How to Do a DIY SEO Audit for Your Website
A quarterly SEO audit catches problems before they hurt rankings. Here's how to do it yourself with free tools.
Tools You Need (All Free)
- Google Search Console (if not set up, do this first)
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free version crawls up to 500 URLs)
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free for your own site)
Audit Checklist
Technical Health
- All important pages are indexed (Search Console → Coverage)
- No 404 errors on important pages
- No redirect chains (A→B→C should be A→C)
- HTTPS on all pages
- Mobile-friendly (Google Mobile-Friendly Test)
- Core Web Vitals green (Search Console → Experience)
On-Page
- Each page has a unique, keyword-targeted title tag (50-60 chars)
- Each page has a unique meta description (140-155 chars)
- One H1 per page, matching main keyword
- Images have alt text
- No keyword cannibilisation (two pages targeting same keyword)
Content
- Top-10-traffic pages are updated within 18 months
- No duplicate content (same text on multiple URLs)
- Word count appropriate for the topic (thin content flag: < 300 words for informational pages)
Links
- No broken internal links (Screaming Frog → Response Codes → 4XX)
- Key pages have internal links pointing to them
- Outbound links to dead pages replaced or removed
After the Audit
Prioritise by impact: technical errors first, then content gaps, then optimisation opportunities.
