An SEO audit report is the document that turns a website check into decisions. It lists what’s stopping a site from ranking, why each issue matters and what to fix first.
The problem is that most reports are 80-page exports from a crawler. They show hundreds of “errors” with no priority, so nothing gets fixed.
This guide shows what a useful SEO audit report contains, section by section, with a findings format you can copy. It’s based on how we review sites at Linkuild before any link building starts.
What is an SEO audit report?
It’s a written summary of a site’s search health across five areas: crawling and indexing, technical performance, on-page content, links and visibility in search results.
A good one answers three questions for every issue: what’s wrong, how much it matters and who needs to do what.
The structure of a useful SEO audit report
- Cover and version: site, date, scope and who ran the audit.
- Executive summary: the three to five issues that matter most, in plain language, on one page.
- Current performance: clicks, impressions and top pages from Search Console, with the trend.
- Findings by area: indexing, technical, on-page, content, links.
- Priority action plan: every finding ranked by impact and effort.
- Implementation schedule: owners, dates and how each fix will be checked.
- Appendix: full URL lists and raw exports for the team doing the work.
Raw data goes at the back. Decision-makers read the first two pages; developers and writers use the appendix.
How to write each finding
Every issue in the report should follow the same format. This is the table we use:
| Field | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Issue | What’s wrong, in one line | Service pages set to noindex |
| Evidence | Where you found it | Search Console Page indexing report, 14 URLs |
| Impact | High, medium or low, and why | High: core money pages can’t rank |
| Effort | Rough time to fix | Low: one plugin setting |
| Action | Exactly what to change | Remove noindex, request indexing |
| Owner | Who does it | Developer |
| Check | How you’ll know it’s fixed | URLs show as indexed within two weeks |
Findings written this way can be pasted straight into a project board. Findings that just say “47 pages have issues” can’t.
What each section should check
Crawling and indexing
Start here, because nothing else matters if Google can’t see the page. Use the Page indexing report and URL Inspection in Search Console.
Look for important pages excluded by noindex, blocked by robots.txt, canonicalised to the wrong URL or missing from the sitemap. Google’s SEO starter guide is a good reference for the basics.
Technical performance
Check the Core Web Vitals report for real-user data on loading, responsiveness and layout stability, as described in Google’s Core Web Vitals documentation.
Also check mobile rendering, HTTPS, redirect chains, broken internal links and server errors.
On-page SEO
Review titles, H1s, meta descriptions, headings, images and structured data on your priority pages. Our on-page SEO checklist lists every check with Google’s guidance for each.
Flag duplicate titles and pages competing for the same keyword; both are common and easy to fix.
Content quality
Compare each key page with what ranks for its keyword. Is it as complete, as current and as clearly written by someone with real experience?
Use Google’s helpful content questions as the scoring guide. Mark thin, outdated or overlapping pages to improve, merge or remove.
Backlinks and off-page signals
Review referring domains, the pages they link to, anchor text and any spammy patterns. Compare your profile with two or three competitors who outrank you.
Check for links that break Google’s link spam policies. Our guide to what backlinks are explains what makes a link worth having.
Search visibility
Use Search Console’s Performance report to find pages losing clicks, queries ranking in positions 5 to 20 and pages with high impressions but a low click-through rate.
These are usually the quickest wins in the whole report.
How to prioritise the action plan
Sort findings by impact first, then effort. A simple order that works for most sites:
- High impact, low effort: fix this week (noindex mistakes, broken redirects, missing titles).
- High impact, high effort: plan this quarter (site speed, content rewrites, site structure).
- Low impact, low effort: batch them for a quiet sprint.
- Low impact, high effort: park them.
Limit the top section to around ten items. A list of 200 “critical” issues means nothing is critical.
Red flags in an SEO audit report
- Every crawler warning listed as an error, with no priorities.
- A single “SEO score” with no explanation of what’s behind it.
- No Search Console data, only third-party tool estimates.
- Generic advice that would apply to any website.
- Recommendations with no owner or way to check they worked.
- Promises of guaranteed rankings once the fixes are done.
Free tools for an SEO audit
- Google Search Console: indexing, performance, Core Web Vitals and manual actions.
- PageSpeed Insights: page-level speed diagnostics.
- Rich Results Test: structured data checks.
- A crawler: titles, status codes, internal links and duplicate content across the site.
Paid tools add backlink and competitor data, but Search Console should always be the source of truth for how Google sees your site.
How often to run an SEO audit
Run a full audit once or twice a year, and after any redesign, migration or big traffic drop. Check Search Console monthly for new indexing or performance issues.
After a Google update, compare the affected pages with what now ranks. Our breakdown of the September 2026 spam update shows how to do that.
Example executive summary
The summary is the page decision-makers actually read, so keep it short and specific. Here’s an example format for a fictional site:
Summary: The site has solid content but three issues are holding it back.
1. Twelve service pages are set to noindex, so they can’t rank at all. Fix this week.
2. Blog posts don’t link to service pages, so authority isn’t flowing to the pages that convert. Add links within a month.
3. The main product page loads slowly on mobile because of an oversized hero image. Compress and resize it.
Everything else in this report is lower priority and can be scheduled after these three.
Notice what’s missing: no scores, no jargon and no list of 200 warnings.
Include a backlink section, even in a technical audit
Many audits skip links entirely. That leaves out one of the main reasons a strong page can still fail to rank.
At minimum, list the referring domains to your key pages, flag anything that looks like link spam and compare with two competitors. If the gap is large, no amount of technical fixing will close it alone.
To understand what a healthy profile looks like, see our guides to backlinks and link acquisition.
Want an expert to do this for you? Request a free SEO audit from Linkuild and we’ll send you a prioritised list of fixes.
Frequently asked questions
What should an SEO audit report include?
An executive summary, current performance, findings across indexing, technical, on-page, content and links, a prioritised action plan and an implementation schedule.
How long does an SEO audit take?
A small site can take a few days. Large or complex sites can take several weeks, mostly for analysis rather than data collection.
Can I do an SEO audit myself?
Yes. With Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and a crawler you can cover most issues. The hard part is prioritising, which is where experience helps.
What’s the difference between an SEO audit and an SEO report?
An audit is a one-off diagnosis with recommendations. An SEO report is regular tracking of performance over time.
Get a link profile review with your audit
Before building links, Linkuild reviews your link profile and priority pages so new Top Tier Links go where they’ll make the biggest difference.
Contact Linkuild to talk through your site.