The Complete Free SEO Audit Checklist for 2026
A step-by-step SEO audit checklist covering meta tags, headings, technical SEO, performance, and social tags. Use this guide alongside our free audit tool.
Running an SEO audit is the first step to understanding why your site isn’t ranking as well as it should. Here’s a complete checklist of what to check — and what our free tool checks for you automatically.
Content Checks
Meta Tags
Your title tag should be 30–60 characters, and your meta description should be 120–160 characters. Both should include your target keyword naturally.
What we check: Title length, description length, viewport meta, and robots directives.
Heading Structure
Every page needs exactly one H1 tag. Subheadings (H2–H6) should follow a logical hierarchy without skipping levels.
What we check: H1 count, heading nesting, and subheading distribution.
Image Alt Text
Every meaningful image needs descriptive alt text. Decorative images can use empty alt="" attributes.
What we check: Total images, percentage with alt text, and specific images missing alt attributes.
Technical Checks
robots.txt
Your robots.txt should exist, contain a User-agent directive, reference your sitemap, and not accidentally block your entire site.
What we check: File accessibility, syntax validation, sitemap reference, and overly broad Disallow rules.
XML Sitemap
A valid XML sitemap helps search engines discover your pages. It should be referenced in your robots.txt.
What we check: Sitemap detection at common locations, XML validity, and URL count.
SSL & HTTPS
HTTPS is a ranking signal. Your site should redirect HTTP to HTTPS, set the HSTS header, and avoid mixed content.
What we check: HTTPS usage, HSTS header, and mixed content detection.
Canonical URLs
Canonical tags prevent duplicate content issues. Every page should have a self-referencing canonical unless it’s intentionally pointing elsewhere.
What we check: Canonical tag presence, self-referencing validation, and conflicting canonicals.
Structured Data
JSON-LD structured data helps search engines understand your content and can earn rich snippets in search results.
What we check: JSON-LD blocks, schema.org types, microdata, and RDFa.
Performance Checks
Core Web Vitals
LCP, FCP, CLS, and TBT directly impact your search rankings. We integrate with debugutils.dev for comprehensive performance testing.
What we check: Render-blocking resources, resource hints, image optimization, critical CSS, and compression.
Mobile-Friendliness
Over 60% of searches happen on mobile. Your site needs a proper viewport meta tag, readable text, and adequately sized tap targets.
What we check: Viewport configuration, responsive CSS, zoom capability, and fixed-width elements.
Social Checks
Open Graph & Twitter Cards
Social meta tags control how your pages appear when shared on social media. Missing OG tags mean platforms will guess — usually badly.
What we check: og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, twitter:card, and twitter:title.
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