SEO Audit Skill

Audit public webpages for SEO optimization following Google's 2024-2025 standards and best practices.

Quick Start

To audit a page:

1. Fetch the page using WebFetch or browser tools
2. Run through the audit checklist below
3. Report findings with severity levels and actionable fixes

Audit Categories

1. Critical SEO Elements

Title Tag

• Present and unique (50-60 characters optimal)
• Contains primary keyword near the beginning
• Compelling for click-through

Meta Description

• Present (150-160 characters optimal)
• Contains primary keyword naturally
• Includes call-to-action

Canonical URL

• Self-referencing canonical present
• No duplicate content issues

Robots Directives

• No accidental noindex or nofollow
• Check <meta name="robots"> and HTTP headers

2. Content Structure

Heading Hierarchy

• Single H1 tag containing primary keyword
• Logical H2-H6 nesting (no skipped levels)
• Keywords distributed naturally in headings

Content Quality Signals

• Sufficient word count (aim for comprehensive coverage)
• No thin content pages
• Original, valuable content

Internal Linking

• Descriptive anchor text (not "click here")
• Logical site structure reflected

3. Technical SEO

Page Speed (Core Web Vitals)

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): < 2.5 seconds
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): < 200ms
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): < 0.1

Mobile-Friendliness

• Viewport meta tag present: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
• Touch targets adequately sized (48x48px minimum)
• No horizontal scrolling
• Readable font sizes (16px+ base)

Security

• HTTPS enabled
• No mixed content warnings
• HSTS header recommended

Crawlability

• robots.txt accessible and correct
• XML sitemap present and valid
• No orphan pages

4. Structured Data (Schema.org)

Recommended Schema Types

• Organization/LocalBusiness for company sites
• Article/BlogPosting for content
• Product for e-commerce
• FAQ for question pages
• BreadcrumbList for navigation
• WebPage/WebSite basics

Validation

• Valid JSON-LD format (preferred over microdata)
• No errors in Google Rich Results Test
• Required properties present for each type

5. Social & Sharing

Open Graph Tags

<meta property="og:title" content="Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="Description">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">

Twitter Cards

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Description">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">

6. Images & Media

Image Optimization

• Alt text present and descriptive
• Modern formats (WebP, AVIF with fallbacks)
• Lazy loading for below-fold images
• Explicit width/height to prevent CLS
• Responsive images with srcset

7. Accessibility (SEO-Impacting)

• Proper heading structure
• Alt text for images
• Sufficient color contrast
• Keyboard navigable
• ARIA labels where needed

Audit Report Format

Present findings using this structure:

## SEO Audit: [Page URL]

### Score: [X/100]

### Critical Issues (Fix Immediately)
- [Issue]: [Current state] → [Recommendation]

### Warnings (Should Fix)
- [Issue]: [Current state] → [Recommendation]

### Passed Checks
- [Check name]: ✓

### Opportunities
- [Suggestion for improvement]

Severity Levels

References

For detailed checklists and code examples, see:

• references/technical-checklist.md - Complete technical SEO checklist with 50+ checks
• references/schema-examples.md - Structured data templates for common page types