Simple Steps to Improve Your Rankings (Even If You’re Not an SEO Expert)

You’ve launched your website. You’re creating content. But… your site isn’t ranking, and you’re not getting traffic.

What’s missing?
Probably an SEO audit.

At Rank Up SEO Agency, we perform hundreds of audits every year for UK businesses. Whether you’re a small business in Manchester or a growing e-commerce store in London, knowing how to audit your website for SEO can be the game-changer that transforms your visibility.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through a beginner’s SEO audit checklist — no jargon, just actionable steps.

✅ What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is like a health check-up for your website.

It helps you identify:

• What’s working

• What’s broken

• What’s holding your site back from ranking on Google

And no — you don’t need to be an expert to do the basics.

🔍 Beginner’s SEO Audit Checklist

1. Check If Your Site Is Indexed by Google

Go to Google and search:

makefile

CopyEdit

site:yourdomain.com

If pages appear, your site is indexed. If nothing shows up — your site might be blocked or not submitted to Google at all.

✅ Tip: Submit your site in Google Search Console.

2. Test Mobile-Friendliness

Over 60% of searches come from mobile in the UK. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing traffic.

Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test:
👉 https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

✅ Look for text that’s too small, elements off-screen, and slow mobile speed.

3. Check Page Speed

A slow website = lower rankings + higher bounce rate.

Use PageSpeed Insights to test your site.

✅ Focus on:

• Compressing images

• Reducing unused code

• Using browser caching

4. Check for Broken Links

Broken internal or external links can hurt user experience and SEO.

Use a free tool like:

• Broken Link Checker

• Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free for up to 500 pages)

✅ Fix or remove broken links immediately.

5. Review Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

These are the first things users see on Google. Make sure every page has:

• A unique title (50–60 characters)

• A compelling meta description (140–160 characters)

✅ Include your target keywords naturally.

6. Check Heading Structure (H1, H2, H3)

Every page should have:

• One H1 (main title with keyword)

• Several H2s for subtopics

• Optional H3s for additional structure

✅ Use tools like SEO Minion to check heading tags.

7. Look at Your URLs

Keep URLs short, clean, and keyword-rich.

❌ Bad: www.example.com/page?id=432
✅ Good: www.example.com/plumber-fulham

8. Evaluate Your Content Quality

Ask yourself:

• Is it helpful?

• Is it original?

• Does it answer your ideal customer’s questions?

✅ Google rewards expertise + usefulness, not just keyword stuffing.

9. Check Image SEO

Make sure:

• All images have descriptive alt text

• File names are keyword-relevant (e.g., london-catering.jpg)

• Images are compressed for faster load time

10. Test Your Site’s Internal Linking

Internal links help Google understand your site structure.

✅ Link blog posts to services
✅ Link related pages together
✅ Use anchor text that matches the target topic

🧠 Bonus: Use These Free Tools

• Google Search Console – to monitor performance and fix errors

• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools – free audit for backlinks and site issues

• Ubersuggest – basic audit and keyword tracking

• Screaming Frog (Free) – crawl up to 500 pages and analyze SEO elements

🏁 Final Thoughts: Audit First, Optimize Next

Doing a basic SEO audit is the first step to climbing Google’s rankings.

You don’t need to fix everything overnight — just start with the basics:

• Speed

• Structure

• Keywords

• Content

And if you want expert help?

🚀 Let Rank Up Handle the Heavy Lifting

We’ll perform a professional, in-depth SEO audit for your website — and turn the findings into a growth strategy.

👉 Book Your Free SEO Audit
👉 See What’s Holding Your Site Back

Let’s identify the issues, fix the gaps, and help your business Rank Up.