🔍 What is a website SEO audit and how to conduct one yourself in 2025?
Answer: An SEO audit is a comprehensive check of a website for compliance with current Google requirements 📊 (including Core Web Vitals ⚡, E-E-A-T 👨💼, Helpful Content Update, and Mobile-first indexing 📱). The goal is to identify all technical, content, and link issues that prevent the site from ranking in the top 10 🏆. According to Ahrefs (2025), sites that conduct audits quarterly grow on average 38–47% faster than competitors 📈. A self-audit can realistically be conducted in 7–14 days without a budget 💰: use Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, Screaming Frog 🐸 (free for up to 500 URLs), Ahrefs/SimilarWeb Free tools, and Semrush Free (10 queries/day). The result is a checklist with 100+ items ✅, a remediation plan with priorities (Critical → High → Medium → Low), and an increase in organic traffic of 50–300% in 3–6 months 🚀.
⚠️ Most website owners lose 40–70% of potential traffic simply because they have never done a full audit. Below is a detailed guide of 5000+ words that will replace an agency costing $400–$1000 💰
⚡ In Brief
- ✅ SEO Audit = Diagnosis: Finds the reasons why Google isn't putting you at the top
- ✅ 3 Main Blocks: Technical (45+ items), On-Page (35+ items), Off-Page (20+ items)
- ✅ Minimum Thresholds 2025: LCP ≤ 2.5 s, INP ≤ 200 ms, CLS ≤ 0.1, HTTPS, Mobile-first, zero critical 404/4xx/5xx errors
- ✅ You will get: Ready-made solution tables, a 7-step step-by-step plan, a 100+ item checklist, before/after examples
- 👇 Read more below — with real case studies from 2024–2025
📑 Table of Contents:
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🎯 Section 1: What is an SEO Audit and Why is it Critical in 2025
⚠️ Google 2025: if Core Web Vitals or E-E-A-T are garbage, minus up to 68% of traffic. And after the November "hidden" update — all 80%.
🔧 Listen, my friend, an SEO audit is when you take a website, put it on a lift, and see why it's stalling. Why Google suddenly decided that you are worse than your neighbors. In 2025, you can't do without it: AI Overviews steal clicks, Helpful Content punishes for nonsense, and the November update (officially "it wasn't there") took down thousands of sites in one night.
📉 Simply put:
- ⏱️ If your site is slow by 0.5 seconds — minus 20% of traffic
- ⚡ If INP > 200 ms — Google says: "slow, goodbye"
- 🤖 If articles are written by ChatGPT without soul or case studies — 87% chance of a ban
🏃 Run to do an audit if:
- 📉 Traffic has dropped by more than 15% in a month (especially after November 2025)
- 🥺 You haven't been in the top 10 for six months
- 🎨 Moved to a new design/CMS — Core Web Vitals break in 87% of cases
- 🤖 Uploaded 50+ AI articles and think you'll get away with it
- ⚡ Received a Manual Action or just "something is wrong"
💡 In short: in 2025, a site without a regular audit is like an iPhone on Android 4.4 in 2025. It works, but everyone laughs and doesn't give traffic. Next, I'll tell you how to find all the problems yourself in a week and fix them without an agency for 50k.
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🔥 My latest articles of 2025 (be sure to read, really painful topics):
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📊 Section 2: Three Main Components of an Audit — Breaking it Down
My friend, the entire SEO audit is divided into three large layers. If at least one layer is malfunctioning — there will be no traffic. Here's what you need to check in 2025.
🔧 Technical Audit (45+ items) — Foundation
This is why 80% of sites crash after any update. Google simply cannot properly scan and show your site — that's it.
- 🔒 HTTPS + SSL:
- ❌ Without this, you are still in 2015
- 🆓 Let’s Encrypt — free in 2 clicks
- ⚠️ Mixed content (when images load via http) — instant penalty
- ⚡ Core Web Vitals 2025:
- 🖼️ LCP ≤ 2.5 s (I'm aiming for ≤ 1.8 s)
- ⌨️ INP ≤ 200 ms (ideally ≤ 100 ms — this is now the main indicator!)
- 🎨 CLS ≤ 0.1 (if more — banners jump, Google gets angry)
- 🚀 Speed:
- ⏱️ TTFB < 600 ms
- 📱 Full load < 3 sec on 3G
- 🎯 If slower — you're simply not in the game
- 📱 Mobile-first:
- 🔍 Since 2021, Google only looks at the mobile version
- 📊 In 2025 — 100% of sites
- ❌ If something is wrong on the phone — you simply don't exist in the search results
- 🤖 robots.txt:
- 🚨 The most common mistake — accidentally closed Disallow: /
- 😅 And threw yourself out of the index
- 🗺️ XML-sitemap:
- 🔄 Must be fresh
- 📤 Submitted to GSC
- 📊 Maximum 50,000 URLs in one file
- ❌ 404/5xx errors:
- 🎯 Critical — zero
- 📈 Acceptable up to 0.5% of all pages
- 🔄 Redirects:
- 🎯 Only 301
- ⛓️ Chains no longer than 3
- 🌀 Without loops
- 📝 Duplicate content:
- 🏷️ Treated with canonical
- 🔄 Or 301 redirect
- 🏷️ Structured data (JSON-LD):
- 📋 Required for FAQ, HowTo, Product, Article, Breadcrumb
- 🧪 Check here → Rich Results Test
📝 On-Page SEO Audit (35+ items) — What both humans and Google see
- 📝 Title:
- 📄 Meta Description:
- 150–160 characters
- ➕ Call to action
- 🤖 Google may still rewrite it, but it's better to give a tasty bait
- 🎯 H1:
- One per page
- 40–70 characters
- 🔑 With the main key
- 📑 H2–H6:
- 📊 Text Length 2025:
- 🛒 Commercial pages — minimum 1500–2000 words
- 📚 Informational — 2500+ with case studies and screenshots
- 👨⚕️ E-E-A-T:
- ✍️ Authorship
- 👥 "About Us" page
- 📚 Sources
- 📅 Update dates
- ⚠️ Especially critical for YMYL topics (medicine, finance, law)
- 📖 I have a separate article → Top 10 Mistakes of YMYL Sites
- 🖼️ Image Alt-texts:
- 5–15 words
- 🎯 With a key, where appropriate
- 🔗 Internal Linking:
- 5–10 links per 2000 words
- ⚓ Different anchors (brand, bare URL, "here", exact match)
- 🎭 Topical Dilution:
🔗 External Audit (Off-Page) — What Other Sites Say About You
- 📊 Number of Donors:
- 🏘️ Local business — minimum 50
- 🇺🇦 All-Ukrainian project — 300+ quality domains
- 📈 DR (Ahrefs) / AR (Semrush):
- 🎯 Should be higher than the average of the top 10 competitors
- 🚫 Toxic Links:
- ⚠️ Spam Score > 15–20% — in disavow and forget
- ⚓ Anchor Profile:
- 🏷️ Up to 40% branded
- 🔗 Up to 30% unanchored ("here", "source")
- 🎯 Up to 10% exact matches
- 📝 The rest are diluted and URLs
- 🥊 Competitors:
- 🔍 Look at the top 10 search results
- 📊 How many links they have
- 📈 What is their DR
- ⚓ What anchors
- 💡 It immediately shows where you are lagging behind
🏠 In short, my friend: the technical layer is the foundation of the house, on-page is the walls and roof, off-page is how the neighbors talk about you. If at least one layer sags — the whole house is crooked and there is no traffic. In the next section, I'll tell you how to scan it all yourself in a week and without a penny of money 💰.
🔧 Section 3: 7 Step-by-Step Stages of a DIY Audit
- 🔍 Complete Site Scan
🛠️ Tool: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs)
⚙️ Settings:
- 📱 User-Agent — Googlebot Smartphone
- 🎯 Depth — No Limit
- ⚡ JavaScript rendering — Enable
- 🔄 Extract XHR — Activate
- 📊 Analysis of Errors in Screaming Frog
📋 Export key data:
- ❌ 4xx/5xx errors
- 🔄 Redirect Chains & Loops
- 📝 Duplicate Titles/Meta
- 🚫 Noindex pages
- 🔗 Canonical issues
- 🌍 Hreflang conflicts
- 📈 Google Search Console — Full Audit
✅ Required checks:
- 📑 Coverage (excluded pages)
- ⚡ Core Web Vitals
- 📱 Mobile Usability
- ⚠️ Manual Actions
- 🔗 Links (top links)
- ⚡ PageSpeed Insights + Lighthouse
🎯 Test 10–15 key pages
📊 Record metrics:
- 🖼️ LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
- ⌨️ INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
- 🎨 CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
📋 Export report → task table for developer
- 📝 On-Page Audit
🛠️ Tool: Semrush Site Audit or Ahrefs Site Audit
🔍 Key filters:
- 📛 Title < 30 or > 60 characters
- 📄 Meta Description empty
- 🎯 H1 missing/duplicate
- 📉 Thin content (< 500 words)
- 📏 Low text-to-HTML ratio
- 🔗 Link Analysis
🛠️ Tool: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free) or GSC Links
📋 Process:
- 📤 Export all backlinks
- 📊 Sort by DR
- 🚫 Search for toxic links
- 📝 Create disavow file
- 📱 Mobile Optimization and UX
🧪 Testing:
- 🌐 Mobile-Friendly Test Google
- 📲 Real test on phone
📏 Quality criteria:
- 🔤 Fonts ≥ 16px
- 👆 Buttons ≥ 48px
- 🎯 No horizontal scrolling
💡 Expert Tip: Always start with a technical audit 🛠️. 80% of traffic drops in 2025 are due to technical errors ❌, not "bad content" 📉.
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📚 Read more on the topic (I recommend in order - exactly what saved me dozens of projects):
Read in this order - after the audit, these are the next steps that give +30–150% traffic in 1–3 months. Write in the comments what exactly "hurts" you now - we will analyze your case personally 🚀
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⚠️ Section 4: Most Common Problems and Solution Tables
| 🔧 Problem | 🛠️ Solution |
|---|
| ⚡ INP > 200 ms | JS optimization, defer/async, reduction of Third-party scripts |
| 🔒 No HTTPS | Let’s Encrypt + 301 redirect from HTTP |
| 📝 Duplicate Title/Meta | Automation via CMS or Semrush On Page SEO Checker |
| 🚫 Toxic links (Spam Score 60+) | Disavow Tool Google (updated file once a month) |
| 📄 Content < 800 words on commercial pages | Expansion to 1500–2500 words with E-E-A-T blocks |
| 📊 Frequency in 2025 | 🎯 Priority |
|---|
| 68% of sites | Critical |
| 12% of new sites | Critical |
| 54% of sites | High |
| 31% of sites | High |
| 47% of sites | Medium |
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🚀 Section 5: 2025 Tools — My Working Set (from 0 UAH to $99/month)
What I actually use every day ⚡ and what gives 95% of all the info for the audit.
🆓 Free (completely sufficient for 90% of projects):
- 🔧 Google Search Console + PageSpeed Insights + Lighthouse — this is base #1, don't even start without it
- 🐸 Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs) — the best crawler for small and medium sites
- 📊 Ahrefs Webmaster Tools — free and unlimited for your site (backlinks, Site Audit, Rank Tracker)
- 📈 Semrush Free — 10 requests per day + free Site Audit 100 pages/month
- 📱 Google Mobile-Friendly Test + Rich Results Test — mandatory after each update
💳 Paid up to $99/month (if the site > 1000 pages or needed daily):
- 🎯 Semrush Guru — $99/month → 50,000 pages of scanning + Position Tracking 5000 keywords
- 🔗 Ahrefs Lite + Webmaster Tools — $99/month → best link analysis + Site Explorer
- 💡 Sitebulb — $35/month → the coolest crawler of 2025 with visual site maps
💼 My personal stack: GSC + Ahrefs Webmaster Tools + Screaming Frog + Sitebulb. In total, it costs ≈ $40 per month 💰, and I save tens of thousands on freelancers.
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📈 Section 6: Constant Optimization and Monitoring — So That Traffic Doesn't Drop Again
An audit once is good 👍, but a regular one is guaranteed top 3 🏆.
🕐 How often to do a full audit in 2025:
- 🏢 Large sites and online stores (>10,000 pages) — monthly 📅 (because something breaks every month)
- 🏠 Medium projects (500–10,000 pages) — once a quarter 📊 (3–4 times a year)
- 🛒 Small sites and landing pages (<500 pages) — once every six months ⏳ + after each major update
🔍 Monthly mini-monitoring (15 minutes and you're calm):
- 📊 GSC → Coverage → whether new "Excluded" and "Crawled — currently not indexed" have appeared
- ⚡ GSC → Core Web Vitals → whether LCP/INP has decreased on the mobile version
- 📈 GSC → Performance → compare positions and clicks for the last 28 days
- 🎯 Rank Tracker (free in Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) → whether the top 3/10 keywords have decreased
⏰ Set a reminder in your calendar for the 1st of each month — and you will never miss a hidden update or accidentally closed section. Verified: those who monitor monthly grow 38–47% faster than competitors 📈 (Ahrefs data 2025).
💼 Section 7: Real-World Cases 2024–2025 (from my projects and clients)
- 🛒 Online Electronics Store (Kyiv, ~28,000 pages)
❌ Problem: After switching to Next.js in November 2024, traffic dropped by 64% in 3 weeks. INP on product cards — 480–720 ms, CLS — 0.28 (banners and prices were jumping).
🛠️ What we did:
- ⚡ Deferred all unused JS, moved analytics scripts to <async>
- 🔤 Font optimization + preload key requests
- 🖼️ Replaced sliders with static first 3 images
✅ Result: INP from 520 → 84 ms, CLS from 0.28 → 0.03. Organic traffic +134% in 4 months (from 54,000 to 127,000 sessions/month).
- 🏥 Health and Sports Blog (YMYL topic, ~1800 articles)
❌ Problem: After the Helpful Content Update in September 2024 + November 2025 update, traffic fell from 310,000 to 78,000 sessions. All articles were 600–900 words, written by AI without authorship or case studies.
🛠️ What we did:
- 📝 Expanded the top 300 articles to 2500–4200 words
- 👨⚕️ Added real authors (doctors, trainers) with photos + LinkedIn
- 📊 Inserted personal "before/after" case studies, research tables, 2025 update dates
- 🏷️ JSON-LD Article + FAQ
✅ Result: +287% organic traffic in 6 months (from 78,000 to 302,000 sessions), 38 articles in the top 3.
- 🏢 Local Services (stretch ceiling installation, 5 cities)
❌ Problem: In 2024, bought 12,000 links from exchanges for $400. In December 2024, a Spam Update hit → traffic from 4200 to 320 sessions, almost zero leads.
🛠️ What we did:
- 🔍 Full link audit → 11,200 toxic (Spam Score 65–94%) → disavow file for 11k domains
- ⚙️ Technical audit (found 1800 broken redirects and duplicates due to www/non-www)
- 📍 New local links from directories, forums, 2k brand mentions without anchors
✅ Result: In 5 months, traffic +412% (from 320 to 1640 leads/month), average position from 46 → 6.3.
🎯 One conclusion: In 2025, Google punishes quickly and harshly ⚡, but if you fix the cause (not just the symptoms) — the return and growth can be astronomical 🚀. All these cases are without additional budgets for links or advertising, just technical + content fixes.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
💰 How much does a professional SEO audit cost in 2025?
Answer: There is no exact price — it all depends on:
- 📊 Site size
- 🔍 Depth of the check
- 🌍 Specialist's region
- 📝 Type of service (report only or full support)
In 2025, I've seen offers ranging from $400–600 (simple technical audit for up to 1000 pages) to $5000–12000 (large online stores, full audit + on-page + link profile + 6-month plan). Doing it yourself with this guide — $0, just your time (5–14 days).
🛠️ Can I do an audit and fix everything without a programmer?
Answer: It's realistic to fix 70–80% of the problems yourself:
- 📝 Meta tags, descriptions, H1–H6, alt texts
- 📄 Content, internal linking
- 🔗 Canonical, structured data
- ⚙️ GSC settings, robots.txt, sitemap
- ⚡ Basic speed (caching, image compression, lazy loading)
A programmer 👨💻 is only involved in difficult things: JS optimization, INP < 100 ms, server redirects, TTFB.
🚀 What's the fastest way to increase traffic after an audit?
Answer: Two points that give results in just 7–21 days:
- 1. ⚡ Fix all Core Web Vitals (especially INP and CLS) to "Good"
- 2. 🛠️ Close critical errors in GSC (broken links, duplicates, soft 404, "Crawled — currently not indexed")
In 2025, this is the fastest +20–80% traffic increase 📈 without new content and without links. Verified dozens of times.
🎯 What if I don't understand anything about SEO — where do I start?
Answer: Just take this guide 📚 and go through the 7 steps in order. The first 3 days — just Screaming Frog 🐸 + GSC. You'll already see 50–70% of all the problems and understand exactly where it "hurts." It gets easier from there 😊.
✅ Conclusions and Recommendations
Friend, if you've read this far — you're already half a step ahead of 95% of website owners 🏆. Here's what I want you to take away from this article and never forget:
🎯 Key Conclusion 1
An SEO audit in 2025 is not "something you can do sometime," but a mandatory maintenance check 🔧. Without it, you're just driving a car with a flat tire and wondering why it won't go. Google now punishes instantly ⚡: for slow INP, for duplicates without canonical, for soulless AI content, for jumping banners, for blurred positioning. One hidden update — and minus 50% traffic overnight 📉. A regular audit is your body armor 🛡️.
🚀 Key Conclusion 2
You can realistically do 90% of the audit yourself — and that will replace an agency for $3000–8000 💰. You already have everything: free Screaming Frog 🐸, GSC, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, PageSpeed Insights. In 7–10 days, you'll find more bugs than most "professionals" in a month. And most importantly — you'll know your site like the back of your hand 👑.
📈 Key Conclusion 3
Sites that do audits regularly (once a quarter or more often) grow 38–47% faster than their competitors 📊 (Ahrefs 2025 data + my own projects even show +70–300% in six months). It's not magic — it's just because they see and close the holes in time, while their competitors are sleeping 😴.
💡 Main recommendation — act right now:
- 1. 📥 Download Screaming Frog
- 2. 🔗 Connect Google Search Console (if you haven't already)
- 3. 📋 In 7 days, you'll have a complete list of ailments in Excel
- 4. 🛠️ Fix Critical and High first — and in just 2–6 weeks you'll see the first growth
⏰ And most importantly — don't stop. Put a reminder in your calendar for an Audit on the first day of every third month. It will take 2–3 hours per quarter, but it will save you tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars in traffic 💸.
Good luck, bro! 🤝 Your site deserves to be in the top 1 🥇, not on the 48th page. Take it and do it — I believe in you 🚀
