Comprehensive SEO Audit for Smart Gear NZ Website

# Comprehensive Shopify SEO Audit – SmartGear NZ

We need an experienced Shopify/ecommerce SEO specialist to conduct a full SEO audit of:

https://www.smartgearnz.co.nz/

SmartGear NZ is a New Zealand ecommerce business selling pre-owned phones, iPhones, iPads, Samsung devices, laptops, Chromebooks, MacBooks and accessories.

This is NOT a request for a basic SEMrush/Ahrefs export. We want a practical, evidence-based audit showing what is limiting organic growth, what opportunities are being missed, and what should be fixed first.

The audit must cover the entire Shopify site, including products, collections, pages, blogs and our trade-in area.

Priority pages:

https://www.smartgearnz.co.nz/collections/apple-phones

https://www.smartgearnz.co.nz/pages/sell-my-phone

## 1. Google Search Console

Review:

* Indexing and Page Indexing reports
* Crawled/Discovered – currently not indexed
* Canonical and duplicate issues
* Sitemap/indexing problems
* Soft 404s and redirects
* Crawl statistics
* Core Web Vitals
* Product/Merchant structured-data reports
* Queries and landing pages
* High-impression/low-CTR pages
* Pages ranking roughly positions 4–20
* Keyword cannibalisation
* Declining pages/queries
* Brand vs non-brand performance

We can provide appropriate Search Console access.

## 2. Technical SEO

Audit:

* Crawlability/indexability
* robots.txt
* XML sitemaps
* Canonicals
* Redirect chains/loops
* 404s/soft 404s
* Broken internal links
* Orphan pages
* Duplicate URLs/content
* URL parameters
* Pagination
* Filter/faceted URLs
* Search/tag URLs
* JavaScript rendering issues
* Crawl depth/site hierarchy
* HTTP/HTTPS consistency

For important issues explain:

**What is wrong → Why it matters → Affected URLs → Recommended fix → Priority**

## 3. Shopify-Specific SEO

Check:

* Shopify duplicate URL patterns
* Product/collection URL relationships
* Canonical implementation
* Variant URLs
* Filter URLs
* Pagination
* Product tags
* Search URLs
* Theme/app SEO issues
* Breadcrumbs/navigation
* Out-of-stock/discontinued products
* Redirect strategy
* Collection/product taxonomy
* Template-level issues that can be fixed site-wide

## 4. Site Architecture & Internal Linking

Review:

**Home → Categories → Brand/Model Collections → Products → Supporting Content**

Analyse:

* Orphan pages
* Important pages buried too deeply
* Internal link authority
* Anchor text
* Breadcrumbs
* Navigation/footer links
* Blog/informational links to commercial pages
* Whether priority pages receive enough internal authority

Provide improved architecture recommendations where needed.

## 5. Keyword Research & URL Mapping

Research commercially relevant New Zealand keywords around:

* Used/pre-owned iPhones
* iPhone models
* Samsung phones
* iPads
* MacBooks
* Laptops/Chromebooks
* Sell my phone / sell my iPhone
* Phone/iPhone trade-in
* Device buyback

Analyse search intent, volume, difficulty, current rankings, keyword gaps and competitor performance.

Provide a **keyword-to-URL map** showing the best existing or proposed page for each important keyword cluster.

## 6. Keyword Cannibalisation

Identify pages competing for the same search terms and recommend whether to:

* Consolidate
* Re-target
* Rewrite
* Canonicalise
* Redirect
* Change internal linking

## 7. Collection & Product Page SEO

Audit important collection pages and a representative sample of product pages.

Review:

* Titles/H1s
* Meta titles/descriptions
* Search intent
* Thin/duplicate content
* Internal links
* Breadcrumbs
* Images/alt text
* Product relevance within collections
* Product descriptions
* Product schema
* Price/currency
* Availability
* SKU/GTIN/MPN
* Brand/condition
* Reviews
* Shipping/returns
* Variants
* Out-of-stock handling

Identify template-wide fixes where possible.

## 8. Structured Data / Schema

Audit:

* Product
* Offer
* ProductGroup/variants
* Organization
* BreadcrumbList
* Article
* LocalBusiness where appropriate
* MerchantReturnPolicy
* ShippingDetails
* Review/AggregateRating where eligible

Identify missing, invalid, duplicate or conflicting schema, including Shopify/app-generated conflicts.

## 9. Google Merchant Center / Organic Shopping

Where access is available, review:

* Merchant Center diagnostics
* GTIN/brand/condition
* Availability and price consistency
* Shipping/returns
* Titles/descriptions/images
* Feed vs landing page consistency
* Structured-data alignment
* Free listing eligibility

## 10. Core Web Vitals & Performance

Analyse mobile and desktop:

* LCP, INP, CLS, TTFB
* Images/lazy loading
* JavaScript/CSS
* Third-party scripts
* Shopify apps
* Fonts/render blocking
* Theme performance

Do not only provide PageSpeed scores. Identify root causes and fixes.

## 11. On-Page & Content SEO

Audit:

* Meta titles/descriptions
* H1/H2/H3 structure
* Duplicate metadata
* Thin/duplicate content
* Search intent
* Internal anchors
* Image optimisation
* Blogs, FAQs, buying guides
* Trade-in, warranty, grading and trust content

Identify missing commercial pages and content gaps based on real competitor/SERP research.

## 12. E-E-A-T / Trust

Review:

* About/business information
* Customer reviews
* Contact information
* Warranty/returns/shipping
* Product testing/grading information
* Experience/expertise signals
* Business/entity consistency

## 13. Local SEO

Audit:

* Google Business Profile
* NAP consistency
* Reviews
* Local citations
* Auckland/NZ relevance
* Local queries
* Local backlink opportunities

Do not recommend spammy doorway/location pages.

## 14. Competitor Analysis

Identify 5–10 real New Zealand organic-search competitors and compare:

* Rankings
* Top pages
* Site/category architecture
* Product SEO
* Content
* Backlinks
* Internal linking
* Schema
* Trade-in visibility
* Keyword/content gaps

## 15. Backlink Audit

Analyse:

* Referring domains
* Link quality/relevance
* Anchor profile
* Lost/new links
* Spam patterns
* Competitor link gaps
* NZ authority opportunities
* Digital PR opportunities

No PBNs, spam directories, mass paid links or arbitrary disavow recommendations.

## 16. SERP / CTR Analysis

Review:

* High-impression/low-CTR queries
* Search snippets
* Product/Merchant results
* Rich results
* Titles/descriptions
* Brand presentation

Provide specific CTR improvement recommendations.

## 17. AI Search Visibility

Assess whether the site is well positioned for Google AI Overviews/AI Mode through legitimate SEO fundamentals:

* Crawlability/indexability
* Clear architecture
* Unique first-hand content
* Entity clarity
* Product data
* Merchant Center
* Trust/authority
* Useful supporting content

No unsupported GEO/AI-search hacks.

## Required Deliverables

1. Executive SEO Audit Report
2. Full Technical Audit
3. Master SEO Issue Spreadsheet
4. Keyword Research & URL Mapping
5. Competitor Gap Analysis
6. Backlink Audit
7. Content Gap Analysis
8. Core Web Vitals Analysis
9. Structured Data Audit
10. Prioritised 90-Day SEO Action Plan
11. Raw crawl/export data where possible

The issue spreadsheet should include:

**Issue | Example URLs | Affected URLs | Evidence | SEO Impact | Fix | Priority | Difficulty**

Priorities:

* Critical / Immediate
* High / Next 30 Days
* Medium / 30–90 Days
* Low / Long-Term
* Quick Wins
* Development Fixes
* Content Work
* Authority/Off-Page Work

## Audit vs Implementation

This project is primarily for the **audit and roadmap**.

If you also provide Shopify SEO implementation, quote it separately as **Phase 2**. We want to review the audit independently before committing to implementation.

## We Are NOT Looking For

* Automated audit PDF only
* SEMrush/Ahrefs export without analysis
* Generic AI-generated recommendations
* Hundreds of low-impact warnings
* Keyword stuffing
* Mass backlinks
* PBNs/spam directory links
* Guaranteed #1 ranking claims

## Required Experience

Technical SEO, ecommerce SEO, Shopify SEO, Google Search Console, GA4, Merchant Center, Screaming Frog or Sitebulb, Ahrefs/SEMrush, structured data, Core Web Vitals, keyword research, competitor and backlink analysis.

## When Applying

Please answer:

1. Give 2–3 examples of Shopify ecommerce sites you personally audited.
2. Which crawling software will you use?
3. How do you investigate “Crawled – currently not indexed”?
4. Which Shopify duplicate/indexing issues do you normally check?
5. How do you audit filtered/faceted collection URLs?
6. How do you identify keyword cannibalisation?
7. How do you audit Product/ProductGroup schema and Merchant Center alignment?
8. Will we receive raw crawl/export data?
9. Will recommendations include exact affected URLs and implementation instructions?
10. Is implementation included or quoted separately?

Start your proposal with:

**SMARTGEAR SEO AUDIT**

Generic proposals that do not answer these questions will not be considered.

## Objective

We want to understand what is preventing SmartGear NZ from achieving stronger organic visibility, what opportunities we are missing, what should be fixed first, and what strategy will produce sustainable SEO growth in New Zealand.