An SEO audit is a structured review of a website to find what is holding back its search performance and what to fix first. It covers technical health, on-page optimisation, content, links and, for local businesses, local signals. A good audit ends with a prioritised action plan, not just a list of errors. It draws on every pillar, starting with technical SEO.
Tools you will need
- Google Search Console (free)
- Google Analytics 4 (free)
- A crawler: Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs), Sitebulb or a cloud crawler
- PageSpeed Insights (free)
- A backlink tool: Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz
Step 1: Gather context
Agree the business goals, main services or products, target locations and competitors. Note traffic trends and any recent redesigns, migrations or algorithm-related drops.
Step 2: Technical crawl
- Status codes: 4xx and 5xx errors, redirect chains.
- Indexability: noindex tags, canonicals, robots.txt blocks.
- Duplicate and thin pages.
- Click depth and orphan pages.
- XML sitemap accuracy.
- HTTPS and mixed content.
- Structured data errors.
Step 3: Indexing review
Compare the number of pages you want indexed with Search Console’s Pages report. Investigate “Crawled – currently not indexed”, unexpected exclusions and canonical mismatches.
Step 4: Speed and mobile
Review Core Web Vitals by template and test key pages on mobile.
Step 5: On-page elements
Check titles, meta descriptions, H1s, headings, image alt text and internal links on the most important pages. Flag missing, duplicate and over-long elements.
Step 6: Content quality and intent
For each key page, compare it with the current top results. Does it match intent, cover the topic fully and show expertise? Identify keyword cannibalisation, outdated content and pages to merge or prune.
Step 7: Backlinks
Review referring domains, anchor text and link quality compared with competitors. Find broken pages with backlinks to redirect. Check for any manual action.
Step 8: Local signals
For local businesses: Google Business Profile completeness, review count and rating, citation consistency and location pages.
Step 9: Prioritise
Score each issue by impact and effort. Fix high-impact, low-effort items first, such as accidental noindex tags, broken internal links and weak titles on pages already ranking in positions 5 to 15. Then schedule larger projects.
How often to audit
A full audit every six to twelve months, plus lighter monthly checks and a dedicated audit before and after any migration or redesign. Many businesses commission one from an SEO expert before agreeing a retainer.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an audit take?
A small site takes a day or two; large ecommerce sites can take weeks.
Are free automated audits useful?
They catch basic issues but cannot judge intent, content quality or priorities.
Related terms
See SEO KPIs, on-page SEO and the SEO encyclopedia.
Mr. SEO
Mr. SEO is the webmaster at SEO TT - SEO tips and tricks, a publication about all things SEO related.