Strategy•11 min read

How to Do an SEO Audit: DIY or Automate It

Agencies charge $5,000+ for SEO audits. Here's how to audit your site yourself in 3-5 hours — or skip the manual work with automated continuous monitoring.

Benas Bitvinskas

Benas Bitvinskas

Co-Founder at Soro·

I've watched businesses pay $5,000-15,000 for SEO audits. They get beautiful 80-page PDFs with fancy charts and hundreds of "issues" flagged.

Then nothing happens. The PDF sits in a folder. Maybe they fix the title tags. Six months later, they ask "why aren't we ranking?" and pay for another audit.

Here's what those agencies don't want you to know: you can do 80% of an SEO audit yourself in an afternoon. The remaining 20% requires enterprise-level technical expertise that 95% of sites don't need anyway.

More importantly: most sites don't have ranking problems because of technical issues. They have ranking problems because they don't have enough quality content. An audit won't fix that.

This guide teaches you the DIY approach — exactly how to audit your site yourself in 3-5 hours using free tools. If you want SEO audits handled automatically instead (continuous monitoring every few days without the manual work), skip to the automated audit section.

Otherwise, here's exactly how to do it yourself.

Before you start: Set expectations

Time required: 3-5 hours for a thorough audit (or 0 hours if you want it automated — more on that below)

Tools needed: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, PageSpeed Insights, Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs), a spreadsheet

What you'll find: Most sites have 5-15 meaningful issues. Everything else is optimization that barely moves the needle.

What to do after: Fix critical issues immediately. Create a 30/60/90-day plan for the rest. Then stop auditing and start producing content.

Or skip the DIY entirely: If you want SEO handled on autopilot, Soro runs automated audits every few days and sends you actionable reports — so you never have to spend an afternoon manually crawling your site. Plus it handles the content production that actually drives rankings. More on this at the end.

Step 1: Google Search Console review (30 minutes)

Search Console is your single most valuable SEO tool. It shows you exactly what Google sees.

Check indexing status

Go to Pages (or Index → Coverage in older interface).

What to look for:

  • How many pages are indexed? Compare to how many you expect.
  • Any pages "Excluded" that should be indexed?
  • Any "Errors" preventing indexing?

Common issues:

  • "Blocked by robots.txt" — Check if important pages are accidentally blocked
  • "Noindex tag" — Someone may have added noindex during development and forgot to remove it
  • "Duplicate without canonical" — Multiple URLs serving same content
  • "Not found (404)" — Broken pages Google tried to crawl

What to do: Create a list of indexing issues. These are your highest priority fixes — content that can't be indexed can't rank.

Check Core Web Vitals

Go to Experience → Core Web Vitals.

What to look for:

  • Are most URLs "Good" or "Poor"?
  • Which specific metric is failing? (LCP, FID/INP, CLS)
  • Are mobile and desktop different?

Common issues:

  • Slow server response time (hosting problem)
  • Large images not optimized
  • JavaScript blocking rendering
  • Layout shift from ads or images loading

What to do: Note failing metrics. We'll dig into specifics in Step 2.

Check mobile usability

Go to Experience → Mobile Usability.

What to look for:

  • Any pages flagged as not mobile-friendly?
  • Specific issues like "Content wider than screen" or "Clickable elements too close"

What to do: Mobile issues directly hurt rankings. Add these to your critical fix list.

Review search performance

Go to Performance → Search results.

What to look for:

  • Overall trends (improving, declining, flat?)
  • Which pages drive the most traffic?
  • Which queries are you ranking for?
  • Any pages that get impressions but very few clicks? (title/description problem)

What to do: Note your top 10 pages and top 20 queries. These are your current strengths to protect.

Related reading:

Step 2: Page speed deep dive (30 minutes)

Core Web Vitals affect rankings. Let's get specific.

Test your key pages

Run these through PageSpeed Insights:

  • Homepage
  • Top 5 traffic pages (from Search Console data)
  • Key conversion pages (pricing, contact, product pages)

What the scores mean

90-100: Excellent. Don't touch it.
50-89: Needs improvement, but won't tank your rankings.
0-49: Problem. Fix this.

Focus on mobile scores — that's what Google uses for ranking.

Common fixes (in order of impact)

Slow server response (TTFB > 600ms)

  • Upgrade hosting (shared hosting is often the culprit)
  • Add caching (CloudFlare free tier helps significantly)
  • Consider a CDN for global audiences

Large images

  • Compress with TinyPNG or similar
  • Use WebP format instead of PNG/JPG
  • Add width/height attributes to prevent layout shift
  • Lazy load below-fold images

Render-blocking JavaScript

  • Defer non-critical scripts
  • Move scripts to footer
  • Remove unused JavaScript entirely

Layout shift (CLS)

  • Set explicit dimensions on images and embeds
  • Reserve space for ads before they load
  • Avoid inserting content above existing content

Create your speed fix list

For each page tested, note:

  • Current score
  • Top 3 issues flagged
  • Estimated fix difficulty (easy/medium/hard)

Step 3: Technical crawl (1-2 hours)

Now we check every page systematically.

Use Screaming Frog (free for 500 URLs)

Download Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Enter your domain. Let it crawl.

What to check in the crawl data

Response codes tab:

  • Any 404s? (broken pages)
  • Any 301/302 redirects? (are they intentional?)
  • Any 500 errors? (server problems)

Page titles tab:

  • Missing titles?
  • Duplicate titles?
  • Titles too long (>60 chars) or too short (<30 chars)?

Meta descriptions tab:

  • Missing descriptions?
  • Duplicate descriptions?
  • Length issues?

H1 tab:

  • Missing H1s?
  • Multiple H1s on same page?
  • Duplicate H1s across pages?

Images tab:

  • Missing alt text?
  • Very large file sizes?

Internal links tab:

  • Any orphan pages (no internal links)?
  • Broken internal links?

Export and organize findings

Create a spreadsheet with columns:

  • URL
  • Issue type
  • Priority (critical/high/medium/low)
  • Status (to fix/fixed)

Step 4: Content audit (1-2 hours)

Technical SEO matters, but content is what ranks.

List all your content

Export your sitemap or use the Screaming Frog crawl data to list all pages.

Evaluate each piece

For each content page, quickly assess:

Is it still accurate? Information changes. Outdated content hurts credibility.

Does it rank for anything? Check Search Console. Pages with zero impressions after 6+ months may need improvement or consolidation.

Does it serve a purpose? Every page should target a keyword or serve a user need. Random pages dilute your site.

Is it thin? Pages under 300 words rarely rank. They may hurt your site's overall quality score.

Categorize your content

  • Keep and optimize: Good content that needs refreshing or better optimization
  • Consolidate: Multiple thin pages on similar topics → combine into one comprehensive piece
  • Delete or noindex: Content with no purpose, no traffic, and no potential
  • Create: Topics you should cover but don't

The content gap analysis

Compare your content to competitors ranking for your target keywords:

  • What topics do they cover that you don't?
  • What depth do they go into?
  • What formats do they use? (guides, lists, tools, videos)

This tells you what to create next.

Quick check of your link profile. You don't need expensive tools for this.

Use Ahrefs' free backlink checker or Ubersuggest to see:

  • Total backlinks and referring domains
  • Top linked pages
  • Anchor text distribution

What to look for

Toxic links: Obviously spammy sites, irrelevant foreign language sites, link farms. If you have many, consider disavowing.

Anchor text: Should be varied. If 80% of anchors are exact-match keywords, it looks manipulated.

Lost links: Important links that disappeared. May indicate content changes or site issues.

Competitor comparison: Roughly how many referring domains do competitors have? Big gaps indicate link building should be a priority.

Step 6: Prioritize and plan

You now have a list of issues. Time to prioritize.

Critical (fix this week)

  • Pages blocked from indexing that should rank
  • Security issues (no HTTPS, mixed content)
  • Mobile usability failures
  • Severe speed problems (scores under 30)

High priority (fix this month)

  • Missing/duplicate title tags and meta descriptions
  • Broken links (internal and external)
  • Page speed improvements
  • Thin content consolidation

Medium priority (fix this quarter)

  • Missing alt text
  • Minor technical issues
  • Content refreshes
  • Internal linking improvements

Low priority (fix eventually)

  • Perfect Core Web Vitals scores
  • Minor schema markup additions
  • Edge case optimizations

The audit-to-action framework

Here's how to actually use your audit:

Week 1: Fix all critical issues

Weeks 2-4: Work through high-priority issues

Ongoing: Address medium and low priority as time allows

Most importantly: Don't let auditing become procrastination. I've seen businesses spend 6 months "preparing" to do SEO while competitors published 50 articles and captured the rankings.

Fix what's broken. Then create content. The sites winning at SEO aren't the ones with perfect technical scores — they're the ones with comprehensive content and good-enough technical foundations.

The ongoing monitoring problem

Here's what usually happens after a DIY audit:

  1. You spend an afternoon auditing
  2. You fix the critical issues (good!)
  3. You tell yourself you'll audit again in 3 months
  4. Six months pass, you forget
  5. New issues accumulate unnoticed

Manual audits are snapshots. But your site changes constantly — new content, plugin updates, hosting changes, broken links. Problems appear between your quarterly audit marathons.

The autopilot solution: Soro runs audits every few days automatically. New issues get flagged within days, not months. You get a regular report of what needs attention without blocking out afternoons to crawl your own site. Plus it's creating the SEO content that drives rankings while monitoring technical health in the background.

It's the difference between scheduling an annual physical vs. having continuous health monitoring. One catches problems eventually. The other catches them early.

When to hire a professional (or automate it)

DIY audits work for most sites. But there are three approaches to consider:

1. Do it yourself (what this guide teaches)

Best for:

  • SEO professionals and consultants
  • Business owners who enjoy learning technical skills
  • One-time site launches or major redesigns

Drawback: Takes 3-5 hours per audit, and you should re-audit every quarter. That's 12-20 hours/year of analysis that doesn't directly create content or rankings.

2. Hire an agency ($2,000-15,000 per audit)

Best for:

  • Large enterprise sites (1,000+ pages)
  • Complex technical issues (JavaScript rendering, international SEO, multi-domain)
  • When you need documentation to convince stakeholders

Drawback: Expensive, and you still need someone to implement their recommendations.

3. Automated ongoing audits (included with Soro)

Best for:

  • Business owners who want SEO handled, not SEO homework
  • Sites that need regular monitoring, not one-time audits
  • Teams focused on content production, not technical analysis

How it works: Soro runs automated SEO audits every few days and sends you actionable reports. You get ongoing monitoring without spending hours crawling your site quarterly. Plus, it handles the content production side — the part that actually drives rankings after technical issues are fixed.

It's like having an SEO specialist on staff who:

  • Monitors your site continuously
  • Flags issues as they appear (not months later)
  • Creates and publishes SEO-optimized content automatically
  • Reports what's working and what needs attention

The honest comparison:

  • DIY: Free but time-consuming. Audit once, forget to do it again for a year.
  • Agency: Thorough but expensive. One-time snapshot, not ongoing monitoring.
  • Automated: Continuous monitoring + content production, minimal time investment.

For most small business sites, automated makes the most sense. You can audit yourself once to understand what's happening, then let automation handle ongoing monitoring while you focus on running your business.

Related reading:

SEOSEO AuditTechnical SEODIY SEO
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