How to audit a website step by step: a 30-point checklist for SMEs

Block 1 · Indexing and crawling (8 checks)

If Google cannot crawl or index a page, that page does not exist for it.

1. 1.The property is in Search Console and verified. Verifying it by HTML file or DNS is best.
2. 2.Page indexing report: review the reasons pages are not indexed. Look especially at "Crawled - currently not indexed" and "Discovered - currently not indexed" for pages that matter to you.
3. 3.Sitemap submitted with no errors (Indexing › Sitemaps). It should only include URLs you want indexed that return a 200.
4. 4.robots.txt does not block important pages. Google points out that robots.txt is not a way to keep a page out of Google: for that you use noindex or a password.
5. 5.No key page carries a noindex by mistake. It happens a lot after a redesign, when the staging configuration gets copied over.
6. 6.A single version of each URL: with or without a trailing slash, with or without www, http or https. All of them should 301-redirect to the right version. If the Performance report shows the same page with and without a slash getting impressions separately, it fails.
7. 7.The page looks the same to Google: use URL Inspection › Test live URL and check the screenshot and the HTML Google receives. Important content must be in the HTML, not loaded only with JavaScript.
8. 8.No broken internal links or redirect chains (Screaming Frog crawl: 4xx codes and chained redirects).

Block 2 · Speed and mobile experience (6 checks)

Google indexes and ranks based on the mobile version of your site, so always measure on mobile.

1. 9.LCP (loading of the main content) ≤ 2.5 s.
2. 10.INP (response to a tap or click) ≤ 200 ms.
3. 11.CLS (visual stability, nothing jumping while it loads) ≤ 0.1. Google publishes these three thresholds on web.dev and they are measured at the 75th percentile of real visits.
4. 12.Search Console Core Web Vitals report with no URLs under "Poor". If your site has little traffic, the report may be empty: mark it "unknown" and use PageSpeed Insights lab data as a guide.
5. 13.Images of reasonable weight in a modern format (WebP or AVIF), especially the main image on each page.
6. 14.HTTPS across the whole site, with no mixed-content warnings.

A warning from Google itself: good Core Web Vitals help, but they do not guarantee you will be at the top. They carry more weight when several equally useful pages are competing.

Block 3 · Content and on-page SEO (8 checks)

This block checks whether each page clearly states what it offers and which search it answers.

1. 15.Each page has its own short, descriptive title. Google advises against repeating words or stuffing keywords.
2. 16.One H1 per page that says what is offered or answered.
3. 17.One main search per page. If two of your pages compete for the same search (you will see it in Performance › Queries › Pages), it fails: merge or differentiate them.
4. 18.The intent matches. If a guide shows up for searches about hiring a service, or the other way round, Google will rank it far from the top 10.
5. 19.Service pages answer the client's questions: what is included, who it is for, timelines, price or how it is calculated, and how to hire.
6. 20.Internal linking: every important page receives links from your other pages with text that describes the destination. No page is left orphaned.
7. 21.Valid structured data (Organization or LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage if there are visible questions). What the markup says must match what can be read on the page.
8. 22.Searches with many impressions and few clicks (Performance, last 3 months) have a page that genuinely answers them. They are your opportunity list. To find new searches, you can use the Google Ads Keyword Planner.

Block 4 · Local SEO and Google Business Profile (4 checks)

If you serve clients in an area, people searching on the map see your profile before your website. If you only sell online with no premises, mark this block as "not applicable".

1. 23.The profile name is your business's real name, with no added towns or services. It is a Google guideline.
2. 24.A correct address or service area, and the same name, phone number and address on your website, your profile and the main directories.
3. 25.Category, services and opening hours complete and up to date.
4. 26.Reviews answered, without asking only happy clients or offering anything in return. Google's policy prohibits offering incentives for reviews and selectively asking satisfied customers. We explain it in how to get Google reviews legally.

Block 5 · AI visibility (4 checks)

AI assistants already answer many searches before the person reaches a website. This block checks whether they can read you and whether they cite you.

1. 27.Search Console generative AI report. Available to all websites since 31/08/2026. It shows how often your URLs appeared in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover, by page, country, device and date. It only gives impressions: no clicks or queries.
2. 28.Your pages can appear in Google's AI features. According to Google, the page only has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet; there are no additional technical requirements. Check you do not have restrictive nosnippet or max-snippet settings by mistake.
3. 29.robots.txt does not block the AI search crawlers you care about: OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User (Claude). Blocking training crawlers is a separate business decision. Google-Extended does not affect Google Search.
4. 30.Manual test with 5 client questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Mode: brand, service, problem, area and comparison. Note whether they mention you, whether the details are correct and which sources they cite. The full method is in our GEO audit guide.