How to Do an SEO Audit: A Practical Checklist for 2026

An SEO audit answers one question: what is stopping this website from getting more organic traffic and leads?

Without an audit, SEO work is guesswork. Teams write blog posts while the real problem is a robots.txt line blocking half the site, or they build links while every product page has the same title tag.

This SEO audit checklist is the same structure we use at BrandMates Studio before any engagement begins. You can follow it yourself with free tools. It is part of our complete SEO guide for businesses.

Tools you need

Part 1: Indexation and crawling

Start here, because nothing else matters if Google cannot find and index your pages.

• Check the Pages report in Search Console. How many pages are indexed? How many are excluded, and why?
• Search site:yourdomain.com in Google. Roughly how many results appear? Do important pages show up?
• Review robots.txt. Make sure it does not block important sections or resources.
• Check the XML sitemap. Is it submitted in Search Console? Does it list only live, indexable pages?
• Look for accidental noindex tags on pages that should rank.
• Check canonical tags point to the right version of each page.

Part 2: Technical health

Our full technical SEO checklist goes deeper, but in an audit check these first:

• HTTPS on every page, with no mixed content warnings
• One version of the site: http and https, www and non www all redirect to a single version
• Broken links and 404 errors found in the crawl
• Redirect chains, where one redirect leads to another and another
• Core Web Vitals in PageSpeed Insights and the Search Console Core Web Vitals report
• Mobile usability on real phones, not only in a desktop browser

Speed problems are common and often fixable without a rebuild. We explain how in how to fix Core Web Vitals on WordPress.

Part 3: On page SEO

Export the crawl from Screaming Frog and check:

• Missing, duplicate or overly long title tags
• Missing or duplicate meta descriptions
• Missing H1s or multiple H1s on the same page
• Thin pages with very little content
• Images without alt text or with very large file sizes
• URLs that are unclear, very long or full of parameters

For each important page, also check whether it has a clear target keyword. Our on page SEO checklist lists twenty checks for every page.

Part 4: Keywords and content

• Find what you already rank for in Search Console's Performance report. Sort by impressions to find keywords where you appear but rarely get clicked.
• Find pages ranking in positions 5 to 20. These are usually the fastest wins.
• Check for cannibalisation, where several pages target the same keyword.
• Identify gaps: important services, products or questions with no dedicated page.
• Review content quality: is it accurate, current, specific and better than what ranks above it?

Our keyword research guide explains how to build a full keyword map once the gaps are clear.

Part 5: Backlinks and authority

• How many referring domains link to the site, and how does that compare with the top three competitors?
• Are the links relevant to your industry or location?
• Are there obvious spam links from unrelated or low quality sites?
• Which pages attract links, and which important pages have none?

If authority is the gap, read our link building guide before buying anything.

Part 6: Local SEO (if you serve an area)

• Google Business Profile: correct primary category, all services listed, accurate hours, recent photos and posts
• NAP consistency: the same business name, address and phone number across your site and directories
• Reviews: how many, how recent, and whether they are being answered
• Location pages: does each area you serve have a useful, unique page?

Part 7: AI search visibility

This is the part most audits still skip.

• Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask. Is your brand named? Which pages are cited? Our guide on how to check if ChatGPT recommends your brand has a ready prompt list.
• Check robots.txt for AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. If you are thinking about adding an llms.txt file, read what llms.txt actually does first.
• Check structured data for Organization, Service, Product and FAQPage schema.
• Check AI referrals in GA4. Our guide to tracking AI traffic in GA4 shows how.

The full framework is in our AI SEO guide.

Part 8: Tracking and conversions

• Is GA4 installed on every page and recording conversions such as form submissions, calls and WhatsApp clicks?
• Is Search Console verified and linked to GA4?
• Can you tell how many leads came from organic search last month?

If the answer to the last question is no, fix tracking before anything else. Without it, you cannot prove whether SEO works.

How to prioritise what you find

An audit usually produces a long list. Sort it into three groups:

1. Critical: issues blocking indexation or causing errors on important pages. Fix immediately.
2. High impact: pages ranking 5 to 20, missing pages for important keywords, slow key templates. Fix within the first month.
3. Ongoing: content gaps, link building, review generation. Build into the monthly plan.

On one industrial manufacturer's site, the audit showed that product pages lacked heading structure, schema and internal links between related grades, while mobile LCP was failing on a key page. Fixing structure first and performance second set up everything that followed. See the industrial B2B SEO case study.

Get a professional audit

If you would rather have specialists run it, we offer a free SEO and AI visibility audit covering every section above, delivered within two working days with a prioritised list of fixes. You can also see what our ongoing SEO services include.