How to Audit Your Website for SEO

An SEO audit tells you what's helping or hurting your site in search. You don't need to be a developer to run one - you just need a clear process and the right tools. Here's how to audit your website for SEO in a way you can actually act on.

Step 1: Run a Technical Audit

Start with a tool that checks the basics: page titles, meta descriptions, headings, links, speed, and accessibility. AuditCrow does this in one step: enter your URL, get a prioritised report with plain-language explanations and a difficulty rating for each issue. No signup required. We explain each issue in plain English so you know what to fix first. Alternatively, use Google Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools if you're comfortable with technical output.

Focus on:

Page title and meta description - Unique, under 60 and 160 characters respectively, with your target keyword.
Headings - One H1 per page, logical H2/H3 structure. See 5 SEO quick wins for more.
Broken links - Fix or remove 404s so you don't waste crawl budget (how much time Google spends on your site) or trust.
Speed - The metrics Google uses for speed and stability matter for ranking and users. Why website speed matters goes deeper.

Step 2: Check How Google Sees Your Site

Google Search Console shows indexing status (whether Google has added your pages to search), search performance (how often you appear and get clicks), and any manual actions (penalties Google has applied). If you haven't already, verify your site and review the Coverage and Experience reports. This tells you whether Google can crawl (visit and read) your pages and how they perform in search. Pair this with a free SEO check for a combined technical and search-data view.

Step 3: Prioritise by Impact and Effort

An audit can produce a long list. Think of it like a to-do list: do the things that hurt the most and are quickest to fix first. Prioritise by:

Critical and easy - e.g. missing title tag, broken canonical.
Critical and harder - e.g. site-wide speed or structure issues.
Warnings - important but not blocking.
Notices - nice-to-haves.

Tools like AuditCrow label issues by severity (how much it hurts) and fix difficulty (how much effort to fix) so you can tackle the high-impact, low-effort items first. For more on interpreting the report, read how to read a website audit report.

Step 4: Fix and Re-scan

Address the top issues, then run the audit again. Iterate. If you use AuditCrow, you can download a PDF before and after to show progress. Keep an eye on Search Console for changes in impressions (how often your links were shown in search) and clicks over the following weeks.

Step 5: Make Audits Routine

One-off audits are useful; regular check-ups are better. Run a website health check after big changes (redesign, new pages, or a new CMS like WordPress) or at least a few times a year. That way you catch new problems before they drag down rankings.

Summary

Audit your site for SEO by: (1) running a technical audit with a tool like AuditCrow or Lighthouse, (2) checking Search Console for indexing and performance, (3) prioritising fixes by impact and effort, (4) fixing and re-scanning, and (5) making audits a recurring habit. For a full picture of what we check, see our methodology and FAQ.