SEO Audit Checklist: The 30 Checks That Matter

1. Indexation & crawlability

• Is every important page indexed? Check Search Console’s coverage report, not a site: search.
• Any accidental noindex tags or robots.txt blocks on money pages?
• Does the XML sitemap exist, stay current, and contain only indexable URLs?
• Redirect chains and loops: anything beyond a single hop wastes crawl budget.
• Duplicate URLs: parameters, http/https, trailing slash variants all resolving separately?
• 404s that receive traffic or backlinks: recoverable equity leaking right now.

2. Technical performance

• Core Web Vitals: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1, measured on real field data. Thresholds explained in the Core Web Vitals guide.
• Mobile rendering: does the page actually work on a phone, not just shrink?
• HTTPS everywhere, with no mixed-content warnings.
• Image formats: WebP over PNG/JPEG, dimensions set, lazy loading below the fold.
• Render-blocking scripts and unused CSS delaying first paint.
• Schema markup: present, valid, and matching the visible content.

3. On-page optimization

• One H1 per page, containing the primary keyword.
• Title tags: unique, under 60 characters, keyword plus a reason to click.
• Meta descriptions: unique, under 160 characters, written as sales copy.
• Heading hierarchy that actually structures the content, not styled at random.
• Keyword cannibalization: two pages fighting for one query means both lose.
• Image alt text: descriptive, keyword-aware where natural.

4. Content & keywords

• Does each page target one clear search intent? Mixed intent ranks for nothing.
• Is the answer above the fold, or buried under 400 words of throat-clearing?
• Thin pages: anything indexed that adds no value dilutes the whole domain.
• Content freshness: pages older than 12-16 months reviewed and updated.
• E-E-A-T signals: author attribution, sources cited, real experience visible. How Google weighs this is covered in how Google ranks pages.
• AI search readiness: extractable answers, FAQ coverage, consistent brand facts.

5. Authority & links

• Internal linking: does every important page receive links, and does supporting content funnel to money pages?
• Orphan pages: content with zero internal links pointing at it is invisible.
• Backlink profile: referring domains trend, toxic link check, anchor distribution.
• Competitor gap: who outranks you, and which of their signals can you realistically match?
• Brand mentions across the stable sources AI engines cite for your niche.
• Local (if applicable): Google Business Profile completeness and NAP consistency.

The part free tools cannot do

Run this checklist with Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and a free crawler and you will find 50+ issues. The hard question is which three matter this quarter. A slow site with perfect titles needs speed work; a fast site with cannibalized keywords needs content surgery. Prioritization by business impact is the entire difference between a data dump and an audit, and it is what the $299 audit actually sells: this checklist, executed manually, prioritized for your specific situation, explained on a call.