How to Do an SEO Audit (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners in 2026)

Last Updated: April 25, 2026

If your website is not ranking on Google even after publishing content regularly, the problem is usually hidden SEO issues. That’s where an SEO audit helps.

An SEO audit checks your website’s technical health, content quality, on-page SEO, backlinks, and user experience to find what’s stopping your rankings.

In this guide, I’ll show you how I personally do an SEO audit step-by-step using free tools.

What is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is the process of analyzing your website to identify SEO problems that affect search rankings.

It helps you:

• Find indexing issues
• Improve content quality
• Fix technical errors
• Optimize on-page SEO
• Improve site speed
• Increase organic traffic

To find low competition keywords, you can use these free keyword research tools for beginners.

Link it to your new article.

Step 1: Check Website Indexing in Google

First, check how many pages Google has indexed.

Search this in Google:

site:yourdomain.com

Example:

site:asperneedwebdesign.com

If your indexed pages are less than published posts, Google is not indexing your content.

Fix:

• Submit sitemap
• improve content quality
• add internal links
• request indexing

Step 2: Check Google Search Console Errors

Open Google Search Console and go to:

Pages → Crawled currently not indexed
Pages → Discovered currently not indexed

These errors mean Google visited your page but didn’t index it.

Fix:

• Improve content
• Add FAQ section
• Add internal linking
• Update article

Step 3: Check On-Page SEO Issues

Check these elements:

Title Tag

Keep under 60 characters
Add primary keyword

Example:
How to Do SEO Audit (Step-by-Step Guide)

Meta Description

Write 140-160 characters

URL Structure

Bad:
website.com/post123

Good:
website.com/how-to-do-seo-audit

Heading Structure

Use:
H1
H2
H3

Only one H1 allowed.

Step 4: Check Website Speed

Slow websites don’t rank.

Use tools:

• PageSpeed Insights
• GTmetrix
• Lighthouse

Fix:

• compress images
• use caching plugin
• use fast hosting
• enable CDN

Step 5: Check Mobile Friendliness

Most users come from mobile.

Check:
Google Mobile Friendly Test

Fix:

• responsive theme
• proper font size
• avoid large images

Step 6: Check Internal Linking

Internal linking helps Google crawl pages faster.

Add:

• 2-3 internal links per article
• link related posts
• link cornerstone content

Example:
You can also read:

• WordPress On Page SEO Tips
• How to Improve WordPress Speed
• Technical SEO Checklist

Step 7: Check Content Quality

Google prefers helpful content.

Make sure:

• article length 800+ words
• add examples
• add bullet points
• add FAQ section
• add images

Thin content often gets crawled but not indexed.

Step 8: Check Broken Links

Broken links hurt SEO.

Use tools:

• Broken link checker plugin
• Ahrefs (free webmaster tool)

Fix:
Remove or update broken links.

Step 9: Check Backlinks

Backlinks improve authority.

Check using:

• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs free tool
• Ubersuggest

If backlinks are low:

• create web 2.0
• profile backlinks
• guest posts

Step 10: Check Technical SEO

Check:

• sitemap submitted
• robots.txt working
• HTTPS enabled
• canonical tags
• schema markup

These improve indexing.

Quick SEO Audit Checklist

Use this checklist:

✔ Website indexed
✔ No crawl errors
✔ optimized title tags
✔ meta descriptions added
✔ internal linking done
✔ fast loading speed
✔ mobile friendly
✔ no broken links
✔ quality content
✔ backlinks created

Common SEO Audit Mistakes

Avoid these mistakes:

• publishing thin content
• no internal linking
• duplicate articles
• ignoring search console errors
• not updating old content
• slow website speed

Final Thoughts

Doing an SEO audit regularly helps identify issues before they affect rankings. If your pages are crawled but not indexed, improving content quality, internal linking, and updating posts usually fixes the problem.

I personally recommend doing an SEO audit once every month for best results.

Written by

Nazrin Khan

SEO Expert & Web Developer specializing in WordPress SEO, technical optimization, and building high-performance websites. I help brands grow their online presence through smart strategies and clean design.

Website | LinkedIn | Email