How to Perform an SEO Audit – A Step-by-Step Checklist

Run a quick, easy audit of your top 5 pages to lock in the basics, validate indexability, and spot immediate risk. A concrete start like this creates a reliable baseline and builds trust with stakeholders by turning assumptions into numbers you can act on.

Next, assemble a proper checklist you can apply across domains, and use your preferred console. Take 60–90 minutes for the initial crawl, then schedule weeks worth of weekly checks to track progress. There is no need to wait weeks for results; begin with the basics and build from a solid data foundation. Focus on crawlability, indexing signals, canonical tags, and on-page elements: title, meta, headers, image alt text, and internal links. Use the tracker to separate issues by intention and impact, so you can act on what matters most.

Verify technical health: audit robots.txt rules, sitemap presence, 404s, redirect chains, and broken internal links. Ensure pages are properly consolidated with canonical tags and no conflicting directives. Check structured data, JSON-LD, and log-file insights to see which pages actually contribute to traffic. When visiting the site, note any utilise of lazy loading that could hamper indexability. The console reports from your SEO tool should align with the server logs so you can trust the numbers rather than guesswork.

Assess content quality against user intention and performance metrics. Identify gaps where content satisfies search intent but lacks internal links or context. Update unique meta descriptions, improve trust signals with clear author data, and optimize for indexability across pages. Use data from page performance and ranking trackers to prioritize fixes that yield the highest return in trust and rankings within weeks.

Document changes in a living SOP, keep a transparent log for stakeholders, and revisit the checklist every week or after major site changes. By focusing on utilise of best practices, you take action, and build a unique foundation for improving indexability and overall SEO health.

SEO Audit & Accessibility Tools 2025 Guide

Begin with an indexability assessment using a reputable crawler and Google Search Console to identify blocked pages, crawl errors, and also sitemap coverage; export results to an organised backlog for later remediation and to inform the product team.

Pair automated tests with human checks for accessibility: run Lighthouse and Axe for automated ARIA violations, use WAVE and Accessibility Insights for Web to visualise issues, and also verify keyboard navigation, skip links, and focus order.

Ensure the configuration supports both indexability and accessibility: verify robots.txt directives, confirm sitemap submission, check canonical tags, and validate structured data (JSON-LD) to support rich results.

Set CI checks and targets: configure Lighthouse CI or another tool to run on builds, essentially establishing thresholds for indexability signals and accessibility pass rates, and track optimised performance and optimisation across websites in your portfolio.

Prevent issues that harm reputation and invite lawsuits: fix alt text for all images, ensure proper heading structure, provide skip navigation for screen readers, and verify contrast ratios meet WCAG standards.

Measure progress with a data-driven workflow: establish a baseline, receive updates from stakeholders, and later compare results to prioritise fixes by impact on indexability, accessibility, and conversions.

Set Audit Scope, Goals, and KPIs

Decide the scope and KPIs up front: pick a period (60 days), map a profile of your high-traffic pages, and document what success looks like.

To understand current performance, create a baseline that covers traffic, impressions, ranking, loading, and index status, then decide which audiences or regions to prioritize.

Set suitable, foundational goals for that period: uplift core keyword rankings, improve landing-page engagement, and reduce loads and loading times across critical paths.

Define KPI categories: visibility (ranking, clicks, CTR), engagement (time on page, pages per visit), technical health (loads, LCP, CLS), and conversions (form submissions, signups). Use an idpd approach to structure actions: identify, document, plan, and do; whereas you keep integral metrics visible and tied to the site architecture.

Agree on cadence and governance: weekly checks, monthly reviews, clear owners, and a backlog of actions to drive improvements in ranking and user experience. Set thresholds to catch issues early and keep the plan just actionable.

Run a Full Crawl and Inventory with Your Preferred Tool

Run a full crawl with your preferred tool now to map every URL, type, and asset, building an entire inventory you can act on. This boosts your ability to understand crawlability, preserve privacy, and improve readability across pages. You’ll spot gaps there that block faster indexing and pinpoint risks before they harm google rankings.

1. Define scope and naming conventions

Specify the entire site you want to cover: all public pages, blog content, and media files. Use clear naming for each item: type (blog, page, category), status, and whether a page is dead or active. List every article and page with its name and path so the inventory remains easy to navigate during long-term reviews.

2. Configure crawl settings and privacy considerations

Set the crawling depth, limit concurrent threads, and choose the user-agent to reflect how google will fetch the site. Enable robots.txt checks, respect privacy-sensitive areas, and exclude login or storefront paths unless you need to audit them. Save a baseline so you can compare changes quickly over time.

3. Run the crawl and capture data fast

Execute the crawl on the full site, then monitor progress and throughput. For WordPress sites, include posts, pages, and custom post types without pulling admin screens. Capture status codes, canonical tags, internal links, and the total number of pages listed in the report.

4. Build a structured inventory

Export a sheet with fields: URL, name, type, status code, internal link count, inbound links, depth, last modified, and crawl date. Include there fields like whether a page is dead or redirected. This foundation helps you understand the current structure and plan targeted improvements.

5. Identify issues impacting user experience and crawlability

Look for 404s, redirect chains, duplicate content, and broken internal paths. Flag pages lacking internal links, orphaned entries, and pages with slow load times. Compare the inventory against your terms of service and privacy constraints to prevent exposing sensitive data.

6. Prioritize fixes with a practical plan

Rank issues by impact: high-traffic blog posts, category pages, and cornerstone articles first. For dead or mislinked pages, implement redirects or update internal links. For canonical or type mismatches, align tags and ensure the correct URL is indexed. Create a short-term sprint list and a long-term maintenance plan to keep the inventory fresh.

7. Document findings and set a cadence

Summarize key findings in a single article-like report. Include quick wins and longer-term tasks. Schedule periodic re-crawls to track progress, ensuring the set of pages remains up to date and the crawlability improves over time.

Check URL Hygiene: Duplicates, Redirects, Params, and Canonicals

Run a single crawl of the site to map URL forms across all domains and lock in a canonical version for every page. This early step helps improve indexability, user experience, and proper reporting, while establishing a clear track of changes for the team to follow.

Identify duplicates caused by trailing slashes, http vs https, and parameter variations, and resolve with 301 redirects to the chosen canonical URL. Validate that variants with or without query strings collapse to the same indexable URL, so you forget flaky variants and rely on consistent pages. Document the canonical decisions in your reporting and share with the team.

Audit redirect chains to keep them short (preferably under two hops) and eliminate loops. Use params management to decide on keep, redirect, or ignore for each query parameter, and map key values (utm_source, session, ref) to the canonical page or to a parameter-stripped version. Update robotstxt to guide crawlers away from unnecessary parameter-heavy paths where appropriate and align with your site architecture.

Place canonical tags on every page and verify they point to the designated primary version within the architecture. Ensure canonical links are accessible to search engines and the user alike, and avoid self-referencing loops that trigger unnatural signals. Keep the approach simple and structured to prevent confusion.

Operational practices include maintaining a structured workflow, reporting results in the console, and assigning tasks so the team can enter fixes quickly. Create clear ctas for content owners to implement changes, and set up a tracking board to capture an issue as it arises. Regular reporting shows proactive improvements in URL hygiene across forms and domains, and helps you verify that user experiences remain consistent. theyre ready to apply these practices and keep momentum without forgetting the key steps.

Assess Technical SEO: Robots.txt, XML Sitemap, Indexing, and Core Web Vitals

Make robots.txt accessible at the site root and set precise rules that block low-value paths while allowing the right critical sections; add the XML sitemap URL here to guide bots and reach search engines. This header-level setup is integral to controlling crawl, indexing, and building traffic across the whole house. Being clear about what to crawl reduces wasted resources and improves signal delivery to search engines.

Robots.txt checks: verify that the file is reachable with HTTP 200, not blocked by authentication, and free of syntax errors. Include a Sitemap directive that points to your sitemap.xml. Keep disallow rules targeted (for example, /private/ or /checkout/), while ensuring critical assets (like /, /category/, /product/) remain accessible. Place the file at example.com/robots.txt and test with a crawl tool to confirm the header and content are properly served. Also monitor for URLs returning 404 or 5xx errors, as those pages can be pulled down from indexing if not addressed.

XML Sitemap checks: ensure the sitemap lists only canonical URLs, uses the correct host, and includes lastmod for pages that change. If you publish images or video content, include image and video entries when you want them crawled. Submit the sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and keep it updated as you add or remove pages. Accessing the sitemap via the root (for example, https://example.com/sitemap.xml) makes it easier for reputable crawlers to receive a full map of your site. Addition of a sitemap index can help large sites stay organized.

Indexing checks: use Google URL Inspection to confirm whether pages are indexable and whether any noindex meta tags exist. Resolve canonical conflicts, improve internal linking to spread signals, and ensure that critical pages are discoverable even when JavaScript renders content. If a page relies on Javascript for content, consider server-side rendering or dynamic rendering for those pages so they show properly to crawlers. Avoid blocking important assets with robots.txt, because that slows access to page content and reduces reach. Look for pages marked as indexable and fix any misconfig that prevents them from appearing in search results.

Core Web Vitals checks: monitor LCP, CLS, and INP; set targets such as LCP under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1, and smooth interactivity. reduce render-blocking resources by inlining critical CSS, deferring non-critical JS, and splitting code with type-aware loading. Compress images, serve them in next-gen formats, and enable lazy loading for off-screen content. Use a reputable CDN, preconnect to essential origins, and implement proper caching to lower network latency. For video content, optimize hosting and streaming to keep the initial paint fast while delivering a good user experience across devices. Regularly review Core Web Vitals in PageSpeed Insights or the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and target weekly improvements. This approach delivers a better user experience and helps reach more traffic, while also encouraging sharing of results on linkedin to encourage transparency and accountability. On-page factors like Core Web Vitals work with off-page signals to influence reach.

Audit On-Page Elements and Content Quality: Titles, Meta Descriptions, H1s, and Alt Text

Audit titles first: ensure every page has a unique, keyword-front title tag under 60 characters. Place the primary keyword at the start, reflect user intent, and produce a crisp hook that catches attention. Spot issues- like duplicate titles across the blog; theres no reason to keep dead variants. Remove them to reduce confusion and the risk of a penalty.

For meta descriptions, craft unique 150-160 character summaries that accurately describe page content, entice clicks, and include a concrete benefit and a call to action. This copy gives attention and is a critical lever for engagement. Ensure there is a match between meta and page content across platforms, and tailor the copy to your niche audience.

H1s and headings: ensure each page has a single H1 that mirrors the intent. Keep it concise, include the main keyword near the front, and avoid reusing the same H1 across pages. Use a clean heading structure (H2–H6) to show the content hierarchy, showing quick scanning points for readers.

Alt text: fill alt attributes with descriptive, accessible text for all images. Keep length under 125 characters where possible, describe the visual, and incorporate keywords sparingly when relevant. Proper alt text helps screen readers and improves image indexing on platforms. Use alt text that communicates the image meaning to both humans and machines.

Content quality and depth: a critical uplift comes from reviewing some blog posts for depth, accuracy, and usefulness. Align topics with your niche, remove thin or redundant sections, and add in-depth details, data, or examples. Ensure existing content remains accurate over time and update outdated stats. A quick checkup of content quality helps reduce low-performing pages and shows measurable improvements in engagement.

Code and structure: verify HTML markup for headings, alt text, and structured data where applicable. Use clean code and fix broken or dead internal links. On-page signals feed into search rankings and accessibility; keep code lean and readable for developers and checkers that scan for issues quickly.

Implementation plan: create a versioned checklist, assign a hand of tasks to an experienced editor, and track changes in profiles or a shared doc. Use checkers to run in-depth scans across pages, detect issues- like dead links, missing alt text, and duplicate titles, and produce an action list you can execute within a few hours. This approach reduces the risk of penalty and raises page quality.

7 Best Automated Website Accessibility Testing Tools 2025

Begin with Axe Accessibility Checker by Deque as your baseline for automated checks. It integrates with CI, reports open results, and highlights issues- developers can fix in code quickly.

1. Axe Accessibility Checker (Deque)

   • What it is: a robust, rule-based engine (axe-core) for automated accessibility checks.
   • Platform/usage: browser extension, npm package, and CI plugins for automated scans.
   • Key results: violations, passes, and incomplete checks with a clear impact and location data.
   • How to perform: install npm i axe-core or use the extension, run in your test suite, and parse results. Example: const results = await axe.run(document);
   • Why it matters: particularly strong for early detection and fast fixes in the open codebase. Aligns with idpd guidelines for inclusive design.
   • How it helps: guides developers to fix focus, contrast, ARIA labels, and semantic HTML, improving user experience.
   • Tips for use: each project should wire a recurring check in CI, and track issues- against relevant pages in a single board.

2. Lighthouse (Google)

   • What it is: an all-in-one page audit tool with an accessibility category built into Chrome DevTools and CI workflows.
   • Platform/usage: Chrome, Lighthouse CI, Node tooling.
   • Key results: accessibility score, a11y failures, and per-rule details for quick prioritization.
   • How to perform: run npx lighthouse https://example.com --only-categories=accessibility and export JSON/HTML reports.
   • Why it matters: complements deeper checks by highlighting page-level issues and performance trade-offs.
   • Tips for use: review failures by element, fix in HTML/ARIA, then re-run to see scores improve across pages below the fold.

3. WAVE by WebAIM

   • What it is: visual accessibility evaluation with on-page indicators and an accessible review panel.
   • Platform/usage: web UI and browser extension; easy to share results with stakeholders.
   • Key results: color-coded issue indicators, with links to fixes and best-practice notes.
   • How to perform: run from the extension or site, review on-page flags, and download a report if needed.
   • Why it matters: excellent for designers and content creators to spot issues before handoff to development.
   • Tips for use: verify headings, alt text, form labels, and buttons; ensure CTAs are discoverable and accessible.

4. Accessibility Insights for Web (Microsoft)

   • What it is: a fast testing toolkit with automated checks, keyboard testing guidance, and screen reader tips.
   • Platform/usage: Chrome extension, web app; integrates with CI and GitHub Actions.
   • Key results: failures with clear fix steps, code references, and a FastPass option to validate changes.
   • How to perform: install the extension, run checks, and use fast paths to verify fixes in real time.
   • Why it matters: strong for PR reviews and developer-led remediation; exposes root causes for complex issues-
   • Tips for use: apply fixes to semantic HTML, ARIA labeling, and keyboard navigation; track progress as issues-

5. Tenon.io

   • What it is: API-driven accessibility testing with configurable rules and broad site coverage.
   • Platform/usage: API, CLI, and integrations with build systems and CMS workflows.
   • Key results: machine-readable JSON with detailed rule, selector, and code location data.
   • How to perform: call the Tenon API with a URL or HTML, parse JSON, and feed results into CI dashboards.
   • Why it matters: external pages and dynamic content get consistent coverage; supports idpd guidelines for inclusive design.
   • Tips for use: use keyword filters to focus on high-priority pages and map each issue to a remediation plan.

6. Siteimprove Accessibility Checker

   • What it is: a cloud platform combining accessibility checks with governance and content QA.
   • Platform/usage: CMS integrations, dashboards, scheduled scans, and exportable reports.
   • Key results: page-level scores, issue counts, severity, and trend data across the site.
   • How to perform: configure rules, run scans, and review the open results; export for stakeholder review.
   • Why it matters: combines accessibility with content quality insights; helps align meta-data and keyword strategy with accessibility goals.
   • Tips for use: track external links, verify button labels, and ensure CTAs meet accessibility criteria.

7. Monsido

   • What it is: an all-in-one platform for accessibility and SEO health, with continuous checks on pages and scripts.
   • Platform/usage: cloud-based with CMS integrations and team dashboards.
   • Key results: per-page issue lists, compliance scores, and historical trend data; external links flagged for issues-
   • How to perform: run a site-wide scan, review results in the dashboard, and apply fixes in batches.
   • Why it matters: keeps attention on both accessibility and on-page enhancements that influence rankings.
   • Tips for use: audit buttons and CTAs for keyboard operability; publish fixes with accessible language and labels.

Guide your workflow by scheduling weekly scans, mapping each issue to a page, and updating status in a central board. Track rankings and user-focused results to demonstrate progress; prioritize fixes that impact CTAs, button labels, and form controls to boost engagement and accessibility across external and internal pages.