Is Your Site Hiding These Costly SEO Mistakes?
How to Run a Website Audit to Find Issues Hurting SEO and Performance A few years ago If your website isn’t ranking well or feels slow, chances are there are hidden issues holding it back. The best way to uncover them is through a website audit. Think of it like a health check-up for your site, it shows what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs fixing to improve SEO and performance. In this guide, we’ll walk through a step-by-step process to run your own audit. To make it practical, we’ll also mention whether tools are free or paid, and give example domains you can test for screenshots.
Step 1: Check Website Speed and Core Web Vitals Tool: Google PageSpeed Insights (Free, no login required) → www.pagespeed.web.dev Enter your URL and analyze results for both mobile and desktop.
What to look at: •
Page Load Time
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
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Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
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Total Blocking Time
Step 2: Run a Crawl to Find Technical SEO Issues Tool: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free for up to 500 URLs, Paid for unlimited) → www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider Run a crawl to see how search engines view your site. Key issues to check: •
Broken links (404 errors)
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Redirect chains
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Missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions
Step 3: Analyze On-Page SEO Elements Tool: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free/Paid) Make sure every page has proper on-page SEO. Look for: •
Unique, keyword-focused title tags
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Clear meta descriptions
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Proper use of H1, H2, H3 headings
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Image alt text
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Clean URL structures
Step 4: Review Mobile Friendliness Tool: Google Mobile-Friendly Test (Free) → www.search.google.com/test/mobilefriendly Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, so your site must pass this test. Check for: •
Text too small to read
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Elements too close together
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Content wider than the screen
Step 5: Evaluate Site Architecture and Internal Linking Tool: Screaming Frog (Free/Paid) or Sitebulb (Paid, free trial) → www.sitebulb.com Good site structure makes it easier for both users and search engines to navigate. Check if: •
Important pages are accessible within 3 clicks
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Navigation menus are simple
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Internal links connect related content
Step 6: Assess Content Quality Tool: Manual check (Free) Search engines reward valuable, original, and updated content.
Ask yourself: •
Does this page answer user intent?
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Is it long enough to compete with top-ranking pages?
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Is it updated and accurate?
Step 7: Audit Backlinks and Domain Authority Tools: •
Ahrefs (Paid, free trial) → www.ahrefs.com
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SEMrush (Paid, free trial) → www.semrush.com
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Ubersuggest (Freemium) → www.neilpatel.com/ubersuggest
Backlinks are like votes of trust. Check: •
Number of backlinks
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Referring domains
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Domain authority score
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Spammy links
Step 8: Check for Security and HTTPS Tool: Browser (Free) Security is critical for both SEO and user trust. Verify that: •
Your site uses HTTPS
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SSL certificate is valid
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No mixed content errors
Step 9: Generate a Report and Prioritize Fixes Tools: •
SEMrush Site Audit (Paid, free trial) → www.semrush.com
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Ahrefs Site Audit (Paid, free trial) → www.ahrefs.com
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Ubersuggest Site Audit (Freemium) → www.neilpatel.com/ubersuggest
Once you’ve collected all data, organize fixes into:
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Critical issues (broken links, missing SSL, slow speed)
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Important fixes (duplicate content, weak meta tags)
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Nice-to-have improvements (content expansion, backlink opportunities)
Website Audit Checklist (Quick Reference) Step
Tool
Free/Paid
What to Capture
Speed & Core Web Vitals
PageSpeed Insights
Free
Scores, Core Web Vitals
Crawl Errors
Screaming Frog
Free ≤500 URLs, Paid unlimited
404 & 500 errors
On-Page SEO
Screaming Frog
Free/Paid
Duplicate/missing titles
Mobile Test
Google Mobile-Friendly Test
Free
Pass/fail result
Site Architecture
Screaming Frog / Sitebulb
Free/Paid
Site tree graph
Content Quality
Manual
Free
Thin vs rich content
Backlinks
Ahrefs/SEMrush (Paid), Ubersuggest (Freemium)
Paid/Freemium
Backlink overview
Security
Browser
Free
Padlock vs Not Secure
Audit Report
SEMrush/Ahrefs/Ubersuggest
Paid/Freemium
Audit dashboard
Audit Insights in Action A website audit may feel overwhelming at first, but with the right tools it’s much easier to spot what’s hurting your SEO and performance. Start with free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Screaming Frog, then move on to more advanced paid tools if needed. Fix the critical issues first, then tackle content and backlinks. Over time, regular audits will keep your site healthy, competitive, and ready to climb search rankings.
