A website audit planner turns a one-off SEO check into a repeatable process. Instead of a long crawl report, you get one place to log every issue, decide what to fix first, assign it and track it until it is done. This guide explains what to check, how to prioritise and how often to audit, with a free Excel template you can use straight away.
Free download: Website Audit Planner (.xlsx)
Includes Audit log and Checklist sheets, a how-to-use tab, dropdowns and ready-made formulas. Works in Excel, Google Sheets (File > Import) and LibreOffice.
Download the free templateWhy Regular Website Audits Matter
Websites change constantly: new pages, plugin updates, redesigns, expired content and broken links. Each change can quietly stop pages from being crawled, indexed or ranked. A regular audit catches these problems early, before they cost you traffic or leads, and shows whether the site is improving over time.
What to Check in a Website Audit
Crawling and indexing
Start with Google Search Console. The Pages report shows which URLs are indexed and why others are not. Check that your XML sitemap lists only live, indexable pages and that robots.txt does not block anything important.
Technical health
Crawl the site with a tool such as Screaming Frog to find broken links, redirect chains, duplicate pages and missing canonical tags. Make sure the site loads on one version only: HTTPS, with either www or non-www.
Speed and mobile
Test your key page templates in PageSpeed Insights and review the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console. Google’s targets are LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1. Check important pages on real phones too.
On-page SEO and content
Look for missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions, pages with more than one H1, thin pages and outdated content. Pages that compete for the same keyword should be merged or given distinct topics.
Links
Make sure important pages receive internal links from related pages and that no page is orphaned. Review your backlink profile for lost links worth recovering and anything that looks spammy.
Security, accessibility and local details
Check the SSL certificate and mixed content warnings, add alt text to images and make sure forms are labelled. For local businesses, confirm your Google Business Profile and contact details match your website.
How to Use the Website Audit Planner
- Log every issue in the Audit log sheet: one row per issue, with the page, the area and the tool that found it.
- Set a priority. High-priority issues affect many pages or your most important ones, such as home, service and product pages.
- Write the action required, assign an owner and set a due date.
- Update the status as work progresses and record the date each issue is fixed.
- Use the Checklist sheet so every audit covers the same ground.
How Often Should You Audit Your Website?
Busy sites that publish often or run online stores benefit from a monthly check, while smaller sites can audit quarterly. Always run an extra audit after a redesign, migration, new theme or major plugin change.
Website Audit Best Practices
- Fix what affects your most important pages first.
- Re-test after each fix to confirm it worked.
- Keep old audit logs: they show progress and help explain changes in traffic.
- Share the planner with your developer and writers so everyone works from the same list.
Want an expert team to handle this for you? See our SEO audit services or request a free SEO quote. You will find more free templates and prompt generators in our SEO resources.
