The SEO Audit Checklist

Every major area a proper SEO audit should cover, in order, with what “pass” actually looks like for each one.

Published September 25, 2026 · AuditLixa Team

An SEO audit is only useful if it’s specific enough to act on. This checklist walks through the areas a thorough audit should cover, grouped the way search engines actually evaluate a page: can it be found and read, is it worth ranking, and does it work for the people who land on it. If you’re not sure what an SEO audit is in the first place, start with What Is an SEO Audit? first.

Items marked (automated) are things AuditLixa’s free analyzer checks for you automatically in under a minute. Items marked (manual) need a human judgment call or a different tool, and no automated checker—including ours—should claim otherwise.

1. Crawlability and indexing

Before anything else, confirm search engines can actually reach your pages.

  • Homepage and key pages return a 200 OK status, not a redirect chain or error (automated)
  • robots.txt exists and doesn’t accidentally block pages you want indexed (automated)
  • An XML sitemap exists and is reachable (automated)
  • No unintended noindex tags on pages meant to rank (automated)
  • Sitemap is actually submitted in Google Search Console, and the Pages report shows no unexpected exclusions (manual—done inside Search Console)

2. On-page SEO fundamentals

  • Unique title tag per page, roughly 30–60 characters, leading with the primary topic (automated)
  • Unique meta description per page, roughly 50–160 characters, written to earn the click (automated)
  • Self-referencing canonical tag on every page (automated)
  • One clear H1, with H2s/H3s used to structure the page logically (automated for H1/H2 presence; manual for whether the structure makes sense)
  • Primary keyword reflected naturally in the title, first paragraph, and at least one heading—without stuffing (manual)

3. Technical health

  • Site loads over HTTPS with a valid certificate (automated)
  • HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options, and clickjacking protection (X-Frame-Options/CSP) headers are present (automated)
  • Server response time is reasonable and page size isn’t bloated (automated at a basic level)
  • Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) pass in a real device-emulated test (manual—use a dedicated tool such as Google PageSpeed Insights)
  • No broken internal links or orphaned pages (manual, or a dedicated link-checking tool)

4. Structured data

  • Schema.org markup present where it’s genuinely accurate (Organization, WebSite, and page-specific types like Article or FAQPage) (automated presence check; manual to confirm it’s not fabricated)
  • Structured data validates with no errors (manual—use Google’s Rich Results Test)

5. Mobile usability

  • Viewport meta tag present with width=device-width (automated)
  • Text is readable and tap targets are usable without zooming (manual—check on an actual phone)

6. Content quality

  • Homepage and key pages have enough real content to be useful, not just a hero image and a button (automated at a basic word-count level)
  • Content actually answers the search intent behind the keyword it targets (manual)
  • No thin, duplicate, or near-identical pages competing for the same keyword (manual)

7. Accessibility basics

  • Meaningful images have descriptive alt text (automated presence check)
  • lang attribute set on the HTML tag (automated)
  • Sufficient color contrast and keyboard navigability (manual)

8. Authority and trust (E-E-A-T)

  • Site clearly shows who’s behind it (About page, real contact method) (manual)
  • Claims and pricing on the site match what actually happens at checkout/signup (manual)
  • Backlink profile is growing from real, relevant sites—not spammy or automated links (manual—use Search Console’s Links report as a starting point)

How to use this checklist

Run the automated items first—they take under a minute and immediately tell you where the technical foundation stands. AuditLixa’s website analyzer covers every item marked automated above in one pass, scored and explained. Then work through the manual items by hand, since no tool (including this one) can honestly claim to judge content quality, search intent match, or backlink relevance on its own.

Once you have real results, How to Read Your Website Audit Report and What to Fix First covers how to prioritize what comes back.

Related reading

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