Free SEO Audit Checklist: 35 Checks You Can Do Yourself

Most websites we look at in Egypt don't have a mysterious SEO problem. They have five or six boring ones: pages Google never indexed, a homepage that takes ten seconds to load on mobile data, every page titled "Home", an Arabic version Google can't see.

You can find nearly all of them yourself. This free SEO audit checklist uses only free tools, mainly Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, and takes an afternoon for a typical business site. Work through it in order, note every "no", and you'll have a clear fix list. If you'd rather hand the whole thing to someone, a full audit is where every SEO project with us begins.

Here's what this covers:

• Before you start: the tools
• Indexing and crawling
• Speed and mobile
• Page basics
• Content and keywords
• Local and trust signals
• Arabic and English versions
• What to fix first

Before you start: the tools

You need three free things set up.

• Google Search Console, verified for your domain. If it's not set up, do this first. Some data takes a few days to appear.
• PageSpeed Insights, which tests a page's speed on mobile and desktop.
• A spreadsheet to list every problem you find, which page it's on, and how serious it is.

If you want, add the free version of a site crawler. It checks a limited number of pages for broken links and missing titles. Handy, but you can do without it.

Indexing and crawling

If Google can't index a page, nothing else on this list matters for that page.

• In Search Console, open the Pages report. How many pages are indexed, and how many are not? Read the reasons listed for the non-indexed ones.
• Are any of your important pages, like services, products and contact, in the "not indexed" list?
• Use URL Inspection on your three most important pages. Does Google say they're on Google?
• Search site:yourdomain.com on Google. Does the number of results look roughly like your real page count?
• Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Is anything important blocked by a Disallow line?
• Is an XML sitemap submitted in the Sitemaps report, and does it read as successful?
• Do any important pages have a noindex tag by mistake? This happens a lot after a site goes live from a staging copy.
• Check the Manual actions and Security issues reports. Both should say no issues detected.

Speed and mobile

Most Egyptian visitors arrive on a phone, often on mobile data, so test mobile first.

• Run your homepage and your top service or product page through PageSpeed Insights. What's the mobile performance score, and what does it flag?
• In Search Console, open the Core Web Vitals report. Are pages listed as poor or needing improvement?
• Are images compressed and sized properly? A 4 MB hero photo is the most common speed killer we see.
• Open your site on your own phone. Can you read the text without zooming? Are buttons easy to tap?
• Does the WhatsApp or call button work, and does it sit where a thumb can reach it?
• Do pop-ups cover the content on mobile as soon as the page loads?

Page basics

Check these on your ten most important pages.

• Does each page have a unique title tag that says what the page is about? Not "Home" or just your brand name.
• Does each page have a meta description written for a human, explaining why to click?
• Is there one clear H1 heading per page?
• Are the URLs readable, like /services/teeth-whitening/, not /page?id=27?
• Do images have alt text that describes them?
• Are there broken internal links that lead to error pages?
• Do old URLs redirect properly to new ones after any redesign?
• Does every page load on HTTPS, with no security warnings?

Content and keywords

This is where most sites lose the most ground.

• Does each main service or product category have its own page? If everything is on one page, you can only rank for one thing.
• Does each page target a clear search, using the words your customers actually type? Our guide to keyword research for Egyptian businesses covers how to find them.
• Are any two pages competing for the same keyword?
• Is the content genuinely useful? Does it answer price, process, location and the questions customers ask on WhatsApp?
• Is there any thin or duplicate content, like product descriptions copied from the supplier or near-identical area pages?
• Is important text actually text, not baked into images or sliders?
• In Search Console's Performance report, which pages get impressions but few clicks? Their titles probably need rewriting.

Local and trust signals

Skip the local items if you have no physical location.

• Is your Google Business Profile claimed, verified, and set to the right primary category?
• Do your name, address and phone number on the site match the profile exactly?
• Are you getting new Google reviews every month, and replying to them?
• Does the site clearly show who you are: an About page, real team or location photos, contact details?

For the full local setup, see local SEO in Egypt.

Arabic and English versions

If your site has both languages, check these as well.

• Does each language have its own URL, and are both indexed? Use URL Inspection on one Arabic and one English page.
• Are the pairs connected with hreflang tags, and is the Arabic layout correct right-to-left on mobile?

If your Arabic version is a quick machine translation, mark it as a content problem, not a technical one. Our guide to Arabic vs English SEO explains how to set up both properly.

What to fix first

You'll probably end up with a long list. Don't try to fix it all at once. Work in this order.

First, anything that stops important pages from being indexed: noindex tags, robots.txt blocks, missing redirects, manual actions. These are emergencies.

Second, speed and mobile problems on your most visited pages. Often that's just image compression and removing plugins you don't use.

Third, titles, descriptions and headings on your ten most important pages. Quick to do, and often the fastest visible improvement in Search Console.

Fourth, content: missing service pages, thin pages, and keywords you're not targeting. This takes longest and brings the biggest long-term gains.

Then repeat a light version every month in Search Console, and a full audit before and after any redesign.

If the list is longer than your team can handle, or you'd like a second opinion on what you found, our SEO team can turn your audit into a prioritized plan, or run the full audit for you.