In this guide · 8 sections
- 01What you need before the SEO audit
- 02The one-hour SEO audit checklist
- 03Reading the Search Console indexing report
- 04Titles, descriptions and content: what Google says matters
- 05Speed and Core Web Vitals in ten minutes
- 06What to fix first after the audit
- 07Do it yourself or get help?
- 08Frequently asked questions
Short answer
Spend the hour in this order: Search Console indexing and queries (15 min), titles and meta descriptions (10 min), internal links (10 min), thin or duplicate pages (10 min), speed in PageSpeed Insights (10 min) and local signals (5 min). Fix indexing first.
What you need before the SEO audit
Set these up once; the audit itself then takes about an hour for a site of up to 50 pages.
- Google Search Console verified for your domain. Our Search Console setup guide takes 15 minutes.
- A list of your 5 to 10 most important pages (home, main services or products, contact).
- PageSpeed Insights open in another tab.
- A spreadsheet with columns: page, problem, fix, priority.
- Access to your website editor (WordPress, Shopify, Wix or similar) to check settings.
If Search Console was set up today, wait a few days for data. The indexing report fills quickly; performance data builds over weeks.
The one-hour SEO audit checklist
Work through the blocks in order and write every problem into the spreadsheet. Don't fix anything yet; finish the hour first so you can prioritise.
Search Console: indexing (10 min)
Open Indexing, Pages. Note how many pages are indexed and the reasons others aren't ("Crawled - currently not indexed", "Excluded by noindex tag", "Page with redirect"). Check that each important page is indexed using URL Inspection.
Search Console: queries (5 min)
Open Performance, Search results, last 3 months. Sort queries by impressions. Note searches where you appear (impressions) but rarely get clicks, and which page ranks for each.
Titles and meta descriptions (10 min)
Search site:yourdomain.com on Google and read your results. Each important page needs a unique title naming the service and location, and a description that says what the visitor gets.
Internal links (10 min)
From the homepage, can you reach every important page in two clicks? Do service pages link to each other and to contact? Note pages with no links pointing to them.
Thin and duplicate pages (10 min)
Look for near-empty pages, old promotions, tag or category pages with one item, and several pages saying the same thing. Note whether to improve, merge or remove each.
Speed and mobile (10 min)
Run your homepage and one key page through PageSpeed Insights, mobile tab. Note the Core Web Vitals result and the top suggested fixes.
Local signals (5 min)
Search your business name and service plus area. Check your Google Business Profile is claimed, the name, address and phone match your site, and the category is right.
Reading the Search Console indexing report
This is where the most serious problems hide: a page Google can't index can't rank, however good it is.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Excluded by noindex tag on a key page | A setting is hiding the page (often left on from development) | Remove the noindex; in WordPress check Settings, Reading |
| Crawled - currently not indexed | Google saw the page but didn't think it was worth indexing yet | Improve content, add internal links; see our crawled-not-indexed guide |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Same content on several URLs | Pick one version; redirect or canonicalise the others |
| Page with redirect | Old URLs redirecting; usually fine | Make sure menus and sitemaps link to the final URL |
| Not found (404) | Deleted or mistyped pages | Redirect if the page had links or traffic; otherwise ignore |
For a step-by-step fix of the most common status, see our crawled but not indexed guide. Google's SEO starter guide says duplicate content isn't a spam violation, but it wastes crawling and can make Google show the wrong URL.
Titles, descriptions and content: what Google says matters
Google's starter guide is clear on a few myths that waste small businesses' time. It says Google Search doesn't use the meta keywords tag, keyword stuffing is against its spam policies, and there is no magic minimum or maximum word count for ranking.
Worth your time
- A unique, specific title per page ("Aircon Servicing in Tampines | Brand")
- A meta description that answers "what will I get here?"
- One clear heading per page that matches the main search
- Descriptive URLs and link text
- Content that answers the questions customers actually ask
Skip it
- Filling in the meta keywords field
- Repeating the keyword in every sentence
- Padding pages to hit a word count
- Buying a keyword-rich domain for SEO alone
- Publishing many near-identical suburb pages
Google may rewrite your title or description in results, but a clear one still helps it pick the right text.
Speed and Core Web Vitals in ten minutes
PageSpeed Insights shows real-user data (if your site has enough traffic) and a lab test. Focus on the real-user Core Web Vitals and on mobile. Google's web.dev vitals page sets the targets, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): the main content loads within 2.5 seconds.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): the page responds to taps and clicks in 200 milliseconds or less.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.1 or less, so content doesn't jump around while loading.
The usual fixes on small sites are oversized images, too many plugins or apps, slow hosting and heavy chat or tracking scripts. Our Core Web Vitals fix guide covers each one.
What to fix first after the audit
Sort your spreadsheet into this order. Problems higher up block everything below them.
Fix order after a DIY SEO audit
Re-check Search Console a month after fixes. Indexing changes show up within days to weeks; ranking changes take longer.
Do it yourself or get help?
Most of this audit is DIY-friendly, and many fixes (titles, descriptions, internal links) are a few minutes each in your website editor. Get help when the problems are technical: noindex or canonical settings you can't find, redirect chains after a redesign, or speed problems caused by the theme or hosting.
Our Speed & SEO Fix (S$390) works through indexing, titles, structured data and speed on an existing site. For what ongoing SEO costs if you want more than a one-off fix, see our SEO cost guide.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights are free and cover indexing, search queries and speed. A manual review of titles, internal links and thin pages needs only a browser and a spreadsheet. Paid crawlers are faster on large sites, but a small business site rarely needs one.
Run the full one-hour audit twice a year and after any redesign, migration or platform change. Check the Search Console indexing report monthly, because a stray noindex tag or broken redirect after an update can remove pages from Google quietly.
No. Google's SEO starter guide says Google Search doesn't use the keywords meta tag. You can leave the field empty. Spend the time on unique page titles and meta descriptions instead, which Google can use in search results.
Google says there is no minimum or maximum content length for ranking. A page should be as long as it needs to be to answer the visitor's question well. Padding pages to reach a word count doesn't help, and very thin pages may simply not be indexed.
Google's web.dev guidance sets good thresholds at Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of real page loads on mobile and desktop.