How to Do a Site Audit: The 2026 Step-by-Step Playbook

Learning how to do a site audit is the single highest-leverage skill in SEO. A good audit finds 20 to 80 fixable issues on a typical small-business site. Fix the top 10 and rankings usually lift within 6 weeks.

This playbook takes 3 to 4 hours for a 50-page site. No paid tools required for the basics. We run this exact process on every new client at Sprout Sage Solutions.

Step 1: Set Up the Four Free Tools

Before you click anything, open:

• Google Search Console (30 seconds once verified)
• Google Analytics 4
• PageSpeed Insights
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs)

If you do not have Search Console set up yet, read our Google Search Console for beginners guide first.

Step 2: Crawl the Site



Open Screaming Frog. Enter your domain. Let it run. Grab coffee.

On a 50-page site this takes 2 to 4 minutes. You get a full map: every URL, status code, title, meta description, H1, canonical, word count, and internal link count.

Step 3: Check Indexation

⚡ 2-minute scorecard · instant result

How strong is your lead engine?

Answer 5 quick questions. Get your score + the top fixes — free.

1. Do you track which source every lead comes from?

Yes Partly No

2. Do you respond to new leads in under 5 minutes?

Yes Partly No

3. Do you have a CRM that catches every inquiry?

Yes Partly No

4. Do you run a follow-up / nurture sequence?

Yes Partly No

5. Is your site built to convert, not just inform?

Yes Partly No

0/10

Email me my full breakdown + the top 3 fixes for my situation:

Email my fixes →

Send my result + occasional tips. Unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer to talk? Book a free 30-min audit or call +91 97297 12388.

In Search Console, go to Pages. Note:

• How many pages are indexed
• How many are “crawled but not indexed”
• How many are “discovered but not indexed”

Compare indexed count to your sitemap count. If you have 80 pages in the sitemap but only 40 indexed, that is a red flag. Usually thin content, duplicate content, or crawl budget issues.

Step 4: Find Status Code Problems

From your Screaming Frog crawl:

• 404s: internal links pointing to missing pages. Fix every one.
• 301 chains: redirect A → B → C. Shorten to A → C.
• 5xx errors: server issues, urgent, fix today.
• 302s on permanent moves: change to 301.

Step 5: Title Tag and Meta Description Audit



Sort by title length. Flag:

• Titles under 30 characters (underoptimized)
• Titles over 65 characters (truncated)
• Duplicate titles (bad for ranking)
• Missing titles (rare but fatal)

Same for meta descriptions. Target 150 to 158 characters, unique per page. Our on-page SEO checklist has the exact formulas.

Step 6: Heading Structure

Every page needs one H1. Check for:

• Missing H1s
• Multiple H1s (common in WordPress themes)
• H1s that do not match page intent
• Skipped levels (H2 to H4 without H3)

Step 7: Content Audit

Export all pages with word counts. Flag:

• Pages under 300 words (usually thin, candidates for deletion or merging)
• Pages over 3,000 words (check if they load fast)
• Pages with low traffic AND low rankings: delete or consolidate

Thin content drags down the whole site’s quality score. Ruthless pruning beats endless production.

Step 8: Internal Linking

Which pages have fewer than 3 internal links pointing in? Those are orphaned or near-orphaned. Your commercially important pages should have 10+ internal links pointing to them.

Run “Pages with 0 inlinks” in Screaming Frog. Fix them.

Step 9: Speed and Core Web Vitals

Take your top 10 highest-traffic pages. Run each through PageSpeed Insights. Record:

• LCP (target under 2.5s)
• INP (target under 200ms)
• CLS (target under 0.1)

Any page failing two or more? Priority fix list.

Step 10: Mobile Usability

Search Console > Mobile Usability. Any pages flagged are losing traffic. Common issues: tap targets too close, text too small, horizontal scrolling. Use the free website cost calculator if the fix might require a full redesign.

Step 11: Schema and Structured Data

Validate your key pages at validator.schema.org. Every service page should have LocalBusiness or Service schema. Every blog post should have Article. Every FAQ should have FAQPage.

Missing schema means you are invisible to AI Overviews.

Step 12: Backlink Sanity Check

In Search Console > Links, check:

• Total referring domains
• Top linked pages
• Anchor text distribution (too much exact-match = spam signal)

If your top anchor texts look like “cheap viagra” or “casino online,” you have been hit by a negative SEO attack. Disavow.

Step 13: Analytics Review

In GA4, look at the last 90 days:

• Which landing pages convert best?
• Which pages have 80%+ bounce and 5-second session duration? (Candidates for refresh or deletion)
• Which channels drive real business?

See our GA4 guide if GA4 still confuses you.

Step 14: The Prioritization Matrix

You now have 40 to 100 issues. You cannot fix them all. Sort by:

• Effort: low / medium / high
• Impact: low / medium / high

Fix low-effort high-impact first (usually titles, broken links, missing schema). Schedule the high-effort high-impact items for the next quarter. Ignore low-impact items forever.

Package It Up

Write a 1-page summary: top 5 wins, top 5 issues, next quarter plan. That is your audit deliverable. Clients pay $2,000 to $8,000 for this work. If you want ours done for you, our search engine optimisation services start with a full audit in week one.

FAQ

How long does a site audit take?
A 50-page site takes 3 to 4 hours with this process. A 500-page site takes a full day. A 5,000+ page enterprise site needs a week and paid tooling. Skipping steps to save time always costs more later when you misdiagnose the problem.

How often should I audit my site?
Full audit once a year, mini-audit every quarter (just the crawl, Search Console, and speed check). Also audit after any major change: redesign, migration, CMS switch, or a sudden traffic drop. Reactive audits find issues faster than scheduled ones.

Do I need paid tools for a site audit?
No for sites under 500 pages. Screaming Frog free tier, Search Console, GA4, and PageSpeed Insights cover 90 percent of what you need. Paid tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, Sitebulb) add backlink data, rank tracking, and automation. Useful, not essential.

What is the single most common audit finding?
Broken internal links. Every site has them. The next most common: duplicate or missing title tags, followed by thin content pages that drag down the whole domain’s quality signal. These three fixes alone often lift rankings.

Want us to run your audit? Book a free 30-minute consultation and we will show you the top 3 issues we find live on the call.