The SEO Audit Checklist Used on Every Site We Touch
Most audit checklists are bloated. This is the focused, operational version — the checks that actually surface the issues holding sites back, grouped by the order you should run them.
Crawl & indexation
Confirm Google can reach every page that should rank, and nothing that shouldn't.
- robots.txt has no Disallow on /, /blog, or /products
- XML sitemap matches the live URL set
- No stray noindex tags shipped during a release
- Canonicals resolve to the indexable URL
- No orphan pages in the top 100 by potential
On-page hygiene
Every indexable URL needs a unique title, useful meta description, single H1, and a clear primary keyword. Bulk-flag duplicates with the SEO Audit.
Core Web Vitals
LCP < 2.5s, INP < 200ms, CLS < 0.1 on mobile. These thresholds correlate with both rankings and conversion, so fix them once and re-check quarterly.
Schema & rich results
Article, Product, FAQ, BreadcrumbList. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test; schema isn't a ranking signal but it's required for SERP feature eligibility.
Internal linking
Most underperforming pages share one root cause: 0–2 internal links pointing at them. Add 3–5 contextual links from related content — the single highest-ROI fix in most audits.
Reporting cadence
Save the audit as a project, re-run monthly, and export the diff. Trend data is what makes audits compounding, not one-off.
Run this checklist on every audit
- robots.txt + sitemap.xml validated
- No accidental noindex on indexable URLs
- Unique title + description on every page
- One H1 per page, semantic heading order
- LCP / INP / CLS within Google thresholds (mobile)
- Schema present on Article, Product, FAQ
- Every important page has 3+ internal links in
- Primary keyword + intent match defined per page
- Backlink profile reviewed: spam disavowed, winners noted
- Audit saved as a project for monthly re-runs
Tools used in this workflow
Frequently asked questions
How often should I run a full audit?
Monthly during active development, quarterly on stable sites, and always after a major release.
What's the single highest-impact fix?
Adding 3–5 contextual internal links to underperforming pages. It's free and consistently moves rankings.
Do I need every item on the checklist green?
No. Fix issues in order of impact — crawl and indexation first, then on-page, then performance, then schema.