SEO Audit Checklist 2026
Built by Lee Beirne | AI SEO Consultant | leebeirne.com
This checklist covers the 15 essential checks for a comprehensive SEO audit. Use it to identify issues that prevent your site from ranking.
Crawlability & Indexing
☐ Crawl website with Sitebulb or OpenCode SEO HIGH
☐ Check robots.txt for accidental blocks HIGH
☐ Verify XML sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console HIGH
☐ Fix indexing issues (noindex tags, canonical errors) HIGH
☐ Allow AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot) in robots.txt MEDIUM
Site Architecture
☐ Check for orphan pages (no internal links) HIGH
☐ Verify flat architecture (3-4 clicks to any page) MEDIUM
☐ Fix broken internal links HIGH
☐ Review anchor text distribution LOW
On-Page SEO
☐ Check title tags (unique, under 60 chars, includes keyword) HIGH
☐ Check meta descriptions (unique, under 155 chars) MEDIUM
☐ Verify single H1 per page with logical hierarchy MEDIUM
☐ Check for duplicate content HIGH
☐ Add alt text to all images LOW
Performance
☐ Test Core Web Vitals (LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1) HIGH
☐ Compress images and enable lazy loading MEDIUM
☐ Minify CSS and JavaScript MEDIUM
☐ Configure CDN MEDIUM
Mobile & Security
☐ Verify mobile responsiveness HIGH
☐ Check HTTPS on all pages HIGH
☐ Fix mixed content issues MEDIUM
Content & Links
☐ Identify thin content (under 300 words) MEDIUM
☐ Check backlink profile for toxic links MEDIUM
☐ Review competitor backlink gaps LOW
AI Search Readiness
☐ Add structured data (Schema.org) HIGH
☐ Ensure entity consistency across site MEDIUM
☐ Structure content for AI extraction MEDIUM
☐ Add E-E-A-T signals (author bios, citations) MEDIUM