Why an online store audit differs from a normal website audit
A company site has a handful of pages you can review by hand. A store is built from templates: one mistake in the product page layout repeats on every product, and one filter setting can generate thousands of unnecessary URLs. That is why the audit works by page type rather than page by page: homepage, category, filtered page, product page, cart, and internal search.
The catalog also keeps changing. Items sell out, prices update, a supplier sends a new feed, and something that worked last month may be broken today. Treat the audit as a baseline you return to after every major catalog update, not a one-off document.
Catalog structure: does it match how people search
Start with the category tree and compare it with real queries. A shopper in Tashkent types “Samsung fridge” or “kids sneakers”, not the section name from your accounting system. If no pages exist for those combinations, the traffic goes to competitors, OLX and marketplaces such as Uzum.
- Key categories are reachable from the homepage in a few clicks
- No empty categories or categories with one or two products
- Landing pages exist for popular brands and product types
- Category names and URLs make sense to a human
- A product in several categories has one main URL
Filters and duplicate pages: the biggest hidden leak
Filters for price, color, size and brand create an almost endless number of links. If all of them are open to indexing, search engines waste effort on junk and crawl your important pages less often. The job is to decide which combinations people really search for, such as “black leather bag”, and give those their own pages with a unique title and text. Everything else should be blocked from the index or point to a canonical URL.
Check sorting parameters, pagination and links with tracking tags too, since they produce copies as well. Open Search Console and compare how many pages are indexed with how many you actually consider useful. The gap usually tells the story.
Product pages and out-of-stock items
A product page should answer the buyer's questions without a phone call. Check these first:
- Unique title and H1 with the name and a key attribute
- Your own description instead of the manufacturer's text
- Specifications in a clean table
- Several good-quality photos
- Price in sums, availability and delivery terms
- Clear payment options: Click, Payme, cash on delivery
- Reviews and links to similar products
What to do when a product is gone
Hundreds of pages with identical descriptions may be treated as low value. Start with the products that bring in the most revenue instead of trying to rewrite everything at once.
Also look at what happens when an item sells out. A 404 page throws away rankings and links the page has built up. A temporarily unavailable product is better kept live with a notice and a list of alternatives, while a product discontinued for good should redirect to a close model or its category.
Speed, mobile experience and analytics
Most shoppers in Uzbekistan browse on a smartphone, often on mobile data of average speed. Open a category and a product page on your phone: how quickly do photos appear, are they too heavy, do filters work comfortably with one thumb. The biggest gains usually come from image compression, lazy loading and caching. Check product structured data as well: the price, availability and rating in it must match what the visitor sees.
Without ecommerce tracking set up in GA4 or Metrica, you cannot tell which categories actually sell. Confirm that product views, add-to-cart events and orders are recorded, and that orders finished in Telegram or by phone are counted. For many shops those make up a real share of sales and are often missing from reports.
Internal search is free research. Queries that return nothing show which product, category or synonym to add. The search result pages themselves are normally kept out of the index.
Order of work, and when a rebuild makes more sense
A sensible sequence: first the indexing rules for filters and duplicates, because they affect the whole site; then category and product templates; then copy for priority categories and handling of unavailable products. That way the first fixes improve the entire catalog instead of single pages.
Sometimes an audit shows that the platform cannot control URLs, templates or markup without workarounds. In that case rebuilding the store on a proper structure is more reliable than patching it. If you need an audit of your store or full website development in Uzbekistan, the markdev team can help estimate the scope and propose a clear plan. Get in touch and we will discuss your task.
FAQ
Where should an online store audit start?
With indexing rules for filters, sorting and pagination. These settings affect the whole site at once, so fixing them has the widest effect. After that, move to category and product page templates.
Can I run the audit myself?
You can do a basic check: review indexing in Search Console, open the site on your phone, and look at product pages and analytics settings. Finding the cause of duplicates and platform limits is harder and usually needs a specialist.
How often should a store be audited?
A full audit makes sense at launch, when changing platform, or after a major catalog update. Quicker checks of indexing, speed and analytics should be repeated regularly because the range of products keeps changing.
What should I do about product pages with no description?
Do not rewrite them all at once. Start with products that bring the most revenue and traffic, write original descriptions and clean specifications for them, then continue down your priority list.
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