How to Do an SEO Audit on a New Website Using Only Free Tools

Most people launching a website skip the audit entirely. They assume the developer did it right, or the plugin handles it, or it will sort itself out once content goes up. It rarely does.

A proper SEO audit does not require a Semrush subscription or a six-figure agency retainer. Done right, with the right free tools in the right order, you can uncover most of what is holding a new site back in a single afternoon. Here is how.

Step 1: Get Into Google Search Console First

If the site has been live for more than a week and Search Console is not set up, that is your first problem. You are flying blind. Set it up through DNS verification or HTML file upload – either works fine and submit the sitemap immediately under the Sitemaps section.

Once it is running, the Coverage report tells you what Google has actually indexed, what it has found and ignored, and what is failing. For a brand new site, the numbers will be thin at first. That is expected. What you are watching for:

• Pages stuck in “Discovered but not indexed” this often means thin content, crawl budget issues, or pages blocked by mistake
• Crawl errors or 404s that the previous dev left behind
• Redirect errors – sometimes a migration or rebuild leaves chains that need untangling

The URL Inspection tool is underused. Run your homepage and your main service pages through it individually. It tells you exactly how Google rendered each page, whether it is indexed, and what canonical URL is being used.

Step 2: Run PageSpeed Insights on the Pages That Matter

Go to Google PageSpeed Insights. Run the homepage. Then run the two or three pages that are supposed to generate enquiries or sales. Not every page those ones specifically.

Core Web Vitals are what you are looking at:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Should be under 2.5 seconds. If it is over 4, you have a real problem.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Pages that jump around while loading score poorly here. Under 0.1 is the target.
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Measures how the page responds to clicks and taps.

The mobile score matters more than desktop. Most search happens on mobile. A mobile score of 40 on a site that looks fine on desktop is still a 40, and Google sees it.

PageSpeed will give you a list of specific issues and how much load time each one is adding. Work through the high-impact items. You do not need a perfect 100, a consistent score above 65 on mobile with passing Core Web Vitals is a solid base to build on.

Step 3: Crawl the Site with Screaming Frog

The free version of Screaming Frog handles up to 500 URLs, which covers most new sites comfortably. Install it, put the domain in, let it crawl.

When the crawl finishes, go through these tabs:

• Page Titles – filter for Missing and Duplicate. Both are common on template-built sites.
• Meta Descriptions – same filters. Missing is fine to fix quickly; duplicates need unique copy.
• Response Codes – anything that is not 200 gets flagged. 301 redirect chains, 404 errors, and 500 server errors all need addressing.
• H1 – check for pages with no H1 and pages with multiple H1s. Page builders love creating extra H1s without telling you.
• Images – alt text missing from images is a quick on-page fix and genuinely helps with accessibility as well as SEO.

Export each problematic tab to a spreadsheet. That becomes your technical fix list. Work through it in order of volume and impact.

Step 4: Check Your SERP Presence with a Free Rank Tracker

Before you can track progress, you need a baseline. A tool like FreeSERP (freeserp.com) lets you check where your pages are currently ranking without paying for a monthly subscription. Type in the keywords you care about and see exactly where the site is sitting and what competitors are occupying the positions above you.

For a new site, you may find you are not ranking at all yet for your main targets. That is useful to know. It confirms the keyword targets are right, and it sets a benchmark to measure against over the next 90 days.

Check the SERP layout too. Some queries show map packs, featured snippets, or People Also Ask boxes. If your target keyword has a local pack, you need a Google Business Profile as well as organic optimisation. FreeSERP lets you see the full SERP so you know what you are actually competing with, not just who is in the blue links.

Step 5: Do the On-Page Audit Page by Page

Tools catch the structural stuff. Human eyes catch the quality issues. For every important page on the site, manually check:

Title Tags

Unique, under 60 characters, leading with the target keyword followed by the brand name. If a page title is just the company name or “Home”, rewrite it.

H1 and Heading Structure

One H1 per page, containing the primary keyword. H2s should structure the content logically. H3s under H2s if needed. The hierarchy should make sense to a reader skimming the page.

Content Depth

Does the page actually answer what someone searching for that keyword would want to know? A service page with three sentences and a contact form is not going to compete in most markets. Look at what the top-ranking pages cover and make sure yours is at least comparable.

Internal Links

New sites are often built page by page with no thought given to internal linking. Every service page should link to at least two or three related pages. The homepage should link to the main service categories. Blog posts should link to relevant service pages where it is natural to do so.

Step 6: Check for Schema Markup

Go to Google’s Rich Results Test and run your homepage and key service pages. Schema markup tells Google what type of business you are, where you are located, what your opening hours are, and what your pages are about.

For most local businesses, the minimum is LocalBusiness schema on the homepage name, address, phone, hours. If the site has an FAQ section, add FAQ schema. If there are service pages for individual offerings, Service schema helps. None of this is hard to add, and the Rich Results Test tells you exactly what is present and what is invalid.

Step 7: Look at the Backlink Profile

For a new site, this step is mostly about checking whether any links already exist and if the domain has any history. Ahrefs’ free Backlink Checker or the Links report inside Search Console gives you the picture.

What to look for:

• Any referring domains at all, and whether they are relevant
• Anchor text distribution, a brand new site should not have dozens of links with exact-match commercial anchor text. That is a red flag for bought links.
• Whether the domain was previously owned and used for something else expired domains sometimes carry backlink profiles from a previous owner’s niche that have nothing to do with yours

If the site is genuinely new with no prior history and no backlinks, that is fine. Note it as a baseline and start thinking about where the first legitimate links are going to come from.

Your Audit Checklist

1. Google Search Console: indexing status, coverage errors, sitemap submitted
2. PageSpeed Insights: Core Web Vitals on mobile and desktop
3. Screaming Frog: crawl errors, missing tags, redirect chains, duplicate titles
4. FreeSERP (freeserp.com): current ranking positions and SERP layout for target keywords
5. Manual on-page review: titles, H1s, content depth, internal links
6. Rich Results Test: schema presence and validity
7. Backlink Checker: referring domains, anchor text, domain history

One More Thing

An audit is only useful if something happens after it. Export everything, prioritise by impact, and start with the issues that are actively blocking Google from reading the site correctly. Technical fixes first, content improvements second, link building third.

Revisit the audit in 60 to 90 days. Check FreeSERP again to see where rankings have moved. Compare the before and after in Search Console. That is how you turn an audit into actual progress.