How to Perform a Complete SEO Audit in 17 Steps

An SEO audit is a great way to assess a website's current state and uncover opportunities to improve visibility. It should be the first step when working on a new site.

In recent years, search has changed significantly. When you Google something now, you not only get traditional blue links, but also AI Overviews and AI Mode—new AI experiences that answer your question directly.

Plus, searches are no longer limited to just Google. People are increasingly turning to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to find information, research products, and get recommendations.

This means your SEO audit needs to take into account the entire search landscape to be useful.

In this guide, I’ll share the audit process that I’ve developed for this new era of search, what to look for during an audit, and which tools help along the way. I'll also provide a complete SEO audit checklist you can use when conducting your own audits.

But before that, let’s go over some basics.

What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is a process of evaluating how well a website is optimized for visibility in AI search and traditional search. It involves analyzing things like: 

• Whether a website is accessible to crawlers
• How visible the website is in traditional search results and AI-generated responses
• Whether AI platforms accurately represent your brand
• Technical performance (site speed, mobile-friendliness, etc.)
• Content quality
• Backlink profile

You can think of an SEO audit as an overall “health check” for a website.

What Tools Do You Need for an SEO Audit?

There are many different tools you’ll need during an audit, including:

• Google Search Console (GSC)
• Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test Tool
• Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool
• Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit
• Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker
• Semrush’s Site Audit
• Semrush’s Backlinks Analytics

From my personal experience, I’ll say it’s impossible to do an SEO audit without tools. They give you the data, diagnostics, and insights you need to evaluate different aspects of your website and make smart decisions.

The good news? Many of these tools are free or offer free versions or trials, so you can start an SEO audit without paying any upfront cost.

How to Do an SEO Audit:17-Step Checklist

Here are the steps I follow when performing a thorough SEO audit.

I also created a reference checklist you can keep handy to ensure you won’t miss anything important.

Now, let's explore each step in detail.

1. Make Sure Crawlers Can Access Your Site

Crawlers must be able to access your website for your content to appear in search results and AI-generated answers.

Google, ChatGPT, Claude, etc., use web crawlers (automated computer programs) to crawl (discover) and index content. 

Indexing is a process by which these platforms store content in their databases to be retrieved when users perform searches.

If crawlers are blocked from your site, they won’t be able to access and save your content. As a result, you won't appear in search results or AI-generated responses. No matter how well-optimized your content is.

So, check your robots.txt file. Your robots.txt file tells crawlers which parts of your site they should and shouldn’t access.

To check it, go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt in your browser. You’ll see a file that looks something like this:

Here are the parts of this file you need to know:

• User agent: Specifies which crawler the rule applies to (e.g., OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT citations, Googlebot for Google, * for all crawlers, etc.)
• Allow: Tells the crawler it should access specific pages or sections. The forward slash "/" means the entire site
• Disallow: Tells the crawler it shouldn’t access specific pages or sections

Make sure you're not accidentally blocking these important crawlers:

• Googlebot—Google's main search crawler
• BingBot—Bing's search crawler (also influences Copilot results)
• OAI-SearchBot—Used by OpenAI for real-time search and citations in ChatGPT
• PerplexityBot—Perplexity's search crawler

Additionally, you may want to allow these crawlers if you want your content to be used for training AI models:

• Google-Extended—Used to train Google's AI models (Gemini series)
• GPTBot—Used to train OpenAI's models
• ClaudeBot—Used to train Anthropic's Claude models

If you see a block like the one below, you’re preventing Google from accessing your entire site.

Once you've confirmed crawlers can access your site, you've done the first and most important check.

2. Benchmark Your Current AI Visibility

Monitor how frequently your brand and content show up in AI-generated answers to set a baseline for future growth.

The easiest way to track whether and how you appear in AI systems is with the AI Visibility Toolkit.

To get started, open the tool and enter your domain and click “Check AI Visibility.”

The tool will show you key metrics:

• AI Visibility Score: An overall measure of how visible your brand is in AI-generated responses compared to competitors, expressed on a scale out of 100. The higher the score, the better visibility you have.
• Mentions: The number of times your brand name has been referenced in AI-generated responses
• Cited pages: Specific URLs from your site that AI platforms have used as sources

Check if your visibility is trending up or down. This helps you understand whether recent optimization efforts are having a positive impact on your visibility.

Compare your performance against competitors to see where you stand in your industry.

Also, look into whether certain pages are cited more frequently than others. This reveals what type of content AI platforms tend to cite more often ("Best of" lists, how-to guides, data-driven articles, etc.) to inform what you’ll create more of.

There are a lot of tactics you can use to improve your AI visibility. We have a dedicated AI optimization guide that you can check out to learn these specific tactics.

3. See What AI Is Already Saying About Your Brand (and If It’s True)

Check what AI says about your brand, products, or services to spot any errors or misinformation that might mislead potential customers. 

Test different AI platforms by entering relevant queries and reviewing how they describe your brand, products, and services. Try queries like:

• “What does [your company] do?"
• "What products/services does [your company] offer?"
• “How much does [your product/service] cost?”
• "Where is [your company] based?"
• "Who founded [your company]?"
• “What are the features of [your product]?”
• “[your company] vs. [competitor]"

Document any instances of the following in AI-generated answers about you:

• Factual inaccuracies: For example, incorrect product descriptions or misattributed features
• Outdated information: For example, old pricing or discontinued products
• Incomplete answers: For example, missing key products, services, or differentiators
• Competitor confusion: Your features or accomplishments attributed to competitors (or vice versa)
• Hallucinations: Completely fabricated information

If you discover inaccurate information about you in AI-generated answers, find out which sources AI cited to understand where the misinformation lies, and then:

• Fix inconsistencies on your own properties: Make sure your website, social media profiles, and business listings all reflect accurate, up-to-date information. AI relies heavily on your primary sources (especially for brand-related queries).
• Reach out to fix third-party misinformation: If AI cites external content with outdated or wrong information, contact the authors or site owners, provide them with accurate details, and ask for corrections
• ​​Fill content gaps on your website: If AI generates vague or incorrect answers because your site lacks specific information, create content to provide that information clearly and fill the gaps.

4. Track Whether AI Connects Your Brand to Key Topics

Monitor whether AI platforms are associating your brand with topics relevant to your business to see if you're missing opportunities when potential customers ask questions in your area of expertise.

For example, if you sell project management software but AI only mentions you for queries related to "collaboration tools" and never for queries related to "project tracking" or "project management," you're invisible for those relevant queries.

Start by listing the main categories, use cases, and blog topics your brand should be associated with. For example:

• Main categories: Project management software, project management software for marketing teams, project management software for engineers, etc.
• Use cases: Team collaboration, workflow management, project tracking, time tracking, task management,  sprint planning, etc.
• Blog topics: how to improve team productivity, project planning tips, agile vs. waterfall methodology, etc.

Ask AI platforms questions related to the topics you’ve identified to see if your brand appears in the responses. For example:

• "What are the best [product category] tools?"
• "How do I [solve a specific problem]?"
• "What tools help with [use case]?"

See whether your brand gets mentioned, how prominently it appears, and whether the context accurately represents you or your offering.

Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit can show you which queries trigger mentions of your brand and which topics you're most strongly associated with.

If AI doesn't connect your brand to key topics, it's usually because:

• Your website lacks content on those topics
• Your messaging isn’t clear
• Competitors have more authoritative content in that space
• Your content doesn't clearly position you within that category

To start showing up in AI responses in all relevant subjects, create targeted content that establishes your expertise in the missing topic areas.

5. Check for Duplicate Versions of Your Site

Having multiple versions of your website accessible to search engines can seriously dilute your SEO efforts and confuse search engines about which version to rank or cite.

I’ve seen this issue most often on newly launched websites that haven’t standardized their URL structure. As a result, the site exists at various URL versions (depending on whether there's WWW in the domain and whether the site uses HTTPS).

Google may see each version as a separate website, splitting your authority (ranking potential) between them. Which could lead to poor performance.

To identify whether duplicate versions of your pages exist, try accessing your site through these URLs:

• http://yourdomain.com
• https://yourdomain.com
• http://www.yourdomain.com
• https://www.yourdomain.com

Only one version should be accessible and all others should redirect to it using 301 redirects. 

You should use the HTTPS version because it encrypts data between your server and users’ browsers—improving security, user trust, and even (possibly) giving you a slight visibility boost.

As for whether you use WWW or not, it’s a personal preference, and it doesn’t matter for SEO as long as only one version is accessible.

6. Ensure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.

A poor mobile experience hurts your SEO.

Plus, many users access AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude on mobile devices—and if your site isn't mobile-friendly, they're less likely to engage with it when AI cites you as a source.

​The easiest way to check if your site is mobile-friendly is to use Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test Tool. Enter your website URL, and the tool will analyze the page to see if it meets mobile usability standards.

If your site isn't mobile-friendly, focus on improving these key aspects:

• Text readability: Make sure the content is easy to read without zooming
• Tap targets: Make sure buttons and links are large enough to tap precisely
• Viewport configuration: Ensure the site can properly scale according to different device sizes
• Media playback: Make sure videos and interactive elements work properly on mobile devices
• Load time: Optimize your site to load quickly on mobile networks

If you're using WordPress, most themes are mobile-optimized by default. For custom sites, work with a developer to implement responsive design principles. 

7. Evaluate Your Site Speed

Site speed is a small Google ranking factor—and one of the most impactful elements of user experience.

A fast-loading site tends to have lower bounce rates and better engagement among visitors from traditional and AI search. When users click through to your site from an AI-generated answer and find it loads slowly, they're likely to leave immediately. That wastes the visibility you earned from the AI citation.

Identify major speed issues using Google's PageSpeed Insights Tool. Just enter your URL, click "Analyze," and Google will return:

• A speed score (out of 100) for both mobile and desktop
• Specific recommendations to improve performance 

Work with a developer to resolve major issues causing delays. Then tackle the rest. 

And don’t stress about achieving a perfect score from Page Speed Insights. If you get your score to the mid-80s, then you're usually in great shape. I haven’t seen noticeable SEO gains from pushing scores much higher than that.

8. Crawl Your Site for Technical Errors

A site crawl helps uncover technical issues that might be invisible on the surface but can seriously harm your SEO performance.

For this step, I recommend using a dedicated SEO crawling tool. Semrush’s Site Audit tool is my personal favorite, as it checks for over 140 technical issues—making it one of the most comprehensive solutions in the industry.

To get started, create a project in the tool and configure the audit.

Then, click “Start Site Audit.” 

When the audit is done, you'll get an SEO audit report that displays your “Site Health” score. It’s an overall indicator of your website’s SEO health that’s based on the number of issues found. And their severity.

Site Audit issues are divided into three categories in order of severity: 

1. Errors
2. Warnings
3. Notices

Click on the “Issues” tab to see a full list of issues Site Audit identified on your site. Click each issue type to see a list of all affected URLs.

Common errors include:

• Broken internal links: Links pointing to non-existent pages, causing 404 errors
• Redirect loops and chains: Multiple redirects that create cycles or unnecessarily long chains
• Orphan pages: Pages that aren’t linked to from other pages on your site, making them hard for search engines to find
• Sitemap issues: Some incorrect pages were found in your sitemap (a file on your website that contains a list of all your important pages)
• Duplicate content: Similar or identical content accessible through different URLs, which can confuse search engines

Click “Why and how to fix it” for explanations and instructions for addressing any issue.

9. Check Core Web Vitals

Google uses the Core Web Vitals to measure real-world user experience and to help determine rankings.

The three Core Web Vitals metrics are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how long it takes to load the largest element on the page. It should ideally load within 2.5 seconds. 
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Measures how long it takes for a site to respond to user interactions. Aim for less than 200 milliseconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how much the layout of the page shifts unexpectedly for the user. A score of less than 0.1 is ideal.

Sites that score well across all Core Web Vitals typically have better engagement metrics (longer time on site and lower bounce rates) than those that don’t meet these benchmarks.

Plus, if someone finds your site through an AI citation but experiences slow loading, unresponsive interactions, or jarring layout shifts, they'll likely leave immediately. That wastes the visibility you worked to earn.

Check Core Web Vitals performance in Google Search Console from the sidebar menu. 

Here, you'll find separate reports for “Desktop” and “Mobile.” Click “Open Report” at the top of either chart for more details.

The Google Search Console reports label pages as “Good,” “Need improvement,” or “Poor.” Click each rating to see the affected pages. 

To fix the issues affecting your Core Web Vitals performance, take these steps:

• For LCP issues: Optimize the hero image and other elements that load above the fold, improve server response times, and eliminate render-blocking resources like unnecessary CSS or JavaScript files
• For INP concerns:Minimize JavaScript execution time, optimize event handlers, and remove unnecessary third-party scripts
• For CLS problems: Always specify width and height attributes for images and videos and use fixed-sized containers for dynamic content like ads

Core Web Vitals optimizations are highly technical. So consider working with a developer who can analyze each page, implement the fixes, and thoroughly test the changes.

10. Review Content Quality

Quality content is critical for gaining visibility in traditional search results as well as AI-generated answers.

So when auditing your content, ask whether your content:

• Actually answers users’ questions
• Covers the topic thoroughly and accurately
• Is original rather than duplicated or lightly rewritten
• Demonstrates subject matter expertise and authority
• Is easy to skim and well-structured
• Has up-to-date information 

Focus on your most important pages first. In Google Search Console the “Search results” report shows which pages are getting the most impressions and clicks.

Assess the pages with the most clicks and impressions closely to see if they provide genuine value. Categorize each page as:

• Update: Content is good but needs more depth, updated information, or additional sections to fully satisfy search intent
• Rewrite: Content misses the mark or lacks authority and requires a complete overhaul 
• Consolidate: Content overlaps with similar pages. Combine into one stronger page. 
• Delete: Content is irrelevant or of very low quality and can’t be salvaged

​​After categorizing your content, work on the promising pieces to improve their quality. 

11. Check Your Site’s On-Page SEO

On-page SEO helps search engines and AI understand your content and surface it for relevant queries.

On-page SEO elements include:

• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Header tags (H1, H2, etc.)
• URL slugs

While these elements might seem basic, I'm consistently surprised how frequently websites get these fundamentals wrong.

Start by examining your homepage. Open it in the Google Chrome browser, right-click, and choose “View Page Source.”

When inspecting a page on your site, look for:

• A concise title tag (under ~55 characters) that includes your main keyword 
• A unique meta description (~105 characters) that accurately summarizes the page 
• A single H1 tag that clearly communicates the main topic
• Subheadings (H2s, H3s, etc.) used logically to structure the content
• Descriptive alt text for all images that add meaning to the content 
• Clean, descriptive, and keyword-rich URL structures 

If you have a large site, analyzing each page manually would be time-consuming. Semrush's On Page SEO Checker can audit your on-page elements at scale.

To start, set up a project for your website. And let the On Page SEO Checker analyze your site. When it’s done, you’ll see a list of pages with recommendations for each. 

Implement the on-page SEO recommendations to help your pages perform better. 

12. Analyze Your Brand Mentions and Backlinks

AI platforms and search engines use brand mentions to evaluate whether your brand is a trusted name in your industry.

Brand mentions are references to your brand across the web. There are two types of mentions that both matter for search rankings and AI visibility:

• Linked mentions: References to your brand that include a clickable link to your website. These are popularly known as backlinks and pass authority (ranking strength) to your site.
• Unlinked mentions: References to your brand name without a link, which AI platforms factor in when deciding whether to cite you as a source

You can also get backlinks that don’t include your brand name, which are beneficial for rankings and likely for AI visibility.

First, analyze your backlink profile during an audit using Semrush's Backlink Analytics tool. Input your URL and click “Analyze.” 

You’ll see an overview report with lots of information. First, check the referring domains graph to see your backlink growth over time.

A steady climb in backlinks is positive. Sudden drops or flat lines may require refreshing your link building strategy.

Next, look at the anchor text most commonly used for your backlinks.

A healthy backlink profile should have mostly branded and generic anchors, which show that the links have been acquired naturally. If you see an excessive number of keyword-rich anchors, that's a red flag that could trigger Google penalties.

Finally, go to the "Referring Domains" tab and look at the types of sites linking to you. These should mostly be websites that are relevant to your industry.

I also recommend checking the "Backlinks" tab. Sort your backlinks by Authority Score (AS) to put the lowest quality links at the top:

See if any of the pages linking to you stand out as suspicious. Maybe you have lots of links from irrelevant directories or questionable foreign domains.

In most cases, it's perfectly fine to have some low-quality links in your profile. Every site has them. Just watch for patterns that suggest manipulative link building or potential spam that could trigger a Google penalty.

If you find any problematic backlinks, work to remove them by contacting site owners.

Next, analyze your unlinked mentions using the Brand Monitoring app. The tool shows you where your brand is being discussed online.

See if your brand is being mentioned on high-authority sites frequently cited by AI, especially forums and community sites (like Reddit and Quora) where people ask questions and share recommendations.

13. Analyze Your Organic Traffic

Organic traffic represents visits to your site from organic (unpaid) search results and is one of the most important metrics for measuring traditional SEO success.

Check the Google Search Console “Search results” report from the sidebar to see your total clicks and traffic trends over time. Note any sharp drops or spikes. 

The "clicks" number at the top shows how many visits your site gets from Google Search, including traditional search listings, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. While this metric technically includes clicks from AI features, the vast majority of these clicks are likely from traditional search listings.

If there are any significant drops in your site’s organic traffic, identify what might have caused them. Sharp or sustained traffic drops are often caused by two things:

• Algorithm updates
• Manual actions (penalties applied by Google when they find your site violating their guidelines)

Google updates its algorithm quite regularly. Most of these updates are minor, but occasionally there are major updates that can significantly impact rankings. And Google will announce these major updates on their Search Central Blog. 

If you notice your organic traffic suddenly dropping right when these major updates roll out, you'll need to research what the update targeted and fix those aspects of your site.

In December 2025, Google rolled out a major core update that caused significant volatility across search results. Many sites experienced dramatic ranking fluctuations and sharp traffic drops.

If you're seeing unexplained organic traffic drops, it might be useful to check for manual actions.

Go to the "Manual actions" report in Google Search Console to see if your site has been penalized. Hopefully, you see a green tick that shows no issues are detected.

If there’s a manual action against your website, you'll need to address the specific violations and submit a reconsideration request.

For example, if you've been penalized for thin content (you have pages with little or no valuable information), you'll need to either substantially improve those low-quality pages with relevant, useful content or remove them from your site.

See Google’s Manual Actions guide for more details.

14. Benchmark SEO Performance Against Competitors

Benchmarking your SEO performance allows you to see exactly where you stand when compared to your competitors, so you can identify opportunities for improvement.

If you have a better overall SEO profile than the competition, you'll be more likely to outrank them in traditional search results.

To evaluate how you stack up against competitors, use Semrush's Domain Overview tool. Enter your website URL and click "Search."

Once you have your site's data, you can add competitors to compare side by side. Head to the “Compare domains” tab and select up to four competitor domains. If you're not sure who your main competitors are, pick the domains the tool suggests.

Domain Overview will give you a solid comparison of the key metrics for the selected domains. These will give you a good overview of where you're lagging behind or excelling.

To get the best overview of how you and your competitors compare, focus on these metrics:

• Authority Score: Shows the overall quality of domain on a scale from 1 to 100 (based on its backlinks, search traffic, and other factors)
• Organic Traffic: Shows how much organic traffic the domain receives  
• Organic Keywords: Shows how many keywords the domain ranks for  
• Referring Domains: Shows how many different domains link to the analyzed domain (this provides a better picture for comparison than the overall number of backlinks)

Authority Score has the strongest correlation with better visibility. So pay special attention to this metric when comparing your site with competitors.

One of the best ways to improve your Authority Score is by building backlinks.

In the next two steps, we'll take a look at how to get the most out of your competitors’ keywords and backlink data.

15. Find Keywords You’re Missing Out on

Look at keywords your competitors target and see whether you’re missing out on relevant keyword opportunities.

The Domain Overview comparison showed you the number of keywords they target, but it doesn't reveal the specific keywords.

You can find competitors' keywords with Semrush's Keyword Gap tool. Just enter your domain and the domains of your competitors.

After you click “Compare,” Keyword Gap will compare the sets of keywords the analyzed domains are ranking for in traditional search results.

Scroll down to the list of keywords and take a good look at the “Missing” and “Weak” tabs:

• Missing: Keywords the analyzed competitors rank for but you don't
• Weak: Keywords the analyzed competitors rank for higher than you

The “Missing” and “Weak” keyword lists will likely reveal some hidden keyword opportunities you may not have considered. 

Create new content that targets these competitor keywords. Or optimize existing pages around them. This will help you compete more effectively in your space.

16. Find Missing Backlink Opportunities

Look for backlink opportunities your competitors have capitalized on that you haven't yet to boost your authority.

Remember: Backlinks are very important for both traditional search rankings and AI visibility. 

Sites that link to your competitors are excellent prospects since they've already shown interest in your niche.

You can use Semrush’s Backlink Gap tool to find these sites. Just enter your domain and the domains of up to four competitors:

The tool will show a list of domains that link to the analyzed competitors but not to you: 

The domains shown in Backlink Gap are much more likely to link to your website since they're already linking to similar websites (your competitors).

Click on the arrow next to the number indicating the number of backlinks from a certain domain. This expands the view to show specific pages that link to your competitors. As well as the anchor text and target URLs.

Now, you can try to replicate these backlinks. Select the ones that are relevant to your website and click the “Start outreach” button in the top-right corner to send the selected prospects to the Link Building Tool, where you can set up a new project for your domain.

The Link Building Tool will help you:

• Find even more backlink prospects from various sources
• Reach out to the domain owners and ask them for backlinks
• Keep track of the progress of your outreach campaigns

To learn more, check out this guide on how to start a link building campaign with the Link Building Tool.

17. Check Your Presence in SERP Features

Appearing in SERP features can significantly impact your visibility and click-through rates.

SERP features are the special search result formats that appear on the search results page. These include:

• Featured snippet: A concise answer displayed near the top of the search results
• People Also Ask (PAA) box: A box that shows related questions and answers
• Image pack: A group of images that appears in the search results
• Local pack: A map with a local business listing

Among others.

To check how often you appear in SERP features, use Semrush's Position Tracking tool to set up a project for your domain. Then wait for the tool to collect data on your rankings.

Once the data is collected in Position Tracking, go to the “Overview” tab. Here, you can see which SERP features appear for your target keywords and whether your site is featured in them.

Once you know which SERP features you're missing out on, you can start thinking about how to optimize for them.

The exact optimization techniques change based on which SERP feature you're targeting.

For example, if you want to capture People Also Ask placements, identify common questions Google is showing in the PAA box. You can do this by simply searching for your target keywords and noting what questions appear in the PAA section.

Then include these questions in your content as subheadings and provide direct, concise answers right below them.

Putting Your SEO Audit Into Action

Completing a comprehensive SEO website audit is just the beginning of your optimization journey.

By following the process I've outlined in this guide, you'll uncover numerous opportunities to improve your visibility in traditional search results and AI-generated answers.

But finding opportunities is only half the battle—you need to act on them. Execution is important, after all.

Semrush offers a suite of SEO tools that help you both identify opportunities and execute effectively.

Sign up to get started today.