An AI SEO audit for your online store: fix titles, descriptions and keywords in an afternoon.
Most small stores are invisible on Google for a boring reason: the page titles say "Home", the product descriptions are three words, and nobody has ever typed the words a buyer in Jaipur would actually search. None of that needs an agency. It needs one afternoon, a list of what to change, and the discipline to change it. This guide is that list — what Google reads on a store your size, the seven mistakes we see on almost every new store, how the SEO audit on the SitesPlaced AI Co-founder plan does the reading and rewriting for you, and what a realistic timeline looks like once the fixes are live.
What Google actually reads on a small store
Forget the hundred-point checklists written for large websites. A small store has a handful of pages — a home page, a few category pages, and one page per product — and Google reads a short list of things on each one. If those are right, you have done most of the work that matters at this size.
| What Google reads | Where it lives | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Page title | The browser tab; the blue link in a search result | Under 60 characters. Says what the page sells and, for a local buyer, where. "Handloom cotton sarees online — Meera Weaves, Kolkata", not "Home". |
| Meta description | The grey text under the blue link | Under 155 characters. A sentence a person would click: what it is, who it is for, one reason to choose you (free shipping, made to order, COD). |
| Product names | The product page heading and the listing card | The name a buyer would search, not your internal code. "Mysore Sandal Soap 125g (pack of 3)", not "MSS-3PK". |
| Product descriptions | The body text on the product page | 40–90 plain words: what it is, material or ingredients, size, who it suits. This is where buyer language lives. |
| Category names | Your menu and category pages | Words buyers use. "Kurtas" and "Dupattas", not "Collection 1". |
| Image alt text | A hidden label on each image (on SitesPlaced, the alt text field under each photo in the product form) | A short description of the picture — "blue block-print cotton kurta, front view". Screen readers use it and Google reads it. Left blank, the product name is used, which is better than nothing but not a description. |
Structured data (the product's price, availability and star rating in a machine-readable form) also matters, but on a SitesPlaced store it is written for you on every product page. You do not need to touch it.
Notice what is missing from that table: backlinks, domain authority, blog posts, technical audits. Those matter later. For a store with twenty products and no titles, they are a distraction.
The seven mistakes almost every new store makes
- Every page has the same title. The store name, or "Home", on the home page, every category and every product. Google sees fifty pages that claim to be about the same thing and ranks none of them.
- The meta description is empty or is the first line of the product description. Empty means Google picks a random sentence. The first line of a description is usually "Beautiful and elegant", which nobody clicks.
- Product names are codes or vibes. "Style 4 – Rose" tells a buyer nothing and matches no search. The name should contain the noun a buyer types: kurta, earrings, ghee, candle.
- Descriptions are three words. "Pure cotton. Comfortable." gives Google nothing to match against. Buyers search "cotton kurta for office wear", and a page that never says "office" cannot rank for it.
- No Indian search words. Buyers search the way they speak — "kurti set with dupatta", "desi ghee 1kg", "jhumka under 500". A store written in catalogue English ("ethnic ensemble", "clarified butter") misses all of it.
- Categories that only make sense to you. "New Arrivals" and "Bestsellers" are fine as a second menu, but a category page called "Silver Jhumkas" can rank; one called "Collection 2" cannot.
- Images with no alt text. Uploaded straight from the phone, named IMG_4021.jpg, no label. That is a free ranking signal thrown away on every product.
One honest note
Fixing all seven does not put you on page one. It puts you in the race. A store with these seven wrong is not competing at all; a store with them right is competing on the same terms as everyone else, and from there reviews, links and time decide.
How the SitesPlaced SEO audit works
Doing the table above by hand for twenty-five products is a full afternoon of careful writing, and the tab you left open at product nine is why most sellers never finish. The SEO audit on the SitesPlaced AI Co-founder plan is that afternoon compressed into a few minutes plus a review. It lives in the AI Co-founder tab of your store dashboard, under SEO audit, and is run by Beacon, the SEO agent.
- Beacon reads your store. The store name, your current SEO title and description, and up to 25 products with their names, descriptions and categories. It reads what is actually there — not a template, not a guess.
- You get a score and a summary. A 0–100 score, kept honest, and two or three plain sentences on the biggest problems. A store with empty descriptions and one title everywhere should expect a low number. That is the point.
- Buyer keywords, including Hinglish. 8–12 phrases buyers in India actually search for your kind of product, mixing English with transliterated Hindi where that is natural: "cotton kurti set", "desi ghee online", "jhumka earrings under 500". Use them in names and descriptions, not stuffed into a footer.
- A store title and description proposal. A title under 60 characters and a description under 155, each with a one-line reason why. These are the two lines most stores have never set.
- Per-product meta descriptions and title suggestions. One entry per product: a meta description under 155 characters and a title suggestion under 60, keeping the product's real name and inventing no materials or claims that are not already in your description.
- Quick wins. Three to five things you can do today that are not text — a category to rename, an image without alt text, a product with no description at all.
- Tick and apply. Every proposal is a checkbox. Tick the ones you agree with, edit any you want to change, and apply. Nothing changes on the live store until you do; anything unticked stays as it was.
An audit costs 5 credits. The AI Co-founder plan is ₹1,499/month and includes 1,500 credits every month (1 credit is ₹1 of face value), so running it monthly is a rounding error against the rest of the allowance. If a run fails, the credits are refunded automatically. The plan includes everything in the ₹499 Growth plan, so sellers who upgrade keep their domain, reviews, analytics and boosters.
Run it twice
Run the audit once, apply, then run it again a month later after you have added products and reviews. The second score tells you whether the store is getting better as it grows, and the new products get their descriptions written while they are fresh.
What Beacon will not do — and why that is the right design
- It will not change anything without your tick. A wrong title on a product that already ranks can cost you the ranking, so a human sees every line.
- It will not invent claims. If your description does not say "handmade", the meta description will not either. Google's rules on misleading descriptions are strict and the penalty is a lost listing.
- It will not stuff keywords. A description that reads like a list of search terms is skipped by buyers and, increasingly, by Google.
- It will not promise a ranking. Nobody honest can. What it does is remove the reasons you cannot rank.
After the audit: the three things that compound
Applying the audit is the afternoon. These three take ten minutes a week and are what turns a well-labelled store into one that is actually found.
- Add the store to Google Search Console. It is free and it is the only place Google tells you which searches are showing your pages, which pages are indexed and which have problems. Verify your domain, paste your home page and each category page into URL Inspection and press Request indexing (Google then finds the products by following your links), and check the Performance report once a week. The first useful data appears a few weeks after verification.
- Link products to each other and to categories. Google finds pages by following links. A product that is only reachable from a category page three clicks deep gets crawled less often. Mention related products in descriptions ("pairs with our [Mustard Dupatta]"), keep categories in the main menu, and put your best sellers on the home page. Internal links are the one ranking lever that is entirely in your hands.
- Collect reviews so the stars show. A product with an average rating and a review count in its structured data can show stars in the search result, and starred results get clicked more than plain ones. SitesPlaced stores on the Growth plan and above collect reviews and write the rating into the page for you. The full loop is in how to get Google star ratings for your products.
A realistic timeline
SEO is slow, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Here is what an ordinary small store should expect after applying the audit, assuming the store is published and the domain is verified in Search Console.
| When | What usually happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–7 | Google recrawls the changed pages. Nothing visible in results yet. | Apply the audit. Request indexing for the home and category pages. Fix any Search Console errors. |
| Weeks 2–4 | New titles and descriptions start appearing in results. Impressions in Search Console climb from zero for your product names and brand. | Add alt text to images. Rename vague categories. Ask delivered buyers for reviews. |
| Months 2–3 | Long, specific searches ("block print cotton kurta set with dupatta") begin to show your product pages, usually on page two or three first. | Write proper descriptions for every new product as you add it. Keep reviews coming. |
| Months 3–6 | If reviews and internal links have been steady, some product pages settle on page one for specific phrases. Broad terms ("kurta online") remain out of reach — those belong to marketplaces. | Re-run the audit. Look at Search Console for searches where you are on page two and improve those pages first. |
These are typical patterns, not guarantees. A store in a crowded category with no reviews can take longer; a store in a niche with clear names can move faster.
The honest summary: the audit fixes in an afternoon what would otherwise stay broken for a year. Whether that turns into page-one rankings depends on your category, your reviews and your patience — and no software, ours included, can promise the outcome. It can only make sure you are in the race.
FAQs
What does an SEO audit check on a small online store?
The things Google actually reads at this size: page titles, meta descriptions, product names and descriptions, category names and image alt text — plus whether the product pages carry structured data for price, availability and ratings. On a SitesPlaced store the structured data is written automatically; the audit focuses on the words.
How much does the SitesPlaced SEO audit cost?
5 credits per audit. The SitesPlaced AI Co-founder plan is ₹1,499/month and includes 1,500 credits a month, where 1 credit equals ₹1 of face value, so a monthly audit uses a very small part of the allowance. Failed runs are refunded automatically.
Will the audit change my store without asking?
No. Every proposal — the store title, the description, each product's meta description and title suggestion — is a checkbox. Nothing is written to the live store until you tick it and apply. Unticked lines stay exactly as they were.
Does the audit include Hindi or Hinglish keywords?
Yes. Beacon returns 8–12 phrases buyers in India search for your kind of product, mixing English with transliterated Hindi where that is natural — for example "kurti set with dupatta" or "desi ghee 1kg". Use them in product names and descriptions rather than stuffing them anywhere.
How long until I see results on Google?
Titles and descriptions usually appear in results within two to four weeks of Google recrawling the pages. Ranking for specific product searches takes two to three months on a typical small store, and broad terms may never come — they belong to marketplaces. Nobody can promise a position; the audit removes the reasons you cannot rank.
Do I still need an SEO agency after this?
For a store with under a hundred products, usually not. An agency earns its fee on link building and content at a scale most small stores do not need yet. The audit, Search Console, internal links and reviews cover what matters at this size. If you grow into a large catalogue or a competitive national category, that is the time to reconsider.
Run the audit on your store this afternoon.
The SitesPlaced AI Co-founder plan is ₹1,499/month with 1,500 credits included, four agents, a campaign planner, a creative studio and the SEO audit — and everything in the Growth plan. Beacon reads your store, proposes the fixes, and you tick what to apply.
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