Free SEO Audit Checklist for 2026

Running an SEO audit doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars or require an agency. You just need a systematic checklist and the discipline to work through it. This is the checklist we use — 30 checks organized by category, each with a brief explanation of what to look for and why it matters.

Bookmark this page, work through it once a quarter, and your site will be in better shape than 90% of your competitors. If you want to automate the technical checks, AuditMySite's free scanner covers most of the items in the first two sections automatically.

Technical SEO Checks

These are the foundation. If your technical SEO is broken, nothing else matters — Google can't rank what it can't crawl or understand.

1. SSL Certificate Is Active and Valid

Your site should load over HTTPS with a valid certificate. Check that it's not expired and that HTTP requests redirect to HTTPS automatically. This has been a ranking signal since 2014 and it's table stakes in 2026.

2. XML Sitemap Exists and Is Submitted

Your sitemap should list every indexable page and be submitted to Google Search Console. Check that it doesn't include noindexed pages, redirects, or 404s. A clean sitemap helps Google discover and prioritize your content.

3. Robots.txt Isn't Blocking Important Pages

Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt and make sure you're not accidentally blocking CSS, JavaScript, images, or entire sections of your site. This is more common than you'd think, especially after site migrations.

4. No Crawl Errors in Search Console

Check the Pages report in Google Search Console for 404s, server errors, and redirect issues. Prioritize fixing errors on pages that have backlinks or used to receive traffic.

5. Site Loads in Under 2.5 Seconds (LCP)

Largest Contentful Paint should be under 2.5 seconds on mobile. Test with PageSpeed Insights or Chrome DevTools. Slow sites lose rankings and visitors — every 100ms of delay reduces conversions.

6. Mobile-Friendly and Responsive

Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily crawls and ranks the mobile version of your site. Test on actual devices, not just Chrome DevTools. Check that text is readable, buttons are tappable, and nothing requires horizontal scrolling.

7. No Broken Internal Links

Broken internal links waste crawl budget, leak link equity, and frustrate users. Run a crawl to find them all. AuditMySite flags every broken link automatically with the exact source page.

8. Proper Redirect Chains

Check for redirect chains (A → B → C) and loops. Each redirect adds latency and dilutes link equity. Ideally, every redirect should go directly from the old URL to the final destination in a single hop.

9. Canonical Tags Are Correct

Every page should have a rel="canonical" tag pointing to its preferred URL. This prevents duplicate content issues from URL parameters, trailing slashes, or www vs non-www variations.

10. Core Web Vitals Pass

Beyond LCP, check Interaction to Next Paint (INP, under 200ms) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS, under 0.1). These are confirmed ranking factors. Use PageSpeed Insights or the Chrome UX Report for real-world data.

On-Page SEO Checks

On-page optimization is where you tell Google what each page is about and make it compelling for humans.

11. Every Page Has a Unique Title Tag

Title tags should be 50-60 characters, include your target keyword near the front, and be unique across your entire site. Duplicate titles confuse search engines about which page to rank.

12. Meta Descriptions Are Written and Compelling

Keep them under 155 characters, include the target keyword, and write them like ad copy — they're your pitch in the search results. Missing meta descriptions mean Google generates its own, which rarely performs as well.

13. One H1 Per Page

Each page should have exactly one H1 tag that clearly describes the page content. Multiple H1s dilute your topical signal. Use AuditMySite's heading analyzer to check your heading structure across every page.

14. Heading Hierarchy Makes Sense

Don't skip heading levels (H1 → H3 with no H2). Use headings to create a logical outline, not just for visual styling. Proper hierarchy helps both screen readers and search engines understand your content structure.

15. Images Have Alt Text

Every image should have descriptive alt text. This helps with image search rankings and accessibility. Avoid keyword stuffing — describe what's actually in the image naturally.

16. URLs Are Clean and Descriptive

Good: /blog/seo-audit-checklist. Bad: /blog/post?id=847&cat=3. Clean URLs include keywords and give users (and Google) a hint about the page content before they click.

17. Internal Links Use Descriptive Anchor Text

"Click here" tells Google nothing. "Read our internal linking guide" tells Google exactly what the linked page is about. Use natural, descriptive anchor text.

18. No Orphan Pages

Every important page should be reachable through internal links. Pages with no internal links pointing to them are hard for Google to discover and typically rank poorly.

19. Open Graph and Social Tags Set

When someone shares your page on social media, OG tags control what title, description, and image appear. Missing OG tags mean platforms guess, and they usually guess wrong.

20. Structured Data / Schema Markup

Add relevant schema markup (Article, LocalBusiness, Product, FAQ, etc.) to help Google understand your content and potentially display rich snippets in search results. Test with Google's Rich Results Test.

Content Checks

Great content is the reason people visit your site. These checks make sure your content is working for both users and search engines.

21. Content Matches Search Intent

Google your target keywords and look at what's ranking. If the top results are how-to guides and your page is a product page, there's an intent mismatch. Align your content format with what searchers actually want.

22. No Thin Pages

Pages with little to no unique content (under 300 words with no other value) can hurt your site's overall quality score. Either bulk them up, consolidate them, or noindex them.

23. No Duplicate Content

Check for pages with substantially similar content. This includes printer-friendly versions, HTTP/HTTPS duplicates, and www/non-www variations. Canonical tags and redirects solve most duplication issues.

24. Content Is Fresh and Up to Date

Review your most important pages annually. Outdated statistics, broken examples, and stale advice all hurt rankings and trust. Update dates when you refresh content — Google notices.

25. Keyword Usage Is Natural

Your target keyword should appear in the title, H1, first paragraph, and a few times throughout the content. But it should read naturally. If you have to force it, you're over-optimizing. Write for humans, optimize for robots.

Performance and Security Checks

These checks ensure your site is fast, secure, and technically sound from an infrastructure perspective.

26. Images Are Optimized

Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF), compress aggressively, specify width and height attributes (prevents layout shift), and lazy-load images below the fold. Images are usually the biggest performance bottleneck.

27. No Render-Blocking Resources

Check that critical CSS is inlined or loaded asynchronously, and JavaScript doesn't block the initial render. Use the "Eliminate render-blocking resources" suggestion in PageSpeed Insights as your guide.

28. Browser Caching Is Configured

Static assets (images, CSS, JS) should have cache headers set so returning visitors don't re-download everything. A Cache-Control header with a max-age of at least 30 days is standard for static files.

29. No Mixed Content Warnings

If your site is on HTTPS but loads some resources over HTTP, browsers flag it as insecure. Check the browser console for mixed content warnings and update all resource URLs to HTTPS.

30. Server Response Time Is Under 200ms

Time to First Byte (TTFB) should be under 200ms for most requests. If it's consistently higher, look at your hosting, database queries, or lack of caching. No amount of front-end optimization fixes a slow server.

How to Use This Checklist

Don't try to do all 30 checks in one sitting. Here's a practical approach:

1. Start with a scan. Run your site through AuditMySite to automatically catch items 1-10 and most of 11-20. This gives you a prioritized list without manual digging.
2. Fix critical issues first. Broken SSL, blocked crawling, and major speed problems take priority over meta description optimization.
3. Work through content checks manually. Items 21-25 require human judgment — no tool can fully evaluate search intent alignment or content quality for you.
4. Schedule quarterly re-audits. SEO isn't a one-time project. Sites break, content goes stale, and Google updates its algorithms. Regular audits keep you ahead.

Bottom Line

An SEO audit is only as good as the action you take afterward. This checklist gives you a clear picture of where your site stands — but the value comes from actually fixing what you find. Start with the automated checks, tackle the quick wins, and work through the rest systematically.

Your competitors aren't auditing their sites. That's your advantage.