An SEO audit is a structured check of whether a site can be found, understood and trusted by search engines, and whether visitors have a good experience when they arrive. Done well, it ends in a short, ordered list of fixes, not a 90-page report nobody reads.
This guide gives you a 10-step process you can run on any site in an afternoon. Start at step 1, because problems at the top (a page that cannot be crawled or indexed) make everything below it irrelevant.
Before you start: get a baseline
Run a quick automated audit to see the big picture and a score to improve on:
curl seoloop.in/audit/example.comYou get a score out of 100 and pass or fail results across SEO, performance, security and crawlability. Treat it as a map, not a verdict. Then work through the steps below to understand each issue properly.
1. Can search engines crawl the site?
Open /robots.txt and confirm it does not block important sections or the whole site. Check that CSS and JavaScript are not blocked. See how to check robots.txt.
2. Can the important pages be indexed?
Check that key pages are not noindex, either in the HTML or in an HTTP header, and that they return a 200 status. See how to check if a page is noindex. In Google Search Console, the Page indexing report lists why pages are excluded. Read the top reasons first.
3. Is there a clean sitemap?
The sitemap should list only indexable, canonical, 200 URLs and be referenced in robots.txt and submitted in Search Console. See how to check a sitemap.
4. Are status codes and redirects tidy?
Look for broken pages (404), server errors (5xx) and redirect chains. Redirect old URLs in one hop to the closest replacement. See 301 vs 302 redirects and redirect chains. Fix internal links that point at redirected or broken URLs.
5. Is there duplicate content or canonical confusion?
The same page often lives at several URLs: with and without www, with parameters, with trailing slashes. Pick one version and make sure canonical tags, redirects, internal links and the sitemap all agree. See how to check a canonical tag.
6. Are the on-page basics right?
For each important page, confirm:
- A unique title tag that describes the page. See title tags: ideal length.
- A useful meta description. See meta descriptions.
- Exactly one H1, with H2s that structure the content
- Alt text on meaningful images
- Enough real content to answer the search. There is no magic word count, but a near-empty page rarely ranks.
You can see most of these for one page with curl seoloop.in/meta/example.com.
7. Is the page fast and stable?
Check the three Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) using real-user data, then use a lab test to find causes. See Core Web Vitals explained. Also look at server response time, compression and image sizes. Slow servers hurt users and crawling.
8. Does it work well on mobile?
Google indexes the mobile version of your pages. Check the viewport meta tag, that text is readable without zooming, that tap targets are not cramped, and that content on mobile matches desktop.
9. Is structured data present and correct?
Add structured data that matches your content (Article, Product, LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList) and validate it. See how to check schema markup.
10. Is the site secure and trustworthy?
Serve every page over HTTPS with a valid certificate, redirect HTTP to HTTPS, and send basic security headers such as HSTS. Make sure real contact details, an about page and policies exist. These support trust for visitors and, on sensitive topics, for search quality.
Turn findings into a plan
An audit is only useful if it leads to action. Sort what you found into three groups:
- Blockers: things that stop pages being crawled or indexed. Fix first.
- High impact: broken pages, duplicates, slow templates, missing titles on key pages.
- Polish: small improvements that add up.
Fix the blockers, re-run the audit, and note the score and the date. Repeat monthly, or after any big change such as a redesign, a migration or a new template. Regular small audits catch problems before they cost traffic.
What an audit does not cover
This checklist covers technical and on-page health. It does not judge whether your content is better than competitors', or your backlink profile. Those matter too, and they are separate pieces of work.