Complete SEO Audit
Comprehensive website SEO analysis with 50+ ranking factors for local businesses.
Website SEO Audit that sorts 200 issues into the 3 that matter
We crawl up to 100 pages and skip the colour-coded score. Every issue we find gets sorted into one of three tiers: stops Google indexing the page, caps how well an indexed page can rank, or cosmetic. Duplicate titles get traced back to the template or plugin generating them, not just counted. And anything you genuinely can't fix — a third-party script, a platform limit — gets an explicit permission to stop, instead of another red row.
Built and reviewed by Sayed Hasan, founder of SEOs Hut · Updated 28 September 2026 · Free, no signup
Can ChatGPT do an SEO audit?
No, not a real one. ChatGPT can't crawl your live site, so it can't see actual broken links, redirect chains or duplicate titles across your pages — it can only guess from whatever you paste in. A genuine audit needs a crawler that requests every page and reads the response. Google itself says third-party tools 'don't have access to our internal ranking data' — treat any audit, including this one, as a read on crawlability, not a verdict on rankings.
That percentage is not a Google score
Whatever tool handed you a colour-coded number built it themselves, out of checks it picked, weighted however it wanted. Google has never published a formula that matches it. Google's own guidance is blunt about the whole category: third-party tools 'don't have access to our internal ranking data. They can't guarantee performance.' Most of the 40 to 200 items sitting under that score never touch a ranking at all. Triage first. Decide what's worth an afternoon after that.
Every flagged issue goes in exactly one of three tiers
This audit reports duplicate titles, broken links, missing meta, slow pages and dozens of smaller faults. They are not worth the same amount. Place each one here before you touch anything, including a page Google never actually indexed in the first place — auditing a page like that is moot until the indexing question is settled.
Stops Google indexing the page at all
A page carrying any of these isn't competing for rankings. It isn't in the index, or it's actively being told to leave.
- noindex meta tag or header
- robots.txt disallow on a page you want found
- 5xx server error
- redirect loop
- canonical tag pointing at a different URL
Indexed, but capped against itself or the crawl
The page can rank. Something is quietly limiting how well — usually because the same fault sits on dozens of pages, or the page is slow enough that Google's crawler is throttling itself.
- duplicate title tags
- duplicate meta descriptions
- thin content
- missing H1
- slow TTFB / high latency
Cosmetic. Ignore in bulk.
Hygiene, not ranking factors, in the volume they usually turn up. Nothing Google publishes lists these as blockers.
- missing alt on decorative images
- multiple H1s
- a meta description a few characters over
- missing schema, unless you're chasing a specific rich result
Work out why before you touch one of the 40 pages
An audit that says '40 pages have duplicate titles' has told you a count, not a cause. Answer these two questions before you open a single page.
How many pages carry this exact issue?
Can you actually change it?
Issues you're allowed to leave alone
Nobody publishes this list, so audits keep re-flagging the same unfixable rows every month. Here's the honest version.
| What's flagged | Why you probably can't fix it | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Render-blocking script from a booking or chat widget | It's the vendor's code, not yours | Note it, ask the vendor about a lazy-load option, otherwise accept it and move on |
| Duplicate meta description across paginated URLs (?page=2, ?page=3) | Most CMS platforms generate these automatically | Leave it, or canonicalise pagination if your platform supports it — don't hand-edit every page |
| A missing-schema flag on a page you don't need rich results for | Schema is optional, not a Tier 1 or Tier 2 fault | Ignore it, unless you're specifically chasing a rich result — then check what's actually there and whether it's valid |
| A third-party embed failing an accessibility or alt-text check | You don't control the embed's markup | Log it for the vendor. It isn't a fault in your own pages, and it isn't worth your afternoon |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Does crawl budget even apply to your site?
An audit that warns about crawl budget on a 40-page brochure site is warning you about nothing. Here's who the guidance actually addresses.
What Google actually says about the mechanics you're reading
“Third-party tools don't have access to our internal ranking data. They can't guarantee performance.”
<b>Google Search Central, updated 5 June 2026</b> — Google Search Central
The same family of Google documentation clears up a detail almost every audit report gets backwards. A 404 or 410 is a strong signal to stop crawling a URL again. A robots.txt block is not — Google says blocked URLs 'stay part of your crawl queue much longer' than a deleted page. And noindex doesn't save crawl budget either: Google still requests the page, reads the tag, then drops it. Same request, same cost, wasted. If a page is genuinely gone, let it 404. Reserve robots.txt for pages that still exist but that you want left alone.
Four ways people misread their own audit
All four come from treating the report as a ranking verdict instead of a crawlability check.
Chasing a higher percentage instead of fixing Tier 1
What happens: The score climbs from 61 to 74 after a week of cosmetic fixes, and nothing moves in actual search positions, because none of it touched an index-blocking fault.
Do this instead: Clear every Tier 1 item first. That's the only tier where the connection to whether Google can rank the page at all is direct.
Treating a robots.txt block as equivalent to deleting the page
What happens: A blocked URL keeps queuing for crawl — Google documents that it 'stays part of your crawl queue much longer' than a 404 would.
Do this instead: If the page is genuinely gone, 404 or 410 it. Save robots.txt for pages you want left alone but that still exist.
Adding noindex to save crawl budget
What happens: Google still requests the page, reads the noindex tag, and only then drops it — the crawl cost already happened before the tag did anything.
Do this instead: noindex controls what's in the index, not what gets crawled. If crawl budget is genuinely your problem, which the numbers above make unlikely for most sites, the fix is fewer low-value URLs.
Auditing subdomains as if they share one budget
What happens: Google's crawling infrastructure treats each hostname as its own site, so www.example.com and shop.example.com get separate crawl budgets entirely.
Do this instead: Audit each hostname on its own terms, especially if one is slow enough to be affecting the other's crawl capacity through shared server load.
What to hand the developer this week
Three things, in this order: every Tier 1 item, the single Tier 2 issue attached to the biggest page count, and nothing else. Speed shows up here as one line — the field data behind that line lives here. The audit counts broken links; this finds which ones and where they're linked from. And once the technical side is clean, a clean audit is the floor now, not the finish line — check separately whether AI engines can find and quote you.
Website SEO Audit FAQ
How much does a SEO audit cost?
What is the difference between a geo audit and a SEO audit?
How often should an SEO audit be performed?
Is there a free SEO checker?
how to do seo audit without using a tool
Does clearing every flagged issue guarantee a better ranking?
Primary sources used on this page
- Google Search Central: crawl-budget guide, thresholds and mechanics — developers.google.com
- Google Search Central: third-party tools have no access to internal ranking data — developers.google.com
- Screaming Frog: free licence caps a crawl at 500 URLs — www.screamingfrog.co.uk
- Chrome CrUX methodology: what gets excluded from field data, including noindex pages — developer.chrome.com
What the audit flags in one line, checked properly
The audit summarises. These tools open up the specific line items — speed, meta, links, schema, indexing and AI visibility — that a colour-coded score can't show you page by page.
Read the guide: affordable local SEO: what is free and what to pay for, Local SEO Audit: 7-Step Checklist for Local Businesses and How to Choose an SEO Company: Questions and Red Flags. Want it handled for you? See our website audit service.