The SEO Audit System

The SEO audit system is a way to check a site against what Google considers necessary and to turn the findings into a plan. A convenient anchor is the Google Search Essentials document: it has three parts, and each becomes an audit block. It also says what an auditor should remember: there are very few technical requirements, and most sites pass them without even realizing it, and meeting all requirements and best practices does not mean Google will necessarily crawl, index or serve a page. An audit is not magic: it finds what gets in the way and does not promise positions.

The basis is Search Essentials, the technical requirements and the spam policies. The next lessons of the module cover the blocks in detail: crawling and indexing, content, links, priorities and traffic drops.

Three blocks from Search Essentials

1. Technical requirements. The bare minimum Google needs from a page to show it in search. A page that meets them can be indexed; there are three: Googlebot isn't blocked; the page works, meaning Google receives a 200 status code; the page has indexable content. It is not a guarantee of indexing;
2. Spam policies. The behaviors and tactics that can lead to a page or an entire site being ranked lower or omitted: cloaking, hidden text, link spam, scaled content and others. See the lesson on spam policies;
3. Key best practices. The main things that affect how the site appears in search: helpful, people-first content; the words people use to search in prominent places (title, headings, alt text, link text); crawlable links; telling people about the site; following the specific guidance for images, video, structured data and JavaScript; enabling features that make sense for the site; blocking what should not appear in results.

The familiar scheme "technical, content and link audit" is the author's practice: it maps well onto these blocks but does not replace them. For example, technical requirements and accessibility are the technical block; helpful content and words on the page are the content block; crawlable links and "tell people about your site" are the link and marketing block; the spam policies cut across all three.

What data an audit uses

The main source is Search Console: it gives what Google knows about your site. What is worth opening:

• The page indexing report. The state of addresses and the reasons for exclusion. For example the status "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" is not an error but working as intended;
• URL Inspection. Information about Google's indexed version of a page and a test of whether it might be indexable; useful for disputed addresses;
• The Performance report — clicks, impressions, CTR and positions: see the lesson on Search Console;
• The Core Web Vitals report, the manual actions report and the security issues report;
• The Crawl Stats report. It shows the history of Google's crawling: the number of requests, server responses, availability issues. But the report is aimed at advanced users, and if a site has fewer than a thousand pages you should not need it; it is available only for root-level properties;
• The Links report. An important caveat: it is not a comprehensive list of all links but a sample; tables are limited to 1,000 rows. Data is grouped by root domain, and the site's pages by canonical URL.

To this is added data from a crawl of the site itself: our site crawler finds broken links, duplicate titles, missing descriptions and redirect chains; the SEO audit checks technical and on-page signals; the URL audit works through addresses from the indexing report, and the page analyzer single pages. The names of paid services from the usual table are not needed here: any tool will do if you understand what it measures.

The order of an audit (practice)

The order below is practice, not a Google document, but it follows from the logic of the blocks:

1. Collect data. A crawler, Search Console, server logs if needed;
2. Check eligibility to be shown. No blocks in robots.txt, noindex directives, non-200 responses on important pages, crawl problems. See the lesson on crawlability;
3. Check the spam policies. No hidden text, cloaking, bought links, mass pages with no value;
4. Check content and key best practices. Helpfulness, duplicates, titles, internal links;
5. Check links, remembering the limits of the report;
6. Prioritize and make a plan. First what blocks display, then the rest: see the lesson on priorities.

The rule of thumb stays true and has a technical explanation: do not spend a day on alt attributes while important pages are noindex. A page that does not meet the technical requirements will not be shown however well its details are finished.

What is not in the documentation

• A single "standard" list of N critical problems: the number of problems depends on the site;
• The concept of "toxic links" as a Google measure: there is a link spam policy and a links report that is not complete;
• Mandatory tools: Google names its own reports, not third-party services;
• A promise that an audit and fixing everything found guarantees indexing or positions.

Checklist

1. The three parts of Search Essentials are known, and which item belongs to which.
2. Important pages meet the technical requirements: not blocked, return 200, have indexable content.
3. There are no spam policy violations.
4. Content and internal links match the key best practices.
5. The limits of the reports are known: Crawl Stats for advanced users, the Links report a sample of up to 1,000 rows.
6. Findings are recorded, then prioritized: first what blocks display.

Mistakes

• Starting with trifles while important pages are closed to indexing.
• Treating the Links report as a complete list.
• Promising the client positions after an audit.
• Taking the "toxicity" of a link to be a number from a third-party service.
• Looking at the blocks separately and forgetting the spam policies.

What comes next

Next is the crawling and indexing audit: the first and most important block.