Free checklist · Open-source SEO

Free SEO audit checklist: what to fix before you pay for Ahrefs or Semrush

Run this on your own site with open-source tools first. Only buy a paid suite after the basics are clean.

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Direct download. No email form. Two pages, Letter size.

What is inside

I put this checklist together for teams that buy Ahrefs or Semrush before they know what is broken on their own site. It follows a simple order: crawl and fix with a tool like SEOnaut, track a small keyword set with something like SerpBear, and only then decide if you still need paid keyword data (OpenSEO, SEO Machine, or a commercial suite).

The PDF is free to download and reuse. Software can be free. Data and weekly follow-through are what usually cost money.

Checklist preview

A. Crawl basics (SEOnaut or equivalent)

  • Homepage and top 20 URLs return 200
  • No critical broken internal links
  • Redirect chains / loops listed and owners assigned
  • Missing title tags listed
  • Duplicate title tags listed
  • Missing meta descriptions listed
  • Duplicate meta descriptions listed
  • Heading order issues listed (H1/H2)
  • Pages with noindex that should be indexed (or the opposite) noted
  • Top 10 broken issues scheduled for fix this week

B. Fix order (do this before any paid tool)

  • Fix 404s on money pages and main blog posts first
  • Fix wrong redirects on those same pages
  • Write missing titles for money pages
  • Deduplicate titles that compete with each other
  • Recrawl after fixes and confirm the critical list shrank

C. Rank tracking starter (SerpBear or equivalent)

  • Pick 10 to 30 keywords you already care about (not 3,000)
  • Add your domain
  • Configure a current SERP provider or proxies (app free is not the same as data free)
  • Record baseline positions once
  • Set a weekly check, not daily panic

D. Only if you still need keyword research / bigger suite (OpenSEO etc.)

  • You already fixed critical crawl issues
  • You already track a small keyword set
  • You know which questions unpaid Search Console data cannot answer
  • You have a DataForSEO (or similar) budget written down
  • Someone owns the monthly review

E. Content workflow (SEO Machine etc.) - optional

  • Brand voice memo exists
  • Internal links map exists
  • Target keywords list exists
  • Claude Code (or your writing agent) is already in use
  • You will not generate 20 posts before fixing crawl errors

F. Buy decision

  • Paid suite solves a gap this checklist did not
  • One person owns the tool
  • Cancel date / review date is on the calendar (30 or 60 days)
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Next step

If your team needs help turning the audit into decisions

I work with leadership on advisory and on the Workshop 10X with AI, when the gap is not another tool but priorities and execution.

See advisoryWorkshop 10X
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