The Complete SEO Audit Checklist for 2025 (32 Points)

How to use this checklist

Work through each section in order — crawlability issues at the top of the list can mask problems further down, so there's no point optimising page speed on a URL that's accidentally blocked from indexing. Tools needed: Google Search Console, ScanoraAI (free), Chrome DevTools, and Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs).

Section 1: Crawlability & Indexation (8 checks)

1. robots.txt exists and is correct — visit /robots.txt. Confirm it doesn't accidentally disallow / and that your sitemap URL is declared.
2. XML sitemap submitted — in Google Search Console, go to Sitemaps. Confirm your sitemap is submitted and shows no errors.
3. No noindex on important pages — check your templates for <meta name="robots" content="noindex">. Run Screaming Frog and filter by "Indexability: Non-Indexable".
4. Canonical tags are correct — every page should either self-canonical or point to the preferred version. Canonicals to 404s or redirects are a common bug.
5. No orphan pages — pages with no internal links are hard for Google to discover. Use Screaming Frog's "Orphan Pages" report.
6. Redirect chains are short — more than one redirect hop wastes crawl budget and loses link equity. Audit with Screaming Frog and flatten chains to a single 301.
7. No broken internal links (4xx) — Screaming Frog's "Response Codes" filter. Fix or redirect every broken link.
8. HTTP redirects to HTTPS — test with curl -I http://yourdomain.com. Should return 301 immediately.

Section 2: Core Web Vitals & Page Speed (6 checks)

9. LCP under 2.5 s — run a ScanoraAI or PageSpeed Insights audit. Field data in Google Search Console is the ranking signal.
10. INP under 200 ms — check PageSpeed Insights "Diagnostics" for long tasks and heavy JavaScript.
11. CLS under 0.1 — look for images without explicit dimensions and layout-shifting ads or embeds.
12. TTFB under 800 ms — measure with WebPageTest. If above 800 ms, investigate server response time before other optimisations.
13. No render-blocking resources — PageSpeed Insights "Eliminate render-blocking resources" opportunity.
14. Total page weight — aim for under 1 MB on mobile. Check with Chrome DevTools Network tab, disable cache, throttle to "Fast 4G".

Section 3: On-Page SEO (7 checks)

15. Unique, descriptive title tags — 50–60 characters, contains primary keyword near the start. No duplicates across pages.
16. Meta descriptions present and unique — 120–160 characters, compelling and keyword-rich. Not ranking signals, but affect click-through rate.
17. One H1 per page — should match or be closely related to the title tag. No pages with zero or multiple H1s.
18. Heading hierarchy is logical — H2s under H1, H3s under H2s. Don't skip levels.
19. Images have descriptive alt text — not keyword-stuffed. Describes the image for screen readers and image search.
20. Internal linking uses descriptive anchor text — avoid "click here" and "read more". Use the target page's keyword as anchor text.
21. Content is at least 300 words on key pages — thin content is a negative signal. For competitive queries, aim for depth and comprehensiveness.

Section 4: Structured Data (4 checks)

22. Schema markup present on key page types — at minimum: Organization on homepage, Article on blog posts, Product on product pages, FAQPage on FAQ sections.
23. No structured data errors — test with Google's Rich Results Test. Errors prevent rich snippets.
24. Breadcrumb schema on deep pages — helps Google understand site structure and enables breadcrumb display in SERPs.
25. LocalBusiness schema if applicable — include name, address, phone, opening hours for local SEO.

Section 5: Mobile & UX (4 checks)

26. Mobile-friendly test passes — use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test or ScanoraAI. Text should be readable without zooming, tap targets should be at least 44×44 px.
27. No intrusive interstitials — full-screen popups on mobile that appear immediately are a negative ranking signal. Sticky headers and banners are fine.
28. Viewport meta tag is set — <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> must be present.
29. Font size is readable on mobile — body text should be at least 16 px on mobile. Google flags text smaller than 12 px.

Section 6: Security & Technical (3 checks)

30. HTTPS with valid certificate — check expiry date and that there are no mixed-content warnings in the browser console.
31. No sensitive pages indexed — search Google for site:yourdomain.com inurl:admin and similar. Add noindex to any admin, checkout, or user-specific pages.
32. Hreflang if multi-language — if you serve multiple languages or regions, hreflang attributes prevent duplicate content issues across versions.

Automate the technical checks

Many of the above checks — especially sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 — can be run automatically in under 60 seconds with a ScanoraAI audit. You'll get a scored report with exact line-level fixes rather than having to interpret tool output yourself.