The Complete Free SEO Audit Checklist for 2026
A practical, step-by-step checklist covering every factor that affects how your site ranks — with clear instructions on what to check and fix.
“An SEO audit is only useful if it leads to action. Use this checklist to find issues, prioritise by impact, and fix them in order — not all at once.”
An SEO audit is the process of reviewing every factor that affects how your website ranks in Google. Done properly, it tells you exactly what is broken, what is missing, and what to fix first to get the most traffic improvement.
This checklist covers the five core areas of a thorough SEO audit. Work through each section in order — technical issues should always be fixed first, since they can prevent Google from even seeing your other content.
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### Section 1: Technical SEO Checklist
Technical SEO is the foundation. If Google cannot crawl and index your pages correctly, nothing else matters.
Indexing
- [ ] Confirm site is indexed: search site:yourdomain.com in Google
- [ ] Check Google Search Console for any crawl errors or coverage issues
- [ ] Verify no important pages are accidentally blocked by robots.txt
- [ ] Check that no important pages have a noindex meta tag
- [ ] Submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console
Site Structure - [ ] All pages are reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage - [ ] No orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them) - [ ] No redirect chains (A → B → C instead of A → C directly) - [ ] No broken internal links (404 errors) - [ ] Consistent URL structure (no mixed /category/post and /post formats)
HTTPS and Security - [ ] Site is fully on HTTPS (not HTTP) - [ ] No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages) - [ ] HTTP URLs redirect permanently (301) to HTTPS equivalents
Mobile - [ ] Site passes Google's Mobile-Friendly Test - [ ] Viewport meta tag is present on all pages - [ ] Text is readable without zooming on a 375px screen - [ ] Touch targets (buttons, links) are at least 48px × 48px
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### Section 2: On-Page SEO Checklist
Once Google can crawl your site, each page needs to be properly optimised for its target keyword.
Title Tags - [ ] Every page has a unique title tag - [ ] Title tags are 50–60 characters long - [ ] Target keyword appears naturally in the title - [ ] Titles are descriptive and compelling (not just the page name)
Meta Descriptions - [ ] Every page has a unique meta description - [ ] Descriptions are 140–160 characters long - [ ] Descriptions include the target keyword and a clear value proposition - [ ] No meta descriptions are duplicated across pages
Headings - [ ] Every page has exactly one H1 tag - [ ] H1 contains or closely matches the target keyword - [ ] Headings (H2, H3) are used to structure the content logically - [ ] No heading tags used purely for styling
Canonical Tags - [ ] Every page has a canonical tag pointing to the preferred URL - [ ] Paginated pages (page 2, page 3) have correct canonical handling - [ ] No self-referencing canonical issues
Images - [ ] All images have descriptive alt text - [ ] Image file names are descriptive (not DSC_4821.jpg) - [ ] Images are compressed (no uncompressed PNGs above 100KB) - [ ] Use modern formats (WebP) where possible
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### Section 3: Content Quality Checklist
Content quality is increasingly important as Google gets better at understanding whether a page genuinely helps users.
- [ ] Each page targets one primary keyword (not 10 keywords stuffed in) - [ ] Content matches the search intent for the target keyword (informational / transactional / commercial) - [ ] Pages are at least 800 words for informational keywords - [ ] No duplicate content across your own pages - [ ] Content is original — not copied or lightly reworded from competitors - [ ] Pages include relevant internal links to related content - [ ] Pages are updated at least once a year for freshness signals - [ ] No keyword stuffing — keywords appear naturally in context
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### Section 4: Link Profile Checklist
Links from other websites signal trust and authority to Google.
Internal Links - [ ] Important pages receive internal links from multiple other pages - [ ] Anchor text for internal links is descriptive (not "click here") - [ ] No pages with zero internal links (orphan pages)
External Backlinks - [ ] Check backlink profile in Google Search Console or a tool like Ahrefs - [ ] No toxic or spammy backlinks pointing to your site (disavow if needed) - [ ] You have at least some links from relevant, authoritative sites in your niche - [ ] Guest posting or link-building activity is ongoing (not a one-time effort)
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### Section 5: Page Performance Checklist
Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor, especially for mobile searches.
Core Web Vitals - [ ] LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is under 2.5 seconds - [ ] CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) is under 0.1 - [ ] INP (Interaction to Next Paint) is under 200 milliseconds - [ ] Run Google PageSpeed Insights and fix any "Opportunities" listed
General Speed - [ ] Time to First Byte (TTFB) is under 600ms - [ ] JavaScript is minified and deferred where possible - [ ] CSS is minified and critical CSS is inlined - [ ] Static assets (images, CSS, JS) are served with long cache headers - [ ] Consider a CDN if serving a global audience
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### How to Use This Checklist
Work through each section top to bottom. Mark each item as pass, fail, or not applicable. For each failure, note the fix required.
Prioritise in this order: 1. Fix anything blocking indexing (Section 1 first) 2. Fix on-page issues on your highest-traffic pages (Section 2) 3. Address content quality on pages that are ranking but not converting (Section 3) 4. Build links to your most important pages (Section 4) 5. Fix performance issues — especially Core Web Vitals (Section 5)
Skip the manual work. [RankyPulse](https://rankypulse.com/audit) runs this entire checklist automatically across every page of your site in minutes — and produces a prioritised fix list sorted by traffic impact. Free, no login required for the first audit.