How to Do an SEO Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide

Your traffic has flattened or dropped, and you’re not sure why. Maybe a competitor jumped ahead, maybe a site update broke something, or maybe your pages just aren’t as good as what now ranks. Guessing wastes time. An audit tells you what’s actually wrong.

This guide shows how to do an SEO audit for a small or mid-sized business website, step by step, using mostly free tools. You’ll finish with a clear, prioritized list of fixes instead of a 200-page report nobody reads.

Quick answer: To do an SEO audit, set a goal and collect baseline data, check Google Search Console for indexing and performance issues, crawl the site for technical errors, review speed and mobile, audit on-page SEO and content quality, check local SEO and backlinks, compare against competitors, then rank every issue by impact and effort and fix the biggest ones first.

How to Do an SEO Audit: What You Need First

You don’t need expensive software to learn how to do an SEO audit. For most small business sites, these are enough:

Set aside a few hours for a site with under 50 pages. Larger sites take longer.

Step 1: Set a Goal and Save Your Baseline

Start by writing down why you’re auditing. “Traffic dropped 30% since March” and “We want more quote requests from organic search” lead to different priorities.

Then save your “before” numbers. Google’s Performance report in Search Console shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position. It shows the past three months by default, but you can change the date range. Export the top queries and pages, plus organic sessions and conversions from GA4.

Step 2: Check Indexing in Search Console

If Google hasn’t indexed a page, nothing else matters for that page.

• Open the Page indexing report and look at why pages aren’t indexed
• Check that your key service and location pages are indexed
• Look for pages marked noindex, blocked by robots.txt or duplicates without a chosen canonical
• Check the Sitemaps report shows your sitemap was read successfully

A long list of “Discovered, currently not indexed” pages is common. My guide on fixing Discovered – currently not indexed explains what to do.

Step 3: Crawl the Site for Technical Errors

Run a crawl with Screaming Frog or a similar tool. Look for:

• 404 errors and broken internal links
• Redirect chains and redirects pointing to other redirects
• Missing, duplicate or overly long title tags and meta descriptions
• Missing or multiple H1 tags
• Pages with very little content
• Mixed http and https or www and non-www versions

For a full list of what to check, use my technical SEO checklist.

Step 4: Review Speed and Mobile Experience

Test your home page and top three service pages in PageSpeed Insights, on mobile first. Then open the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console to see site-wide problems.

Also use the site on your own phone. Can you find the phone number fast? Do buttons work? Does a pop-up hide the content? Real use often reveals problems that tools miss.

Step 5: Audit On-Page SEO

For each important page, check:

• Does it target one main keyword or topic?
• Is that keyword in the title tag, H1, URL and first paragraph?
• Is the meta description written to earn the click?
• Do headings break the page into clear sections?
• Do images have descriptive alt text?
• Does the page link to related pages on your site?

A useful shortcut: in Search Console, find pages with lots of impressions but a low click-through rate. Their titles and descriptions often need rewriting.

Step 6: Judge Content Quality

This is the part most audits skip. Google’s guide to creating helpful content suggests asking questions like “Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?” and whether it offers “substantial value when compared to other pages in search results.”

Search your main keywords and compare your page to the top three results honestly. Are they more complete, more current or more specific? Do they show real experience with photos, examples or case studies? Google’s guidance also says trust is the most important part of E-E-A-T, so check that your pages show who you are, your credentials and how to contact you.

Mark each page as keep, improve, merge or remove.

Step 7: Check Local SEO and Backlinks

For local businesses, audit your Google Business Profile: correct category, hours, photos, services and recent reviews. My local SEO checklist covers the rest.

For backlinks, Search Console’s Links report shows which sites link to you and your most linked pages. Look for broken pages that still have links pointing to them. Redirecting those to a relevant live page recovers lost value.

Step 8: Compare Against Competitors

Pick two or three competitors that outrank you for your main services. Compare:

• Which service and location pages they have that you don’t
• How detailed their pages are
• Their review count and rating on Google
• Whether they publish useful blog content

Gaps you find here often become your biggest opportunities.

Step 9: Prioritize and Build an Action Plan

An audit is only useful if it leads to action. Put every issue in your spreadsheet and score it:

Fix the “Fix now” list first, then work through the rest over the next few months. Track results against the baseline you saved in Step 1. A simple dashboard, like my Looker Studio SEO dashboard, makes that easy.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to do an SEO audit?

For a small business site with under 50 pages, a solid audit takes a few hours to a day. Larger sites, ecommerce stores or sites with many technical problems can take several days. Fixing the issues usually takes longer than finding them, so plan time for both.

How often should I do an SEO audit?

Do a full audit when you start working on SEO, after a redesign or migration and whenever traffic drops without a clear reason. Most small business sites benefit from a full audit once or twice a year, with a quick monthly check of Search Console in between.

Can I do an SEO audit myself?

Yes. Knowing how to do an SEO audit with free tools like Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and a crawler covers most issues on small sites. You may need help interpreting technical findings or fixing code-level problems like redirects, speed and structured data.

How much does a professional SEO audit cost?

Prices vary widely by site size and depth. My own SEO audit packages start at $99 for a technical audit with a prioritized fix list, $249 with up to 50 issues fixed and $449 for a complete audit with fixes and a 30-day follow-up. My guide to SEO audit service cost compares market prices.

What should an SEO audit report include?

A useful report includes your baseline numbers, a summary of the biggest problems, a prioritized list of fixes with the pages affected, and clear next steps. Skip reports with hundreds of warnings and no priorities. You should be able to act on the top five issues right away.

Final Thoughts

Now you know how to do an SEO audit: save your baseline, check indexing, crawl for errors, review speed, on-page SEO and content, look at local signals and competitors, then fix the highest-impact issues first. Repeat it once or twice a year and after any big site change.

If you’d rather have it done for you, my SEO audit and technical SEO service delivers a clear, prioritized fix list, or you can send me a message for a quick look at your site.