SEO Audit Checklist: 40 Checks, Auto-Tested

Crawling & indexing · 15

• robots.txt exists at /robots.txt and parses cleanly

  A 5xx on robots.txt makes Google pause crawling the whole site. · test this

• robots.txt doesn't block Googlebot from important paths

  One stray Disallow: / removes a site from search. · test this

• CSS and JavaScript files are crawlable

  Google renders pages; blocked assets mean it sees a broken layout. · test this

• An XML sitemap exists and is discoverable

  Sitemaps are how new and deep URLs get found quickly. · test this

• The sitemap is valid XML with absolute, same-host URLs

  Invalid sitemaps are ignored, silently. · test this

• robots.txt points to the sitemap with a Sitemap: line

  Lets every crawler, not just Google, find it. · test this

• No page you want ranked carries noindex

  Leftover staging noindex is a classic traffic killer. · test this

• Canonical tags point to the page itself or the true original

  A wrong canonical hands your ranking to another URL. · test this

• Redirects go straight to the final URL (no chains)

  Each extra hop costs crawl budget and time. · test this

• HTTP redirects to HTTPS with a single 301

  Two live versions split signals. · test this

• www and non-www resolve to one version

  Same problem as HTTP/HTTPS: duplicate hosts. · test this

• Missing pages return a real 404, not a 200

  Soft 404s waste crawl budget and can get indexed. · test this

• No broken internal links

  Dead ends stop crawlers and visitors. · test this

• Main content is in the HTML, not only after JavaScript

  Most AI crawlers don't run JavaScript at all. · test this

• AI search crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot…) are allowed

  Blocked AI crawlers can't cite you. · test this

On-page · 10

• Every page has a unique, descriptive <title>

  The title is still the strongest on-page relevance hint. · test this

• Titles fit in roughly 600px so they don't truncate

  Truncated titles lose the words that earn the click. · test this

• Pages have a meta description written for the click

  Google uses it as the snippet when it matches the query. · test this

• Descriptions are about 120–160 characters

  Long ones get cut; very short ones get replaced. · test this

• Each page has one clear H1

  The H1 tells readers and parsers what the page is about. · test this

• Headings follow a logical H2 → H3 order

  Clean structure is what answer engines extract. · test this

• Meaningful images have alt text

  Image search, accessibility and context for crawlers. · test this

• No thin pages with almost no unique text

  Thin pages drag down how Google rates the whole site. · test this

• URLs are short, lowercase and hyphenated

  Readable URLs get clicked and shared more. · test this

• The <html lang> attribute is set

  Helps search engines serve the right language. · test this

Speed & mobile · 6

• LCP is 2.5 s or faster for most real users

  Core Web Vitals are part of Google's page experience signals. · test this

• INP is 200 ms or faster

  Slow interactions feel broken on mobile. · test this

• CLS is 0.1 or lower

  Layout jumps cause mis-taps and bounces. · test this

• HTML, CSS and JS are served compressed (gzip/brotli)

  Often a 70%+ cut in transfer size for free. · test this

• A mobile viewport meta tag is set

  Without it, phones render a shrunken desktop page. · test this

• Text is readable on mobile without zooming

  Google indexes the mobile version first. · test this

Structured data & social · 4

• JSON-LD parses without errors

  One syntax error voids the whole block. · test this

• Organization markup names your brand, logo and profiles

  Feeds the knowledge panel and AI entity understanding. · test this

• Open Graph tags (og:title, og:image…) are present

  Controls how links look when shared. · test this

• A favicon Google can show (48px multiple or SVG)

  The icon appears next to your result on mobile. · test this

HTTPS & trust · 3

• The whole site is on HTTPS with a valid certificate

  HTTPS is a ranking signal and browsers warn without it. · test this

• HSTS is set with a long max-age

  Stops downgrade attacks and the first-visit HTTP hop. · test this

• Key security headers are set (CSP, X-Content-Type-Options…)

  Basic hygiene that also signals a maintained site. · test this

Site architecture · 2

• Important pages are within 3 clicks of the homepage

  Deep pages get crawled less often. · test this

• Every page you care about has internal links pointing to it

  Orphan pages are rarely crawled or ranked. · test this