How to do a basic SEO audit
Covered here
- The checks every basic SEO audit includes
- How to run a free site scan
- How to prioritize what to fix first
Short answer
An SEO audit is a health check of your website for search engines. A basic audit covers three areas: technical issues, on-page issues, and off-page signals. Run a free site scan, check Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, then review your key pages. Fix problems that block indexing first, then the issues on your most important pages.
What an SEO audit is
An SEO audit finds what stops your site from ranking. It is like a checkup at the doctor: you look for problems before they get worse.
This lesson brings together everything from Modules 2 and 4. A basic audit takes one to two hours for a small site.
Step 1: Run a free site scan
Opens SiteAuditLint in a new tab. It lists broken links, missing tags, and redirect issues.
A site scan crawls your website like a search engine bot and lists issues automatically.
Enter your domain on SiteAuditLint. The scan finds broken links, missing titles and descriptions, duplicate titles, missing H1s, missing alt text, and redirect issues.
Step 2: Check search engine tools
- Google Search Console: Page indexing report, Core Web Vitals report, and any manual actions or security issues
- Bing Webmaster Tools: Site Scan, SEO Reports, and crawl errors
Step 3: Work through the audit checklist
Technical checks
On-page checks (for your top five pages)
Off-page checks
Step 4: Prioritize what to fix
You will find many issues. Fix them in this order:
| Priority | Type of issue | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Critical | Blocks indexing or the whole site | Disallow: / in robots.txt, noindex on key pages, site down, no HTTPS |
| 2. High | Hurts your most important pages | Missing titles, broken links in menus, slow homepage |
| 3. Medium | Affects many pages a little | Missing alt text, short descriptions |
| 4. Low | Small polish | Minor redirect chains, long URLs on old posts |
Write your findings in a simple sheet: issue, page, priority, fix, and date fixed.
How often to audit
Run a full basic audit every three months, and a quick scan every month. Always audit after a redesign, a platform move, or a big drop in traffic.
Quick quiz
Common mistakes
- Trying to fix everything at once. Follow the priority order.
- Trusting one tool score. Tool scores guide you, but search engines do not use them.
- Auditing only the homepage. Check your top pages too.
- Not recording fixes. A log helps you see what improved results.
Your action
Key terms
- SEO audit
- A review of a website to find issues that affect search visibility.
- Site scan (site crawl)
- An automated check that crawls a site and lists issues.
- Manual action
- A penalty applied by a Google reviewer for breaking its rules.
- Priority
- How urgently an issue should be fixed.
Questions beginners ask
Do I need paid tools for an audit?
No. Free tools like SiteAuditLint, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and PageSpeed Insights cover the basics.
Should I hire someone for an audit?
For a small site, you can do a basic audit yourself with this checklist. Larger or older sites often benefit from an expert review.
Want someone to handle SEO for your business while you learn? The team at Remar Digital can help.