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Free SEO Audit: How to Check Your Website Step by Step

Run a complete SEO audit of your website for free in about an hour: crawling, indexing, titles, speed, structured data and AI visibility, in order.

By FreeSEOBot Editorial · Published · 7 min read

You can audit your own website for free in about an hour using three things: Google Search Console, Google's PageSpeed Insights, and an on-page checker. Work in this order: can Google reach your pages, has it indexed them, do your titles and content match what people search, is the site fast and stable, and can AI search tools read it too. Fix problems in that order as well, because a beautiful title tag is worthless on a page Google never indexed.

This guide walks through each step, tells you what "good" looks like, and points to where to fix what you find.

What do you need before you start?

You need access to your website's admin area and a verified Google Search Console property. Everything else is free and browser based.

  • Google Search Console. Free, from Google. It is the only place that shows how Google itself sees your site. If you have not set it up, verify your domain first; data starts building from that point.
  • PageSpeed Insights at pagespeed.web.dev. It shows real-user speed data where Google has enough of it.
  • An on-page checker. Our SEO checker scans a URL for titles, meta descriptions, headings, canonical tags, robots rules, structured data and more in one pass.
  • A spreadsheet to log each issue, the page it affects, and whether it is fixed.

Step 1: Check that search engines can reach your site

Start here, because nothing else matters if crawlers are locked out. "Crawling" just means a search engine's robot downloading your pages.

  1. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt in a browser. Look for Disallow: / under User-agent: * or User-agent: Googlebot. That line blocks the whole site and is a common leftover from a staging site.
  2. Check that your site loads on one version only. http://, https://, www and non-www should all redirect to the same address.
  3. In Search Console, open Settings > Crawl stats and look for spikes in server errors (5xx responses).

Google's own guidance on AI features in Search lists "ensuring that crawling is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure" as a basic. Some hosting firewalls block bots without telling you, so do not skip this.

Step 2: Check what Google has actually indexed

Indexing is Google storing your page so it can appear in results. Open Indexing > Pages in Search Console. You get two numbers: indexed and not indexed.

A large "not indexed" number is not automatically bad. Google says it is normal not to index pages blocked on purpose, duplicates, or filter variations. What matters is whether your important pages are indexed. Use the URL Inspection tool on your home page and your top five money pages. If any is missing, our guide to why a page isn't indexed explains every status Search Console can show and what to do about each one.

Also submit an XML sitemap under Indexing > Sitemaps if you have not already. A sitemap is a file listing the URLs you want found.

Step 3: Audit titles, descriptions and headings

These are the parts of your page people see before they click.

Element What to check Good sign
Title tag Present, unique, describes the page Main topic first, brand at the end
Meta description Present, unique, accurate summary Reads like an answer, not a keyword list
H1 heading One clear main heading Matches the title's intent
Canonical tag Points to the page itself, or the preferred duplicate No canonical pointing at a 404 or redirect
Image alt text Describes meaningful images Not stuffed with keywords

Run each key URL through the same checker and note anything missing or duplicated. Google rewrites titles that are empty, boilerplate, or do not match the page, so treat duplicates as real issues. Our post on title tags and meta descriptions that get clicks covers how to rewrite them.

Step 4: Check search performance for quick wins

In Search Console, open Performance > Search results, set the date range to the last three months, and switch on Average CTR and Average position.

Sort queries by impressions. Look for:

  • Queries where you rank in positions 5 to 15. These are pages Google already trusts somewhat. Improving the content and title often moves them up.
  • Pages with many impressions but few clicks. The title or description is not persuading people.
  • Queries you did not expect. These can reveal content you should write.

Step 5: Measure speed and page stability

Google's ranking systems use Core Web Vitals, three measurements of real-user experience:

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how fast the main content appears. Good is 2.5 seconds or less.
  • INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how quickly the page responds to taps and clicks. Good is 200 milliseconds or less.
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the layout jumps around. Good is 0.1 or less.

Check Experience > Core Web Vitals in Search Console for site-wide groups, then test individual pages in PageSpeed Insights. The "real users" section uses the previous 28 days of Chrome data; the lab section is a single simulated test. If they disagree, trust the real-user data. Our plain-English Core Web Vitals guide explains how to fix each one.

Step 6: Check mobile, HTTPS and structured data

  • Mobile. Google indexes the mobile version of your site. Open each key page on your phone. Is all the content there, and can you tap buttons easily?
  • HTTPS. Every page should load over https:// with no browser warnings.
  • Structured data. This is code that labels your content (your business name, address, product prices). Test pages with Google's Rich Results Test. The markup must match what is visible on the page.

Step 7: Check AI search readiness

AI answers in Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode) draw on pages that are indexed and eligible to show a snippet, so Steps 1 to 6 cover most of the work. Two additional checks:

  1. Read your robots.txt for AI crawler rules such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Blocking a search crawler can remove you from that tool's answers.
  2. In Search Console, open Settings > Search generative AI and confirm your site is set to be included. This control rolled out to all sites on 31 August 2026.

Our AI visibility checker reads your robots rules for the main AI crawlers and flags anything blocking them.

Step 8: Prioritise what you found

Sort your spreadsheet by impact, not by how easy the fix is.

Priority Issue type Example
1. Fix today Blocks crawling or indexing Disallow: /, noindex on key pages, 5xx errors
2. Fix this week Wastes existing visibility Duplicate titles, wrong canonicals, broken internal links
3. Fix this month Improves experience Poor LCP or CLS, missing alt text
4. Ongoing Grows visibility New content for queries you nearly rank for

Repeat the audit every quarter, and re-check the affected area after any redesign, CMS change or site migration. For a fuller list to work through, use our technical SEO checklist for small business websites.

FAQ

How long does a free SEO audit take?

For a small business site of under 50 pages, about an hour for the checks and a few more hours for the fixes. Larger sites take longer mainly because of indexing and duplicate content issues, which need page-by-page decisions.

Do I need paid tools to audit my site?

No. Search Console and PageSpeed Insights come straight from Google and show data no third-party tool can see. Paid tools help with keyword research and competitor analysis, but they are not required to find and fix technical problems.

How often should I run an SEO audit?

Quarterly is a sensible rhythm for most small sites, plus a quick check after any redesign, platform change or big content update. Search Console will also email you about new indexing problems if you leave notifications on.

Can a tool score tell me if my SEO is good?

A score is a checklist summary, not a ranking prediction. Google says good Core Web Vitals results do not guarantee top rankings, and the same is true of any audit score. Use scores to find problems, then judge the fixes by impressions and clicks in Search Console.

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