What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a check of everything that affects how your business shows up in search. It looks at whether Google can find and index your pages, how fast they load on a phone, whether each page matches what customers search for, and, for a local business, your Google Business Profile, reviews and links. A good audit ends with a short list of fixes ranked by impact.
Think of it like a pre-purchase inspection on a used truck. You want to know what is broken, what is about to break and what is fine, in that order. A list of 400 "issues" with no order is not an inspection. It is a pile of parts.
What does an SEO audit check?
An SEO audit checks four areas: technical health, page content, local presence and links. Most of the checks can be done with Google's own free tools.
| Area | What gets checked | Google tool that helps |
|---|---|---|
| Technical | Indexing, speed, mobile layout, broken pages, redirects | Search Console Page indexing report, Core Web Vitals |
| Content | One clear page per service, titles, headings, local details | Search Console Performance report |
| Local | Google Business Profile, categories, reviews, map rankings | Business Profile Performance report |
| Links | Who links to you, and whether any links look bought | Search Console links report |
The sections below explain what a good SEO audit looks for in each area.
What does a technical SEO audit look for?
A technical SEO audit looks for anything that stops Google from finding, reading or showing your pages. The starting point is indexing. Google's Page indexing report in Search Console shows which pages Google has indexed, which it has not, and why, with reasons such as a robots.txt block, a noindex tag, a redirect or a duplicate.
Speed and stability come next. Google's Core Web Vitals guidance sets these targets:
- Largest Contentful Paint (loading) within 2.5 seconds
- Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) under 200 milliseconds
- Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability) under 0.1
For example, a roofing site whose phone number jumps down the screen as images load is failing that last one. Customers tap the wrong thing, or give up. Our guide to technical SEO covers each issue in more depth, and why your website is not showing up on Google walks through the most common indexing problems.
What does a content and local SEO audit look for?
A content and local SEO audit looks at whether your pages and your Google Business Profile match the searches your customers actually make. A plumber with one "Services" page listing twelve things will usually lose to a competitor with a clear page for each of them.
The local half checks your Google Business Profile categories, hours and service area, your name, address and phone number across the web, and your reviews against competitors. Google's local ranking help page says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that prominence draws on links and reviews.
A good audit also checks map rankings from many points across your service area, not just from your office. You might hold the top spot near your shop and not appear at all ten miles away.
How do you do a basic SEO audit yourself?
You can do a basic SEO audit yourself in an afternoon with Google's free tools. Work through these steps and write down what you find.
- Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Google's SEO Starter Guide says if you see results pointing to your site, you are in the index. Note any important pages that are missing.
- Set up Google Search Console if you have not already, and verify your site.
- Open the Page indexing report. Look at the reasons pages are not indexed, and check whether any of them are service pages you need.
- Open the Performance report. Google defines clicks as visits from search results, impressions as times your site appeared, and average position as the average position of your topmost result. Sort by queries and look for searches customers really use.
- Test your top pages for speed on a phone, against the Core Web Vitals targets.
- List your services and check each has its own page. If one is missing, it is a gap.
- Review your Google Business Profile. Category, hours, service area, photos and recent reviews.
- Compare reviews with the top 3 map results for your main service. Count, rating and how recent.
- Call your own business after hours. See what a new customer hears.
That last step is not in most SEO audit checklists. It should be.
What should a good SEO audit report include?
A good SEO audit report includes a short summary in plain English, a ranked list of fixes, and who is responsible for each one. It should tell you what matters most, why, and what to do first.
| A useful audit | A tool export dressed up as an audit |
|---|---|
| Ten to twenty prioritized fixes | Hundreds of "errors" with no order |
| Plain-English explanations | Jargon and color-coded scores |
| Ties issues to calls and leads | Ties issues to a made-up health score |
| Notes what is already fine | Treats everything as urgent |
| Checks your Google Business Profile and reviews | Looks only at the website |
| Written by a person who looked at your business | Generated in minutes |
Watch for audits that use fear to sell. Many "errors" in automated tools are harmless. Google's own Page indexing report notes that some pages, like duplicates, are meant to stay out of the index. And if an audit recommends buying links, walk away: Google's spam policies name link spam as a violation that can make a site rank lower or disappear from results.
How often should you get an SEO audit?
Get a full SEO audit once a year, and sooner after any big change: a website redesign, a new address, a new business name or a sudden drop in calls. Redesigns deserve special care, because old page addresses often break when nobody sets up redirects.
Between audits, a monthly SEO report should track progress against the audit's plan. If you are deciding whether to hire help, our guide to what an SEO company does explains what the work after the audit looks like, and our local SEO services and web design pages show how Larkpin handles it.
What do most SEO audits miss?
Most SEO audits miss what happens after a customer finds you. Rankings and traffic are only useful if the phone gets answered and the enquiry gets a reply. Invoca's 2025 Call Conversion Benchmarks found only 61% of callers reach a live person, with answer rates running from 54% to 69% by industry.
A business can do everything right in search and still lose the customer at voicemail. That is why Larkpin, a local SEO, web design and AI automation agency for US local businesses, checks response alongside visibility.
Get an audit that checks the whole path
Our Free Missed-Lead Audit checks your Google Maps rankings across your service area and whether AI answers mention you, calls and texts your business after hours to record what happens, and compares your reviews with your top 3 competitors. You get a recorded walkthrough within 2 business days, which answers the question of what an SEO audit is with your own business on the screen.