How to Do an SEO Audit: Step-by-Step Guide

An SEO audit is a systematic review of your website's ability to rank in search engines. Done properly, it identifies the specific issues stopping your pages from performing — so you can fix what matters most and stop wasting time on things that don't. This guide walks you through a complete SEO audit, step by step, using free tools.

Why audit your SEO?

Most website owners make SEO changes reactively — they notice their traffic has dropped, or they read about a new tactic and try it. An audit flips this around. Instead of guessing, you understand your site's actual position and build a prioritised action list.

A proper audit typically reveals three types of issues:

• Critical blockers — things that actively prevent Google from indexing your pages (misconfigured robots.txt, widespread noindex tags, SSL errors). These need fixing immediately.
• Quick wins — missing title tags, duplicate meta descriptions, uncompressed images. These are easy to fix and have a noticeable impact.
• Longer-term improvements — content gaps, backlink building, Core Web Vitals. These take more time but build sustainable ranking strength.

Step 1: Run an automated crawl

Start by getting a bird's-eye view of your site. Two good options:

• CheckSEO — run your homepage and key pages through our free SEO checker. In seconds, you'll see which title tags, meta descriptions, headings, images, and technical elements are passing or failing on each page. No sign-up required.
• Screaming Frog (free) — crawls up to 500 URLs of your site, listing every page with its title tag, meta description, response code, and more. Excellent for finding duplicate titles and missing meta tags at scale.

Document what you find. A simple spreadsheet with columns for URL, issue type, and priority works well.

Step 2: Check indexing status

If Google hasn't indexed a page, it won't rank — regardless of how well-optimised it is. Check your indexing status in two ways:

Quick check: site: search

In Google, type site:yourdomain.co.uk. This shows roughly how many of your pages Google has indexed. If the number is much lower than your actual page count, you have an indexing problem.

Full check: Google Search Console

In Search Console, go to the Coverage (or Indexing) report. This shows exactly which pages are indexed, which have errors, and why. Common issues to look for:

• "Submitted URL blocked by robots.txt" — your robots.txt is preventing Google from crawling pages that should be indexed.
• "Page with redirect" — pages permanently redirected elsewhere. Check these are intentional.
• "Discovered — currently not indexed" — Google found the page but chose not to index it, often because the content is too thin or duplicate.
• "Crawled — currently not indexed" — similar to above, but Google has actively crawled and decided not to index it.

Step 3: Audit on-page elements

For each of your key pages (homepage, main service/product pages, top blog posts), check the following:

Title tags

• Is there a title tag? (Surprisingly common to be missing)
• Is it 50–60 characters?
• Does it contain the primary keyword for this page?
• Is it unique — not duplicated from another page?

Meta descriptions

• Is there a meta description?
• Is it 150–160 characters?
• Does it include the keyword and a call to action?
• Is it unique across pages?

Headings

• Is there exactly one H1 per page?
• Does the H1 contain the primary keyword?
• Are H2s and H3s used logically to structure the content?

Images

• Do all meaningful images have descriptive alt text?
• Are images reasonably sized (not 3MB+ files slowing the page down)?

Internal links

• Are important pages linked from other pages on the site?
• Is anchor text descriptive rather than generic ("SEO checklist" vs "click here")?
• Are there any broken internal links (leading to 404 pages)?

Step 4: Review content quality

Google's Helpful Content System means thin or low-quality content can actively drag down your entire site's rankings. Review your content with these questions:

• Does this page genuinely answer the question a searcher would have?
• Is it more comprehensive or more useful than the top-ranking pages for its keyword?
• Does it contain unique information — real examples, specific data, original perspective?
• Is it written by or demonstrably for someone with real experience of the topic?
• Are there pages on the site with very little content (under 300 words)? Consider merging, expanding, or removing them.

Identify pages that have impressions in Search Console but very low click-through rates — these often have content or title/description issues that are solvable.

Step 5: Audit page speed and Core Web Vitals

Run your most important pages through Google PageSpeed Insights. Look at the mobile scores particularly — most UK traffic comes through mobile, and Google uses mobile-first indexing.

Focus on pages with a Performance score under 70 or failing Core Web Vitals. The most common culprits:

• Unoptimised images (switch to WebP, compress, add explicit dimensions)
• Render-blocking JavaScript (defer or async scripts that aren't needed for the initial page render)
• No CDN (a content delivery network dramatically reduces load time for UK visitors)
• Excessive third-party scripts (chat widgets, multiple analytics tools, ad scripts — each adds latency)

Also check your Core Web Vitals field data in Google Search Console, which uses real user data rather than simulated conditions.

Step 6: Check mobile-friendliness

Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test or open your site on an actual phone. Check:

• Text is readable without zooming
• Buttons and tap targets are large enough (44×44px minimum)
• No horizontal scrolling
• The viewport meta tag is present: width=device-width, initial-scale=1
• Pop-ups don't cover the main content on mobile (Google penalises intrusive interstitials)

Step 7: Check structured data

Structured data (Schema markup) isn't a direct ranking factor, but it enables rich results — FAQ dropdowns, star ratings, how-to steps — that can dramatically increase click-through rates.

Use the Google Rich Results Test to check any page. It will tell you whether Schema is present, whether it's valid, and which rich result types the page is eligible for. Fix any errors it highlights.

Common schema types worth implementing:

• Organisation — on your homepage and About page
• Article — on blog posts
• FAQ — on pages with question-and-answer sections
• LocalBusiness — if you serve a physical location
• Product — on product pages

Step 8: Review your backlink profile

Backlinks remain one of Google's strongest ranking signals. To see which sites link to you, use the free version of Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (after verifying your site) or Moz Link Explorer's free tier.

When reviewing your links, look for:

• Link quality — are your links from relevant, trusted sites? Or from spammy directories and link farms?
• Anchor text distribution — a natural link profile has varied anchor text (brand name, URL, generic terms). A high proportion of exact-match keyword anchors can look manipulative.
• Toxic links — if you have a history of old-school SEO tactics, identify and disavow harmful links via Google Search Console.

Also note: which of your pages have the most links? These are your strongest pages — use them to build internal links to pages you want to rank higher.

Step 9: Check keyword rankings

In Google Search Console, go to the Performance report and look at your average position for your target keywords. Sort by impressions and look for two things:

• High impressions, low clicks — these pages are visible but not compelling enough to click. Fix the title tag and meta description.
• Positions 11–20 — these are your "almost there" pages, ranking on page 2. A targeted content update or some extra internal links can often push them onto page 1.

For more detailed ranking data, use the free tier of Ubersuggest or SERPRobot to track your target keywords over time.

How to prioritise what to fix

After completing all nine steps, you'll likely have a long list of issues. Prioritise using this framework:

1. Critical blockers first — fix anything stopping Google from indexing your pages.
2. High-traffic pages next — improvements to your most visited pages have the biggest immediate impact.
3. Quick wins — missing title tags and meta descriptions take minutes to fix and can produce visible results.
4. Content improvements — schedule time to update and expand thin pages, especially those with impressions but low clicks.
5. Long-term projects — page speed improvements, schema implementation, and link building are ongoing.

Aim to repeat this audit process quarterly. SEO is not static — Google updates its algorithm constantly, your site changes, and competitors evolve. Regular audits keep you ahead of problems before they become visible drops in traffic.

Want to see your site's SEO health right now? Start with a free automated check — no sign-up, instant results.