Your site looks fine. Rankings say otherwise, and you cannot see why. Most sites carry 30 to 50 issues quietly draining organic traffic, and none of them show up when you just look at the page. An SEO audit is how you find those issues and, more importantly, decide which ones to fix first. This guide walks you through what an audit is, the seven types, how to run one yourself, and how to read your site the way search engines and AI answers now do.
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a structured review of everything on your website that affects how it ranks in search. It checks your technical setup, on-page content, backlinks and more, then turns the findings into a prioritised list of fixes ranked by impact. The output is a roadmap, not a report card.
Think of it as a health check-up for your site. The homepage might look healthy, but an audit measures the things you cannot see by looking: crawlability, index status, page speed, link quality and content gaps. A typical audit surfaces anywhere from 20 to 80 issues, which is why the ranking step matters as much as the finding step.
That distinction is the whole point. A weak audit hands you a list of 80 problems. A good one tells you which three are costing you the most traffic this month, so you know where to start.
Why SEO audits matter
Search does not stand still. Google ships thousands of ranking changes a year, your competitors publish weekly, and your own site collects technical debt every time someone adds a plugin or changes a URL. An audit is how you catch that drift before it shows up as a traffic drop.
The payoff is practical. A clean audit tends to improve user experience, recover organic traffic, and lift conversions by removing the friction between a searcher and your page. It also shows you where competitors are winning so you can close the gap.
There is a newer reason too. Search results now include AI Overviews and answers from tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and being eligible for those depends on the same technical and content signals an audit checks. If your pages are hard to crawl or thin on substance, you lose visibility in both places at once.
The 7 types of SEO audits
When someone says “SEO audit,” they could mean one of several different checks. Each type looks at a different layer of your site’s health. You rarely need all seven at once, but knowing what each covers helps you ask the right questions and spot the right problems.
Technical SEO audit
This is the foundation. If search engines cannot crawl and index your pages, nothing else you do will rank. A technical audit checks crawlability, indexation, site architecture, XML sitemaps, robots.txt, canonical tags, HTTPS, redirect chains and structured data.
Start by crawling your site with a tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb and looking for pages that return 4xx or 5xx errors. Check your robots.txt so you are not accidentally blocking pages or the CSS and JavaScript that search engines need to render them.
Page speed sits here too, measured through Core Web Vitals. Google’s own Core Web Vitals thresholds set the “good” bar at 2.5 seconds or less for Largest Contentful Paint, 200 milliseconds or less for Interaction to Next Paint, and 0.1 or less for Cumulative Layout Shift, each judged at the 75th percentile of real visits. Fixing render-blocking scripts and oversized images is often the fastest way to move these numbers.
Watch for redirect chains as well. If page A redirects to B, which redirects to C, you waste crawl budget and dilute link equity. Flatten them into single redirects, and while you are in the logs, check that error responses behave as they should. Our explainer on 401 vs 403 status codes covers a common source of confusion here.
On-page SEO audit
On-page SEO is everything a visitor sees and interacts with on a page. This audit checks whether each page is set up to rank for its target keyword and whether the experience keeps people reading.
Focus on a few things first:
- Title tags and meta descriptions. Every page needs a unique, keyword-relevant title that fits within roughly 600 pixels (about 50 to 60 characters) so Google does not truncate it, plus a meta description around 150 to 160 characters. Duplicate or auto-generated titles are a common problem.
- Header hierarchy. One H1 that includes the primary keyword, with H2s and H3s creating a logical structure. Do not skip levels.
- Keyword placement. The primary keyword should appear in the first 100 words, in at least one subheading, and naturally through the body. Do not stuff it.
- Internal linking. Each page should link to a handful of other relevant pages, which spreads link equity and helps search engines understand your structure.
- Image optimisation. Descriptive alt text, compressed files, and modern formats like WebP.
One quick check: open Google Search Console, go to the Pages report, and look for pages marked “Crawled, currently not indexed.” Those are pages Google found but decided were not worth indexing, which usually points to weak content or thin internal linking.
Off-page / backlink audit
An off-page audit looks at signals outside your site, and the biggest one is your backlink profile. Links still count, but quality matters far more than volume. One link from a respected publication carries more weight than hundreds of low-value ones.
Export your backlinks from a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush and check three things: the quality and toxicity of the referring sites, your anchor-text spread, and your link velocity. A profile where most anchors are exact-match commercial phrases looks manipulative, and a sudden spike of links followed by silence looks unnatural.
Flag genuinely toxic links for review, and look for unlinked brand mentions while you are there. If a site writes about you without linking, a polite request can turn that into a link. When you are ready to build links properly, our link building services page explains the whitehat approach.
Content audit
A content audit reviews every page for quality, relevance and performance, then sorts each one into keep, update, merge or remove. If you have published for a few years without reviewing older posts, a good share of them are probably outdated, competing with each other, or pulling in no traffic at all.
Export your URLs, pull traffic from analytics and rankings from Search Console, then bucket each page. Watch for keyword cannibalisation, where two pages target the same term and compete against each other. Filter the Search Console performance report by query to spot it, then consolidate the weaker page into the stronger one.
Depth matters too. If the top results for your target keyword average 2,000 words of original detail and your page offers 400 words of generic advice, you know what needs to change. In Singapore, keep an eye on time-sensitive facts as well, such as the current GST rate, since outdated figures hurt trust and can trip Google’s helpful content signals.
Local SEO audit
If you serve customers in a specific area, a local audit is essential, especially for “near me” searches and Google Maps visibility. It checks your Google Business Profile, the consistency of your business details across the web, and your reviews.
Make sure your Business Profile is complete and accurate: name, address, phone, opening hours (including public holidays, which matter here), categories and photos. Then check that your name, address and phone number match exactly everywhere they appear. Even small differences like “Blk” versus “Block” can confuse search engines.
Reviews feed local rankings too, so look at how many you have, how recent they are, and whether you respond to them. Local content signals help as well: a clinic in Tampines should mention Tampines, not just generic advice. Our local SEO page goes deeper on this.
Mobile SEO audit
Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means it mainly uses the mobile version of your site to rank and index you. If your mobile experience is poor, your desktop rankings suffer too. In Singapore, where most searches happen on phones, this is not optional.
Check responsive design by viewing key pages at a narrow width and confirming buttons are tappable and text is readable without zooming. Test mobile page speed with PageSpeed Insights, paying attention to the same Core Web Vitals covered above.
Then look for the details that trip up mobile users: full-screen pop-ups that block content, tap targets that are too small or too close together, and a missing viewport tag that forces the desktop layout onto a phone screen. Run Google’s mobile-friendly checks on your top landing pages and fix any that fail first.
AI Search / GEO audit
This is the type most guides still skip, yet it is fast becoming essential. An AI Search or GEO (generative engine optimisation) audit checks whether your pages are eligible to be cited in AI Overviews and answers from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
Start with crawler access. AI systems use their own crawlers, and you control them separately from Googlebot. OpenAI’s GPTBot can be allowed or blocked in your robots.txt, and Google’s Google-Extended token governs whether your content trains and grounds Gemini, without affecting your normal Search ranking. Check that you are not blocking access you actually want.
Beyond access, the signals that help you get cited overlap with good SEO: clear answer-shaped content, accurate structured data, and strong topical and entity clarity. Tracking where your brand already appears in AI answers tells you which topics to reinforce. Our AI SEO services page covers this in more detail.
Competitor analysis audit
You do not rank in a vacuum. A competitor audit shows what your top-ranking rivals do differently and where they have left gaps you can take. This is about understanding the landscape, not copying it.
Run a keyword gap analysis to find terms competitors rank for that you do not, then compare their best pages for depth, format and topic coverage. Look at their backlink profiles to find sites that link to them but not to you, since those are warm outreach targets.
Also check which SERP features they own, such as featured snippets or People Also Ask boxes, and study the format of any answer you want to compete for. In Singapore, pay attention to competitors capturing Mandarin-language queries, which can be a sizeable traffic gap if you publish only in English.
How to do an SEO audit yourself: step by step
You can conduct a comprehensive SEO audit yourself with free tools and a methodical process. Work through these steps in order, because each one builds on the last. The early steps establish what “normal” looks like before you start changing things.
1. Record your benchmark data
Before you touch anything, capture where you stand. Note your current organic traffic, top pages, keyword rankings, conversion rate and organic revenue. This baseline lets you measure whether your fixes actually worked. A quick Google Analytics audit helps confirm your tracking is clean before you rely on the numbers.
2. Crawl your site
Run a full crawl with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. This fetches every page the way a search engine would and flags broken links, duplicate content, redirect issues and error pages. It is the fastest way to see structural problems across the whole site at once.
3. Check indexation
Compare the pages you want indexed against the pages Google actually indexes. Use the Search Console Pages report to spot “Crawled, currently not indexed” and “Discovered, currently not indexed” statuses, and watch for index bloat, where tag pages or filtered URLs clutter the index and waste crawl budget.
4. Audit on-page elements
Go through your priority pages and check titles, meta descriptions, headers, keyword placement and internal links against the on-page checklist above. Fix duplicates and thin metadata first, since those are quick wins on pages that already get traffic.
5. Test mobile and Core Web Vitals
Run your top landing pages through PageSpeed Insights on mobile and check them against the Core Web Vitals thresholds. Confirm the pages are genuinely usable on a phone, not just technically responsive.
6. Review content quality and cannibalisation
Assess whether each important page fully answers its query and matches search intent. Use the Search Console query filter to find multiple URLs ranking for the same term, then decide what to keep, update, merge or remove.
7. Analyse backlinks
Export your backlink profile, flag toxic or spammy links, and check your anchor-text mix. Note any unlinked brand mentions you could turn into links. This is also where you compare your profile against a competitor or two.
8. Check technical health and security
Confirm every page loads over HTTPS with no mixed-content warnings, flatten redirect chains, and validate your structured data. Check that error responses return the correct status codes so search engines handle them properly.
9. Prioritise and fix
Pull your findings into one list and rank them by impact and effort (the next section shows how). Set clear, measurable goals tied to the metric you want to move, then work top down rather than trying to fix everything at once.
SEO audit tools (free and paid)
The right tools depend on which audit you are running and your budget. You can get a long way with free tools before you ever pay for anything. Here is how the main options break down.
Free tools
Start with the free set, which covers most of what a first audit needs. Google Search Console shows indexation, crawl errors and search performance. PageSpeed Insights measures speed and Core Web Vitals. Google’s mobile-friendly checks confirm your pages work on phones. And the free version of Screaming Frog crawls up to 500 URLs, which is enough for most small and medium sites.
Paid platforms
When you need depth, paid platforms add competitor data, larger crawls and backlink databases. Ahrefs and Semrush are the common choices for keyword and backlink analysis, Sitebulb adds detailed technical crawling, and Moz offers its own site audit and metrics. Paid plans typically start in the region of US$100 or more per month, so they make sense once you are auditing regularly or managing several sites.
Can AI tools like ChatGPT run your SEO audit?
Partly. ChatGPT and similar tools can help with pieces of an audit, such as spotting metadata issues, summarising a crawl export, or drafting fixes and content improvements. They are useful assistants for interpreting data you already have.
But they cannot replace a dedicated crawler. A general AI tool is not plugged into your live site data, your Search Console, or your crawl the way a purpose-built tool is, so it cannot reliably scan every page or measure real performance. Treat AI as a helper for analysis and writing, not as the tool that runs the audit itself.
SEO audit across different CMS platforms
How you access your audit levers depends on your content management system (CMS), the software your site runs on. The checks stay the same, but where you find and fix things changes from platform to platform. Here is where to look on the platforms Singapore businesses use most.
WordPress
WordPress handles most SEO controls through plugins, which is where you will edit titles, meta descriptions and sitemaps. The two most common are covered below.
Auditing with Yoast SEO
Yoast adds per-page controls for titles, meta descriptions and indexing, plus a readability and SEO analysis on each post. Use it to check for missing metadata and to confirm which pages you have set to noindex, and pair it with a crawl since the plugin only sees one page at a time.
Auditing with Rank Math
Rank Math offers similar per-page controls along with a built-in site-wide SEO analysis that flags common on-page and technical issues. Its analysis is a useful starting point, though you should still verify its findings against Search Console and a full crawl.
Shopify
Shopify manages much of your technical SEO automatically, but it also creates duplicate URLs through product variants and collection filters, so those are worth auditing closely. Check your product and collection titles, meta descriptions and image alt text, and review your sitemap for links to out-of-stock or removed products. Our Shopify SEO and ecommerce SEO pages go deeper on store-specific checks.
Wix
Wix has closed much of its old technical gap and now lets you edit titles, meta descriptions, alt text, redirects and structured data from its SEO settings. Audit these fields page by page, and check that older pages built before the newer tools existed are not missing metadata.
Squarespace
Squarespace covers the basics through its built-in SEO panel, where you set page titles and descriptions. Its main audit risks are limited control over some technical elements and default settings that can leave metadata generic, so check that each page has a unique, intentional title and description.
Webflow
Webflow gives you fine control over metadata, canonical tags and structured data, which is a strength and a risk, since misconfiguration is easy. Audit your canonical settings, confirm your sitemap is generated and submitted, and check that any CMS-collection pages carry proper titles and descriptions.
Magento
Magento powers larger stores and brings the technical complexity to match, so faceted navigation, duplicate content and crawl budget are the usual audit priorities. Check your canonical settings, URL rewrites and index management carefully, since small template-level issues repeat across thousands of product pages.
How often should you run an SEO audit?
An audit is not a one-time job. Different checks suit different rhythms, and pairing quick monitoring with deeper periodic reviews catches problems before they cost you traffic. Here is a schedule that works for most businesses.
Monthly quick checks
Each month, run light technical checks: monitor crawl errors in Search Console, review Core Web Vitals, and scan for new broken links or indexation issues. These take little time and catch problems while they are still small.
Quarterly on-page and content review
Every quarter, review your top pages for keyword cannibalisation, outdated information and internal linking gaps. Update any content that references time-sensitive data so it stays accurate.
Bi-annual or annual full audit
Twice a year, run a full technical, off-page and competitor audit to reassess your whole strategy. Once a year, go wider still and cover all the audit types, resetting your roadmap for the year ahead.
Trigger-based audits
Some events call for an audit regardless of the calendar. Run one after a rebrand, a site migration, a redesign or a sudden traffic drop. Migrations in particular are a common cause of lost traffic when old URLs are not redirected properly. Keeping up with routine website maintenance between audits reduces how much each one turns up.
How to prioritise your audit findings
After an audit you will have a long list of issues. Do not try to fix everything at once. Sort each finding by how much impact the fix could have and how much effort it takes, then work through the quadrants in order.
High impact, low effort
Fix these first. Missing meta descriptions on high-traffic pages, broken internal links and unoptimised images take minutes and can move rankings within weeks.
High impact, high effort
Schedule these next. Site speed overhauls, content consolidation and technical migrations need planning, but they deliver the biggest long-term gains.
Low impact, low effort
Batch these into a maintenance sprint. Alt-text updates, minor schema additions and tidying up redirect chains are worth doing, just not urgently.
Low impact, high effort
Deprioritise or skip these. If a page gets a handful of visits a month and would need a full rewrite, your time is better spent elsewhere.
What’s inside an SEO audit report
A useful audit report does more than list problems. It should open with an executive summary, then present a prioritised list of issues ranked by traffic or revenue impact. Each issue needs an owner, an effort estimate and the expected result, so the person fixing it knows what to do and why it matters.
Good reports also record your benchmark data, so you can measure progress after the fixes go live. If you want a head start, our downloadable SEO audit checklist covers all seven audit types with a built-in prioritisation tab, so the process becomes a repeatable routine rather than something you rebuild each time.
This is also where searchers looking for an “SEO audit template” or “example report” tend to land. The value is not the document itself but the prioritisation behind it, since a list of 80 issues with no ranking is just noise.
SEO audit cost in Singapore and when to hire an agency
You can run a basic audit yourself for nothing using free tools, which is a reasonable starting point for a small, simple site. Paid platforms like Ahrefs or Semrush add depth for roughly US$100 or more per month if you want competitor and backlink data.
A professional audit is a different service. In Singapore, agency SEO audits generally range from around SGD $800 to $3,000 or more, depending on the size of your site, the depth of the review and how competitive your market is.
It may be worth hiring out when your site runs to more than 100 pages, uses a custom setup, has an ecommerce component with dynamic URLs, or has just seen a sudden traffic drop you cannot explain. A professional can also prioritise findings by business impact, which is the part automated tools cannot do. If that sounds like your situation, our SEO services team can help.
Frequently asked questions
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a structured review of every element of your website that affects search performance, including technical health, on-page content, backlinks and content quality. It identifies issues holding back your rankings and produces a prioritised list of fixes ranked by impact.
Can ChatGPT do an SEO audit?
ChatGPT can help with parts of an audit, such as spotting metadata issues or summarising data, but it cannot replace a dedicated tool. It is not connected to your live site or crawl data, so it cannot reliably scan every page or measure real performance. Use it as an assistant, not the main tool.
Can I do my own SEO audit?
Yes. With free tools like Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and the free version of Screaming Frog, you can run a solid first audit yourself. You will still need to interpret the results and prioritise the fixes, and for large or complex sites a professional audit may be the better option.
Which tool is best for an SEO audit?
There is no single best tool. Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights are the essential free options, Screaming Frog handles crawling, and paid platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush add competitor and backlink data. The right mix depends on your site’s size and your budget.
How long does an SEO audit take?
Automated tools generate a surface-level report in minutes. A thorough audit that covers technical, on-page, off-page and content factors on a small to mid-sized site usually takes several hours of focused work, since the analysis and prioritisation matter more than the scan itself.
How much does an SEO audit cost in Singapore?
You can audit your own site for free with free tools. Paid platforms start at roughly US$100 or more per month, and a professional agency audit in Singapore generally ranges from around SGD $800 to $3,000 or more, depending on scope, site size and competition.
Get a free SEO audit of your site
You now know what an SEO audit involves, the seven types that cover every angle of your site’s performance, and how to run one yourself. The real value is in what you do next: a prioritised roadmap that tells you which fixes to make first.
If you would rather start with a clear picture of where your site stands, you can claim a free SEO audit of your website. Found this guide useful? Share it with someone whose rankings have stalled, and tell us in the comments which audit type you are tackling first.
