How to Check If Your Website Is SEO Friendly (Free Tools & Checklist)

Wondering if your website is optimized for search engines? In this practical guide, I'll show you exactly how to check your website's SEO health using free tools—no technical expertise required.

What Makes a Website SEO Friendly?

An SEO-friendly website is one that search engines can easily:

• Crawl: Find and access all your pages
• Index: Add your pages to their database
• Understand: Comprehend what your content is about
• Rank: Determine how relevant you are for search queries

Additionally, SEO-friendly sites provide a great user experience—fast loading, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate.

Quick SEO Check: 5-Minute Test

Want a fast assessment? Check these three things right now:

1. Mobile-Friendly Test (1 minute)

Tool: Google Mobile-Friendly Test

URL: search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

How to:

1. Enter your website URL
2. Click "Test URL"
3. Wait for results

What you want to see: "Page is mobile-friendly" ✅

If it fails: Your site has mobile usability issues that hurt rankings

2. Page Speed Check (2 minutes)

Tool: Google PageSpeed Insights

URL: pagespeed.web.dev

How to:

1. Enter your URL
2. Click "Analyze"
3. Check both Mobile and Desktop scores

What you want to see: Score 70+ (green) for both mobile and desktop

If score is low: Your site loads slowly, hurting both rankings and user experience

3. Indexing Check (1 minute)

Tool: Google Search

How to:

1. Go to Google.com
2. Search: site:yourwebsite.com (replace with your domain)
3. Look at the number of results

What you want to see: Most of your pages showing up (within 20% of your total pages)

If few/no results: Google isn't indexing your site properly—serious problem

Quick Assessment:

• ✅ All 3 pass: Your site has solid SEO basics
• ⚠️ 1-2 fail: You have important issues to fix
• ❌ All 3 fail: Your SEO needs immediate attention

Comprehensive SEO Check: Free Tools

For a deeper analysis, use these free tools:

1. Google Search Console (Most Important!)

Why it's essential: This is Google telling you directly what they think of your site.

Setup (one-time, 10 minutes):

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console
2. Click "Start now"
3. Add your property (website)
4. Verify ownership (via HTML file, DNS, or Google Analytics)
5. Submit your sitemap

What to check:

Coverage Report

• Shows which pages are indexed
• Identifies pages with errors
• Reveals pages excluded from search

Look for: High percentage of valid pages, few errors

Core Web Vitals

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Loading speed
• FID (First Input Delay): Interactivity
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Visual stability

Look for: Green "Good" status for most URLs

Mobile Usability

• Lists mobile-specific issues
• Shows affected pages

Look for: Zero errors

2. Google Analytics (Optional but Recommended)

What it tells you: How users interact with your site

Key SEO metrics to check:

• Organic Traffic: Visitors from search engines
• Bounce Rate: % of single-page visits (lower is better, generally)
• Pages per Session: How many pages users visit
• Average Session Duration: Time spent on site

Red flags:

• Organic traffic declining month-over-month
• Bounce rate over 80%
• Average session under 30 seconds

3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Free up to 500 URLs)

Why use it: Crawls your site like Google does, revealing technical issues

How to use:

1. Download from screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider
2. Install and open
3. Enter your URL
4. Click "Start"
5. Wait for crawl to complete

What to check:

• Status Codes: Look for 404s (broken pages), 301s (redirects)
• Page Titles: Check for missing or duplicate titles
• Meta Descriptions: Find missing descriptions
• H1 Tags: Ensure every page has one
• Images: Find images missing alt text

Red flags:

• Many 404 errors
• Duplicate title tags
• Pages with no meta description
• Multiple H1 tags per page

4. Additional Free Tools

Ubersuggest (neilpatel.com/ubersuggest):

• Limited free site audits
• Keyword research
• Competitor analysis

Google Rich Results Test:

• Check structured data implementation
• See what rich snippets you qualify for
• URL: search.google.com/test/rich-results

GTmetrix (gtmetrix.com):

• Detailed page speed analysis
• Waterfall charts showing load sequence
• Specific optimization recommendations

The 20-Point SEO-Friendly Checklist

Use this checklist to manually assess your site's SEO health:

Technical SEO (6 Points)

• [ ] ✅ Site has HTTPS (secure, not HTTP)
• [ ] ✅ XML sitemap exists and is submitted to Google
• [ ] ✅ Robots.txt file is present and correct
• [ ] ✅ No broken links or 404 errors
• [ ] ✅ Site loads in under 3 seconds
• [ ] ✅ Mobile version works perfectly

On-Page SEO (8 Points)

• [ ] ✅ Every page has a unique, descriptive title tag
• [ ] ✅ Every page has a unique meta description
• [ ] ✅ URLs are clean and descriptive (not random numbers)
• [ ] ✅ Each page has one H1 tag with main topic
• [ ] ✅ Content uses H2 and H3 subheadings logically
• [ ] ✅ All images have descriptive alt text
• [ ] ✅ Pages have internal links to related content
• [ ] ✅ Content is substantial (300+ words minimum)

Content Quality (4 Points)

• [ ] ✅ Content is original (not copied)
• [ ] ✅ Content provides real value to users
• [ ] ✅ Content is updated regularly
• [ ] ✅ No duplicate content issues

Trust & Authority (2 Points)

• [ ] ✅ About page exists with clear information
• [ ] ✅ Contact information is easy to find

Scoring:

• 18-20 checks passed: Excellent SEO foundation ✅
• 14-17 checks passed: Good, with room for improvement ⚠️
• 10-13 checks passed: Needs significant work 🔧
• Under 10 checks passed: Serious SEO problems ❌

Step-by-Step: Complete SEO Health Check

Follow this process for a thorough evaluation:

Phase 1: Initial Assessment (15 minutes)

1. Run mobile-friendly test
2. Run PageSpeed Insights
3. Check indexing with site: search
4. Document any failures

Phase 2: Set Up Tracking (30 minutes, one-time)

1. Set up Google Search Console
2. Set up Google Analytics (optional)
3. Submit sitemap
4. Wait 48-72 hours for data

Phase 3: Deep Analysis (45 minutes)

1. Review Search Console reports
2. Run Screaming Frog crawl
3. Go through 20-point checklist manually
4. Test 5-10 important pages individually

Phase 4: Create Action Plan (30 minutes)

1. List all issues found
2. Prioritize by impact (critical, high, medium, low)
3. Estimate time to fix each
4. Create timeline for fixes

Common SEO Problems & How to Spot Them

Problem 1: Site Not Indexed

Symptoms:

• site: search shows few/no results
• Zero organic traffic in Analytics
• Coverage report in Search Console shows errors

Likely causes:

• Robots.txt blocking Google
• Pages have noindex tags
• Site is brand new (needs time)
• Penalties or manual actions

Problem 2: Slow Loading

Symptoms:

• PageSpeed score under 50
• Core Web Vitals failing in Search Console
• High bounce rate

Likely causes:

• Large, unoptimized images
• Too many plugins/scripts
• Slow hosting
• No caching

Problem 3: Mobile Issues

Symptoms:

• Mobile-friendly test fails
• Mobile usability errors in Search Console
• Low mobile rankings vs. desktop

Likely causes:

• Non-responsive design
• Text too small
• Elements too close together
• Viewport not configured

Problem 4: Thin Content

Symptoms:

• Pages with under 300 words
• High bounce rates on content pages
• Low engagement metrics

Likely causes:

• Pages created just for keywords
• Duplicate/copied content
• Auto-generated pages

What to Do After You Find Issues

Priority 1: Critical Issues (Fix This Week)

• Site not indexed
• Robots.txt blocking important pages
• Major security issues
• Completely broken mobile site

Priority 2: High Impact (Fix This Month)

• Slow page speed
• Missing title tags/meta descriptions
• Broken links
• Mobile usability issues
• Duplicate content

Priority 3: Improvements (Ongoing)

• Content expansion
• Image optimization
• Internal linking improvements
• Structured data implementation

How Often Should You Check SEO Health?

Weekly:

• Quick glance at Search Console for critical errors
• Monitor organic traffic in Analytics

Monthly:

• Review Search Console reports thoroughly
• Check Core Web Vitals status
• Monitor mobile usability
• Track keyword rankings

Quarterly:

• Full site audit with Screaming Frog
• Complete 20-point checklist
• Test site speed on multiple pages
• Review and update content

After Major Changes:

• Site redesign or migration
• Platform change
• URL structure changes
• Major content updates

Conclusion: Your SEO Health Action Plan

Here's your step-by-step plan starting today:

Today (30 minutes):

1. Run the 5-minute quick test
2. Set up Google Search Console if you haven't
3. Do the site: search to check indexing

This Week (2 hours):

1. Go through the 20-point checklist
2. Run Screaming Frog crawl
3. Document all issues found
4. Prioritize fixes

This Month (ongoing):

1. Fix critical and high-priority issues
2. Re-test after fixes
3. Submit updated sitemap
4. Monitor improvements in Search Console

Remember: SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. You don't need to fix everything today. Start with the critical issues, make steady progress, and you'll see improvements over time.

Ready to get started? Pick the first free tool from this guide and run your first check right now. You'll have a clear picture of your SEO health in minutes.