Regular SEO audits are essential if you want to stay visible in 2025’s more competitive, AI-shaped search results. Use this 15-point checklist to review technical health, content quality and link authority – and spot issues before they cost you traffic and leads.
Technical SEO checks (1–5)
- Check crawlability and indexation
Start by confirming that search engines can crawl and index your key pages. Review your robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags and noindex rules. If you need a refresher on how crawling and indexing actually work, revisit Totally Digital’s guide on search engine basics: crawling, indexing and ranking. - Review Core Web Vitals and site speed
Run Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights to test Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift and Interaction to Next Paint. Prioritise fixes such as image compression, lazy loading, font optimisation and reducing third-party scripts. Faster, more stable pages support both rankings and conversions. - Test mobile experience and UX
In 2025, Google’s view of your site is effectively mobile-first. Check that navigation, forms, CTAs and key journeys (e.g. quote, enquiry, checkout) work perfectly on smaller screens. Make sure tap targets are large enough and important content is not hidden behind accordions or pop-ups. - Clean up index bloat and legacy URLs
Old campaign pages, thin content and duplicate URLs dilute crawl budget and confuse search engines. Identify low-value pages and decide whether to consolidate, improve or deindex. For more detailed guidance, see Totally Digital’s article on how to remove a page from Google forever. - Verify tracking, GA4 and event data
A modern audit is pointless if your data is wrong. Confirm that GA4, Google Tag Manager and key conversions are firing correctly. If your reporting looks odd, check your setup against the walkthrough in Key Events report gone from GA4? Where is Key Events report? and make sure you are capturing meaningful engagement signals.
Content and on-page checks (6–10)
- Map keywords to pages and intent
Build or update your keyword-to-URL map. Each priority query should have a clear primary page targeting it, aligned to the user’s intent (informational, commercial, transactional). Remove cannibalisation where multiple pages chase the same keyword. - Evaluate content quality, depth and E-E-A-T
Review whether your content demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. Add first-hand examples, data, case studies and clear author information where possible. Outdated posts should be refreshed with 2025-relevant information rather than simply left to languish. - Audit on-page optimisation
Check title tags, meta descriptions, H1–H3 structure, internal links and image alt text. Titles should include your target keyword and a strong value proposition; meta descriptions should earn the click, even if they do not directly influence ranking. - Use structured data where it matters
Implement appropriate schema (e.g. Organisation, FAQ, Product, Article) to help search engines understand your content and unlock richer SERP features. Validate regularly with Google’s Rich Results Test to catch errors introduced by CMS or theme updates. - Assess content around site changes and migrations
If you have redesigned or migrated in the last couple of years, check that key landing pages retained their content, internal links and intent. Totally Digital’s piece on SEO migration failures is a stark reminder of what can happen when SEO is an afterthought during a rebuild.
Link and authority checks (11–15)
- Review internal linking and orphan pages
Use a crawler to find pages with few or no internal links, especially high-value content. Improve your internal linking so important articles, service pages and case studies are never more than a few clicks from the homepage. - Evaluate backlink profile and toxicity
Audit your external links for diversity, relevance and authority. Look out for spammy, low-quality directories or obvious link schemes; consider disavowing genuinely harmful links, while focusing most of your effort on earning better ones. - Check anchor text balance
Ensure your internal and external anchors are natural, varied and contextually relevant. Over-optimised, repetitive exact-match anchors can look manipulative; brand and topical phrases feel more organic and are safer long term. - Validate local and citation signals (if applicable)
For location-focused businesses, make sure NAP (name, address, phone) details are consistent across your site and key directories. Check that Google Business Profile and other major listings are complete, active and linked to the correct URLs. - Set up recurring monitoring and governance
An SEO audit is not a one-off project. Create a simple governance plan: monthly health checks, quarterly content reviews and an annual full forensic audit. Capture findings, assign owners and track fixes so each audit meaningfully improves performance rather than becoming a box-ticking exercise.