Most SEO audits start with an expensive tool that guesses at your traffic. A Google Search Console SEO audit starts with Google's own data: which pages are indexed, which queries bring clicks, and what Google thinks is broken. It is free, and for most small sites it finds more fixable problems than a paid crawler.
Here is the audit in eight steps. You need a verified Search Console property and about an hour.
Before you start: check the property setup
Use a Domain property (example.com) if you can verify through DNS. It covers http, https, www and non-www. A URL-prefix property only covers the exact prefix you entered, so you can miss half your problems. Then set the Performance date range to the last 16 months, so you can tell a real decline from a seasonal dip.
Step 1: Read the Performance report for the big picture
Go to Performance → Search results and tick all four metrics: clicks, impressions, average CTR and average position.
Look for three patterns:
- A sudden drop in clicks and impressions together. This usually points to an indexing problem, a site migration or a Google core update. Note the date.
- Impressions rising while clicks stay flat. You are ranking for more queries but not winning the clicks. That is usually a title or snippet problem.
- A slow decline over months. Competitors are overtaking you on content. Treat it as a content refresh, not a technical bug.
Write down the date of any sharp change. It makes every later step easier.
Step 2: Find your "almost ranking" queries
This is the highest-return step in the whole audit. In Performance, open the Queries tab, add a filter for Position greater than 7, and sort by impressions.
Google already sees your page as relevant for these queries, but you sit low on page one or on page two. Moving from position 9 to 4 can more than double the clicks. Write down the top 20 and the page that ranks for each (click the query, then the Pages tab).
Does the title use the words people search? Does the page answer the query early? Small on-page changes win most of these.
Step 3: Fix low-CTR pages with better titles
Still in Performance, switch to the Pages tab and sort by impressions. Look for pages with plenty of impressions and a CTR well below your site average.
A page in position 3 with a 1% CTR has a snippet problem. Make the title match the main query and promise a clear result, and make the description answer "why click this one?". Our free SEO title generator and meta description generator give you a few options to test.
Step 4: Audit indexing in the Pages report
Go to Indexing → Pages. The table below the chart explains why pages are not indexed:
- Crawled – currently not indexed: Google read the page and chose not to keep it, usually because it is thin or duplicated. Improve it or merge it into a stronger page.
- Discovered – currently not indexed: Google knows the URL but has not crawled it. Often a sign of weak internal linking.
- Duplicate without user-selected canonical: Google picked a version itself. Add a canonical tag pointing to the one you want.
- Not found (404) and Soft 404: Redirect removed pages that have backlinks or traffic.
- Excluded by 'noindex' tag: Check carefully. A theme or plugin setting can noindex pages you want ranked.
Filtered URLs, tag archives and parameter pages are often meant to stay out. Focus on pages that should earn traffic.
Step 5: Inspect your most important URLs
Run your five to ten most valuable pages through the URL Inspection bar. Check that each page is on Google, that the Google-selected canonical matches yours, when it was last crawled, and that Test live URL → View tested page shows the full content. Fix any problem, then click Request indexing.
Step 6: Check sitemaps
In Indexing → Sitemaps, the status should be Success and the discovered page count should roughly match the pages you want indexed. If it lists 2,000 URLs and you want 300 indexed, clean out tag pages, attachments and old URLs.
Step 7: Review Core Web Vitals and HTTPS
Go to Experience → Core Web Vitals and open the mobile report first. URLs are grouped by template, so one slow template can fail hundreds of pages, and fixing it is usually one change. Then check the HTTPS report for indexed pages served over plain http.
Step 8: Check security, manual actions and links
These take two minutes and catch rare but serious problems:
- Manual actions and Security issues should both say "No issues detected." If not, fix them before anything else.
- Links → Top linked pages shows where your backlinks point. Redirect any linked URL that now returns 404.
Turn the audit into a fix list
Sort what you found by impact: indexing errors on money pages first, then "almost ranking" queries and titles, then speed and cleanup. Note the date you fix each page and compare clicks for the 28 days before and after.
Doing this every month without the spreadsheet
Doing this audit once by hand teaches you how your site behaves. Repeating it every month is where most people stop.
That is the job RareMatter was built for. Connect Search Console with one click, and an AI SEO expert reads your real queries, pages and indexing data alongside a crawl of your site. It flags "almost ranking" queries, weak titles and indexing problems, and writes the fix. On WordPress, our plugin applies title, description and canonical fixes in one click, and RareMatter measures the 28-day impact of each one. You can check any page for free, and the Free plan includes one site with monthly AI answers. No card needed.