Google SEO Audit: Interpreting the Signals That Matter

Carrying Out an Organic Search (SEO) Audit: Definition, Goals and Scope

A structured review of everything that influences a site's organic visibility — technical foundations, content, authority and user experience — is what an SEO diagnostic really means in practice. The aim is not to produce an endless list of alerts, but to understand why a site has stalled, lost rankings or fails to convert, and then turn those findings into a prioritised action plan. Results are typically gradual and play out over several months, because they depend on crawling, indexing and the consolidation of relevance signals.

This approach is useful for a brochure site, a blog, a marketplace or an online shop, and it remains valid regardless of the technology used. In practice, you will also hear the terms organic search audit, search visibility analysis, or on-page SEO analysis when zooming in on a specific landing page template.

What an SEO Analysis Is For: Visibility, Traffic and Leads

An SEO analysis first helps you protect visibility where most clicks are concentrated. Several recent studies show very steep differences by SERP position: position 1 captures a significant share of CTR (for example 34% on desktop according to SEO.com, 2026), while page 2 receives only a fraction of clicks (0.78% according to Ahrefs, 2025). In other words, moving up a few places on queries already close to page one can deliver a meaningful uplift in qualified traffic.

An SEO audit then connects visibility to business performance: pages that attract visits but do not generate leads, pages that convert but remain under-exposed, content that ranks for non-strategic queries, or UX signals that may be suppressing conversion.

How to Define an SEO Audit in Practical Terms

In practical terms, an SEO diagnostic is a deliverable that connects three things: (1) observable findings (crawl, indexing, performance, content), (2) evidence (data from Search Console, Analytics, crawl extracts), and (3) a prioritised roadmap (what to do, where, in what order, and with which acceptance criteria). The objective is to move from a snapshot to executable decisions, without getting lost in generic recommendations.

What Is the Difference Between an Organic Search Audit and a Google-Focused Analysis?

In reality, the two overlap heavily, because Google accounts for the vast majority of usage and traffic. A Google-focused analysis leans more on Google-owned data (Search Console, interpretation of impressions, clicks, positions and indexing), whereas an organic search audit may also make room more explicitly for off-site signals (authority, links) and user experience considerations.

What You Measure — and What You Avoid Over-Interpreting — in a Website Audit

A reliable organic search audit combines three families of signals:

• Search engine signals: crawling, indexing, HTTP status codes, canonical tags, internal linking, performance, mobile friendliness.
• Content signals: intent, keyword-to-page alignment, topical coverage, duplication, cannibalisation, editorial structure.
• Outcome signals: impressions, clicks, CTR, rankings, conversions (via Analytics), and change over time.

Conversely, avoid over-reading isolated alerts with no observable impact (for example minor crawl warnings), or optimising without validating the effect on indexing, rankings or conversion. The right habit is to cross-check crawl data with Google data (impressions, indexed pages, queries) to separate noise from signal.

Why a Website Audit Kick-Starts Sustainable Growth

Before you produce content or start a redesign, verify one simple condition: can Google crawl and index the pages that matter? If crawlability or indexability is degraded, publishing more will not fix the underlying issue. Search is also evolving quickly: Google ships many adjustments each year, and results pages include more rich formats and AI-assisted answers. A regular SEO audit helps you adapt your strategy, reduce traffic losses and protect the pages that support revenue.

Technical and Semantic: The Two Pillars of a Reliable Website Analysis

To be actionable, a website analysis must cover at least two complementary dimensions: the technical side (what governs crawling, rendering and indexing) and the semantic side (what governs relevance, understanding and ranking potential). To go deeper, see our dedicated guides to a technical SEO audit and a semantic audit.

Technical Audit vs Semantic Audit: What Changes?

Technical analysis answers: "Can robots access and process the site quickly and unambiguously?" It covers indexability, URL structure, HTTP status codes, crawl directives, canonical tags, internal linking, internationalisation (hreflang), HTTPS and performance (including Core Web Vitals).

Semantic analysis answers: "Does each page target a clear intent, with content that is unique, comprehensive and well structured enough to perform?" It covers keyword-to-page alignment, coverage of secondary topics, term usage, duplication, cannibalisation and the internal linking plan.

What Google Crawling and Search Console Data Really Reveal

A crawl gives a "machine" snapshot of the site: titles, meta descriptions, depth, internal links, indexability, status codes, canonicals, and so on. But it does not tell the full story: a URL can be technically perfect and still generate zero impressions if it does not match any intent, or if its topic is already covered elsewhere.

Data from Google Search Console helps you connect pages and queries to hard metrics: impressions, clicks, CTR and average position. It is also an excellent way to spot quick opportunities (queries close to the top 10, pages sitting on page two) and to validate whether technical anomalies are genuinely affecting indexing.

Prioritising Fixes: Connecting Impact, Effort and Risk (the Incremys View)

Most crawlers will flag thousands of points, but a large share has no measurable impact on SEO. The risk is twofold: tying up engineering teams on low-value tickets, and delaying the work that actually shifts rankings (indexing, large-scale duplication, blocking errors, internal linking towards commercial pages).

Effective prioritisation therefore connects three axes: potential impact (on crawling, indexing, rankings, CTR, conversion), implementation effort (time, dependencies, release cycles) and risk (regression, side effects, traffic loss). This logic applies equally to Google-centric SEO audits and more content-led reviews.

Data Collection: Setting Up a Robust SEO Diagnostic

A strong diagnostic is built on consistent, repeatable data collection. The goal is to avoid false positives (theoretical issues with no real consequence) and to support actionable decisions, especially when multiple teams are involved (SEO, content, product, engineering). To frame the approach beyond SEO alone, see our guide to a website audit.

External Crawling: Auditing a Site Independently of the CMS (WordPress, Shopify, PrestaShop)

An SEO audit is independent of the CMS because it relies on an external crawl that observes the site like a robot: URLs, links, HTTP status codes, tags and rendered content. Whether the site runs on WordPress, Shopify or PrestaShop, the underlying logic remains the same: structure, directives, canonicalisation, redirects, depth and internal linking quality.

Search Console and Analytics: Cross-Checking Signals to Validate Hypotheses

Search Console answers "what is happening in Google?" while Google Analytics (or GA4) helps you understand "what do visitors do after the click?" Cross-referencing both allows you to:

• identify highly visible pages (impressions) with low click-through rates (CTR) to rework titles and snippets;
• spot pages that receive organic traffic but show weak engagement (bounce rate, time on page, conversion);
• segment by device, country and page to avoid overly broad conclusions.

Understanding Crawling: Crawl Budget, Rendering and Indexing

In a simplified model, Google discovers a site, consults robots.txt, identifies the sitemap, then crawls the homepage and follows internal links step by step. The sitemap and internal linking are therefore two key levers for discovery, complemented by external links and, sometimes, URLs exposed by campaigns.

On large sites, crawl budget becomes critical: the more bots waste time on redirects, pointless parameters or duplicate pages, the fewer resources they allocate to strategic URLs.

Technical Checks: An Impact-Led Checklist

The technical side of an SEO audit should be approached pragmatically: fixes that unlock indexing and understanding matter more than marginal tuning. A good practice is to list "blockers" first (crawling, indexing, errors, URL duplication), then "amplifiers" (internal linking, performance, structured data where relevant, international).

Indexing and Directives: robots.txt, Sitemaps and Crawl Rules

Three checks often deliver most of the value: a valid robots.txt file, the sitemap location declared within it, and a complete sitemap containing only truly indexable URLs. In an SEO audit, these points directly determine Google's ability to discover and maintain pages in its index.

HTTP Status Codes: Handling 404 and 500 Errors and Limiting Redirect Chains

HTTP status codes are the truth language between your server and bots. 404s push pages out of the index, while 5XX errors can degrade trust and block crawling. Redirects should be rare, direct and consistent: chains waste crawl budget, slow down rendering and complicate signal consolidation.

Implementing 301 Redirects: Rules, Common Pitfalls and Migration Scenarios

When URLs change (redesign, HTTPS migration, www/non-www consolidation, page removals), a 301 indicates a permanent move. Common pitfalls include unintended temporary redirects, redirect chains, and internal links that still point to intermediary URLs rather than the final destination. A simple rule: fix internal links as well as server-level rules.

Duplication and Canonicalisation: Duplicate Content, Competing URLs and Canonical Tags

Technical duplication (http/https, www/non-www, trailing slash, parameters) and content duplication (near-identical pages, e-commerce facets, poorly handled pagination) create competing URLs. The SEO audit should ensure there is one canonical version and that canonical tags are consistent with redirects and indexability.

An often counter-intuitive point: paginated pages can remain canonical, because they carry a distinct listing and help Google reach deeper catalogue pages.

International SEO: hreflang, Version Consistency and Targeting by Country and Language

For multilingual or multi-country sites, hreflang tags tell Google which version to show by language and region. The audit checks language/country pairs, reciprocal annotations, and alignment between hreflang, canonicals and URL structure. Without this, you risk impressions appearing in the wrong market and signals becoming diluted.

Security: HTTPS, Mixed Content and Trust Signals

A site should serve all pages over HTTPS, avoid mixed content (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages) and keep only one accessible version. This improves user trust and technical robustness, and prevents URL duplication that disrupts indexing.

Performance: PageSpeed, Core Web Vitals and Realistic Priorities

Performance shapes user experience and can influence behavioural signals. Widely shared Core Web Vitals benchmarks include LCP < 2.5s and CLS < 0.1. Google also notes that a significant share of users abandon slow-loading pages; and HubSpot (2026) cites a +103% increase in bounce rate with an additional two seconds of load time.

That said, keep it realistic: a low PageSpeed score does not automatically mean poor organic performance. Prioritise performance work when slowness affects commercial pages, harms indexing (heavy rendering) or reduces conversions.

JavaScript and SEO: Rendering, Link Discovery and Indexing Risk

When content depends heavily on JavaScript, rendering becomes more expensive for search engines and can lead to indexing delays or losses. Methodologically, the SEO audit checks what is actually present in the rendered HTML, how discoverable internal links are, and whether bots can access content without executing complex scripts.

Semantic Checks: Analysing Content, Intent and Editorial Quality

The semantic side of an SEO audit connects pages to queries, intent and the quality signals expected in the SERPs. It is just as much about fixing (misaligned, cannibalised or duplicated pages) as it is about planning (what to create, what to enrich, what to merge).

Keyword-to-Page Alignment: Intent, SERP and Structure

Alignment means ensuring a page targets a clearly identifiable primary intent and matches what Google already ranks. A simple method is to review the SERP for the target query (especially the top three results), note the formats in use (guide, category, comparison, definition), then adapt structure, sections and evidence accordingly.

A common sign of misalignment: Google associates the query with a different page on your site. In that case, your internal linking plan and content structure should clarify the "reference" page for the topic.

Topical Coverage: Entities, Headings, Outlines and Semantic Coherence

Beyond the main keyword, a page often performs because it covers the expected subtopics: definitions, steps, use cases, pitfalls, examples and related questions. A strong H2/H3 structure, descriptive headings and a logical progression improve readability for users and understanding for search engines and generative systems alike.

Keyword Density: Useful Reference Points, Limits and Over-Optimisation Risks

Keyword density can be a useful reference point, but it should not become a target. The risk is forcing unnatural phrasing or repetition when topical coverage and intent matter more. Focus instead on:

• including the target term in key areas (title tag, H1, opening paragraphs) when it reads naturally;
• lexical variety (synonyms, related terms);
• answering the intent quickly at the top of the page, then going deeper.

Cannibalisation: Merge, Reposition or Redirect Depending on the Case

Cannibalisation happens when multiple pages target the same intent, diluting signals and confusing which page should rank. Depending on the situation, an SEO audit may recommend merging similar content, repositioning a page on a different intent, or implementing a 301 redirect from the old URL to the consolidated page when content has moved.

Site Architecture and Internal Linking: Making the Site Readable for Google and Users

Architecture connects technical and semantic work. Good internal linking helps Google discover pages, understand relationships between topics and distribute internal authority. It also improves navigation, which in turn supports behavioural performance.

Orphan Pages: Detection, Causes and a Remediation Plan

An orphan page has no internal path from the homepage, even if it appears in the sitemap or has external links pointing to it. This often creates isolated "islands" outside the broader linking structure. A remediation plan typically involves:

• identifying affected pages and their value (commercial, informational);
• adding links from parent pages (categories, hubs, guides);
• if the page serves no purpose, deindexing it or removing it cleanly.

Internal Linking: Hubs, Click Depth and Authority Distribution

A commonly cited rule of thumb is to keep important pages within roughly three clicks. In practice: topic hubs at level 1, child pages at level 2, and specialist pages at level 3. Upward links (child to parent) and downward links (parent to child) clarify hierarchy, while lateral links (sibling pages) improve circulation and reinforce semantic consistency.

Information Architecture: Facets, Parameters and Pagination (E-commerce)

On e-commerce sites, facets and parameters can create an explosion of URLs and duplication. The SEO audit should decide which combinations deserve indexing (because they match genuine demand) and which should be neutralised (noindex, canonical, crawl rules). Pagination should remain crawlable so Google can reach deeper product pages.

Auditing in the Age of Generative AI: Bringing GEO Into Your Strategy

SERPs are becoming more "closed" (zero-click, AI-assisted answers), which changes how you evaluate performance and set audit priorities. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is an extension of SEO, not an alternative. In practice: GEO = SEO at full potential + public external sites + media sites. Put simply, you still need solid technical foundations and high-quality content before widening your presence to the places where LLMs look for sources.

Understanding the SEO-to-GEO Shift: How LLMs and AI Overviews Change Visibility

Two trends are reshaping how audit findings should be interpreted. On one side, 60% of searches now end without a click (zero-click searches). On the other, AI answers change click distribution and how a brand "exists" in search, well beyond its position in the classic organic ranking.

GEO targets this "no-click" visibility: being cited as a source in a generated answer, even when the user never visits your site. Another key datapoint: 99% of AI Overviews cite pages from the top 10 organic results. Without a strong organic foundation — sound technical structure, comprehensive content and established topical authority — the likelihood of appearing in AI-generated answers remains very low.

How AI Overviews Affect Quick Wins: CTR, Featured Snippets and Priority Trade-Offs

Traditional quick wins (moving from page two to the bottom of page one, improving the title tag to lift CTR, strengthening internal linking) are still relevant, but their return can change when AI Overviews are present. The CTR of the first position drops to 2.6% when an AI Overview appears. This should influence how you prioritise within an SEO audit:

• continue targeting the top 10, since AI answers mainly cite those pages even if classic CTR contracts;
• prioritise changes that increase the chance of being cited (structure, evidence, clarifications), not only those that improve the SERP snippet;
• protect commercial pages where the click still drives conversion, while also building "reference" content designed to be used as a source.

New KPIs to Track: No-Click Impressions, Citations and Presence in AI Answers

With more fragmented user journeys, tracking cannot stop at rankings and clicks. Alongside the usual indicators (impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions), add GEO-oriented KPIs: citation rate in AI answers, generative share of voice, persona coverage, multi-channel presence, and indirect signals such as correlations between AI visibility, direct traffic and conversions.

A counter-intuitive point worth noting: 72% of AI citations do not include a clickable link. As a result, CTR alone is insufficient to measure real impact — hence the importance of tracking indirect signals (direct traffic, inbound enquiries, assisted conversions). Furthermore, only 44% of AI citations come from owned websites, while 48% come from community platforms (forums, YouTube, etc.). A strategy limited to your own site can therefore miss a meaningful share of potential visibility, even with strong organic rankings. For benchmarks to calibrate your decisions, SEO statistics, SEA statistics and GEO statistics are useful references.

Adapting Briefs and Content Production to Maximise Citation Potential

Content designed for visibility in AI-generated answers is not only about earning the click: it must be easy to extract, verifiable and neutral. Highly citable formats include structured FAQs, lists, comparison tables, step-by-step guides, glossaries and data-backed case studies. Writing should facilitate snippet extraction, not just linear reading.

Building Proof: Data, Sources, Expertise and Editorial Consistency

Verifiability is a core criterion: content that includes statistics and expert data is 40% more likely to be cited by LLMs. In a brief, this translates into concrete guidance: define terms upfront, cite sources for figures, clearly separate facts from assumptions and recommendations, and document expertise (methodology, criteria, limits). AI systems also filter out overt marketing: a factual tone and informational neutrality increase the likelihood of being used as a reliable source.

Freshness matters too: 79% of AI bots prefer content from the last two years, and 65% target content published in the current year. This supports a regular review — for example quarterly — of strategic pages, beyond simply monitoring organic rankings.

Entity Optimisation and Internal Linking: Improving "LLM Readability" Without Hurting UX

Improving readability for LLMs often means improving readability for users: descriptive headings, a clear H2/H3/H4 hierarchy, short paragraphs, lists and crisp definitions. Pages structured with a H1-H2-H3 hierarchy are 2.8 times more likely to be cited by AI systems. Without changing the user experience, you can:

• write the first sentence of each section as a standalone answer, then expand upon it;
• add concise "key takeaways" when a topic is dense, without repeating the whole section;
• make relationships between pages explicit via internal linking (pillar pages, supporting pages) to clarify entities and topical hierarchy for both search engines and generative systems.

How to Run a Website Audit: Step-by-Step Method and Checklist

If you want a detailed framework, our guide on how to carry out an SEO audit complements the steps below. The guiding principle remains the same: collect, diagnose, decide, prioritise, then measure.

Where Should You Start When Auditing a Website?

Start by clarifying objectives (leads, sales, awareness) and the pages that carry value (service pages, categories, products, pillar content). Then run a crawl to obtain an exhaustive view (URLs, status codes, indexability, depth, internal linking). Finally, cross-check with Google data (Search Console and Analytics) to connect issues to actual performance (impressions, clicks, conversions). This sequence limits false positives and supports early prioritisation.

Step 1: Define Scope, Objectives and Priority Pages

Clarify the following: site type, objectives (leads, sales, awareness), critical areas (categories, product pages, service pages, pillar content) and countries/languages. Add historical context: recent migration, redesign, template changes, new directories or changes to directives.

Step 2: Crawl the Site and Classify Issues by Impact

The crawl provides the URL inventory and its key attributes (status, indexability, tags, depth, internal links). Classification then separates:

• blockers (5XX errors, directives that prevent indexing, large-scale duplication, broken internal linking);
• irritants (redirect chains, tag inconsistencies);
• marginal improvements (only worth addressing when they affect high-value pages).

Step 3: Review Templates and Key Pages (Categories, Content, Conversion)

Rather than optimising URL by URL, identify repeating templates: category pages, product detail pages, editorial pages, conversion pages. This is where the biggest gains usually sit: one template fix can improve hundreds of pages at once, whereas an isolated change may not move the needle site-wide.

Step 4: Deliver the Report, Roadmap and Acceptance Criteria

A useful SEO audit ends with a structured report and a roadmap. External references suggest a comprehensive report often runs to around 20–30 pages, but length matters less than clarity: findings, evidence (data), recommendations, prioritisation, owners, risks and acceptance criteria.

Quick SEO Check: What to Review in 30–60 Minutes Without False Positives

For a rapid review, focus on a handful of high-return signals:

• check indexing and excluded pages in Search Console;
• review robots.txt and confirm the sitemap is present and correctly declared;
• spot 404 and 5XX errors on important pages;
• identify near-top-10 pages (positions 6–20) for targeted semantic improvements;
• detect obvious duplication (http/https, www/non-www) and redirect chains.

Prioritising Fixes: Turning a Problem List Into a Roadmap

The value of an SEO audit is not in detection, but in decision-making. You gain the most by addressing what unlocks indexing, protects existing traffic and increases visibility for the pages that convert.

How Do You Prioritise Actions From an SEO Review?

Prioritise first what prevents the site from existing properly in the index (blocking directives, 5XX errors, large-scale duplication, inconsistent canonicalisation), then what improves understanding (internal linking, structure, intent-to-page alignment), and lastly performance optimisations (CTR, enhancements, speed) when they affect high-value pages. Always apply a business filter: the same issue does not carry the same weight on a lead-generating page as it does on a low-priority one.

How to Succeed With Prioritisation After an SEO Audit

Use an impact × effort × risk matrix, plus a business filter (pages that generate leads or revenue). Tackle crawl and indexing blockers first, then what improves understanding (canonicalisation, duplication, internal linking), and finally marginal improvements. This ensures limited resources go towards changes that create measurable movement in rankings and conversions, rather than theoretical alerts with no real consequence.

Impact × Effort × Risk Matrix: A Practical Prioritisation Method

Use a simple matrix to score each fix identified in the SEO audit:

• Impact: expected effect on crawling, indexing, rankings, CTR and conversions.
• Effort: technical complexity, dependencies, validation time.
• Risk: likelihood of regression, impact if something goes wrong, reversibility.

Add a "business" filter: a fix on a high-revenue page matters more than the same fix on a secondary page. In practice, this turns a raw list of hundreds of anomalies into a roadmap of roughly 15–20 genuinely prioritised actions, making it easier to align with engineering and product teams and to accelerate execution.

What Crawlers Often Flag That Rarely Changes Rankings

Without dismissing technical hygiene, it helps to identify "noise" alerts: micro-optimisations on non-indexed pages, tag variations on pages with no traffic, or marginal performance gains on rarely visited pages. Address them if they accumulate on a critical template; otherwise, park them for a later phase. The aim is to preserve team capacity for the work that genuinely shifts rankings.

Quick Wins vs Structural Work: Sequencing Without Breaking What Works

Quick wins are often semantic: improving alignment, enriching content, clarifying titles, strengthening internal links to a page close to the top 10. Structural work is more about architecture, canonicalisation, indexing rules or facet management. Sequence initiatives to avoid moving everything at once: a major technical change makes attribution harder and can mask the effect of semantic improvements carried out in parallel.

E-commerce SEO: Checks Specific to Online Shops

E-commerce combines large URL volumes, many templates and high duplication risk. Our guide to an e-commerce SEO audit explores these cases in depth; here are the most decisive points.

Categories vs Product Pages: Targeting the Right Search Intent

Category pages often rank for broad intent (for example a product type), while product pages capture precise queries (brand, model, reference number). The analysis should ensure each page has a clear role, prevent product pages from cannibalising one another, and confirm that category pages provide useful content (copy, reassurance elements, navigation).

Managing Duplication: Filters, Variants, Parameters and Canonicals

Filters (size, colour, material) can generate near-identical pages. The aim is to decide which combinations deserve indexing (because they match genuine demand) and to canonicalise or block the rest. This is a classic scenario where a poor canonical strategy can produce duplicate content at scale.

Out-of-Stock and Discontinued Products: Preserving Value With 301 Redirects and Indexing Rules

When a product disappears, the right decision depends on what is available to replace it: a 301 redirect to the successor product, to the category, or keeping the page temporarily with out-of-stock information if it holds strong SEO value. The worst scenario is a systematic 404 on pages that had links and traffic, as this destroys accumulated history and authority.

Delivery and Tracking: Outputs, Implementation and ROI

Once fixes are planned, execution and tracking need structure. Without post-release measurement, an SEO audit is just a snapshot. With disciplined tracking, it becomes a continuous improvement loop.

Audit Report: Actionable, Prioritised and Measurable Recommendations

The report should turn findings into decisions: what to do, why, on which pages or templates, at what priority, and how to verify success. Always include evidence (crawl extract, Search Console data, example URL) and an expected outcome (indexing improvement, fewer errors, higher CTR, better ranking).

Action Plan: Tickets, Acceptance Criteria and SEO Validation

To reduce back-and-forth, each technical recommendation should come with acceptance criteria: expected HTTP status, presence or absence of a tag, redirect behaviour, indexing rules, and so on. Validation means re-crawling and checking Search Console as recrawls and reindexing take place over time.

Post-Fix Tracking: KPIs, Annotations and Verifying Uplift

Track at minimum: indexed pages, crawl errors, impressions, clicks, CTR, rankings for a defined keyword set, and conversions. Annotate deployment dates to tie changes to outcomes. In a world where many searches can end without a click, impressions and share of visibility carry increasing weight in any analysis.

Before-and-After Example: What an SEO Audit Looks Like in Practice

For a more detailed concrete case, see our SEO audit example. Below is a typical before-and-after format that ties findings to decisions and measurement.

Case Study: Issues Found, Decisions Made and Observable Outcomes

A documented example is the Jardindeco case study, an e-commerce retailer founded in 2007, active in France and across Europe, with an average of 100,000 visitors per month. The case highlights an initial phase focused on technical health and business-led prioritisation, followed by scaling content production.

The available figures show, in particular: over 600 pieces of content produced since 2019, average monthly traffic multiplied by 3.5 between 2019 and 2021 (from 13,000 to 47,000 visits), and the volume of first-page keywords multiplied by 4 between June 2019 and June 2021 (from 500 to 2,000). The case also highlights more than €5,000 per month saved in paid search spend thanks to organic content production.

A Reusable Checklist Template for a Quick Website Review

• Crawling: robots.txt, sitemap, blocked pages, depth, orphan pages.
• Indexing: exclusions, canonicals, noindex, URL duplication, pagination.
• Technical quality: 404 and 5XX errors, redirects, HTTPS, performance on key pages.
• Content: intent, keyword-to-page alignment, cannibalisation, duplication, heading structure.
• Measurement: Search Console (impressions, clicks, CTR, position), Analytics (conversion, engagement).
• Citable content (GEO): H1–H3 structure, FAQ, lists, tables, sourced data, neutrality, freshness.

Tools and Organisation: In-House, Agency Support and Upskilling

An effective SEO review requires data (crawl + Google signals) and interpretation. Tools automate collection, but the value sits in your ability to decide and prioritise in the real world (resources, risk, product roadmap).

Which Tools to Use for a Website Audit Without Overloading the Analysis

Without multiplying sources, you can go a long way with Search Console and Google Analytics, plus a crawl. For a structured approach that keeps the deliverable actionable, our guide to SEO audit tools explains how to organise your data collection, exports and prioritisation tables effectively.

Which Tools Should You Pair With Search Console and Analytics?

The foundation is Search Console and Google Analytics, supported by a crawl for exhaustive URL-level coverage. Together, these sources provide the essential signals: what Google crawls and indexes on one side, and what visitors do after the click on the other. For guidance on structuring collection, exports, deliverables and prioritisation, see our overview of SEO audit tools.

When to Use a Specialist Agency vs Running the Audit In-House

Outsourcing can make sense if you lack bandwidth, are preparing a redesign or migration, or need an independent perspective. In-housing works well when you have short iteration cycles and the capacity to execute continuously (content, internal linking, technical fixes). To help you decide, our guide to working with an SEO audit agency offers practical reference points (scope, deliverables, governance).

Technical SEO Training: The Essentials for Implementing Recommendations

Technical recommendations only generate gains if they are implemented and tested correctly. To build capability across teams (marketing, product, engineering), technical SEO training covers the fundamentals: HTTP status codes, indexing, canonicalisation, internal linking, performance and SEO validation.

A 360° Approach With Incremys: Embedding the Audit Into an SEO/GEO Workflow

SERPs are becoming more "closed" (zero-click, AI-assisted answers), and organisations increasingly need to connect their work to measurable visibility and performance indicators. This is where a 360° approach (technical, content, tracking) helps maintain continuity between diagnosis, production and steering.

Centralising Crawl Data, Content and Google Signals in a 360° View

Centralisation helps you avoid one-off SEO audits. Practically, the aim is to connect: (1) crawl findings, (2) visibility data (Search Console), (3) performance data (Analytics), and (4) content strategy (keyword-to-page mapping, briefs, editorial planning). For benchmarks to inform your decisions, you can draw on resources such as SEO statistics and, depending on your acquisition mix, SEA statistics and GEO statistics.

The Incremys Module for a 360° Audit: Use Cases, Scope and Limits

Without replacing expertise, the SEO 360 Audit module is designed to identify, filter and prioritise issues where fixes have measurable impact, across both technical elements (canonicals, errors, internal linking, orphan pages) and semantic elements (one keyword per page, quality, duplication, alignment). Incremys is a 360° SEO SaaS solution that integrates and encompasses Google Search Console and Google Analytics via API, centralising diagnosis and tracking to make prioritisation more operational. For the broader framework, see our article on the 360 SEO audit.

Measuring Business Impact: Connecting Visibility, Conversions and ROI

Useful measurement goes beyond rankings. As SERPs evolve (zero-click, rich formats), it becomes necessary to track impressions, share of visibility, contribution to conversion (direct or assisted) and traffic stability. The objective is to demonstrate why a fix or a piece of content should be prioritised, and to document what actually changed after release.

SEO Audit FAQ

What Is the Difference Between an SEO Audit and a GEO Analysis?

An SEO audit analyses how Google crawls, indexes and ranks your pages in organic results. A GEO analysis assesses how likely your content is to be cited as a source in AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews). In practice, GEO = SEO + optimisation for citability: the same technical fundamentals (indexing, structure), with additional criteria (extractability, verifiability, neutrality). With 99% of AI citations coming from the organic top 10, SEO remains the essential foundation.

Should You Include GEO in an SEO Audit?

Yes, if your objective goes beyond clicks and includes visibility in AI-generated answers. In practical terms, bringing GEO into an organic search audit means complementing classic checks (crawl, indexing, internal linking, intent) with citability criteria: easily extractable structure (headings, lists, FAQ), crisp definitions, verifiable and sourced data, neutral writing and content freshness. The goal is to maximise the likelihood of being used as a source, while keeping SEO (technical + relevance) as the foundation.

What Does an SEO Audit Actually Do?

An SEO audit helps you understand why a site has stalled, lost rankings or fails to convert, then turns that diagnosis into a prioritised action plan. It connects visibility to business performance (visible pages that do not generate leads, pages that convert but are under-exposed, UX signals that suppress conversion) and helps protect the pages that support revenue.

What Does the Scope of an SEO Audit Cover (Technical, Content, Authority, UX)?

An organic search audit reviews, in a structured way, the elements that influence organic visibility: technical (crawling, rendering, indexing), content (intent, keyword-to-page alignment, quality), authority/links (off-site signals) and user experience (especially where it affects conversion).

What Does an "Operational" SEO Audit Look Like (Expected Deliverable)?

Operationally, an SEO audit is a deliverable that links: (1) observable findings (crawl, indexing, performance, content), (2) evidence (Search Console, Analytics, crawl extracts), and (3) a prioritised roadmap (what to do, where, in what order, and with which acceptance criteria). The goal is executable decisions, not generic advice.

What Is the Difference Between an Organic Search Audit and a Google-Focused Analysis?

The two overlap heavily because Google dominates usage. A Google-focused analysis places more emphasis on Google-owned signals (Search Console: impressions, clicks, positions, indexing). An organic search audit may also more explicitly include off-site signals (authority, links) and user experience considerations.

Which KPIs Do You Measure in an SEO Audit?

A reliable SEO audit combines three families of signals: search engine (crawling, indexing, HTTP status codes, canonicals, internal linking, performance, mobile), content (intent, topical coverage, duplication, cannibalisation, structure), and outcomes (impressions, clicks, CTR, rankings, conversions via Analytics, change over time).

Which Interpretation Mistakes Should You Avoid During an SEO Review?

Avoid over-interpreting isolated alerts with no observable impact (for example minor crawl warnings) or optimising without validating the effect on indexing, ranking or conversion. The right habit is to cross-check crawl data with Google data (Search Console, indexed pages, queries) to separate noise from signal.

Why Is an SEO Audit Essential Before Producing Content or Redesigning a Site?

Before publishing or redesigning, verify one simple condition: can Google crawl and index the pages that matter? If crawlability or indexability is degraded, publishing more will not solve the root issue. A regular SEO audit also helps you adapt to SERP evolution (rich formats, AI-assisted answers) and reduce traffic loss.

What Is the Difference Between a Technical SEO Audit and a Semantic Audit?

A technical SEO audit answers: "Is the site readable and usable by bots, quickly and without ambiguity?" (indexability, HTTP status codes, canonicals, internal linking, hreflang, HTTPS, performance, Core Web Vitals, etc.). A semantic audit answers: "Does each page target a clear intent with unique, comprehensive and well-structured content?" (keyword-to-page alignment, topical coverage, duplication, cannibalisation, internal linking plan).

What Role Do Crawling and Search Console Play in an SEO Audit?

Crawling gives a "machine" snapshot (titles, meta descriptions, depth, internal links, indexability, status codes, canonicals). Search Console connects pages and queries to metrics (impressions, clicks, CTR, average position), helps detect opportunities (queries near the top 10, pages on page two) and validates the real impact of technical issues on indexing.

How Do You Prioritise Fixes After an SEO Audit?

Use an impact × effort × risk approach, with a business filter (pages that generate leads or revenue). Tackle indexing blockers first (blocking directives, 5XX errors, large-scale duplication, inconsistent canonicalisation), then what improves understanding (internal linking, structure, intent-to-page alignment), and then marginal optimisations (CTR, enhancements, speed) on high-value pages.

What Do Crawlers Often Flag That Rarely Changes Rankings?

Typically: micro-optimisations on non-indexed pages, tag variations on pages with no traffic, or marginal performance improvements on rarely visited pages. Address them if they accumulate on a critical template; otherwise, keep them for a later phase so teams can focus on higher-impact work.

Which Technical Checks Matter Most (Indexing, robots.txt, Sitemap)?

Three checks often carry most of the value: (1) a valid robots.txt file, (2) the sitemap location declared within it, and (3) a complete sitemap containing only truly indexable URLs. These points directly influence Google's ability to discover and keep pages indexed.

Why Are HTTP Status Codes (404/500) and Redirects Critical in an SEO Audit?

404s remove pages from the index, 5XX errors can block crawling and reduce trust, and redirect chains waste crawl budget and complicate signal consolidation. In migrations or URL changes, 301 redirects must be consistent, and internal links should be updated to point directly to the final destination rather than intermediary URLs.

How Should You Handle Duplication and Canonicalisation in an SEO Audit?

Technical duplication (http/https, www/non-www, trailing slash, parameters) and content duplication (near-identical pages, e-commerce facets, poorly handled pagination) create competing URLs. The SEO audit ensures there is one canonical version and that canonical tags align with redirects and indexability. Paginated pages can remain canonical if they provide a distinct listing that supports crawling of the catalogue.

What Should You Check on an International Site (hreflang)?

The audit checks language/country pair consistency, reciprocal annotations, and alignment between hreflang, canonicals and URL structure. Without this, you risk impressions appearing in the wrong market and signals becoming diluted.

Is Performance (Core Web Vitals) Always a Top Priority in an SEO Audit?

Performance influences user experience and can affect behavioural signals, but a low PageSpeed score does not automatically translate into weak SEO performance. Prioritise performance improvements when slowness affects commercial pages, harms indexing (heavy rendering) or reduces conversions.

What Are the SEO Risks of a Site Heavily Dependent on JavaScript?

Rendering can be more expensive for search engines, leading to indexing delays or losses. The SEO audit checks what is present in the rendered HTML, how discoverable internal links are, and whether content is accessible without reliance on complex scripts.

How Do You Detect and Fix SEO Cannibalisation?

Cannibalisation occurs when multiple pages target the same intent. Depending on the case, the SEO audit may recommend merging similar pages, repositioning a page to target a different intent, or implementing a 301 redirect from the old URL to the consolidated page if content has moved.

What Is an Orphan Page and How Do You Fix It?

An orphan page has no internal path from the homepage (even if it appears in the sitemap). Remediation involves identifying the pages, adding links from parent pages (categories, hubs, guides), or cleanly deindexing or removing the page if it serves no purpose.

Where Should You Start When Auditing a Website?

First clarify objectives (leads, sales, awareness) and the pages that carry value. Then run a crawl for an exhaustive view (URLs, status codes, indexability, depth, internal linking), and finally cross-check with Search Console and Analytics to connect issues to performance (impressions, clicks, conversions). This sequence limits false positives and supports early prioritisation.

What Can You Check in 30–60 Minutes (Quick Review)?

Focus on indexing and exclusions in Search Console, robots.txt and sitemap, 404 and 5XX errors on important pages, near-top-10 pages (positions 6–20) for semantic improvements, obvious duplication (http/https, www/non-www) and redirect chains.

How Often Should You Run an SEO Audit, Depending on Site Size and Business Stakes?

Run a review after any launch, redesign, migration, structural change or directive update. After that, cadence depends on context: for a small site with limited publishing activity, a twice-yearly review can be sufficient; for a fast-moving e-commerce site or high-velocity publisher, track KPIs monthly (indexing, errors, impressions) and run a deeper quarterly review. Size is not the only factor: even a small site needs an immediate SEO audit after a migration or CMS change.

Does an SEO Audit Depend on the CMS (WordPress, Shopify, PrestaShop)?

No. The core methodology is CMS-agnostic. An external crawl analyses pages as Google sees them: URLs, internal links, HTTP status codes, tags, rendered content, directives and indexability. Implementation details can differ, but diagnosis and prioritisation remain comparable across CMS platforms.

Which Deliverables Should You Expect at the End of an SEO Audit?

A useful SEO audit ends with a structured report and a roadmap: findings, evidence (data), recommendations, prioritisation, owners, risks and acceptance criteria. Length matters less than clarity and actionability.

How Do You Measure Impact After Implementing SEO Fixes?

Track at minimum: indexed pages, crawl errors, impressions, clicks, CTR, rankings (for a defined keyword set) and conversions. Annotate deployment dates to connect changes to outcomes, and re-crawl to validate technical fixes.

Which Tools Should You Use for an SEO Audit Without Overloading the Analysis?

An effective baseline combines Search Console and Google Analytics (or GA4), plus a crawl for URL-level completeness. Tools make data collection easier, but value comes from interpretation, decision-making and prioritisation in a real-world context (resources, risk, roadmap).

If you would like to explore methods, checklists and use cases in more depth, you will find all our resources on the Incremys Blog.