How to Audit Your Website for SEO (Without Hiring an Expert)

📖 Introduction

If your website isn’t ranking as well as you’d hoped—or traffic is dropping without explanation—it’s probably time for an SEO audit. But you don’t need to spend hundreds hiring a consultant. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to perform your own SEO audit using tools that are either free or budget-friendly.

Whether you’re running a business website, blog, or ecommerce store, auditing your SEO regularly is key to spotting hidden issues, fixing technical flaws, and unlocking growth potential.

🔧 Step 1: Crawl Your Website Like Google

Start by seeing your site the way a search engine does.

• 🕷️ Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs) or Ahrefs Site Audit (free with account)
• 📄 Check for missing meta titles, duplicate content, and broken links
• 🔗 Look for orphan pages (pages with no internal links)

This crawl gives you a quick overview of your technical SEO foundation.

📱 Step 2: Check Mobile Friendliness

• 📱 Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool
• 📏 Look for layout shifts, font issues, or poor touch targets
• ⚠️ Fix anything that prevents smooth navigation on smartphones

Google indexes mobile-first—so if it’s broken on a phone, it’s broken, full stop.

🚀 Step 3: Test Page Speed and Core Web Vitals

• ⚡ Use Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse
• ⏱️ Pay attention to Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
• 🧹 Optimise image sizes, remove unused JavaScript, and use lazy loading

🔗 Step 4: Review Internal Linking Structure

• 🔗 Ensure each page has 3+ internal links pointing to it
• 🧭 Use descriptive anchor text—not “click here”
• 📚 Group related pages together in content clusters

Good internal linking helps both users and search engines understand your site.

🔍 Step 5: Analyse Keywords and On-Page SEO

• 📊 Use Google Search Console to see which queries bring traffic
• 🔎 Check your title tags, meta descriptions, headers (H1-H3), and URL slugs
• 🎯 Ensure each page targets a specific keyword or topic

Free tools like Ubersuggest and LowFruits can help you find keywords you may be missing.

⚠️ Step 6: Identify Technical Errors

• ❌ Fix broken links (404 errors)
• 🔁 Check for redirect chains or loops
• 📤 Make sure your XML sitemap is submitted and up-to-date
• 🗂️ Ensure your robots.txt file isn’t blocking important pages

📋 Step 7: Review Content Quality

• 🧠 Is your content helpful, original, and written for real users?
• 🛑 Remove or rewrite thin content (<300 words)
• 📆 Update old blog posts or out-of-date product pages
• 🎓 Add author bios, citations, and real-world insights

👀 Step 8: Check for Duplicate Content

• 🔍 Use Siteliner or Copyscape to detect duplication
• 🗃️ Consolidate pages with overlapping intent
• 📝 Use canonical tags to point to preferred versions

📢 Step 9: Audit Your Backlink Profile

• 🔗 Use Ahrefs (free version) or SEO Review Tools Backlink Checker
• 📉 Disavow toxic links from spammy domains
• 📈 Identify new backlink opportunities through competitors

📍 Step 10: Check Local SEO Elements

• 📍 Make sure your Google Business Profile is claimed and fully completed
• 🏷️ Use consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data across all citations
• ⭐ Encourage reviews and respond to them publicly

💬 What the Experts Are Saying

• Brian Dean: “Most sites don’t need more content—they need better content and fewer technical issues.”
• Aleyda Solís: “Regular SEO audits are how you catch small issues before they become expensive problems.”
• Fili Wiese: “Don’t just fix issues—understand them. A crawl report is a window into Google’s perspective.”

✅ Conclusion

Auditing your site doesn’t require expensive consultants or fancy software. With the right tools—and a bit of time—you can spot what’s holding your SEO back and take real action. Run this audit quarterly and you’ll be miles ahead of most competitors still guessing why their rankings won’t budge.