How to use this

This is a working checklist, not a sales page dressed up as one. Go through each section against your own site. Anything you can't check off in under two minutes, note it and move on, don't stop to fix it mid-audit. Fix everything after you've seen the full picture, so you're prioritizing against the whole list instead of whichever issue you found first.

1. Crawlability & indexing

  • robots.txt returns 200 and doesn't accidentally block sections you want indexed.
  • An XML sitemap exists, is referenced in robots.txt, and every URL in it returns 200 with no redirects.
  • Every important page has a unique, self-referential canonical tag pointing to the correct URL.
  • No important page carries an unintended noindex or nofollow.
  • Internal links resolve to 200, no broken links pointing to 404s.
  • Redirects are single-hop, not chains of three or four 301s stacked on top of each other.
  • Key content is present in the raw HTML response, not only rendered after JavaScript executes, since not every crawler renders JS.

2. Core Web Vitals & performance

Google's current "Good" thresholds, each measured at the 75th percentile of real visits:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds.
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200 milliseconds.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1.
  • No render-blocking resources holding up the largest above-the-fold element, check for synchronous third-party fonts or scripts in <head>.
  • Images have explicit width/height (or aspect-ratio) to prevent layout shift, and are appropriately sized for their display dimensions.
  • Static assets (CSS, JS, fonts, images) carry long-lived cache headers for repeat visitors.

3. Structured data

  • Every JSON-LD block on the site parses as valid JSON, zero syntax errors.
  • Schema types match what's actually on the page: don't mark up a service page as an Article, or vice versa.
  • Dates (datePublished, dateModified) are real and in ISO 8601 format, not a fake blanket date applied to every page.
  • No deprecated schema types in use (check current Google structured data documentation for the current list).
  • No placeholder text left in any schema block, like an unfilled [Business Name].
  • Organization or Person entity schema exists somewhere on the site, ideally with an @id other pages can reference.

4. Content & on-page

  • Every page has a unique title tag and meta description, no two pages sharing the same generic text.
  • Exactly one <h1> per page, with a logical heading hierarchy below it (no skipped levels).
  • Every image has descriptive alt text, not a keyword-stuffed placeholder.
  • Content is genuinely deeper than the thinnest page ranking for the same query, not padded to hit a word count.
  • No two pages on the site substantially duplicate each other's content or boilerplate copy.
  • Claims are specific and evidenced (numbers, sources, examples) rather than generic adjectives.

5. AI visibility (GEO)

The newest category, and the one most checklists still skip entirely.

  • Major AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, OAI-SearchBot) aren't blocked in robots.txt, unless you're deliberately opting out.
  • Pricing, where applicable, is stated in plain text on the page, not hidden behind a form or a call.
  • Key pages carry a real, recent date, since recency is a measured factor in whether AI systems cite a source.
  • Important claims are backed by specific statistics or evidence, not just asserted.
  • The site is manually checked against a handful of real buyer questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, not assumed from ranking position alone. For more on why ranking and AI citation have diverged, see what generative engine optimization actually is.

How often to run this

Every three to six months for an active site is the general industry rhythm, and immediately after any major change: a redesign, a CMS migration, or a sudden, unexplained drop in traffic or rankings. A checklist run once and never revisited catches a moment in time, not an ongoing state.

FAQ
What should be included in an SEO audit checklist?
A complete SEO audit checklist covers five areas: crawlability and indexing, Core Web Vitals and performance, structured data, content quality and on-page elements, and (in 2026) AI visibility, whether AI systems can access, trust, and cite your content.
How often should you run a technical SEO audit?
Every three to six months for an active site, and immediately after any major change: a redesign, a migration, a new CMS, or a significant drop in traffic or rankings.
What are the Core Web Vitals thresholds to check in an audit?
Google's "Good" thresholds are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1, each measured at the 75th percentile of real user visits.
Is a free SEO audit checklist enough, or do I need a professional audit?
A checklist like this one will surface most obvious issues if you work through it honestly. A professional audit adds prioritization, which fixes actually move revenue, not just which boxes are unchecked, and a second set of eyes that isn't blind to the site's familiar problems.

Core Web Vitals thresholds per Google's official web.dev documentation. Accessed July 29, 2026.