How to do your own SEO audit

Start by pulling your site structure and crawlability data using Screaming Frog or Ahrefs. These tools will show you broken links, redirect chains, orphaned pages, and XML sitemap issues that search engines encounter. Run the crawl and export the results, then sort by HTTP status codes to identify pages returning 404s or 5xx errors. Check your robots.txt and meta robots tags to ensure you're not accidentally blocking important pages from crawling. Look at your page titles and meta descriptions—they should be unique, under character limits (title under 60 characters, description under 160), and actually include your target keywords. Ahrefs or SEMrush will also show you which pages have crawl issues or poor indexation status, which is critical because you can't rank what Google can't access.

Next, evaluate your on-page optimization by examining your target pages for the keywords you actually want to rank for. Pull your top 20-30 target keywords from your client work or internal goals, then check whether your pages properly address search intent for those terms. Use Google's "People Also Ask" section and related searches to understand what searchers actually want, then compare that to your page content. Look at your H1 tags—you should have exactly one per page, and it should match your primary keyword. Check internal linking strategy too; pages targeting competitive keywords need authority passed to them through internal links from higher-authority pages. Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify your pages' domain rating and individual page authority.

Finally, assess technical fundamentals using Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console. Check Core Web Vitals, mobile responsiveness, and HTTPS implementation. In Search Console, review your coverage report for indexation issues and security problems, then check the Performance report to see which queries are driving traffic, what your click-through rate is by position, and whether you're missing ranking opportunities in the top 20. Compare your keyword rankings against your competitors using a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to identify low-hanging fruit—keywords where you're ranking 11-20 and competitors ahead of you don't have significantly better content. This audit framework gives you the data foundation to explain recommendations to clients with evidence rather than assumptions.