How to Check Your Website’s SEO

Checking your website’s SEO helps you understand how easily search engines can discover, understand and rank your pages. It can also reveal issues that make the site harder to use, such as slow loading times, broken links or confusing navigation.

An SEO check is not a one-off task or a guarantee of higher rankings. It is a practical way to spot problems, prioritise improvements and monitor how your website performs over time.

What does an SEO check involve?

A website SEO check reviews several areas that can influence search visibility and user experience. These usually include:

• Technical SEO: whether search engines can crawl and index your pages.
• On-page SEO: how clearly each page communicates its subject and purpose.
• Content quality: whether the content is useful, accurate and relevant to visitors.
• Website performance: how quickly and reliably pages load, particularly on mobile devices.
• Links: whether internal links help people navigate and external links support the content.
• Local SEO: for businesses serving customers in specific towns, cities or regions.

Check whether your pages can be found

Before improving individual pages, check that search engines can access and index them. Google Search Console is a useful starting point. Its indexing reports can highlight pages that are excluded or affected by technical problems.

Review your robots.txt file to make sure it is not accidentally blocking important sections of the site. Check your XML sitemap too: it should include the important, canonical pages you want search engines to consider. A sitemap helps discovery, but it does not guarantee that a page will be indexed.

Look out for accidental noindex instructions, incorrect redirects and pages returning errors. A search engine cannot rank a page normally if it cannot access or index it.

Review titles and page descriptions

Each important page should have a clear, distinctive title that describes its main subject. Titles can appear in search results and browser tabs, so they should be concise and helpful rather than a list of keywords.

Meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, but a well-written description may help searchers decide whether to visit your page. Make sure it accurately summarises the page and gives readers a reason to click.

Also check that each page has a clear main heading, usually marked as an H1, followed by meaningful subheadings. Headings should organise the content for readers, not simply repeat search terms.

Assess the content

Useful content answers the questions visitors have and gives them a clear next step. Review your main pages and ask:

• Does the page meet the visitor’s likely needs?
• Is the information accurate, original and easy to understand?
• Does it explain your product, service or topic clearly?
• Is the content still current?
• Are there pages that overlap or compete for the same search intent?

Avoid adding keywords unnaturally or creating pages solely to target minor variations of the same phrase. Focus instead on clear, relevant information that is genuinely useful to your audience.

Test mobile usability and page speed

Many people browse on mobile devices, so check that your website works well on smaller screens. Text should be readable without zooming, buttons should be easy to use and important content should not be hidden or awkwardly arranged.

Tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights can help identify performance issues. Common causes of slow pages include oversized images, unnecessary scripts and inefficient hosting. Address problems that affect real users first, and test key pages rather than relying on a single homepage result.

Check links and website structure

A sensible site structure helps visitors and search engines understand how pages relate to one another. Important pages should be reachable through clear navigation and relevant internal links.

Find and fix broken links, especially those pointing to important pages. When a page has moved, use an appropriate redirect where necessary. Avoid sending visitors to unrelated pages just to prevent an error.

Review images and accessibility

Use descriptive file names and suitable alternative text for images. Alternative text should explain the image’s purpose or content when that information is useful to someone using assistive technology. Decorative images generally do not need descriptive alt text.

Good accessibility practices can improve the experience for a wider range of visitors. Clear link text, logical headings, adequate colour contrast and keyboard-friendly controls are all worth checking.

Measure results with the right tools

Different tools answer different questions. Google Search Console can show search queries, impressions, clicks and indexing information. Analytics tools can help you understand what visitors do after arriving on your site. Crawling tools can identify technical issues across many pages, while speed-testing tools can highlight performance opportunities.

No single SEO checker provides a complete verdict. Automated tools are useful for finding potential issues, but their recommendations should be reviewed in context. A warning does not always mean something is harming your website, and a clean report does not guarantee strong rankings.

How often should you check your website’s SEO?

For an established website, a regular review every few months can help catch problems before they affect many pages. Check sooner after a redesign, a change to the website platform, a major content update or a sudden change in search traffic.

Keep a record of key findings and changes. This makes it easier to see whether an improvement has helped and to distinguish normal fluctuations from a more persistent issue.

Start with the issues that matter most

An SEO check can produce a long list of recommendations, but not every task deserves immediate attention. Prioritise problems that prevent important pages from being accessed, indexed or used. Then work through improvements to content, site structure, mobile experience and performance.

By checking your website consistently and focusing on useful, sustainable improvements, you can make it easier for both people and search engines to understand what your business offers.