Website SEO audit — a 32-item checklist you can run yourself
A self SEO audit checklist you can run on your own website before hiring an agency. Each item explained — why it matters and how to fix it.
An SEO audit checklist you can run yourself is the cheapest, fastest way to find out whether your website is broken in ways that are quietly costing you traffic. Most paid SEO audits in Baku cost 600–2,500 AZN and largely re-discover problems you could have found in 90 minutes with the right list. This is the 32-item working checklist — run it before you hire anyone, fix what you can, and let the agency focus on the harder problems.
How to run this audit
You'll need three free tools and one paid one (optional):
- Google Search Console — set up for your site, all language properties.
- Google PageSpeed Insights — pagespeed.web.dev.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider — free for sites under 500 URLs.
- Optional: Ahrefs / Semrush / Serpstat — for backlink and keyword data. Free trials available.
Plan 90–120 minutes. Work through the checklist in order. Mark each item as PASS / WARN / FAIL.
A. Technical foundation (items 1–10)
1. The site uses HTTPS
Every URL should be HTTPS. Mixed-content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages) should be zero. Check with the browser's lock icon and any audit tool.
2. www. or non-www is canonical, with proper 301 redirect
Either example.com or www.example.com is the canonical version. The other 301-redirects to the canonical. Same for trailing slashes — pick one consistently.
3. No internal links pointing to HTTP or to the non-canonical domain
Crawl the site with Screaming Frog. Filter for internal links containing http:// or the wrong domain version. Fix all of them.
4. robots.txt exists and isn't blocking important pages
Go to yoursite.com/robots.txt. Should exist. Should not contain a blanket Disallow: /. Should reference the sitemap location.
5. sitemap.xml exists, is current, is submitted to Search Console
Go to yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Should list all important pages. Should auto-update when new pages are added. Submit it to Google Search Console under "Sitemaps."
6. No 404s on important pages
Search Console → Pages → Errors. Check for 404s on pages that should exist. Fix the link sources or redirect the URLs.
7. No redirect chains
A redirect chain is A → B → C → D. Each hop costs time and authority. Screaming Frog flags these under "Redirects." Each chain should collapse to a single hop: A → D.
8. Canonical tags set correctly on every page
Every page should have a <link rel="canonical" href="..."> pointing to itself (or to the canonical version if the page is a duplicate). Self-referential canonicals are correct.
9. hreflang set correctly for multilingual sites
If you have Azerbaijani, English, and Russian versions, every page should have hreflang tags pointing to all three language equivalents, plus an x-default. This is the single most common SEO failure on multilingual Baku sites.
10. Page speed acceptable on mobile
Run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage and 3–4 important inner pages. Mobile Lighthouse score should be 75+. LCP under 2.5 seconds. CLS under 0.1. INP under 200ms.
B. On-page content (items 11–20)
11. Unique title tags on every page, 50–60 characters
Every page has a unique <title>. Length 50–60 characters. Primary keyword near the start. Brand at the end. Screaming Frog flags duplicates and length issues.
12. Unique meta descriptions, 140–160 characters
Every page has a unique meta description. Length 140–160 characters. Includes the primary keyword naturally. Compels the click.
13. Exactly one H1 per page
Every page has exactly one <h1>. The H1 describes the page content. Below it, H2s and H3s form a logical hierarchy.
14. Heading hierarchy is logical
H1 → H2 → H3, with no skipping levels (H1 → H3 is a fail). Each H2 introduces a major section; H3s introduce subsections.
15. Every image has alt text
Decorative images: alt="". Meaningful images: descriptive alt text in the page's language. Logos: name of the company. Product images: what the product is.
16. Image file names are descriptive, not random
"baku-coffee-shop-interior.jpg" beats "IMG_4928.jpg." Search engines use file names as a ranking signal.
17. Images are optimised — WebP or AVIF, responsive sizes
No 2400px hero images served to mobile. WebP or AVIF format. Responsive srcset attributes. Aim for hero images under 100 KB on mobile.
18. Each content page has at least 3 internal links from other relevant pages
Internal links distribute authority and help discovery. Run Screaming Frog and look at "Inlinks" per page. Important pages should have 5+ internal links pointing to them.
19. No thin-content pages
Any page under 250 words is at risk of being treated as "low quality" by Google. Either expand them or merge them into parent pages.
20. Each cornerstone page targets a specific search phrase cluster
Use Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to verify that your important pages target phrases real people actually search. If a page is optimised for a phrase nobody searches, the optimisation isn't returning anything.
C. Structured data and meta (items 21–25)
21. Organization schema on every page
JSON-LD Organization schema in the page head, including name, URL, logo, contact information, address. Google's Structured Data Testing Tool validates this.
22. LocalBusiness schema if you have a physical address
For Baku businesses, LocalBusiness schema with address and geo coordinates. This populates the right-hand panel on branded searches.
23. BreadcrumbList schema on inner pages
Helps Google render breadcrumb navigation in search results.
24. Article schema on journal or blog posts
headline, datePublished, dateModified, author, publisher, mainEntityOfPage. Helps eligibility for "top stories" type features.
25. Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags on every page
og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type. Twitter card with summary_large_image. Controls how the page looks when shared on social.
D. Off-page and authority (items 26–32)
26. Google Business Profile claimed, verified, and fully completed
The most underrated SEO move for any Baku business with a physical presence. See our detailed write-up.
27. NAP (name, address, phone) consistent across all directory listings
Audit local directories — sektor.az, 2GIS, Yandex Maps, Foursquare, Facebook business page. All should have identical NAP.
28. At least 5 quality referring domains
Use Ahrefs Site Explorer (free tier works) or Search Console "Links" report. Should have referring domains from genuinely relevant sites — partners, suppliers, industry publications, professional associations.
29. No obvious toxic backlinks
If your backlink profile is dominated by spam directories, pirated content sites, or sites in irrelevant languages, consider disavowing them.
30. Social signals — at least one active channel with current posts
Google notices when your social channels are abandoned. At minimum, one channel posting weekly. Active Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook is enough.
31. Search Console shows no manual actions or security warnings
Open Search Console → Security & Manual Actions. Should be empty. If not, address the warnings before anything else.
32. The site actually ranks for its target phrases
Test your top 10 target phrases manually in Google.az on an incognito profile from a Baku IP. Where do you rank? Top 3? Top 10? Page 2? Page 5?
This last item is the bottom-line answer. Everything else is in service of moving this number.
What to do with the results
If you're scoring PASS on 25+ of the 32 items, your site is in decent technical SEO health. Focus on content depth and link building.
If you're scoring PASS on 15–25, you have a meaningful technical SEO debt that's likely costing 30–60% of potential traffic. Fix the FAILs in order of leverage — technical foundation first, then on-page, then structured data.
If you're scoring PASS on under 15, the site has fundamental SEO problems. Consider whether a full SEO foundation rebuild is more economical than incremental fixes. Sometimes it is.
At Qaynaq we run a structured 32-item SEO audit on every existing site we engage with before any other recommendation. If you'd like the audit run on your site with a prioritised fix plan, write to salam@qaynaq.com with the URL.