An SEO audit identifies every technical, content, and authority issue preventing your website from ranking well on Google. The good news: with the right tools you can perform a solid audit completely free. Here's the full process.
Step 1: Technical status with Google Search Console
If you don't have Google Search Console set up yet, start there — it's free and is the most important tool for any SEO audit. Once active, check three sections: Coverage (pages with errors or excluded from the index), Core Web Vitals (loading speed and user experience by device type), and Manual Actions (direct Google penalties). Any errors in these sections are top priority.
Step 2: Page speed analysis
Go to PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and analyze your website on both mobile and desktop. A score below 70 on mobile is a serious problem — Google penalizes it directly in rankings. The most common issues are uncompressed images, render-blocking JavaScript, and missing browser cache. Each identified problem includes the specific fix.
Step 3: Crawl with Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs)
Download Screaming Frog and crawl your website. This tool analyzes your site exactly as Google does. Look for: 404 errors (broken pages Google can no longer find), duplicate titles and meta descriptions, pages without an H1 tag, and long redirect chains. Export the report to Excel and sort by error type to prioritize.
Step 4: Keyword rankings and performance
In Google Search Console, go to Performance → Search Results. Filter by pages to see individual URL performance. Identify two key opportunities: pages with many impressions but low CTR (the title or meta description needs improvement) and pages ranking between positions 11–20 (page 2 of Google) that could jump to page 1 with minor optimization.
Step 5: Content audit
Create an inventory of all your pages. For each one evaluate: Does it have at least 500 words? Is the URL descriptive and short? Does it answer a specific search intent? Does it have a clear call to action? Pages with thin content (under 300 words with no clear purpose) should be improved or removed — low-quality content drags down your entire site.
Step 6: Backlink analysis
Use the Links section of Google Search Console or Ahrefs Free Tools to see which domains link to your site and to which pages. Compare with a direct competitor: if they have significantly more quality backlinks, that's part of the ranking gap.
Prefer having us do the audit for you? At Bertronit we perform free SEO audits with a detailed report and prioritized action plan. Request yours here.