Technical SEO Audit for Large Shopify Ecommerce Site

Overview We run a large ecommerce website in the restaurant equipment and supply industry. Our site is built on Shopify and currently has a large product catalog with tens of thousands of products live, with more being added. Google Search Console is showing a major indexation issue: * Approximately 57K indexed pages * Approximately 206K not indexed pages * Around 175K pages marked “Crawled, currently not indexed” * Additional exclusions include canonicalized pages, redirects, robots.txt blocks, 404s, and duplicate pages We are currently using AI to improve and rewrite product descriptions, but we need a true technical SEO expert to determine whether our issue is caused by content quality, crawl/indexation signals, sitemap structure, canonical tags, Shopify URL architecture, faceted navigation, internal linking, or some combination of all of the above. We are not looking for a general SEO content writer. We need someone who understands large ecommerce technical SEO, Google Search Console, Shopify, crawl budget, canonicalization, XML sitemaps, structured data, and indexation strategy. Main Goal We need a clear technical diagnosis and prioritized roadmap for improving Google indexation, especially for important product, category, brand, and collection pages. We do not want every URL indexed. We want the right pages indexed. Scope of Work The project should include a full technical SEO/indexation audit covering: 1. Google Search Console Review Review Page Indexing reports, especially: * Crawled, currently not indexed * Discovered, currently not indexed * Alternate page with proper canonical tag * Duplicate without user-selected canonical * Blocked by robots.txt * Page with redirect * Not found 404 * Soft 404 * Server errors * Excluded by noindex We need the URLs grouped by pattern, not just reviewed one by one. 2. URL Pattern Analysis Identify which types of URLs are being excluded and why, including: * Product pages * Collection/category pages * Brand/vendor pages * Variant URLs * Filter/faceted navigation URLs * Pagination URLs * Search result URLs * Redirected/old URLs * Low-value or thin pages * Duplicate product pages 3. XML Sitemap Audit Review our Shopify sitemap structure and determine: * Whether low-value URLs are being submitted * Whether important pages are missing * Whether redirected, noindexed, duplicate, or canonicalized URLs are included * How our sitemap strategy should be cleaned up 4. Canonical Tag Audit Review canonical behavior across: * Product pages * Collection pages * Product variants * Filtered URLs * Duplicates * Paginated pages We need to know whether our canonical tags are helping or hurting indexation. 5. Robots.txt and Crawl Control Review robots.txt and crawl directives to confirm: * Important pages are not accidentally blocked * Low-value URLs are handled properly * Googlebot is able to access the right content * AI crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended are not accidentally blocked, if applicable 6. Faceted Navigation / Filter URL Audit We need specific recommendations on how to handle filtered URLs, sort parameters, search pages, collection filters, and duplicate URL combinations. This is especially important because our site has a very large product catalog. 7. Product Page Quality and Indexability Review Review a sample of indexed and non-indexed product pages to determine whether the issue is related to: * Thin content * Duplicate manufacturer descriptions * Lack of unique value * Poor product templates * Missing specifications * Weak internal linking * Missing schema * Poor titles/meta descriptions * Low-quality AI-generated copy * Lack of helpful buying information 8. Internal Linking and Site Architecture Review whether important product/category/brand pages are discoverable through internal links and whether the site structure helps Google understand page importance. 9. Structured Data Audit Review product, breadcrumb, organization, and other relevant schema markup. We need recommendations for what structured data should be added or fixed. Deliverables Please provide: 1. Technical SEO audit report 2. Breakdown of GSC exclusion reasons by URL pattern 3. List of high-priority issues 4. Specific Shopify/dev implementation recommendations 5. Indexation strategy: what should be indexed vs noindexed/canonicalized/blocked 6. Sitemap cleanup recommendations 7. Canonical and robots.txt recommendations 8. Product page/template improvement recommendations 9. Prioritized action plan with estimated impact and difficulty 10. Optional: 30-minute walkthrough call to explain findings We do not want a generic SEO PDF. We need practical recommendations that our developer and internal team can implement. Ideal Candidate You should have experience with: * Technical SEO for large ecommerce websites * Shopify or Shopify Plus * Google Search Console * Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, JetOctopus, Botify, Ahrefs, Semrush, or similar tools * XML sitemaps * Crawl budget optimization * Canonicalization * Faceted navigation SEO * Product page SEO * Structured data/schema * Large SKU catalogs * Ecommerce internal linking strategies Experience with B2B ecommerce, industrial products, restaurant equipment, commercial equipment, or large catalog sites is a plus. What We Are Not Looking For Please do not apply if your main recommendation will be: * “Write more blogs” * “Buy backlinks” * “Submit all URLs to Google manually” * “Use AI to rewrite every product description” * “Install an SEO app and wait” * “Run monthly SEO with no technical audit” We may pursue ongoing SEO later, but this project is specifically about diagnosing and fixing technical indexation problems.