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Is Your Site Hiding These Costly SEO Mistakes?

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Is Your Site Hiding These Costly SEO Mistakes?
Somesh Suroshe October 1, 2025 Comments (0)

How to Run a Website Audit to Find Issues Hurting SEO and Performance  

A few years ago If your website isn’t ranking well or feels slow, chances are there are hidden issues holding it back. The best way to uncover them is through a website audit.

 

Think of it like a health check-up for your site, it shows what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs fixing to improve SEO and performance.

 

In this guide, we’ll walk through a step-by-step process to run your own audit. To make it practical, we’ll also mention whether tools are free or paid, and give example domains you can test for screenshots.


Step 1: Check Website Speed and Core Web Vitals Tool: Google PageSpeed Insights (Free, no login required) → www.pagespeed.web.dev Enter your URL and analyze results for both mobile and desktop.

 
Core web vitals assessment What to look at:
  • Page Load Time 
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) 
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) 
  • Total Blocking Time 
Step 2: Run a Crawl to Find Technical SEO Issues  Tool: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free for up to 500 URLs, Paid for unlimited) → www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider  Run a crawl to see how search engines view your site. 

Key issues to check: 
  • Broken links (404 errors) 
  • Redirect chains 
  • Missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions 
Step 3: Analyze On-Page SEO Elements  Tool: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free/Paid)  Make sure every page has proper on-page SEO. 

Look for: 
  • Unique, keyword-focused title tags 
  • Clear meta descriptions 
  • Proper use of H1, H2, H3 headings 
  • Image alt text 
  • Clean URL structures 
Step 4: Review Mobile Friendliness  Tool: Google Mobile-Friendly Test (Free) → www.search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly  Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, so your site must pass this test. 

Check for: 
  • Text too small to read 
  • Elements too close together 
  • Content wider than the screen 
Step 5: Evaluate Site Architecture and Internal Linking  Tool: Screaming Frog (Free/Paid) or Sitebulb (Paid, free trial) → www.sitebulb.com  Good site structure makes it easier for both users and search engines to navigate. 

Check if: 
  • Important pages are accessible within 3 clicks 
  • Navigation menus are simple 
  • Internal links connect related content 
Step 6: Assess Content Quality  Tool: Manual check (Free)  Search engines reward valuable, original, and updated content.  Ask yourself: 
  • Does this page answer user intent? 
  • Is it long enough to compete with top-ranking pages? 
  • Is it updated and accurate? 
Step 7: Audit Backlinks and Domain Authority  Tools: 
  • Ahrefs (Paid, free trial) → www.ahrefs.com 
  • SEMrush (Paid, free trial) → www.semrush.com 
  • Ubersuggest (Freemium) → www.neilpatel.com/ubersuggest 
Backlinks are like votes of trust. Check: 
  • Number of backlinks 
  • Referring domains 
  • Domain authority score 
  • Spammy links 
Step 8: Check for Security and HTTPS  Tool: Browser (Free)  Security is critical for both SEO and user trust. 

Verify that: 
  • Your site uses HTTPS 
  • SSL certificate is valid 
  • No mixed content errors 
Step 9: Generate a Report and Prioritize Fixes  Tools: 
  • SEMrush Site Audit (Paid, free trial) → www.semrush.com 
  • Ahrefs Site Audit (Paid, free trial) → www.ahrefs.com 
  • Ubersuggest Site Audit (Freemium) → www.neilpatel.com/ubersuggest 
Once you’ve collected all data, organize fixes into: 
  • Critical issues (broken links, missing SSL, slow speed) 
  • Important fixes (duplicate content, weak meta tags) 
  • Nice-to-have improvements (content expansion, backlink opportunities) 
Website Audit Checklist (Quick Reference) 
SEO Audit Tools & What to Capture
Step Tool Free / Paid What to Capture
Speed & Core Web Vitals PageSpeed Insights Free Scores, Core Web Vitals
Crawl Errors Screaming Frog Free ≤500 URLs, Paid unlimited 404 & 500 errors
On-Page SEO Screaming Frog Free / Paid Duplicate / missing titles
Mobile Test Google Mobile-Friendly Test Free Pass / fail result
Site Architecture Screaming Frog / Sitebulb Free / Paid Site tree graph
Content Quality Manual Free Thin vs rich content
Backlinks Ahrefs / SEMrush (Paid), Ubersuggest (Freemium) Paid / Freemium Backlink overview
Security Browser Free Padlock vs Not Secure
Audit Report SEMrush / Ahrefs / Ubersuggest Paid / Freemium Audit dashboard
Audit Insights in Action  A website audit may feel overwhelming at first, but with the right tools it’s much easier to spot what’s hurting your SEO and performance. Start with free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Screaming Frog, then move on to more advanced paid tools if needed. 

Fix the critical issues first, then tackle content and backlinks. Over time, regular audits will keep your site healthy, competitive, and ready to climb search rankings. 

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