How do I do an SEO site audit?

An SEO site audit is the foundation of any effective optimization strategy. Like a health checkup for your website, it surfaces technical blockers, content gaps, and on-page issues that prevent your pages from performing.

This step-by-step process will help you run a practical audit, prioritize fixes, and turn findings into an action plan.

An SEO audit is a structured review of the factors that influence your search visibility.

A complete audit typically covers: - Crawlability and indexation - Technical performance (speed, mobile) - On-page SEO (titles, headings, internal links) - Content quality and intent match - Backlinks and authority signals

The goal is to create a prioritized list of fixes and opportunities, not just a long list of issues.

You can do a strong audit with a small stack:

- Crawler: Screaming Frog (or a cloud audit tool) - Search performance: Google Search Console - Traffic + behavior: Google Analytics - Speed: PageSpeed Insights + Lighthouse

Optional add-ons: - Ahrefs/Semrush for backlink and competitor data - Sitebulb for visual audits

Use the simplest tools that give you reliable, actionable data.

Start with the basics that can block rankings:

Crawlability & Indexing - Check robots.txt and meta robots - Verify sitemap submission and errors - Review Search Console “Pages” report for exclusions

Status Codes & Redirects - Fix 404s - Reduce redirect chains - Ensure canonical URLs return 200

Site Performance - Improve Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) - Reduce large images and render-blocking assets - Improve server response time

Mobile Usability - Ensure content is responsive - Fix tap target issues - Avoid horizontal scrolling

If Google can’t crawl, render, or trust your site, content work won’t fully pay off.

On-page elements help Google understand each page.

Check for: - Unique title tags (50–60 chars) aligned to intent - Strong meta descriptions (150–160 chars) to improve CTR - One clear H1 per page, with logical H2/H3 structure - Optimized URLs (short, descriptive, consistent) - Images with descriptive alt text - Internal links that connect related pages

Your crawler makes it easy to export missing/duplicate titles and descriptions to fix in batches.

Evaluate whether content is actually helpful and aligned to search intent.

Look for: - Thin content that doesn’t answer the query - Duplicate or overlapping pages (cannibalization) - Outdated posts that need refresh - Missing subtopics vs. competitors

Classify content into actions: - Keep (performing well) - Improve (high potential, needs work) - Merge (overlapping pages) - Remove/Redirect (no value) - Create (clear gaps)

Backlinks influence authority and ranking potential.

Review: - Total referring domains and link growth - Anchor text distribution (avoid over-optimized patterns) - Toxic/spam links (rarely need action, but monitor) - Lost links (reclaim valuable mentions)

Use Ahrefs/Semrush (or similar) to compare your backlink profile with competitors and identify link opportunities.

Use an impact vs. effort approach.

Fix first (high impact): - Indexing blockers, noindex, canonical mistakes - Broken important pages - Major speed/mobile issues

Then (quick wins): - Duplicate titles, missing meta descriptions - Internal linking improvements - Refresh pages ranking positions 11–20

Turn findings into a simple roadmap with owners and dates. An audit only matters if it becomes action.