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SEO audit checklist: 24 checks, with free tools to test them

Work through this list to find what is holding a website back in search. Each check says why it matters and links to a free tool that tests it. Start with the High ones.

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By the SEOSage team. Updated October 2026.

Jump to: Crawling and indexing · Redirects and errors · On-page basics · Links and site structure · Structured data and languages · Speed and security · Questions

Crawling and indexing

If search engines cannot reach a page or are told to skip it, nothing else about the page matters.

Important pages are not blocked by robots.txt
A blocked page cannot be crawled, so it cannot earn its place in search.
Test it: Robots.txt tester
High
No page is set to noindex by mistake
A stray noindex tag or header takes a page out of search.
Test it: Noindex checker
High
The XML sitemap lists only live, indexable pages
A sitemap full of errors and redirects wastes crawl time and sends mixed signals.
Test it: Sitemap checker
Medium
Each page has the right canonical tag
The canonical tag says which version of a page to keep. A wrong one can hide the page you want found.
Test it: Free page check, SEOSage canonical checks
Medium
The site loads on one address only (https, one host)
If http, https, www and non-www all load, search engines see copies of your site.
Test it: Redirect chain checker
High
No orphan pages
A page that no other page links to is hard for visitors and crawlers to find.
Test it: SEOSage link checks
Medium

Redirects and errors

Broken pages and long redirect trails frustrate visitors and waste the time search engines spend on your site.

No broken internal links
A link to a page that returns 404 leads visitors, and crawlers, to a dead end.
Test it: 404 checker, Internal link checker
High
No redirect chains or loops
Each extra hop adds delay, and a loop never ends.
Test it: Redirect chain checker
Medium
No important page returns a server error
A page that answers with a 5xx error cannot be shown to anyone.
Test it: Free page check
High

On-page basics

Titles, descriptions and headings are what people see in search results and what Google reads first.

Every page has a unique title of about 30 to 60 characters
Long titles get cut off, and repeated titles make pages compete with each other.
Test it: Meta description checker
High
Every page has a meta description of about 70 to 155 characters
It is your pitch in the search result. Google may rewrite it, but a good one often stays.
Test it: Meta description checker
Medium
Each page has one clear H1 heading
One main heading tells people and search engines what the page is about.
Test it: Meta description checker
Medium
Images that carry meaning have alt text
Alt text helps people who cannot see the image, and tells search engines what it shows.
Test it: Alt text checker
Medium
No thin or duplicate pages
Pages with almost no text, or the same text as another page, add little and dilute the rest.
Test it: SEOSage page checks
Medium
Share tags (Open Graph) are set
They control how a link looks when it is shared on social networks and in chat apps.
Test it: Open Graph checker
Low

Links and site structure

Links are how crawlers find pages and how pages pass importance to each other.

Important pages are only a few clicks from the home page
Pages buried deep in a site get crawled less and are seen as less important.
Test it: SEOSage click depth report
Medium
Internal links use clear link text
Words like "click here" tell nobody anything. Describe where the link goes.
Test it: by hand, page by page.
Low
Broken links to other websites are fixed
A dead outbound link is a poor experience, and it is easy to fix.
Test it: 404 checker
Low

Structured data and languages

Structured data and hreflang are code that search engines read. A small mistake means the code is ignored.

Structured data is valid JSON-LD
A block that cannot be parsed is ignored, so the page cannot earn a rich result.
Test it: Schema markup validator
Medium
Structured data has the fields Google asks for
A Product without an offer, or an FAQ without answers, does not qualify.
Test it: Schema markup validator
Medium
Hreflang tags are correct, if the site has more than one language
Missing return tags and wrong language codes make hreflang ignored.
Test it: Hreflang checker
Medium

Speed and security

Slow pages lose visitors, and insecure files make browsers show warnings.

Core Web Vitals pass on the key pages
Speed is part of how Google judges page experience.
Test it: SEOSage speed checks
Medium
The whole site uses https, with no mixed content
Mixed content loads insecure files on a secure page, and browsers can block or warn about it.
Test it: SEOSage security check
High
Google Search Console is connected and checked
It shows real search traffic and the pages Google had trouble with.
Test it: SEOSage and Search Console
Medium

Checking one page at a time gets slow

The free tools test one page or one file. A real website has hundreds of pages. SEOSage crawls all of them on your own computer, with no page limit, and lists the problems by how serious they are. Free for 14 days, cancel any time.

Download SEOSage See every check

Questions about the SEO audit checklist

What is an SEO audit checklist?

It is a list of the things to check on a website to find what is holding it back in search: whether pages can be crawled and indexed, whether redirects and links work, whether titles and headings are in order, and whether the site is fast and secure.

How often should I run an SEO audit?

Run a full audit when you take on a site, then again every few months and after big changes such as a redesign or a move to a new address. Re-check single pages after you fix them.

Can I do these checks for free?

Yes. The free tools linked in each row check one page or one file at a time with no sign-up. They are slow for a whole website, which is when a crawler helps.

How do I check every page of a website at once?

Use a crawler. SEOSage is a desktop app that crawls every page of a website, with no page limit, and lists the problems by how serious they are. It is free for 14 days, and you can cancel any time.

Which checks matter most?

Start with the rows marked High: blocked or noindexed pages, a site that loads on more than one address, broken internal links, titles, and mixed content. Fix those before the rest.