Seo audit

Audit SEO systematically

Three layers in impact order: technical (crawl/index/speed) → on-page (titles/headings/links) → content (intent match / E-E-A-T / thin pages). Fix the highest layer first.

Core Web Vitals pass/fail thresholds (75th percentile real-user data)

Metric	Good	Needs work	Poor
LCP	≤ 2.5s	2.5–4.0s	> 4.0s
INP	≤ 200ms	200–500ms	> 500ms
CLS	≤ 0.1	0.1–0.25	> 0.25

Technical layer (check first)

• Crawlability — robots.txt not blocking important paths; XML sitemap present and submitted to Search Console; no orphan pages (no internal links).
• Indexation — noindex not set on pages that should rank; canonical tags point to the correct URL; HTTPS on all pages.
• Speed — LCP from real-user data (Search Console → Core Web Vitals report); identify LCP element; check image optimisation + CDN + render-blocking resources.
• Mobile — Google uses mobile-first indexing; test with Mobile-Friendly Test.

On-page layer

• Title tags — ≤ 60 chars; primary keyword near the front; unique per page; describes content accurately.
• Meta descriptions — ≤ 160 chars; includes a CTA-like phrase; unique per page.
• H1 — one per page; matches or closely mirrors the title tag; primary keyword present.
• Heading hierarchy — H1 → H2 → H3 without gaps; no keyword stuffing.
• Internal linking — key pages linked from multiple internal pages; anchor text descriptive (not "click here").

Content layer

• Search intent match — is the page format what the searcher expects? (Informational → guide/article; transactional → product/pricing page; navigational → homepage).
• E-E-A-T signals — author bio with credentials; publication date + last-updated date; primary-source citations; specific examples and data.
• Thin/duplicate content — pages with < 300 words of unique content; pages with duplicated sections across the site.
• Keyword targeting — primary keyword in title + H1 + first 100 words + URL slug; LSI terms used naturally in body.

Steps

1. Scope the audit. Full site or specific pages? Technical + on-page, or one focus? Access to Search Console and analytics? Establish baseline: current organic traffic trend, target keywords, known issues.
2. Technical audit. Crawl with Screaming Frog or Search Console; flag crawl errors, indexation issues, redirect chains, broken internal links.
3. Core Web Vitals. Pull from Search Console → Core Web Vitals report (real-user data). Identify pages failing LCP/CLS; prioritise by traffic volume.
4. On-page audit. Check title tags, H1s, meta descriptions for top 20 pages by traffic. Flag duplicates, over-length, keyword mismatches.
5. Content audit. Identify thin pages (< 300 words unique); spot intent mismatches; E-E-A-T gaps.
6. Prioritised recommendations. Order by: impact × effort. Technical blocking issues first; then on-page quick wins; then content investment.
7. Verify. After implementing: recheck Search Console for crawl/index errors; re-run Lighthouse for CWV; confirm fixes appear in next crawl.

Review checklist

• No pages blocked in robots.txt that should rank.
• Sitemap submitted and valid — no 4xx/5xx URLs in sitemap.
• Title tags unique and ≤ 60 chars on all indexed pages.
• LCP ≤ 2.5s on mobile for highest-traffic pages.
• No thin-content pages (< 300 words unique) ranking for commercial queries.
• Internal links to key pages from multiple relevant pages with descriptive anchor text.

Rules

• Technical issues that block crawl/index are fixed before content work — no point optimising a page Google can't read.
• Never recommend keyword stuffing — intent match and E-E-A-T outperform density in modern search.
• Core Web Vitals from real-user data (Search Console) override Lighthouse scores — both matter but prioritise the real-user signal.

References

references/seo-audit-checklist.md — full 80-point checklist by layer.