Free SEO Audit Checklist (2026)

Before you start

You need three things: the URL, access to Google Search Console for that domain (read-only is fine), and a coffee. The whole checklist runs in 30 minutes if the site is in normal shape; longer if you find a crawl-blocking issue. Pair this with the free auto-audit tool — it covers ~40% of the points below in 15 seconds.

Run the auto-audit →

Crawl & indexing (8)

1. robots.txt — exists, accessible, doesn’t block important sections. Check {site}/robots.txt.
2. XML sitemap — exists, valid, submitted in GSC. Should not include redirects, noindex pages, or 404s.
3. Indexed page count — pull the GSC Coverage report. Wide gap between submitted and indexed pages = problem.
4. Soft 404s — GSC reports them under Pages → Why pages aren’t indexed. Common cause: empty product/category pages.
5. Canonical strategy — every page has <link rel="canonical"> pointing somewhere sensible. Pagination + filtering breaks this often.
6. HTTPS + redirects — http URLs 301-redirect to https. Trailing-slash policy is consistent (pick one, redirect the other).
7. Internal linking — every important page is reachable in ≤3 clicks from the homepage.
8. Crawl budget — for sites >10K pages, check Crawl Stats in GSC for crawl-frequency drops.

On-page basics (10)

9. Title tag — present on every page, 50-60 chars, primary keyword near the front.
10. Meta description — 140-160 chars, action-oriented, the page’s value prop.
11. Single H1 per page — multiple H1s confuse the “what is this page about” signal.
12. Heading hierarchy — H2s/H3s reflect actual subtopics, not stylistic choices.
13. Image alt text — descriptive (not stuffed). Aim for >90% of <img> tags having alt.
14. Image dimensions — explicit width/height attrs to prevent CLS.
15. Internal links per page — at least 3-5 contextual outbound internal links from any indexable page.
16. External links to authority — citations to research, official docs, trade press where relevant.
17. Open Graph + Twitter Card — every indexed page has og:title, og:description, og:image set.
18. Mobile viewport tag — <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">.
19. Word count + content depth — <300 words on a page targeting an informational query is risky thin-content territory.

Structured data (6)

19. Organization schema — present on every page (in the footer or via JSON-LD).
20. WebSite schema — sitewide, includes a SearchAction sitelink.
21. BreadcrumbList — on every non-root page.
22. Article / BlogPosting — on blog/article pages, with author, datePublished, dateModified.
23. FAQPage — on cornerstone pages with Q&A content. Big eligibility lever for AI Overviews.
24. Product / LocalBusiness — wherever applicable. Validate with the Rich Results Test.

Core Web Vitals (6)

25. LCP < 2.5s — largest content paints fast. Hero image preload + image optimization fixes 80% of cases.
26. CLS < 0.1 — explicit dimensions on every image and embed; reserved space for ad slots.
27. INP < 200ms — replaces FID. JS execution + render-blocking scripts are usually to blame.
28. Mobile vs desktop parity — both should be in “good” bucket. Mobile usually drives the failure.
29. Origin-level vs page-level — check both in PageSpeed Insights. Origin failures point at your sitewide template, not specific pages.
30. Real-user metrics in GSC — Core Web Vitals report shows actual field data over the last 28 days.

AI Overviews & GEO eligibility (6)

31. FAQ blocks — questions answered in 1-2 sentences. Most-cited content format in AI Overviews.
32. Definition leads — the 1-2 sentences right after each H2 directly answer the H2 question.
33. Citation-friendly URLs — slugs that read like the answer (/guides/generative-engine-optimization > /posts/123-blah).
34. llms.txt — emerging convention; cheap to add, may help with crawl + summarization rules.
35. External mentions in trusted sources — Reddit, Hacker News, trade press round-ups, podcast transcripts.
36. Brand mention rate in LLMs — measure with the free LLM Mention Checker.

Competitive gap (4)

37. Top 5 organic competitors — list them. Pull their best-performing pages from your favorite SEO tool.
38. Keyword overlap — which queries do they rank for that you don’t? That’s your content-gap roadmap.
39. Backlink overlap — domains linking to multiple competitors but not you = high-likelihood outreach targets.
40. Brand-search trend — pull GSC’s Performance for branded queries. Flat or declining is a serious signal.

Fix priority

Triage your findings into three buckets:

1. Bleeding now — soft 404s, mobile viewport missing, INP failures on the highest-traffic pages. Do these this week.
2. Compounding — schema gaps, FAQ blocks, content depth on cornerstone pages, internal linking. Schedule a 30-day sprint.
3. Strategic — content-gap programs, link-building, brand mention work. Quarter-long initiatives.

Pair this audit with the GEO Guide if you’re prioritizing AI-visibility wins. The free auto-audit covers the technical + structured-data items in 15 seconds.