The Free

Technical SEO (and Beyond)

Site Audit Checklist
For Agencies, Consultants, & Website Owners

Instructions
Read the Guide
https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist
Use this free technical SEO (and beyond) audit to check major issues with your site that could influence indexing, ranking,
Free 30-Day Trial of Moz Pro and visibility in Google search results. Nearly everything in this audit can be performed for free, or using free SEO tools.
https://moz.com/moz-pro-free-trial You can typically complete the entire checklist in a few hours.
30-Day Trial of Moz Pro:

1. If you haven't already, make a copy of this sheet. Feel free to modify and it use it to suit your own needs.
Get A Free Site Crawl
2. The list assumes you are auditing a single URL, but you can use automation to scale this out by site.

3. Each audit point is marked with a level of importance: High, Medium, Low, and N/A. Feel free to modify these values
according to your individual needs.

4. As you work through the audit, you can mark each item with Pass, Fail, or N/A.

5. Use the "Notes" section to write down any important observations you find, or points that need further clarification.

6. Use the "Action Items" column to document any next steps for you and/or your client to take.

7. For further information about each audit item, check the "Reference" column for more information.
Issue Importance Pass / Fail Recommended Tools Notes Action Items Reference
1. Basics
Analytics installed High Pass Google Analytics This is a place to track your notes and findings. For example: Here, record recommended actions for you and/or the client. For example: https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#analytics-installed
Search engine properties set up High Fail Google Search Console Submitted to Bing. No associate property found with Google Submit site to Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#properties
Recommended: Run a site crawl High N/A Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#site-crawl

2. Crawling & Indexing

URL is indexed High URL Inspection Tool https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#indexed
Important content indexed High MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#content-indexed
Returns a 200 status code High MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#status
Indexable by robots meta tag and X-robots-tag High MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#indexable
URL not blocked by robots.txt file High Robots.txt Tester https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#robots-txt
URL listed in XML sitemap file Medium Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#sitemap
Sitemap file location defined in robots.txt Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#sitemap-robots
Sitemap file submitted to search engines Medium Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#sitemap-engines
URL is discoverable via internal links/navigation Medium Sitebulb https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#url-linked
Content is available at a single, canonicalized URL Medium MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#single-url
Google-selected canonical matches user-selected canonical Medium Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#google-canonical
No canonical/indexation mixed signal errors Medium MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#mixed
Friendly URL structure Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#friendly-url
Content can be rendered with basic JavaScript High Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#js-rendered
Important CSS, JS, and images not blocked by robots.txt Medium Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#css-js-images

3. Meta & Structured Data

Page contains a title element High MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#title
Title contains important keywords visible in first 60 characters Medium Title Tag Preview Tool https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#first-60
Title tag is unique Medium Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#unique-title
Page contains a unique meta description Low Screaming Frog https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#description
Favicon defined Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#favicon
OG and social meta data Low SEO META in 1 CLICK https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#social-meta
Structured data markup Medium Google Rich Results Test https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#rich-snippet
Uses max-image-preview:large setting Low Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#max-image-preview

4. Content
Content isn't substantially duplicate Medium Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#unique
Content organized with hierarchical HTML tags Medium Logical Content Flow https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#header-tags
Content is keyword-targeted High Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#keyword-targeted
Content doesn't violate Google's Quality Guidelines High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#quality-guidelines
Avoids intrusive interstitials Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#interstitials
Avoids heavy ads above the fold Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#ads
Content isn't loaded in an iFrame Low Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#iframe
Content isn't loaded in Flash High Mobile Usability Report https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#flash
Lazy-loaded content is visible in the viewport High Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#lazy
Supports paginated loading for infinite scroll High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#scroll
Current publication and updated dates Low Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#dates
Clear who the author and/or publisher Is Low Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#author
Content doesn't trigger Google Safe Search filters Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#safe

5. Links & Navigation

Links are crawlable High MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#crawlable
Page doesn't link to broken pages (404) Medium Broken Link Checker https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#broken
Links use descriptive anchor text Medium MozBar https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#anchor
Links are qualified when appropriate (nofollow, ugc, sponsored) Low Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#nofollow
Faceted navigation doesn't lead to duplicate content High Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#faceted
Paginated pages are clearly linked High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#paginated
Page does not contain an excessive amount of links Medium Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#excessive-links
Page does not link to redirected chains Low Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#chains

6. Images
Images contain descriptive alt attributes Medium Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#alt
Image heights and widths are defined Medium Page Speed Insights https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#width
Use descriptive titles, captions, filenames, and text for images Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#original
Images don't contain important text Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#image-text
Images are listed in image sitemaps Low Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#image-sitemap

7. Video
Video is available on a public, indexable page High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#video-page
Video is wrapped within an appropriate HTML tag Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#blank
Video is included in video sitemap Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#video-tags
Video schema markup High Structured Data Viewer https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#video-schema

8. Mobile
Passes Google Mobile-Friendly Test High Mobile-Friendly Test https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#mobile-friendly
Prefence responsive web design Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#responsive
Mobile content and links match desktop site High Mobile-First Index Tool https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#parity
Special considerations for separate URLs High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#seperate-urls

9. Speed
Content fully loads within a reasonable time Medium Site Speed Report https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#speed
URL passes Google's Core Web Vitals assessment High Page Speed Insights https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#cwv
Address common speed traps Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#speed-traps

10. Security
Site uses proper HTTPS High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#https
Site supports HSTS Low httpstatus https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#hsts
No hacked content, malware, or other security issues High Google Search Console https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#hacked

11. International & Multilingual Sites

Signal location targeting High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#local-urls
Valid hreflang annotation High hreflang Tags Testing Tool https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#hreflang
Page language is obvious Medium Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#language
Avoid automatic redirection High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#redirection

12. Backlinks (Off-Page)

URL has relevant backlinks High Moz Pro (Free Trial) https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#backlinks
Backlinks don't violate Google Guidelines High Manual Inspection https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#penalties
Disavow file doesn't block important links High Disavow Tool https://moz.com/seo-audit-checklist#disavow