Conducting an SEO Audit for Small Businesses

A practical, step-by-step guide to finding what’s broken—and fixing it

Think of your website like a storefront. If the windows are dirty, the lights are flickering, or the sign is missing, customers won’t come in.

Same with SEO. If your website is slow, unstructured, or confusing to Google, it won’t rank—no matter how good your content is.

That’s where an SEO audit comes in. It’s how you find what’s holding your site back and fix it before it costs you more traffic, leads, and sales.

What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is a detailed review of your website to assess how well it’s performing in search—and to uncover technical, content, and structural issues that are holding you back.

You don’t need to be an expert or buy fancy tools. You just need a checklist, a few free platforms, and a couple hours of focused time.

What You’ll Need

✅ Google Search Console
✅ Google Analytics (optional, but helpful)
✅ PageSpeed Insights
✅ Ahrefs Site Audit (or free trial)
✅ Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs)
✅ Your brain and a cup of coffee

Step-by-Step SEO Audit for Small Businesses

1. Crawl Your Website

Use Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to scan your entire site.

Check for:

• Broken links (404s)
• Redirect chains
• Missing title tags or meta descriptions
• Duplicate content
• Thin pages (less than 300 words)

👉 Fix broken links, combine duplicates, and beef up thin content.

2. Check Google Indexation

Open Google and search:
site:yourwebsite.com

Do all your key pages appear?

Then go to Google Search Console → Indexing → Pages
Look for:

• Pages that aren’t indexed
• Errors like “Blocked by robots.txt” or “Crawled – currently not indexed”

👉 Submit missing pages, unblock important ones, and request indexing.

3. Review Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

Titles and meta descriptions are key to both rankings and click-through rate.

Check for:

• Duplicates
• Missing tags
• Titles over 60 characters
• Metas over 160 characters
• Pages with poor CTR in Search Console

👉 Rewrite and tighten them. Use keywords early. Make them readable and relevant.

4. Test Site Speed and Mobile Performance

Use Google PageSpeed Insights

Look for:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5s
• Mobile usability issues
• Uncompressed images
• Render-blocking scripts

👉 Compress images, lazy-load media, and remove bloated plugins or code.

5. Analyze Internal Linking

Google uses internal links to understand your site structure.

In Screaming Frog or your CMS:

• Check that every page is linked to at least once
• Add links between related blogs and services
• Use descriptive anchor text

👉 Build a content silo structure that connects topics.

6. Review Your Content Quality

Google values relevance, freshness, and usefulness.

Look at:

• Pages with high bounce rates
• Posts that haven’t been updated in 2+ years
• Content that doesn’t match keyword intent

👉 Update, combine, or remove underperforming content.

👉 Learn how to optimize content for SEO

7. Audit Your Technical SEO

In Search Console and Ahrefs:

• Fix crawl errors
• Submit your sitemap
• Ensure HTTPS is active sitewide
• Add schema markup (FAQ, local business, products)
• Use canonical tags properly

👉 Use our technical SEO checklist

8. Analyze Backlinks

Use Ahrefs or Ubersuggest.

Look for:

• Spammy links
• Low domain authority
• Competitor links you don’t have

👉 Disavow spammy links if needed. Start a link-building plan.

9. Evaluate Local SEO (if applicable)

If you serve a physical location:

• Is your Google Business Profile claimed and filled out?
• Do you have local citations?
• Are you using city-specific pages or keywords?

👉 Use our local SEO guide for more tips

How Often Should You Audit?

We recommend:

• Quarterly mini audits (15–30 min review)
• Annual full audit (2–3 hours deep dive)

Think of it like maintenance. Catch issues early. Keep your SEO engine running smooth.

Final Thoughts: Audits Aren’t Optional—They’re Essential

If your rankings are flat, your traffic is falling, or your content isn’t converting—this is where to start.

An SEO audit shows you what’s wrong, what’s working, and what needs improvement. Fix the foundation, and better rankings will follow.

Want Us to Audit Your Site for You?

We help small businesses run fast, insightful SEO audits—and turn the findings into an action plan for better rankings.

👉 Book a free SEO health check and let’s get your site in shape.

Blazon Studio – Look Good. Rank Better.