Before buying SEO services, check one section of your store: can a customer find a suitable product, understand the terms and submit an enquiry, and can a search crawler access the content? After the first pass, make a list of specific pages and fixes with supporting evidence. This lets you assess a contractor’s proposal against actual tasks.
This guide covers 1C-Bitrix: Site Management. A store built inside Bitrix24 has different interfaces and settings. You cannot check a large catalogue in one pass: choose a small but varied sample and save it for retesting. Only begin bulk changes to URL and indexing rules after analysing that sample.
Prepare eight reference URLs
Include the home page, a category, a subcategory, a simple product, a product with variants, the second page of a list, a useful filter selection and an out-of-stock product. Add a problem URL mentioned by a customer, if available. For each, record what someone should find there and how they arrive.
Save the test date, full URL, a screenshot and the source of product information. If you have access to Yandex Webmaster or Google Search Console, export information about the selected pages before changing them. Note missing data. Not having account access does not mean a page is unindexed.
Choose one main customer task for the check. Our training example is selecting a metal cabinet by height, width and configuration. Compare specific attributes rather than general visual appeal. A wrong unit of measurement may matter more than a repeated category description.
Follow the catalogue’s links
Start at the home page and reach your selected product through menus and categories, without searching for its name. Repeat on a phone. Record where you have to guess a category, a link leads to an empty selection or a model can only be found through internal search.
Google recommends connecting categories and products with ordinary links: crawlers generally do not complete a site’s search form. Ask the developer to confirm that navigation uses links with URLs, rather than only click handlers. This also lets people open a product in another tab or share it.
- Open the second category page and copy its URL.
- Close all previous private windows and paste the URL into a new one, or use a separate clean browser profile.
- Confirm that the expected section of the list appears and its product links work.
- Open a product and go back: your position in the list should not be lost without explanation.
- If a button loads more products, ask how subsequent items can be accessed through separate URLs.
Infinite scrolling can be a useful interface feature. Its presence does not prove that all products are discoverable by search engines. Save a specific example of an item you could not reach through links and send it to the contractor.
Separate accessibility, indexing and the preferred URL
For each reference URL, ask for checks of the server response, crawler access rules, page directives and search-console status. A page may open for its owner but return an error for an ordinary visitor. It may be accessible but excluded from indexing, or indexed at another URL.
| Check | Record | Does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Server response | Status code and final URL | Content usefulness |
| Crawler permissions | Rule applying to the URL | Presence in search |
| Preferred URL | Canonical and links | Search engine’s choice |
| Console status | Status and data date | Rankings and sales |
Robots.txt controls crawling. Noindex says a page should not appear in search, provided the crawler can read the directive. In particular, Google cannot read noindex on a page it is blocked from crawling; see the indexing exclusion documentation. Do not copy someone else’s robots.txt into a live store.
A canonical identifies the preferred URL among duplicate or very similar pages. Internal links, the sitemap and this directive should support the chosen structure. A canonical remains a signal rather than a guarantee of Google’s decision; see the official guidance.
How to check duplicates
Open the same product through its category, internal search results and a saved direct link. List any different URLs. Compare their content: parameters sometimes only change order, but sometimes select a different product variant. You cannot classify all parameterised URLs as identical without checking.
If existing URLs will change, prepare an old-to-new mapping for every affected page. First test several examples, including an old external link. Redirecting every product to the home page in bulk would deprive customers of the product page they expected.
Compare the product page with its source data
Select three products with different behaviour: a simple item, one with variants and a temporarily unavailable item. Open an authorised source alongside them, such as the corresponding record in your accounting system. Compare item code, name, attributes, units, price, availability and included components. Record every actual discrepancy, even if it seems small.
For a product with variants, select each reference configuration. Check that the correct price, photograph, availability and basket item change. A shared product page may describe a family of models, but an order must contain a specific variant. If the price is per pack, that must be clear before adding the item.
Check where each field comes from. A manual price change in the administration area may disappear after the next accounting-system exchange. State where the fix belongs: source data, attribute mapping, template or exchange rules. The price and stock exchange troubleshooting guide can help with this part.
A temporarily unavailable item needs an honest availability message and a possible next step. For a permanently discontinued model, the decision depends on the page’s usefulness, replacements and existing traffic. Do not automatically delete it solely because stock is zero. Deletion and redirects require a separate URL decision.
Read headings as a customer
The search title and main heading should help someone recognise the product or group. Check the model, purpose and important specifications. Do not make title length your only quality criterion: useful copy is judged by its meaning and display, not a universal character count.
Add information that helps category visitors choose: model differences, compatibility, limitations and how delivery is calculated. If this information is missing, first obtain it from someone who knows the range. A few substantive explanations are more useful than a long text in which only the city and product names change.
Check the product page without images: are its name, price or pricing method, important attributes and terms still available as text? Then check the images themselves. They should show the correct model, not a similar-looking configuration. Include content problems in the same issue table as technical faults.
Check filters and purchasing separately
For search, select only pages with a clear task and a stable product range. Ordinary working filter combinations can remain part of the interface without making every combination a landing page. Rules, empty results and caching are covered in the SEO filter guide.
On a phone, select a variant and quantity, then add it to the basket. Confirm that price and unit do not change unexpectedly. Open the form with the on-screen keyboard, trigger a required-field error and read it. Agree any final test order with your team: it must not trigger real shipping, payment or unnecessary stock reservations.
After the test, find the order in the accounting system and compare its contents. Notice both the first page load and a repeat visit. If there is a delay, record the device, network and observation time. Laboratory measurements and real-user data mean different things; do not commission a store rebuild based on a single speed score.
A sample developer task
“Cabinets” category, product with two height variants. On a phone, selecting 1800 mm adds the 1500 mm variant to the basket. Reproduced in a new session. Check transmission of the selected SKU. Acceptance: each variant separately enters the basket with the correct item code, height and price; the result remains correct after a catalogue data refresh. The test order is agreed with the sales representative.
This blocks purchasing in a specific scenario. Identical descriptions on two categories can be assigned a lower priority if serious consequences have not been demonstrated. Prioritise by impact, affected page count, confidence in the cause and cost of the fix.
When to postpone promotion or a new module
Do not buy bulk page generation while products are duplicated, attributes are inconsistent or orders lose the selected variant. Fix data and the purchase journey first. If the main issue is confined to one template, request an estimate for a focused fix before discussing a new platform.
After fixes, repeat the same sample, save the results and note the publication date. Monitor search-engine processing, organic entry visits and enquiries separately. Changes to prices, the range and advertising may affect sales alongside SEO; matching dates do not establish what caused growth.
Glossary
- Indexing: including content in a search engine’s index.
- Sitemap: a file listing URLs to help pages be discovered.
- Canonical: a signal identifying the preferred URL for similar content.
- Product offer / SKU: a specific product variant with its own inventory attributes.
- Cache: a saved processing result that helps serve a page faster and must be refreshed correctly.
If some checks need code analysis, submit the reference URLs and discrepancies for a technical audit. A completed worksheet helps keep the work focused on real store problems.
Apply this to your own project
Check a sample of catalogue pages and prepare tasks with specific URLs, product examples and acceptance criteria.
Reference-page checks for a Bitrix store: open the worksheet · Download the CSV to complete. Free access, no registration. Use it independently or pass it to your contractor.