How do you do an SEO audit?

8 June 2026 · By John Carlsson

Start by checking that search engines can crawl and index your pages, using Google Search Console. Then review each page's title, description and headings, check content quality, look at site structure and internal links, fix broken links and redirect chains, and track your current keyword rankings. Fix crawling problems before anything else.

An SEO audit involves systematically reviewing your website to identify issues affecting search visibility. Start by examining how search engines crawl and index your site. Review on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and heading structure. Assess content quality and relevance. Look at site architecture and internal linking. Check status codes and redirects. Monitor current keyword rankings.

Step 1 of an SEO audit: crawlability and indexation

Before anything else in an SEO audit, confirm that search engines can actually access and index your pages correctly. Use Google Search Console to check the Pages report (formerly called Coverage) for errors — pages returning 404s, pages being blocked by robots.txt, pages marked noindex when they shouldn't be. If a page can't be crawled or indexed, everything else you do to optimise it is irrelevant. Fix crawlability issues first, before any content or structural work.

Step 2: On-page and content review

Once you've confirmed search engines can access your pages, review what those pages actually say and how they say it. Every important page should have a unique title tag (typically 50-60 characters) and a unique meta description (around 150-160 characters) that accurately describe the page's content. Check that headings follow a logical hierarchy (one H1, H2s for main sections, H3s for subsections). Review whether your content genuinely answers the questions users are asking when they find your pages.

Step 3: Technical performance and links

Page speed directly affects both search rankings and how long visitors stay once they arrive — a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load on a phone loses a significant proportion of visitors before they've even read a word. Check Core Web Vitals scores in Search Console. Audit your internal links to confirm your most important pages receive links from other pages on your site. Check for broken links both internally and to external sites, and confirm that any redirects are working correctly and not chained unnecessarily.

Key Takeaways

Fix crawlability first — no other optimisation matters if pages can't be indexed.
Every important page needs a unique, accurate title and meta description.
Page speed and internal linking are both direct ranking factors.

Frequently asked questions

What should you check first in an SEO audit?

Start with crawlability and indexation. Before anything else, confirm that search engines can actually access and index your pages correctly. Use Google Search Console to check the Pages report (formerly called Coverage) for errors, such as pages returning 404s, pages blocked by robots.txt, or pages marked noindex when they should not be. If a page cannot be crawled or indexed, everything else you do to optimise it is irrelevant. Fixing crawlability issues first, before any content or structural work, ensures the rest of your audit effort is spent on pages that can actually appear in search results.

What are the ideal title tag and meta description lengths?

In an SEO audit, every important page should have a unique title tag, typically 50 to 60 characters, and a unique meta description of around 150 to 160 characters, both accurately describing the page's content. Alongside these, check that headings follow a logical hierarchy, with one H1, H2s for main sections and H3s for subsections. You should also review whether the content genuinely answers the questions users are asking when they find your pages. Duplicate or inaccurate titles and descriptions make it harder for search engines to understand what each page is about.

How does page speed affect an SEO audit?

Page speed directly affects both search rankings and how long visitors stay once they arrive. A page that takes more than 3 seconds to load on a phone loses a significant proportion of visitors before they have read a word. During an audit, check Core Web Vitals scores in Search Console. The same stage should include auditing internal links to confirm your most important pages receive links from other pages on your site, checking for broken internal and external links, and confirming that redirects work correctly and are not chained unnecessarily.