The Forensic SEO Audit Checklist: 50 Points of Failure

The Complete Technical SEO Audit

Every element that can fail in your SEO is covered in this checklist.

Crawlability (10 Points)

5. No redirect chains or loops

6. HTTP pages redirect to HTTPS

7. Consistent domain (www vs non-www)

8. No paginated content issues

9. Orphan pages connected internally

10. Pagination properly implemented

Technical Performance (10 Points)

11. Mobile-first indexing ready

12. Core Web Vitals passing

13. Server response < 200ms

14. Images optimized (WebP)

15. CSS/JS minified

16. Gzip/Brotli compression

17. CDN implemented

18. Caching headers set

19. No render-blocking resources

20. Structured data valid

On-Page Elements (10 Points)

21. Unique title tags (< 60 chars)

22. Unique meta descriptions (< 160 chars)

23. Single H1 per page

24. Proper heading hierarchy

25. Keywords in title, H1, first 100 words

26. Internal linking anchor text varied

27. Images have descriptive alt text

28. URL readable and keyword-inclusive

29. Schema markup implemented

30. Open Graph tags present

Content Quality (10 Points)

31. Thin content eliminated

32. Duplicate content resolved

33. Content provides value

34. E-E-A-T signals present

35. Expertise demonstrated

36. Citations and sources used

37. Content updated regularly

38. User intent satisfied

39. Competitor content outranked

40. No keyword cannibalization

Authority & Links (10 Points)

41. Toxic backlinks disavowed

42. Natural backlink profile

43. Diverse link sources

44. No over-optimized anchor text

45. Social signals present

46. Brand mentions tracked

47. Competitor backlinks analyzed

48. Guest posting strategy active

49. PR/press coverage ongoing

50. Influencer relationships built

Run Your Audit

Use this checklist to systematically evaluate your site's SEO health—or let us do it for you.