SEO Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide + Free Checklist

An SEO audit helps you pinpoint issues and areas of improvement in your current strategy. Discover our tried-and-true auditing process that’s worked for hundreds of clients across multiple industries.

Looking to improve your rankings on the search engine results page (SERP)?

Even with a stellar search engine optimization strategy in place, an SEO audit is essential to pinpoint issues and areas of improvement in your current strategy.

In this guide, we’ll share everything you need to know about conducting a complete SEO audit — with expert tips and insights from HawkSEM Lead Strategist Elyssa Coultas.

Key components of an SEO audit

An effective SEO audit strategy can be broken down into three areas:

1. Technical SEO: Your website’s functionality, crawlability, and technical infrastructure
2. On-page SEO: Your website’s content and on-page elements
3. Off-page SEO: External signals like backlinks and third-party mentions on other websites

SEO audit tools

There are a handful of different tools and website checkers to help audit your site and uncover any technical issues that might be going on during your SEO audit.

Top SEO audit tools include:

• Screaming Frog for large-scale website crawls and technical issue detection
• Ahrefs for backlink analysis, keyword research, and competitor insights
• Semrush for comprehensive SEO auditing and performance tracking
• Moz for keyword tracking, site audits, and search visibility analysis
• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for user behavior and website performance tracking
• Google Search Console for website performance, indexation, and technical health

“For quicker evaluations of Google Business listings, metadata, page structure, and on-page elements, I also use PlePer and SEOQuake browser extensions,” says Coultas.

Technical SEO audit

Because Google crawls billions of web pages per day, a clean site structure, functionality, and crawlability are crucial to any SEO strategy.

Technical SEO encompasses:

• Crawlability (robots.txt, crawl errors)
• Indexing (noindex tags, XML sitemaps)
• Canonicalization
• Redirects (301s, loops, chains)
• Mobile usability and Core Web Vitals
• Site speed and performance
• Structured data (schema markup)
• URL structure
• Site architecture
• JavaScript and CSS issues

Without proper technical SEO in place, users are more likely to leave your site without taking action — and ranking on page one will be even more challenging.

1. Conduct a full site crawl

A technical SEO audit begins with a full site crawl using an SEO tool like Screaming Frog. This process involves scanning the entire site, including each internal link, to map its structure and analyze each page.

During a site crawl, these tools can uncover dozens of technical SEO issues, including duplicate content, non-secure pages, and broken links.

2. Check indexed pages

Once you run a technical crawl, a good next step is to check and see what pages are indexed in search engines.

As Google explains, a page is “indexed” if it has been visited by the search engine’s crawler, analyzed for content and meaning, and stored in the search engine’s index.

To check indexed pages, head to the search engine, then type “site:” and your domain into the query box. The below example shows this for our site, hawksem.com.

This allows you to see if there are pages that shouldn’t be indexed because you don’t want users visiting them — such as development or staging pages from a site redesign.

You also most likely don’t want landing pages solely used for paid efforts to be indexed.

In these cases,  you can leverage a resource like Google’s Remove URLs tool to “deindex” a page quickly.

You should also ensure these pages contain a “noindex” tag, so Google crawlers know not to index that page in the future.

Alternatively, if you notice important pages that are missing from the index, this is a critical fix that can quickly boost search traffic.

3. Review mobile-friendliness

Not only are people using mobile more frequently for search, but Google crawls the mobile version of a site first (and has for years).

You’ll have a hard time getting the search engine rankings you want if your mobile responsiveness or usability is subpar.

To determine if your site is mobile-friendly, use a tool like Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool, along with Google Analytics, and Page Speed Insights to pinpoint potential improvements.

When reviewing your mobile site, follow your website’s hierarchy — starting with your homepage, followed by your top web pages.

Document any issues you notice (such as broken images or links) by taking screenshots and notes.

Pro tip: It used to be a best practice to have your regular site and your mobile site be separate, perhaps with a different or modified URL. That’s not the case anymore. Ideally, you want a website that’s responsive to all devices and sizes (since device sizes can vary).

4. Test page speed

If a site has a sluggish load time, visitors are more likely to bounce and seek out another site that will give them the information they’re looking for in a flash.

Resources like Google’s PageSpeed Insights and HubSpot’s Website Grader will tell you your average page load speed. They also offer recommendations and more information to help improve this metric.

On-page SEO audit

An on-page SEO audit involves reviewing the page elements of your website, such as:

• Content
• HTML structure
• User experience

Before reviewing the existing content on your site, there are preliminary steps to take to ensure your audit is effective — including competitor, audience, and keyword research.

1. Conduct keyword research

Keyword research is the process of identifying which terms your target audience uses when searching for topics relevant to your business. These keywords ultimately shape your content strategy to answer these queries as thoroughly as possible.

Start by reviewing which queries your site already ranks for and which pages appear in search results for those terms.

One of the best tools for this is Google Search Console, where you can analyze impressions, average position, clicks, and click-through rate (CTR).

After analyzing your list of keywords you’re ranking for, tools like Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs can show you the search volume, competition, and related keywords for the terms that are worth targeting.

You can also perform your own searches to better understand search intent and identify additional optimization opportunities.

Review SERP features like “People also search for,” Featured Snippets, and related searches at the bottom of the results page for additional keyword ideas and content opportunities.

Further reading: How to Do Keyword Research: Tools to Use + Proven Tips

2. Review on-site user behavior

How visitors behave on your site can provide insight into the on-page user experience.

To analyze engagement and user behavior, use the Audience Overview section of Google Analytics.

Here, you can segment traffic by organic search only. Then, you can see how many users and sessions organic traffic drove over a certain time period.

You can also view engagement metrics like bounce rate, pages per session, and average session duration — this can help determine how engaging your content and website design are for users.

3. Audit your content strategy

Once you’ve done the keyword research and determined which pages are (and aren’t) ranking well, the next step is to conduct a content marketing SEO audit.

A content audit helps uncover pages that could be hindering your performance, along with opportunities to improve existing content.

To conduct a content audit:

• Compile a list of all blog or landing page URLs into a spreadsheet
• Use Google Analytics to evaluate website traffic over the past six months
• Use an SEO audit tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to analyze backlinks and keyword rankings
• Look for duplicate or overlapping topics and determine whether pages should be consolidated into a more comprehensive pillar page
• Identify outdated posts and create a plan to refresh or expand them regularly

4. Assess HTML content structure

When formatted properly, HTML structure helps search engines better understand your content, improves accessibility, and benefits user experience.

Review the following elements to assess your HTML structure:

• Title tags and meta descriptions: Each meta tag should be unique, describe the page accurately, and incorporate the target keyword.
• Header tags (H1-H6): Use one H1 tag per page (the title), H2s for primary categories, followed by a clear and logical heading hierarchy.
• Image SEO: Optimize image alt text and filenames to improve accessibility and help search engines understand images.
• URLs: URLs should be short, accurately describe the page content, and include the main keyword as early as possible.

5. Review your internal linking strategy

Internal links is the practice of adding hyperlinks to other, relevant pages on your site.

This enhances user experience and helps search engines understand how your content is connected (and the depth of your topical authority) — all while distributing domain authority.

To build an effective internal linking strategy:

• Evaluate your existing internal links
• Identify high-value pages for strategic linking
• Develop a keyword-informed anchor text strategy
• Create relevant links within content

There are also some common mistakes you want to avoid when it comes to internal linking, such as:

• Using generic phrases in anchor text like “click here” or “learn more”
• Excessive linking via images instead of text
• Linking to your homepage — this is almost certainly your highest authority page already and doesn’t provide any use for the user, who could just click on your logo to go back to the homepage

Further reading: How Does Internal Linking Help SEO? (How-To + 12 Best Practices)

Off-page SEO audit

Backlinks are links to your site that come from other websites. Links from other relevant, credible websites are strong ranking factors for the Google algorithm. Links from spammy sites, however, can hurt your site performance on the SERP.

To assess how strong your backlink profile is, use a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to download a list of your existing backlinks.

From there, you should review each individual link to determine its quality.

While each tool has a different way of assessing link equity, like Domain Authority (DA) vs. Domain Rating (DR), it’s worth noting that Google has its own proprietary way of measuring link equity.

Disavow spammy backlinks

With Google Search Console, you can tell Google to ignore any spammy sites that link to yours.

However, this tool should only be used if you’re confident the links could be hurting your ability to rank — otherwise, you can drastically harm your SEO efforts.

To assess link quality during your SEO audit, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the site seem completely irrelevant to your industry?
• Is there a significant amount of ads?
• Does the website feature “unsavory” content?
• Is the anchor text clearly spamming to get keywords into the link?

Don’t immediately disavow a link just because one of these tools says it has a lower Domain Authority or Domain Rating than yours. Relevancy is more important than these metrics.

Pro tip: Don’t pay to have your site listed somewhere for the purpose of increasing backlinks. You’ll almost definitely get caught and penalized. It’s not worth the short-term gains it might bring, so focus on links gained naturally by creating valuable content.

Common SEO audit mistakes

Many SEO audits miss key issues or fail to prioritize what actually impacts performance.

“A strong SEO audit isn’t just about identifying issues,” says Coultas. “It’s about properly prioritizing them.”

Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid so you get it right:

1. Focusing on surface-level issues

It’s easy to get distracted by minor fixes, like missing meta descriptions, while ignoring bigger problems like crawlability. Prioritize issues based on impact, not volume.

2. Ignoring indexation problems

Many audits fail to properly evaluate:

• Noindex tags accidentally applied
• Pages blocked in robots.txt
• Poor XML sitemap setup
• Orphaned pages not being discovered

A page that isn’t indexed by Google won’t rank, no matter how optimized it is.

3. Treating every page equally

Audits often fail to distinguish between:

• Revenue-driving pages (like product or service pages)
• Supporting content (blog posts)
• Low-value pages

4. Relying only on tools without manual review

SEO tools are helpful, but they shouldn’t be making decisions for you. A purely automated audit can miss:

• Content intent mismatches
• UX issues impacting engagement
• Pages that rank but don’t convert

“I’ve seen teams spend time addressing low-priority items simply because they ‘lowered an SEO score,’ while more meaningful technical, content, or conversion issues went unaddressed,” says Coultas.

“SEO tools can absolutely surface legitimate issues, but you need a strong understanding of what actually moves the needle in search results before deciding where to take action.”

5. Not connecting SEO issues to business impact

A long list of technical issues isn’t helpful unless it’s tied to outcomes like traffic, leads, or revenue. Strong audits translate problems into impact so business leaders know what actually matters.

SEO audit checklist

[PDF Downloads]

Technical SEO audit

Site crawl and crawlability

• Run a full site crawl using a tool like Screaming Frog
• Identify broken links and 404 errors
• Check for duplicate content issues
• Ensure pages are secure (HTTPS)
• Review robots.txt for crawl issues
• Identify redirect chains and redirect loops
• Review canonical tags for duplicate page management
• Check JavaScript and CSS rendering issues

Indexing

• Search site:yourdomain.com in Google to review indexed pages
• Identify pages that should not be indexed (staging pages, PPC landing pages, etc.)
• Ensure non-indexable pages contain “noindex” tags
• Use Google Search Console to remove unwanted indexed URLs if needed
• Identify important pages missing from Google’s index
• Review XML sitemaps for accuracy and completeness

Mobile usability

• Test mobile responsiveness across key pages
• Use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool
• Review pages using Google PageSpeed Insights
• Check for broken images or links on mobile devices
• Ensure responsive design works across screen sizes
• Review Core Web Vitals performance

Page speed and performance

• Test website load speed
• Identify large images or scripts slowing down pages
• Review Core Web Vitals metrics
• Use HubSpot Website Grader or PageSpeed Insights for optimization recommendations

On-page SEO audit 

Keyword Research

• Identify target keywords relevant to your audience
• Review existing keyword rankings in Google Search Console
• Analyze impressions, CTR, clicks, and average position
• Research keyword search volume and competition
• Analyze SERP features like:
  • People Also Ask
  • Featured Snippets
  • Related searches
• Evaluate search intent for priority keywords

User experience and engagement

• Review organic traffic performance in Google Analytics
• Analyze bounce rate
• Review pages per session
• Evaluate average session duration
• Identify high-performing and underperforming landing pages

Content

• Compile all blog and landing page URLs into a spreadsheet
• Review traffic trends over the past six months
• Analyze backlinks and keyword rankings for key pages
• Identify thin or low-value content
• Find duplicate or overlapping content topics
• Consolidate pages into pillar content where appropriate
• Refresh or expand outdated content
• Identify content gaps and optimization opportunities

HTML structure

• Ensure each page has a unique title tag
• Write compelling meta descriptions
• Include target keywords naturally in metadata
• Use one H1 tag per page
• Maintain a logical H2-H6 heading hierarchy
• Optimize image alt text
• Use descriptive image filenames
• Keep URLs short and descriptive
• Include primary keywords in URLs where appropriate

Internal linking

• Review existing internal links
• Identify high-value pages for strategic linking
• Use descriptive, keyword-informed anchor text
• Add contextual internal links within content
• Avoid generic anchor text like “click here”
• Limit excessive image-based linking
• Prioritize links to relevant internal pages over excessive homepage links

Off-page SEO audit

Backlink profile review

• Export backlink data from Ahrefs or Semrush
• Review backlink quality and relevance
• Identify spammy or low-quality backlinks
• Evaluate anchor text distribution
• Identify broken backlinks
• Compare backlink profile against competitors

Disavow spammy backlinks

• Review potentially harmful backlinks in Google Search Console
• Ask the following questions when evaluating links:
  • Is the linking site irrelevant to your industry?
  • Does the site contain excessive ads?
  • Does the site contain low-quality or “unsavory” content?
  • Does the anchor text appear manipulative or spammy?
• Disavow harmful backlinks only when necessary

The takeaway

Creating a thorough website SEO site audit report takes time, effort, and dedication; but you’ll gain in-depth insights to effectively optimize your site.

And by getting familiar with these tools, following best practices, and committing to regular website audits, you’ll start to see your organic rankings climb.

Need a little help along the way? Partnering with a digital marketing agency could be the right move.

At HawkSEM, our team of experts provide a free SEO audit to give you an idea of how we can elevate your marketing efforts and bring in a higher ROI. Reach out today.

This post has been updated and was originally published in February 2020.