner in June 2024. The problem? The store had implemented Consent Mode V2 using the ready-made solution CookieBot. It covered 90% of the mobile screen—completely blocking the content. 

First-time visitors bounced before even seeing a product.

• The result? Sky-high bounce rates. Google interpreted this as a bad user experience, pushing rankings even lower.
• Fix: We redesigned the banner, reducing its size to 40% of the screen, making content immediately accessible.

These two simple yet critical fixes:

• Stopped the ranking decline and reversed the traffic loss.
• Improved engagement metrics and decreased bounce rates.
• Helped recover significant lost revenue.

• Google rewards sites that make navigation effortless when bad UX kills SEO. Google tracks user behavior—frustrated visitors mean lower rankings.
• Every website update needs an SEO strategy. Well-intended changes can backfire
• Test every change. A well-meaning update can backfire.
• Logical category structures improve conversion rates. Products should always be the focus—users don’t want to scroll past fluff.
• SEO audits save businesses. A thorough eCommerce SEO audit can mean the difference between growth and disaster. If your traffic drops, an audit will tell you why.