Free SEO audit checklist

A 404 or a soft 404 cannot rank.

Open the URL. Confirm the status is 200 and the body is the page, not a theme error.

A noindex tag keeps the URL out of Google even when the rest of the page is fine.

View source and search for noindex. Remove it on pages you want in the index.

A disallow line can stop the crawl before Google reads the page.

Test the path for Googlebot and read the matching line.

A canonical that points elsewhere tells Google to prefer the other URL.

If this URL should be the one in Google, the canonical should match it.

Mixed or insecure URLs split signals and look dated.

The homepage and the internal links should use https.

Chains waste crawl and leak a little equity at each step.

The first response should land on the final URL in one redirect.

A sitemap is a hint, not a guarantee, but a missing URL is a clue.

Open the sitemap and search for the path. Remove URLs you do not want indexed.

The page can look fine and still be excluded.

Inspect the URL. Read the coverage reason before you change the page.

Depth hides pages.

Count the clicks from the homepage. Important services should be one or two clicks away.

A page only reachable from the sitemap is a weak page.

Crawl the internal links, or look at the pages Search Console never shows.

Click here teaches Google nothing.

Use the service or the topic in the link. Do not stuff the same phrase on every page.

A footer full of cities looks like a doorway set.

Link the real hubs. Put city pages in a sensible list, not fifty identical lines.

Infinite scroll with no links hides the later pages.

Older posts and products need real hrefs, not only a button that loads JavaScript.

Duplicate titles make Google choose for you.

Write a title for this page. Check the width. Google does not publish an official pixel limit.

Google may rewrite it. A description you wrote is still the sentence you want.

Say what the page offers and who it is for. Skip the keyword list.

Themes often print the logo or the title as a second H1.

View the page and count H1s. Keep one that names the page.

The opening text is what a person and a crawler read first.

Say the service and the place, if there is a place, in normal sentences.

Empty alt on a photo of the work wastes the image.

Describe the image. Leave decorative icons empty on purpose.

A dead end makes the visitor and the crawler stop.

Add two or three links to related services, locations, or guides.

A service page will not satisfy a how-to search.

Read the top results. Match the job the searcher is trying to finish.

A rewrite of the top three articles does not add a source.

Add prices, process, photos, or a constraint from the real work.

A heading and two sentences is not a page.

If the URL exists, give it the explanation a customer needs, or remove it.

They compete with each other.

Pick one URL. Fold the other in, or point a canonical at the winner.

An old price or an old process erodes trust.

Update the sentence. Do not change the date and leave the text.

A slow page loses people before they read it.

Run the URL in PageSpeed. Fix the item it names first, not a random plugin.

A 4000 pixel photo in a 600 pixel slot is the usual LCP problem.

Export the size you display. Prefer a modern format.

A late font shifts the layout.

Preload the one font you need. Do not load a family you never use.

Chat, heatmaps, and tags often cost more than the theme.

Remove the ones nobody reads. Load the rest after the page is usable.

The name, URL, and logo should agree with the visible page.

One graph, one name. Do not publish two different phone numbers.

A trailing comma makes the whole block useless.

Paste it into a validator. Fix the error it names.

Hidden questions are a bad idea.

Only mark up questions the page actually shows.

Google removed HowTo documentation on 14 September 2023.

Keep the steps in the HTML. Do not expect a HowTo rich result.

Without it, the phone shows a desktop page shrunk down.

The head should include width=device-width.

Tiny links next to each other get mis-taps.

Give primary buttons space. Do not stack three text links on one line.

Grey 12px text fails people and fails the page.

Use a size you can read on your own phone.

Small differences create two identities.

Pick one spelling and use it on the site, the profile, and the citations.

A single page that lists 20 cities is weak.

Give a real location its own URL, with the address in the HTML.

The schema address should be the address on the page.

Do not copy the head office onto every city page.

A map of the wrong city is a common copy-paste.

Open the embed and confirm the pin.

The anchor and the name on your site should match.

Search the brand. Fix the profiles that use an old name.

Most sites have some junk. Disavow is rare.

List the ones that are clearly paid or hacked. Ignore the rest until you have a manual action.

The gap is specific pages, not a score.

Open three results. Note what they have that you do not.

A mention without a link is still a mention. A link is better.

Ask for the link when the relationship is real. Do not blast a template.

Text that appears only after JavaScript is easy to miss.

View source. If the paragraph is missing, render it on the server.

Blocking a search bot can keep you out of that answer.

Decide training versus search. Do not block Googlebot by accident.

Three spellings look like three businesses.

Use one name in the title, the H1, and the schema.

Some tools read it. Major answer engines have not confirmed they use it.

Add it if it is easy. Do not treat it as the strategy.

This is the source for queries, pages, and index coverage.

Verify the domain property if you can. Submit the sitemap.

A tag that fires twice, or not at all, ruins the story.

Check a landing page in realtime, then in the organic channel the next day.

Traffic without a conversion is a vanity chart.

Mark the form, the call, or the order. Check that it fires once.