Today, we’re going to guide you step by step through a complete SEO audit, without any of the overwhelm that usually comes with it. This is the exact method that helped us increase our organic traffic by 30% in 2025, proving its effectiveness in real-world SEO.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced marketer, this checklist breaks down every step into clear, actionable guidance. By following it, you’ll learn how to identify technical issues, optimize your content, improve user experience, and strengthen your site’s authority.

If your goal is to climb higher in Google rankings, attract more targeted visitors, and maximize your online visibility, this SEO audit guide will give you everything you need to start seeing measurable results quickly.

What is an SEO audit?

An SEO audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your website’s performance in search engines. It identifies areas where your site excels, as well as opportunities and issues that may be limiting your visibility, traffic, and conversions.

The goal of an SEO audit is to provide actionable insights that help improve your website’s search engine rankings, user experience, and overall digital presence. A thorough audit examines multiple aspects of your site, including:

• Technical SEO: Site speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, indexing, structured data, and site architecture.
• On-Page SEO: Content quality, keyword optimization, headings, internal linking, and meta tags.
• Off-Page SEO: Backlink profile, referring domains, and competitor analysis.
• User Experience (UX): Page layout, readability, navigation, and engagement metrics.

By conducting an SEO audit, businesses can uncover hidden issues, prioritize improvements, and develop a clear roadmap for optimizing their website. Regular audits ensure that your site remains competitive and aligned with the latest search engine algorithms and user expectations.

Review Your Organic Traffic

Since you’re optimizing for search engines, it’s essential to know how much organic traffic they’re sending your way.

To check this, open Google Analytics.

Go to “Reports” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic acquisition.”

In Google Analytics, navigate to the Channels report and locate “Organic Search” under the primary channel group. This shows traffic from search engines, helping you accurately measure your SEO performance.

You can change the date range in Google Analytics to analyze your organic traffic trends over weeks, months, or even years, helping you understand performance patterns and identify growth opportunities.

Before proceeding, find the pages generating the most clicks from Google. Use the “Performance” report in Google Search Console to see which pages attract the highest search traffic.

Then, switch to the “Pages” tab to see a detailed list of your site’s top-performing pages based on clicks and impressions.

Knowing which pages perform well—and which need improvement—helps you prioritize efforts during and after your SEO audit.

If your organic traffic is flat or declining, don’t stress. This step is simply about setting benchmarks.

The main purpose of this SEO audit is to boost your website’s overall performance.

Perform a Complete Site Crawl

Performing a website crawl is the quickest way to collect detailed data on every page of your site.

A crawl can reveal insights about your website’s:

• Crawlability
• Loading speed
• Internal linking
• Structured data
• On-page SEO

…and much more.

We’ll dive deeper into some of these areas later in this guide, but running a site crawl is an efficient way to evaluate multiple aspects at once.

To do this, you can use several tools available, such as Screaming Frog.

It provides insights into elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and images, while also helping you spot broken links and understand your site’s structure in depth.

Although it’s a paid tool, you can audit up to 500 URLs for free.

Ahref is another strong option. It’s a comprehensive SEO suite with a built-in Site Audit tool for comprehensive website evaluations, not just crawling.

This tool checks your site for over 140 potential issues, including performance problems, internal linking gaps, and international SEO factors.

To start your crawl, enter your domain name and select “Start Audit.”

Next, configure your crawler settings. Set crawl limits, select user agents, and schedule automated site audits.

This helps you catch potential issues early and protect your organic search performance over time.

The “Overview” tab displays your site’s overall health, including the total number of errors, warnings, and notices.

Click the linked numbers under each section to view detailed information.

Review and fix each issue to improve your website’s performance. You can also select “Why and how to fix it” or “Learn more” for guidance on resolving each problem.

Strengthen Your On-Page SEO

On-page SEO plays a major role in search performance.

That said, optimizing every page at once isn’t realistic. And that’s okay.

Instead, start by identifying your five most important pages. These might be pages that:

• Target a high-value keyword
• Receive less traffic than they once did
• Already rank well but could realistically reach the top five results

If time is extremely limited, concentrate on these five actions:

• Place your target keyword in the title tag
• Add the keyword within the first 100 words
• Include at least five external links
• Add five or more internal links (covered in the next step)
• Use helpful, SEO-optimized images

To track progress, you can use a tool like Ahref’s Rank Tracker to monitor keyword positions and changes in the SERPs over time.

Optimize Your Internal Linking

Internal linking is one of the most underrated SEO strategies on the planet, yet it has a powerful impact on how search engines crawl, understand, and prioritize your most important pages.

The question is:

How do you internal link the right way?

It’s simple:

Make sure you consistently link to your highest-priority pages throughout your site.

But:

Don’t limit links to only the pages you personally consider most important. Ideally, every page on your site should have at least one relevant internal link pointing to it from another page.

This approach helps prevent “orphaned pages,” making it easier for search engines to crawl your site and for users to discover your content naturally.

There’s no fixed rule for how many internal links to include, but aiming for five or more per page is a strong starting point, as long as each link is contextually relevant.

In practice, you’ll often add far more than this. For example, in one of our other posts, we included three useful internal links placed close together within a single section.

As long as your internal links are relevant and provide real value to the reader, they’re always worth including on your pages.

Adding these links also helps minimize your website’s crawl depth, sometimes called click depth, which refers to the number of clicks it takes for a user—or a search engine bot—to reach any page from your homepage.

Ideally, you want to keep this crawl depth to three clicks or fewer, at least for your most important content, ensuring both users and search engines can easily access your key pages.

You can easily check for pages buried more than three clicks deep by using the Semrush Site Audit tool, which highlights crawl depth issues across your site.

UX Signal Optimization for Search Performance

Optimizing for user experience (UX) signals means designing and improving your website to encourage positive user interactions. While Google may not rely on clicks alone to rank pages, UX signals play a crucial role in helping ranking systems understand whether a page satisfies search intent.

A strong UX starts with fast-loading pages. Slow websites increase bounce rates and reduce engagement, signaling that users are not finding immediate value. Optimizing images, minimizing scripts, and using efficient hosting can significantly improve load speed.

Content relevance and clarity are equally important. Pages should directly address the user’s query, present information in a logical structure, and use clear headings, short paragraphs, and readable fonts. When users quickly find what they are looking for, they are more likely to stay longer and explore further.

Mobile usability is another critical factor. With mobile-first indexing, websites must be fully responsive, easy to navigate on smaller screens, and free from intrusive elements that disrupt the user experience.

Improving engagement signals such as time on page, scroll depth, and interaction with internal links can also indicate that content is meeting user needs. Clear calls to action, helpful internal linking, and intuitive navigation encourage users to move naturally through the site.

Ultimately, optimizing for UX signals aligns your website with Google’s goal of delivering the most helpful results. A user-focused approach not only supports SEO performance but also builds trust, satisfaction, and long-term value for your audience.

Optimizing Content for AI Overviews and Featured Snippets

Featured snippets and AI Overviews often appear above—or alongside—the traditional blue search results, making them highly visible and valuable positions in search. Optimizing for these features requires a deliberate content and technical strategy.

Identify queries that trigger snippets or AI Overviews

Start by searching your priority keywords in an incognito window. Note where Google displays a featured snippet, an AI Overview, or both. Prioritize keywords where your page already ranks within the top 5–10 results but is not yet shown as the primary answer or cited source. These opportunities are typically the easiest wins.

Add clear answer blocks under question-based headings

For each target query, create an H2 or H3 that closely matches how users phrase their searches, such as “What is technical SEO?” or “How do you perform a site audit?” Directly below the heading, include a concise, plain-language answer of around 40–60 words. This structure aligns well with traditional featured snippets and mirrors how AI Overviews summarize content.

Use clean, scannable content structure

Where appropriate, break down information into numbered steps, short bullet lists, or simple comparison tables. Clear structure makes it easier for Google to extract paragraphs, lists, or tables for snippets, and helps AI systems identify the most relevant sections to summarize.

Strengthen page quality and authority signals

Ensure your key pages clearly demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness. This includes visible authorship, author bios, references to credible sources, original data, and practical examples. Google’s AI-driven features rely on the same helpful, reliable, people-first content principles as standard search, so strong E-E-A-T increases the likelihood of being cited or linked.

Support Q&A content with relevant schema markup

When it fits naturally, apply structured data such as FAQPage, HowTo, or QAPage around your question-and-answer sections. While schema is not a guarantee for AI Overviews, it helps search engines better interpret your content and can support eligibility for both snippets and AI-generated summaries.

Ensure content is crawlable and indexable

All optimization efforts depend on Google being able to access and understand your pages. Confirm that important content is indexable, mobile-friendly, loads reliably, and is not blocked by robots.txt rules or noindex tags. AI features are built on the same index and quality systems as traditional search, so strong technical fundamentals remain essential.

By consistently applying these steps to your highest-value pages, you are not simply chasing “position zero.” Instead, you are creating content that is structured, authoritative, and accessible—exactly what featured snippets and AI Overviews need to surface your site when answering user questions.

Page Rendering Checks for Search Visibility

Rendering is a key stage in the process Google uses to analyze and understand your page content. It helps Google determine whether a page should be indexed and, if so, how it may rank in search results.

This step takes place after crawling, once Google has discovered the page and fetched its resources. During rendering, Google processes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other elements to see the page as a user would. Only after successful rendering can Google fully evaluate the visible content, layout, and functionality of the page.

Rendering involves Google processing your page as a user’s browser would, including JavaScript execution. JavaScript enhances webpages by adding interactivity and dynamic functionality beyond basic HTML.

If JavaScript issues exist, Google—and potentially users—may not be able to view or interact with your pages correctly. Common problems include missing content, broken review sections, or interactive elements such as buttons and filters that fail to load or function as intended.

To verify how Google renders your pages, use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool. Test an individual page and then select the “View Tested Page” option. This lets you view a rendered screenshot that shows precisely how Google interprets and displays your page content.

Regularly checking rendered pages helps identify visibility and usability issues early, ensuring that both search engines and users can access your content as intended.

Ensuring Mobile-Friendly Website Performance

Mobile SEO is a critical part of any comprehensive SEO audit.

First, mobile devices now account for nearly 55% of global web traffic, making mobile performance essential for reaching and retaining users.

Second, Google has fully transitioned to mobile-first indexing, completing the rollout in 2023. This means Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website to evaluate content, relevance, and ranking potential. If your site underperforms on mobile, it can directly impact visibility across all devices.

This means Google now relies on the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking across both mobile and desktop search results.

How can you tell if your site is mobile-friendly?

Google previously offered a dedicated mobile-friendliness testing tool, but this was discontinued in 2023. As a result, site owners now need to rely on alternative methods to evaluate mobile usability.

One effective option is PageSpeed Insights, which provides mobile performance data along with usability insights that help identify issues affecting mobile users.

here are some practical ways to improve your site’s mobile friendliness:

Use a responsive design

Ensure your website adapts smoothly to different screen sizes and functions correctly on mobile devices. If you use a CMS such as WordPress, many modern themes are responsive by default, but they should still be tested across devices.

Create mobile-friendly content

Write short sentences and concise paragraphs to improve readability on smaller screens. Make sure calls to action are clear, and that buttons, menus, and interactive elements are easy to tap and navigate without zooming.

Use high-quality, mobile-optimized images

All images and graphics should appear sharp and clear on mobile screens. Avoid text-heavy images, as small text can be difficult to read on mobile devices. Instead, keep important text in HTML where it scales naturally across screen sizes.

Making Sure Your Pages Are Indexed Correctly in Google

Did you know it’s possible to have different versions of your site indexed separately in Google?

It’s true—and it can create serious SEO problems if not addressed. For example, the same website might exist under these four variations:

• http://yoursite.com
• https://yoursite.com
• http://www.yoursite.com
• https://www.yoursite.com

To many users, these URLs appear identical. But to Google, each version is considered a completely separate website. If multiple versions are indexed, your site’s authority can be split, leading to lower rankings and diluted SEO value.

The good news is that this is easy to check and fix. Simply type each version of your URL into a browser. All four should automatically redirect to a single, canonical URL—usually the HTTPS version with or without “www,” depending on your preference.

Ensuring proper redirection consolidates ranking signals, improves user experience, and prevents duplicate content issues. This step is essential for maintaining a clean, well-indexed site that performs optimally in search results.

In our case, the “www” version of the site automatically redirects to jdmwebtechnologies.com. This is an example of proper URL consolidation, ensuring that all traffic and ranking signals point to a single canonical version of the site. Proper redirection like this helps prevent duplicate content issues and strengthens overall SEO performance.

Speed Up Your Website for Better User Experience

Website speed is a critical factor for both user experience and SEO performance. Google uses Core Web Vitals—a set of metrics that measure page load performance, interactivity, and visual stability—to evaluate how users experience your site. Optimizing these metrics not only improves rankings but also reduces bounce rates and increases engagement.

The three Core Web Vitals are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how quickly the main content of a page loads. Aim for LCP under 2.5 seconds to ensure users see meaningful content quickly.
• First Input Delay (FID): Measures interactivity and responsiveness. A fast FID (less than 100 milliseconds) ensures users can interact with buttons, forms, and menus without delays.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability. Low CLS prevents elements from unexpectedly shifting while the page loads, avoiding frustrating user experiences.

To improve these metrics:

• Optimize images and media: Compress images, use next-gen formats (like WebP), and implement lazy loading.
• Minimize JavaScript and CSS blocking: Reduce unused code and defer non-critical scripts to improve load times.
• Use fast hosting and caching: A reliable server and proper caching can drastically reduce page load times.
• Leverage content delivery networks (CDNs): CDNs deliver content faster by using servers closer to users.

Regularly monitoring and optimizing Core Web Vitals ensures your site delivers a fast, smooth, and reliable experience—benefiting both users and search engine rankings.

Audit and Delete Zombie Pages to Boost SEO

To identify how Google indexes your site, type site:yourwebsite.com into the Google search bar. This search operator displays all pages that Google currently has indexed for your domain.

This search will show you how many pages Google has indexed for your website. To view the total number more clearly, you may need to click the “Tools” button below the search bar and check the results count.

If the number of pages Google has indexed for your site is higher than you expected, you’re not alone.

In fact, many websites often have 50–75% more indexed pages than they anticipate. These extra pages are commonly referred to as “Zombie Pages.” While they may have served a purpose at one point, over time, these pages become outdated, irrelevant, or low-value.

Zombie Pages are problematic because they don’t drive meaningful traffic, don’t provide value to users, and yet they consume your site’s crawl budget. Google has limited resources it allocates to crawling your site. When zombie pages take up space in the index, they can prevent your high-quality, essential pages from being discovered or re-crawled efficiently.

Some of the most common types of Zombie Pages include:

• Irrelevant archive pages: These pages may be automatically generated or outdated, offering little to no value to visitors.
• Empty category and tag pages: Especially common on WordPress sites, these pages may exist without meaningful content, confusing both users and search engines.
• Internal search result pages: While helpful for navigation, these pages often create thin, duplicate, or low-value content that shouldn’t be indexed.
• Old press releases: Press releases that are no longer relevant can clutter your site and dilute your overall content quality.
• Thin content pages: Pages with minimal text or superficial information rarely attract traffic and can negatively affect your SEO performance.

Identifying and removing zombie pages is a critical part of maintaining a healthy, SEO-friendly website. By consolidating or deleting low-value pages, you can ensure that Google indexes your most crucial content more efficiently, improving overall search performance.

Additionally, cleaning up zombie pages improves the user experience. Visitors are more likely to engage with relevant, high-quality content rather than encountering outdated or empty pages. Regular audits to identify these pages are an essential practice for any long-term SEO strategy.

Indexing Audit: Find and Correct Crawl Issues

Next, it’s time to identify the webpages that Google isn’t indexing.

To do this, go to Google Search Console and navigate to the “Pages” report under the “Indexing” section. This report gives you a clear overview of which pages are successfully indexed and which are facing issues.

The Pages report in Google Search Console provides detailed information about pages that Google hasn’t indexed.

For each issue listed—such as Crawled – currently not indexed, Discovered – currently not indexed, or Blocked by robots.txt—you can click into the specific category to view a full list of affected pages.

This makes it easy to identify which pages are facing indexing problems and understand the underlying reasons. Once you know which pages are affected, you can take targeted actions to resolve the issues, ensuring that your important content becomes discoverable by Google and appears in search results.

However, to prevent sending your visitors to these unindexed or problematic pages, it’s important to take corrective action in the next step. This ensures that users only encounter fully functional, relevant pages while helping maintain a clean and SEO-friendly site structure.

Fix Broken Links to Improve SEO Performance

A decade ago, Google publicly stated that it didn’t “lose sleep” over broken links. At the time, broken links were considered more of a user experience issue than a direct ranking factor. While Google may not penalize sites for occasional dead links, broken links can still negatively impact SEO by frustrating users, wasting crawl budget, and reducing the overall authority of your site.

That said, broken links can negatively impact user experience, and poor UX can indirectly harm your SEO performance. Visitors encountering dead links may leave your site, increasing bounce rates and reducing engagement metrics—both of which are signals that search engines may consider.

To address this, it’s important to identify and fix broken links on your website. One simple option is to use a free tool like Broken Link Check, which scans your site for dead links and provides a detailed report of URLs that need attention.

Once broken links are identified, you can fix them by:

• Updating the link to point to a correct, relevant page.
• Redirecting the URL if the linked page has been moved or deleted.
• Removing the link entirely if it no longer provides value to users.

Regularly monitoring and fixing broken links ensures a smooth user experience, preserves your site’s credibility, and helps search engines crawl and index your content more effectively.

Analyzing and Auditing Your Backlink Profile

There’s no doubt about it: backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors in SEO.

In fact, our analysis of 11.8 million search results revealed a striking trend: the page ranked #1 in Google had 3.8 times more backlinks than pages ranking in positions 2 through 10. This highlights just how powerful a strong backlink profile can be for improving search visibility and outranking competitors.

Backlinks not only signal trust and authority to search engines but also drive referral traffic and increase overall brand visibility. Maintaining a healthy, high-quality backlink profile is therefore essential for both SEO performance and long-term growth.

Now it’s time to analyze your own backlink profile to understand the strength and quality of the links pointing to your site.

Here’s how to get started:

1.                Enter your domain into a backlink analysis tool.

For this step, we’re using Ahrefs’ Backlink Analytics tool, which provides a comprehensive overview of all backlinks pointing to your website. Other tools, such as SEMrush, Moz, or Majestic, can also deliver similar insights.

2.                Review the backlink report.

Once your domain is analyzed, you’ll receive a detailed report showing:

1.                Total number of backlinks

2.                Referring domains