How to Audit a Website for SEO Issues (Complete 2026 Guide)
Auditing your website is one of the most important habits you can build if you want consistent rankings and stable organic traffic. A proper website SEO audit helps you uncover hidden issues that damage visibility—slow pages, missing metadata, broken links, thin content, crawl problems, or outdated strategies.
Here’s a straight-to-the-point SEO audit checklist with practical steps and examples you can start using immediately.
1. Start With a Crawl Using Professional Tools
Begin your site audit for SEO by running a full crawl using tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs Site Audit. Crawlers help you detect errors that no human can catch manually.
- Duplicate meta titles and descriptions
- Missing title tags
- Low word-count pages
- Multiple H1 tags
- Non-indexable pages
- Redirect loops
- Orphan URLs
Example: You run a crawl and discover 42 pages without meta descriptions. You fix them using concise, keyword-rich text → pages start appearing properly in SERPs again.
Compare your crawl with Google’s view using Search Console indexing documentation.
2. Check Indexing & Visibility in Google Search Console
Inside Search Console, review:
- Indexing → Pages (errors, warnings)
- Sitemaps
- Removals
- Mobile usability
- Core Web Vitals
Example: Your product page shows “Discovered – currently not indexed.” After adding internal links and improving content depth → Google indexes it within days.
3. Analyse On-Page SEO for High-Value Pages
On-page fixes deliver some of the fastest ranking improvements.
- Title tag optimized (keyword first)
- One clean H1
- Keyword relevance in H2/H3
- Smart internal linking
- Competitor-level word count
- Readable URLs
- Optimized images
Use keywords naturally like SEO audit checklist, website SEO audit, how to do an SEO audit, and site audit for SEO.
Example: A blog had no keyword in its H1. After updating to a keyword-rich title and adding optimized H2s, organic clicks grew 48% in 30 days.
4. Fix Technical SEO Errors Affecting Crawlability
• Robots.txt
Make sure you are not unintentionally blocking important pages.
• XML Sitemap
Include only indexable, high-quality URLs.
• Canonicals
Fix duplicates (HTTP/HTTPS, WWW/non-WWW, parameters).
• 404 Errors & Redirects
Use 301 redirects and avoid long redirect chains.
Example: An ecommerce site had 1700 duplicate product URLs due to filter parameters. Solution: Canonical tags + blocking parameters → rankings improved within 6 weeks.
See this canonical guide → Yoast SEO Rel Canonical.
5. Evaluate Site Speed & Core Web Vitals
Use PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and GTmetrix.
- LCP below 2.5 seconds
- Minimal CLS
- Compressed JavaScript
- WebP image formats
Example: A blog reduced homepage weight from 4MB to 600KB by switching to WebP images → traffic increased 22%.
6. Review Mobile-Friendliness
Since Google uses mobile-first indexing, ensure:
- Readable fonts
- Accessible menus
- No overlapping elements
- Responsive images
- No layout shifts
Example: A travel site fixed layout issues on mobile → bounce rate dropped 35%.
7. Audit Content Quality & Relevance
- Identify low-traffic pages
- Match competitor depth
- Merge or remove thin pages
- Add missing sections, stats, visuals
- Refresh outdated data
Example: Combining 25 weak articles into one long guide improved its page authority and rankings.
See content optimization examples → HubSpot Blog.
8. Audit Internal Linking Structure
- Every page needs 2–5 internal links
- Use natural, keyword-based anchors
- Avoid “click here”
- Eliminate orphan pages
Example: A category page jumped from rank 54 → 11 after adding 15 targeted internal links.
9. Review Backlinks & Off-Page Signals
Use Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to detect:
- Toxic links
- Unnatural anchors
- Dropped backlinks
- Spam domains
Example: A startup lost 35 backlinks during a redesign without redirects. Redirects restored link equity instantly.
10. Audit for Structured Data Opportunities
Check for:
- FAQ schema
- Article schema
- Breadcrumbs
- Product markup
- How-to schema
Use Google’s Rich Results Test for verification.
11. Check for Duplicate & Thin Pages
Common duplicates come from:
- Tag archives
- Category pagination
- UTM parameters
- Print-friendly pages
- Product variants
Example: A blog had 280 tag pages indexed. Setting them to noindex improved the authority of primary posts.
12. Evaluate UX Issues That Affect SEO Behavior
- Avoid intrusive pop-ups
- Improve navigation
- Reduce ads above the fold
- Improve readability
- Add consistent CTAs
Example: A finance site removed full-screen pop-ups → sessions increased 19%.
13. Create an Actionable SEO Audit Checklist
- Run a full crawl
- Fix indexing issues
- Optimize technical SEO
- Improve titles & H1s
- Fix duplicates
- Strengthen internal links
- Analyze backlinks
- Optimize Core Web Vitals
- Refresh outdated content
- Implement schema
Complete this website SEO audit every 3–4 months for consistent ranking performance.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to do an SEO audit is essential whether you're a beginner or a professional. Search algorithms change, but audit discipline keeps your site strong. Follow the steps above to uncover issues, improve content, strengthen structures, and grow organic traffic.